Unfortunately, as you look around our world it is not hard to find people who are rich, famous, in places of power, and over all who seem to be enjoying the “good life” yet they are also evil and have no fear of God. They say what they want and they do what they want. They seem to live on their own terms. Not only do their lives go against God and his Word but often they threaten the lives of those who are poor, who are in difficult circumstances and yet who honor God. 



This type of injustice can be found in any nation at any time. Evil men who are well off who do evil things to good people who are in difficult circumstances. We have seen this scenario many times throughout history. Evil and powerful people doing terrible things to poor and God fearing people. 

Many of us may have experienced such situations in our personal lives as well. Maybe it was a bully at your school growing up. Maybe it was someone one at your work who threatened you, who made your life tough, who was out to get you no matter what. These are the real life situations that who often find ourselves in and they can cause us to ask questions. 

“God why does it seem like the wicked prosper while we suffer?”

The other questions that we can ask is, “How should I react when the wicked are threaten me and I have no means to stop them”

Today we are looking at Psalm 37 where we find that David often dealt with these same questions. This theme comes up often in the book of Psalms, we can also see it clearly in Psalm 10 and Psalm 73. I recommend that you read through those psalms later.
Introduction to Psalm 37
We tend to think of Psalms as just being a hymn or a worship song. While this is true, many psalms also have the character of wisdom literature. Here we find a psalm that has a lot in common with the book of Proverbs. In fact it looks like Solomon quotes the first 2 verses of this psalm word for word in Proverbs 24:19-20. In this Psalm we find short and powerful statements of wisdom. We also see clear instructions for how we should view the world, how we should think about wicked people, and how we should react in these situations. The wisdom of the Proverbs can often be described as the skill of seeing the end at the beginning and in this Psalm this is exactly what we see.   

If we were to sum up the message of this psalm we could say two things. 

The success of the wicked is temporary but 
The blessing of the righteous in permanent

It’s application is thus:

Don’t worry about wicked people
Trust in the Lord

This is a very simple way to look at it but sometimes that can be helpful for us as we take a step back and look at our own lives in contrast to the lives of the wicked. 

As we go through this text today I want to focus on 10 ways in which the righteous should react to the success and the threat of the wicked. 
What you shouldn’t do!
The first two imperatives are negative, this is because generally as humans we react negatively to the success of the wicked. Before we can step in faith and walk the way God has planned for us we must first rid ourselves of these negative reactions. 
Do not worry about wicked people (v1)
Psalm 37:1-2 NIV - 1 Of David. Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; 2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
I want you to notice how clear, how strong, and how straightforward David is here. He leaves no room for doubt. We are stopped in our tracks and told to stop. Also note that this is an unusual beginning for a psalm. Most psalms begin by addressing God, “Praise the Lord.” Thus, from the first line of this Psalm we can see that it has a unique nature. This is a Psalm that is more addressed to the ind...