Good morning. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 37. We're going to look at that together this morning. So it's an honor to be with you this morning. And as Nathan had shared, I'm recently retired from ministry after 44 years and 14 years in La Center. And my goal was to serve until I was 70 if the Lord gave me good health, because you never know at our age how that's going to work. And my wife, you know, had good health. And the Lord did bless that. And so I continued to serve until that point, until actually the first of September. So I'm recently retired and we have three children, as was mentioned, and I'll kind of reference a little bit of them in the service. And they are all serving the Lord in their own local churches, which you can't get any better than that, especially as a pastor. I mean, that's just what a blessing that is. And we have seven grandchildren that are growing up in godly homes and And, you know, that's just a joy. That's something that we really love. So I can identify this morning with King David, who in his later years, when he wrote this passage that we're going to look at this morning, he said this. We're going to see this. He says, verse 25, I have been young, and now I'm old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. So I can identify with David. You know, I was young, now I'm old, and I've seen the same thing that David had seen. If you're following Jesus, he is going to take care of you. And that really is the theme this morning. So this is really a very fitting passage for me to share. And it has profound truth that comes from a man who is often described as a man after God's own heart. And so it's important for us to kind of zero in on David and what he is saying here. But before we dig in, There are a variety of types of psalms in the book of Psalms, and there are just a variety. One are praise psalms, where it's like, praise the Lord, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. We sing a chorus like that, right? Bless the Lord, that comes out of the psalms. A lot of those kind of psalms in there. There are lament psalms, where the psalmist is complaining to God, oh God, why is all this happening to me? You know, you need to come in and help me. I'm in trouble here. I mean, he's just lamenting before God. And there are thanksgiving psalms, kind of like praise psalms, that are expressions of gratitude, recounting God's blessings, his acts of kindness. Give thanks to the Lord. You know, oh my soul. I mean, you know, those are things come out of the Psalms. There are imprecatory Psalms. We don't use that word very much in English. We really don't. And the imprecatory Psalm is one that basically is like, get him God. There are trouble, get them, go after them, make this right. And then there are wisdom Psalms, and Psalm one is that, is blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in, I forget how that one goes, I've memorized it, but you know what I'm saying, there's just blessed is that man who delights in the Lord's word. Today's passage is a wisdom psalm, and it's almost a cross between a psalm and a set of proverbs. And so that's the way David wrote this. So let's learn from David this morning. In Psalm 37, starting with verses 1 and 2. Fret not yourselves because of evildoers, be not envious of wrongdoers, for they soon will fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. So that really sets the stage for where he's going to go in the passage this morning. So as Christ followers, we live in a world that does not care about God's ways. Isn't that right? It does not care about God's ways and often will promote just the opposite of what God says. And so it's easy as people to get very frustrated with the downhill slide of our culture. I mean, you ever feel that? You know, you want to move somewhere else, especially if you're on the West Coast like we are in Washington and Oregon and California. It's like, let's get out of here. Let's go to where it's a little bit saner. I mean, we had a lot of, we had several folks in our church that did that after COVID. It was kind of frustrating to see them leave. You know, and in our culture, we have this downhill slide and they promote lifestyles of sin and celebrate those lifestyles. And if you don't agree, you are considered a hater or a bigot. I mean, isn't that what we hear all the time? If you don't agree with this push in our society today, you are a bigot or a hater. So David here is confronting the same kind of things that we're dealing with, and we're gonna look at that this morning. He says, don't fret, fret not yourself, because of evildoers. Do not get up, you know, worked up over there. The word Fred has the idea of heating oneself up with vexation or becoming ignant. burning hot with anger, so the emotion is stirring up inside of us, and we're going, I don't like this, I don't like what I see. The evildoers, those that are ignoring Christ or ignoring God's ways are winning in this world, and it just isn't right. Do not get heated up or burning hot with anger because of those evildoers. And he goes on, he's, do not be envious of wrongdoers. And envious is that word that expresses the feeling that Rachel had toward Leah when Leah could have a lot of babies and they just kept popping out and Rachel was barren. And you can imagine that struggle in Rachel's heart over watching her sister have children when that was a high value, especially in that culture more so than it is even in our culture. So it's not some superficial emotion of being envious. There's this deep hurting and longing and wanting what you don't have. And I get it. I mean, I get it. Because I have twin daughters. And one daughter could have children easily. And whenever she wanted, she could have a child. And her twin, identical twin, couldn't get pregnant. And they wanted to have a baby at the same time to celebrate all those things when they were both married and all that. She couldn't have a child. Every month, you gals will know this if you struggle with that, every month there was a reminder that she wasn't going to have a child. You can see how Rachel would envy what Leah had. And it says here that we are not to be envious of wrongdoers. Why would we be envious of wrongdoers? Well, I'm not gonna go through each of the passage, every little verse here, but I'm gonna highlight a few of the things that David is telling us about these wrongdoers. First of all, verse seven says, he is prosperous. he carries out evil desire devices and he is prospering with with his efforts and verse 21 says those evil people will borrow money and they do not repay so he doesn't value his commitment when he says he's going to pay something back, he doesn't pay it back. He just borrows it and keeps it. And verse 35 says, he is ruthless, like spreading a green laurel tree. Now we have some neighbors that have laurel trees across the way from us and in the center, and those trees are just massive. You know, those bushes, they just keep growing. He walks them back, they keep growing. I mean, that's the picture of these evil people that he is saying that we are not to envy. We are not to envy those wrongdoers. God says the righteous are not to long deeply after the apparent prosperity of the wicked. And he goes on and he says that the wicked will actually plot against the righteous And they hate the righteous. Is that something that you see in our society today? If you stand for Christ, you will be put down and hated. The wicked will hate the righteous. They will seek to bring down the poor and needy. Verse 14, verse 38 says that they are transgressors. There's no sense of right and wrong. There are no moral standards. The end justifies the means. I mean, that is our society today. And the psalm also says that the wicked will be cut off, they will be no more, and even the wicked's children will be cut off. And the Lord laughs at their plots. Why? Because the day of judgment is coming. And they think they have it all, and they are being blessed financially, and they have positions of power and authority, and the Lord is just laughing at them. contrast therein with the Christ follower. Verse 11, the meek will inherit the earth. Where have you heard that before? Sermon on the Mount, right? The meek will inherit the land, the earth. He says here that that is true. Verse 29, the righteous will inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. So besides avoiding envy and that intense anger and frustration, how are we to live in an ungodly world? Well, that's where he goes on in verses 3 and 4. He says, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. So we are to develop a life of faith. Trust in the Lord, he says. Trust means to rely upon the Lord, to have full confidence in the Lord, to find our sense of security, not in the stuff that we have or the bank account that we accumulate, but we find that security in the Lord. We put our trust in the Lord. And he goes on and he says, and do good. We do what is right in our lives. We do what is in harmony with God's Word. We Basically, align ourselves, align our life with what God says. That's what he's saying. Trust in the Lord and do good. We put ourself underneath his word and then he goes on and he says, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. I like the way the New King James says that a little bit better. It says, feed on his faithfulness. I really like that. feed on His faithfulness. Now we're trusting in the Lord, we're relying upon Him, we're finding a sense of security in Him, we're living our lives in harmony with Him, and we are feeding on His faithfulness. We're drawing spiritual strength and security from the faithfulness of God. Instead of fretting and envying, we're trusting God and we're living out our faith before an ungodly world, and then we watch God be there each step of the way in our life. Now, David is going to take this a step further. He says to delight yourself in the Lord, verse 4. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord. That means to enjoy God. Enjoy the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord. Now, I want you to imagine being invited to a very fancy feast where everything was made by the top chefs of our country. All done in perfection, and the aromas steaming from those dishes not only make your mouth water, but it calls you to enjoy those delicacies. Can you just taste it almost right now? I think the closest thing that Carol and I've had toward that is we've been on a couple cruises and the first one we went on, we went on to this midnight buffet. Who wants to eat at midnight, really? I mean, that's when you want to go to bed, right? You need to be in bed at that point, but we went to this midnight buffet. There were things, they were amazing. Anything that you wanted was in this, and it was gorgeous. I mean, they spent all day creating these food dishes. I mean, it's amazing. If you haven't been on one, you gotta try one of those one time. Just imagine that fancy banquet. Now, I have another question for you. How many here, raise your hands, like to watch those home makeover shows? I see a few hands, probably more of the, you know, like fixer-upper or, you know, flip this house. I mean, it's kind of fun to watch, isn't it? They take this old house and then they kind of fix it up and they put all this fancy stuff in it and you go, oh, isn't that gorgeous? They decorated that beautiful. Just imagine that you were given keys to a home that was built by the best craftsmen of the day. Everything was high class. They did not cut any corners. They had no budget restraints. It had everything you could ever want in a home. It was perfectly furnished. The grounds were immaculately landscaped. Just imagine that. Wouldn't you delight in that? Just like we would delight in that banquet and oh, it's so wonderful. Well, what we see here is we would find delights in these things, but our relationship with God is greater than anything we could ever experience on this earth. Delight yourself in the Lord, he says. Delight yourself. We are to enjoy the refined delicacies of our relationship with God the way rich people enjoy fine food and drink and luxurious surroundings and stylish adornment. We find that joy in the Lord. To delight in God is to find pleasure in Him. If God is our delight, then the desires of our heart become desires for God. Jesus told us to make our request to our loving Heavenly Father who loves us and gives good gifts to His children. So we are to make those requests to Him. And that's an important part that we are to have in our lives. Carol and I, we moved away kind of from broadcast TV. We used to watch that a lot more. Now we're watching British crime dramas. I don't know why we like that. People are always getting killed. gruesomely sometimes, you know, and they're trying to figure out why. But when we watch broadcast TV, and maybe those are still on because we don't watch it very much anymore, they always had commercials that would hawk the products that they're trying to sell. Remember those? Or you probably still see them, some of you. and they will say that this amazing product, you can have it for $19.99. And if you just wait, we'll double your order for the same price. Just call 1-800-BUY-NOW or whatever it is, you know. They would do that. Well, what we see here is after challenging us to trust in the Lord, to live out our faith before the ungodly world, to trust in his faithfulness and make God our delight, David is not finished with us. He says, but just wait. Verses five through seven. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act. He'll bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently. Fret not over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him. Commit your way. That word commit means to roll away your cares, to cast your feelings or resentment or your fear or your jealousy upon the Lord. You give it to Him. Cast it away. Commit your way to the Lord. Didn't Peter tell us to do that? Cast your cares upon Him and He will care for you. He loves you. He is there for you. We cast our cares upon the Lord. How can we do this? Why? Because He will act. That's what it says there. Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him and He will act. This is the expectation of living a life of faith. We call on the Lord, he hears us, he cares for us, and he responds. I just love the story Jesus told of that widow lady seeking justice from the judge. I think Pastor Scott probably already preached on that since he's going through Luke, I think that's chapter 18. And this little old lady comes to the judge and she's seeking help. And he brushes her off. Why? Because she didn't have any resources. She was a poor old widow lady. But she continued to come back and back and back to him. And she got more insistent and more forceful. And it says in the scripture there that she got even to the point where she was gonna take her cane and whack him one. Nah, the cane's not in the scripture. I'm lying about that. But he did give her the protection she requested, and it says that he feared she was gonna hit him in the eye. So whether it was a cane or a fish, she was gonna get him. She was demanding that he take care of her, and he did. And the message Jesus tells us is to keep on asking. God will hear, God will respond. Here it says, be patient, wait patiently. That is a posture of trust. Folks, when you're facing difficult times in your life, you desperately want relief. You want relief. Now, you want it now, not tomorrow, not later. It's hard to wait. It's hard to be patient. When you're in the middle of a relational conflict, you want it over. When you are in a bad fit in your job and things are boiling up and it's coming to a head, you want it done now. If you've lost a job and you don't know how you're gonna make it, you want God to answer right now. When the bank is calling you on the lack of payments, you need help now. With the rising prices and you wonder how you're gonna put food on the table to feed your growing family, you call out to God and you want it now, but he says, here, be patient and wait. It would be easy to envy those who seem to have it made. Living on Easy Street, when we have to cut corners to make it, we have to say, what are we going to pay this month or this week? And they end up being dishonest and do whatever they want. It doesn't matter. And it could be easy to be frustrated and fret over that and envy them. But the call here is to develop a life of faith and live it out daily in our world. And God is faithful, and we are to feed on his faithfulness. So how does faithfulness, God's faithfulness, manifest itself? Well, we go on, verses 16 and 17. He says, better is the little the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the man's arms of the wicked, for the arms of the wicked will be broken and the Lord upholds the righteous. God will provide for our needs. He says, better, it is good, it is pleasant, it is beautiful, it's delightful, it's glad, it's joyful, it's precious, it is better to have a little with righteousness than this abundance of many wicked. Notice the contrast, little and abundance. Now, folks, the stuff of life doesn't bring you joy necessarily. We all are after getting stuff, and it won't bring you joy necessarily. Sorry, workaholics and shopaholics. The more we have, the more it costs to maintain. Have you found that true? You have two cars, it costs more to maintain. You have one car, you only have one to maintain. You got a house, it costs to maintain. You got a cabin, it costs more to maintain. I mean, just more stuff costs us effort and money to maintain. And the stuff of joy, the joy stuff brings is fleeting in our lives. Jesus taught that we are not to lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, but we're to put our treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, thieves do not break in and steal. We put our treasures in heaven and not in this earth. Now stuff isn't evil. It's when we misplace our love for God onto our stuff that we have problems here. That's what's wrong. In my first pastoral ministry, I was an associate pastor in Portland. And my senior pastor left, and he retired, I believe, at that point, and they brought in a new senior pastor. I was later let go because he wanted to develop his own team, and that's common in churches. Pastors usually choose their team. And so there's nothing wrong that happened, but we at that point had three little children, two preschoolers, twins, I already told you about them, and a baby. And at that point, we struggled to pay our bills. We had already bought a house, so we had this mortgage that we're paying, and we're having to pay the bills. And I got some work as a landscape helper for a while, then another company later. Didn't have hardly anything. And we wondered where the rent or the payment was going to come several months. And Carol's parents graciously sent up money to make our payments, which was amazing. And one of the most precious gifts that I received on my birthday that year was Carol took our kids to Meyer and Frank. And if I could say this without breaking up, because it's still precious. She took our kids to Meyer and Frank. It became Macy's later. They bought them out. And she got a free sitting for pictures. And with that sitting, you get a free 8 by 10. and she took that 8 by 10 and bought an inexpensive frame, wrapped it all up and gave it to me. We had nothing, folks, and that's the best birthday present I have. It still sits in my office at home. Better is a little of the righteous than all the wealth of this world, folks. Why? Because the Lord upholds the righteous. Folks, trust the Lord. No one can snatch you from his hand. He holds you. He is there for you. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. It's interesting in my mind is how the Lord uses our finances to build our faith. Why is that? I think in one sense it's where we all live. We have to pay those bills and it comes every month and he uses that to cause us to trust him for those daily needs. Then he'd tell us to pray that we would have our daily needs met, give us our daily bread. So the Lord provides, he protects. Look at verses 21 and 22. The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives. For those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The Lord protects and he provides for us. Notice that contrast. The wicked borrow, the righteous give. The wicked take what isn't theirs. They are all about what they can get, the stuff of this life. And those that have made it now are listed among the wealthiest of this world, right? You see those reports of the wealthiest people. Now contrast that with Christ followers. They aren't all about what they can get, but they are generous. They are givers. They give. Now, Pastor Scott taught two weeks ago, we were here, about the widow and her mite, and the importance of sacrificial giving. It's important for us as believers to give. In my ministry, we always encourage what we call percentage giving. where you commit to God a certain percentage of all that you receive, you give it first, and then you stand back and you watch God bless you. And He will. He does. We are evidence of that. There were times we had very little. We wondered how we were going to make it, and now it's just like, we are so blessed. God takes care of us. So you watch God bless and then you are open to increase that percentage as the Lord leads you. Can I challenge you to do that? If you haven't started a pattern of giving, make a commitment and watch the Lord bless you and then be willing to up it and be willing to increase it because why? You get more blessings. You're putting your treasure in heaven, where moth and rust don't destroy, thieves don't break in and steal. Not only do Christ's followers give, but God blesses them. It says here that they are blessed by the Lord, and the promise is they will inherit the land. In Israel, they were a farming economy, and having land and inheriting land was a sign of prosperity. and God's blessing in their life, compared to the wicked, who were going to get cut off and they were going to lose it all. The righteous, the meek, were going to inherit that land. So when we develop a practice of generosity, it breaks our love of money and stuff. Have you seen that in your life? If you develop generosity in your life, it breaks that love of stuff and money. at the end of the year when we get our giving statements, I'm amazed at how much we've been able to give and not really feel it because the Lord's blessing is with it. I mean, let me encourage you, this is what it says here. And then verse 25 that I started with earlier, it says, I've been young and now I'm old, yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. The Lord provides for your needs. Even when money is tight and in times when you experience a surplus, the Lord is the one who provides. going on verses 23 and 24. The steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way. Though he fall, he will not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. When Pastor Scott and I were talking about today's sermon, I was drawn to verse 23 in this one where it talks about the steps of a man are established by the Lord. And I was going to build my message around that verse and be kind of more of a topical But I've learned over the years that it's important to keep passages in their context. I mean, it really is. And so, that's the change. We're having a look at the whole of the context of that passage. It says the steps of a man are established by the Lord. It means he's bringing something into being with a consequence that his existence is a certainty. God is establishing our steps. He's bringing our steps into being. God, as the divine king, has established the heavens and the earth as his throne, and the earth as his dominion, and they stay established. God is the one that does that, and he is the one that establishes our steps. In Psalm 139, verse 16, it says, in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. Basically, it says, all of my days were formed by your hand even before they were begun. The steps of the man are established by the Lord. He directs our steps. He lays it out before you were born. He establishes your steps. He leads you every step of the way. Can you see that in your own life? Look back in your life. Can you see that, that the Lord directed your steps through everything that happened? And he used all of those things that happened in your life for his glory and your good, even the tough stuff. And it says here that he delights in his way. When he delights in his way. Who is the he? That's a good question here. Is it the Lord's delighting in our way? Or is he delighting in our obedience? Or is it us delighting in his way? I kind of think, I mean it could be either way. It could be both and. But I kind of think the English shows us that it's the man after God's own heart is delighting in the Lord's way. God is leading us and we are delighting in what he is doing in our life. Then he goes on, he says, though he fall, hey folks, we're gonna fail at times. Been there? Maybe you said something that you regret. Maybe you did something that you wish you hadn't. Maybe you made a bad choice. Do you ever wish you could go back and do a redo? I do. I do. My wife's laughing at me. She knows what I'm thinking about. We all will stumble at times, but it says here we will not fall face first. We will not have a face plant as a believer. Why? Because the Lord upholds us. He holds our hand. He is hanging on to you. Even though He may fall, He is holding on. Psalm 23 says, His grace pursues you. His loving kindness pursues you. He is not finished with you. He is there for you. He is going after you. He is holding you up, even when you fall. Not only does the Lord provide for your needs, but he protects you, it says here. He takes care of you. And as we come to the end of the passage, we're gonna jump down to verses 39 and 40. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. So to wrap this passage up, we find in our Lord a stronghold and refuge. A stronghold is something that when the enemies would come into the nation of Israel, they would start raiding the land. And so what would you do as a person that lived in the land? You would run into the fortified city that had strong, tall walls and strong gates and strong doors, and there would be warriors set on the walls of the city protecting those within. The Lord is our stronghold. We run to him when things are falling apart in our life. We run to him, and he is the one who protects us. He welcomes us. He opens up his arms and invites us in, and he is the one that protects us. And now, folks, no one is able to mess with him. He helps. And he delivers. And we take refuge in him. Refuge there has the idea of taking shelter in a rainstorm, and we get rainstorms here occasionally. Especially, we're gonna get them starting pretty soon, unfortunately. One of the experiences I had with a really bad rainstorm was I was driving with my daughter and son-in-law, taking them to graduate school in Michigan. And we were driving out of Omaha and into Iowa. We just kind of crossed the border. And then all of a sudden, The whole, seems like the heavens opened up and burst open, and we encountered a tremendous thunderstorm there like I've hardly ever seen. It sounds like a Trumpism, huh? The whole freeway in the middle of that storm stopped. Everybody stopped. You couldn't see. It was just sheets of water coming down from that thunderstorm. And not only that, there was hail. And people immediately tried to get underneath the overpasses because hail damages cars there really bad. My uncle had a car that was damaged by hail. He bought it as a kind of repossession. It was a Cadillac, a nice car. But it had all these dimples in it. And it was totaled. Nothing was wrong with it except it just dimpled. I mean, they had to replace the whole exterior of this car. Well, that's what happens back there. We don't get it out here like that. But I remember that. So you have to find a place, a shelter, to protect your car and yourself at that point. And here he says, he is our shelter. He is our refuge. And sometimes when it feels like all hell is breaking loose in our lives, It is not fun. Instead, it is very painful. I've been there. I've done that. I got the T-shirt. I mean, I've been there. You know what I'm talking about. We all experience difficult times. And how do we respond in those difficult times? But David tells us, run to Jesus. Just run to Jesus. Find in him Refuge from the storm. He will be that stronghold in times of trial. Excuse me. So we need to see the big picture. Our Lord is there for you. Trust Him, delight in Him, commit your way to Him, live for Jesus. He will provide and He will protect and He will uphold you. Let us pray. Oh God, our Father, thank you for the promise that we need not worry ourselves one bit about those who do evil. even those who appear to be successful. For their deeds, even they themselves will fade away like the grass that dries up in the summer. Lord, we proclaim today that we trust you. We endeavor to live right before you and our neighbors. We thank you for your promise that you will give us our heart's desire as we honor and obey you. We know, Lord, this is not some magical formula, but this is your plan and your way for us. We let you lead. We commit to you, trusting that because of your great love for us, you will not only lead us to those places that are good for our souls. Today, we quiet our souls and our spirits before you. We wait patiently in faith. Help us not to fret or worry. We know that as we put our hope in you, we will enjoy all the fruits of a big harvest. We choose you today, Lord, to live right before you. We'd rather have you in poverty than wealth gained unjustly. And we thank you that you give us all that we have, all that we need, even more than enough. We thank you for holding our hands when our way is unsure, and we have confidence that you will steady our steps. Thank you for your promise of faithfulness. We know that we have a joy-filled future. Our best days are ahead because of the grace given to us by Jesus. May we be more like him every day. We thank you for being with us, and we can run to you in times of trouble, and you will save us. And we pray that in Jesus' precious name, amen.