Commit Your Way to the Lord

Psalms 37:1-7 ESV

“Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

    be not envious of wrongdoers!

For they will soon fade like the grass

    and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

    and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

    over the man who carries out evil devices!”

In the English language the word “fret” means to “be constantly worried or anxious.” But in the Hebrew it means “to burn or to be kindled with anger.” And this Psalm was originally written in the Hebrew language. So, it appears that the intention of these words expressed here is more of a caution against getting angry (to burn with anger) over those who do evil than it is a caution against merely being anxious. But we should not be anxious, either.

This is not teaching that we shouldn’t feel anger over the evil that we see going on, for we are to hate evil, and we are to grieve in our spirits over the evil that is being done all around us and/or to us or to other people. But when we feel that anger, or when we begin to feel anxious in our spirits, we should immediately surrender those emotions over to the Lord and turn them into prayer, and then pray to God to intervene in people’s lives.

For we live in a fallen world. And we are all born in the image of Adam with sin natures. So it is human nature to sin and to do evil. But by the grace of God, those who believe in Jesus Christ have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. We now have the power to say “No” to sin and “Yes” to God.

So, we are to be those who wait for the Lord to act when we see evil being committed (or even if we perceive that it is evil we are seeing), unless it is something we can immediately act upon because it involves a child in danger, or something like that. For we should be people who hate evil, and who grieve over the evil being done to people in this world of ours, and whose hearts are filled with compassion for those being taken advantage of. 

So, this isn’t saying that we do nothing, but that we don’t take matters into our own hands, and we should not let anger over the evil turn to rage to where we then become the evil that we hate in others. Does this make sense? Sometimes the Lord allows us to feel anger to motivate us to do something, to change something, but then we need to take these situations to the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord to guide us in what we should do.

Some things we can do something about. Many situations we can do nothing about other than to pray and to educate others and to speak the truth in love to keep others from falling prey to evil forces, and to keep them from being deceived by evil forces. So, we should do the good that we can do to combat the evil that is in this world, but we should guard our hearts against anxiety and rage. Then surrender our wills to the will of God for our lives.

And when the evil is being done against ourselves, we are not to retaliate. We are not to get even with others for the evil they do to us. But we are to forgive those who sin against us, and we are to pray for the Lord’s counsel in how we should respond to the evil being committed against us. Again, we should not let anger control what we do, but we should let the Spirit of God lead us in what we should do, and then trust the Lord with the results.

When in The Stillness  

An Original Work / September 26, 2011

When in the stillness of this moment,

Speak to me, Lord, I humbly pray.

Be my desire, set me on fire,

Teach me to love always.

Help me to walk in fellowship with You,

Listening to You; sit at Your feet.

Whisper Your words to me, 

Oh, how gently, guiding me in Your truth. 

While we are waiting for Your blessing,

Lord, in our hearts be King today.

Help us to live for you ev’ry moment,

List’ning to what You say.

May we not stray from your word within us,

Help us obey You, Lord, in all things,

Walking each moment, Lord, in Your presence,

Our offerings to You bring.

Help us to love You, Lord, our master;

Be an example of Your love,

Helping the hurting, lift up the fallen,

Showing them Your great love.

Teach them to love You, follow You always,

Bearing their cross and turning from sin;

Walking in daily fellowship with You,

Making You Lord and King.

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