They Will Inherit the Land

⁷ Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
⁸ Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
⁹ For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
¹⁰ Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more;
And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
¹¹ But the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to reflect on these verses from the daily readings in the One Year Bible. David, the writer of this psalm was certainly a man who experienced tremendous highs and lows throughout his life. He is known as both one of the greatest warriors and one of the greatest worshipers in the Bible. Acts 13:22 says this about David:  He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.'  Through all the ups and downs of David's life, he held fast to his love for God. His relationship with God was formed from the time he was young as he spent time tending sheep, singing, praising and worshipping God. 

The psalm begins with an encouragement for us not to be concerned or envious of those who do evil or wrong. This psalm was written in David's later years, he had seen the rise and fall of many people. Evil and evil people will come and go in our lives as well, they will whither and fade away. Psalm 100:5 says this about God on ther other hand:

For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.

We are then encouraged to : Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.   Trusting in the Lord and doing good as opposed to trying to do things man's way. The world teaches us to be self centered, put ourselves first, doing all we can to get ahead. As followers of Christ we have already been given everything we need, we are children and heirs of God.   Romans 8:16-17 says:  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ...   We possess an inheritance in Christ which provides us with all the promises of the kingdom of God. We need to dwell in that inheritance, living in the promises day by day, being faithful in the little things God gives us in order to cultivate our faith and faithfulness to walk in all He has given and provided for us. We cultivate our faith so that we can do the greater works Jesus said we would do(John 14:12) and  move the obstacles that come before us. ... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.(Matthew 17:20)

Verses 4 and 5 also teach us an important truth.  Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. To delight in the Lord is to take great pleasure in Him. It requires that we spend both significant quantity and quality of time with God, as David did throughout his life.  As we do that, we become in tune with Him and His will. Him giving us the desires of our heart then, is not fulfilling our own selfish desires but rather our desires become God's desires. We become like David, people after God's heart. When we want what He wants, surely we will receive it. We are also told though that we need to commit our way to Him, to trust Him. God's timing is not always in sync with our timing. God sees from an eternal perspective many times we already have what we need we just lack the physical manifestation of it. We need to trust God and His timing. We walk by faith not by sight trusting God when He says  “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent;  Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?  He will do it. It's already done.

verse 6 says:  He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.  Our righteousness is in Christ alone. As we remain in Him and in His light then we are judged as righteous. We have eternal life, unlike those who do evil. 

In verses 7-11, it continues in the theme of patience, waiting and trusting God. We are told to cease from anger, wrath and worrying which lead to evil doing. These are contrary to the fruit of the Spirit which should be present in our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 says:  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control;  Remember we are to cultivate faithfulness, all of the fruit of the spirit requires cultivation in our lives. We need to work at it and grow it. We can only cultivate the fruit of the spirit if we are yielded to the Holy Spirit. 

Those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land... the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. Our inheritance is not a physical piece of land or property. Rather our inheritance is the the whole earth and the  kingdom of heaven. Jesus says : Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.(Matthew 5:5) Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our inheritance is to live and "delight in abundant prosperity." Jesus says  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.(John 10:10) 

Do not fret, trust, dwell, cultivate, delight, commit, rest, wait,  cease from anger and wrath.

INHERIT!