Do good; cultivate faithfulness.

Psalm 37 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
² For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.
³ Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.

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.

¹² The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth.
¹³ The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming. ¹⁴ The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy, To slay those who are upright in conduct. ¹⁵ Their sword will enter their own heart, And their bows will be broken.

¹⁶ Better is the little of the righteous Than the abundance of many wicked.
¹⁷ For the arms of the wicked will be broken, But the Lord sustains the righteous.
¹⁸ The Lord knows the days of the blameless, And their inheritance will be forever.
¹⁹ They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, And in the days of famine they will have abundance. ²⁰ But the wicked will perish; And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures, They vanish—like smoke they vanish away. ²¹ The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives. ²² For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, But those cursed by Him will be cut off.

²³ The steps of a man are established by the Lord, And He delights in his way. ²⁴ When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. ²⁵ I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread. ²⁶ All day long he is gracious and lends, And his descendants are a blessing.

²⁷ Depart from evil and do good, So you will abide forever. ²⁸ For the Lord loves justice
And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. ²⁹ The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever.
³⁰ The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, And his tongue speaks justice. ³¹ The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip. ³² The wicked spies upon the righteous And seeks to kill him. ³³ The Lord will not leave him in his hand Or let him be condemned when he is judged.
³⁴ Wait for the Lord and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

³⁵ I have seen a wicked, violent man Spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil.
³⁶ Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found.
³⁷ Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity.
³⁸ But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
³⁹ But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in time of trouble.
⁴⁰ The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
Because they take refuge in Him.

If you’ve ever planted and grown a garden, you know that weeds and all the things you don’t want grow easily, while the plants you do want, the good things, require faithful work and cultivating. Our society and culture is very much like that. Negative things grow and spread easily, but if we want what’s good, it will require faithful work in order to nurture and grow it.  It seems that most of the news media, much of social media, even sports and entertainment media, in our culture and society focuses on negative. News media tells of all the problems, trouble and violence. They report, or more often opinionate, ad nauseam, regarding political scandal and negative and divisive stories. On social media people speak much more about what they are against than what they are for. Entertainers feign morality, while they cash their checks earned by glorifying the very things they speak against, guns, violence, war and sex. They pretend to care for the poor, while they live in their mansions, fly in their jets and spend more on one night out than the poor have for a month. The psalmist gives us an answer to the negativity in the world, or at least in our own hearts and minds. He says:   Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 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. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.  

Rather than speak against evil, why not do good? Is it perhaps because speaking can be done from the comfort of our own home and hidden behind an electronic screen, while doing requires effort and commitment? It requires that we may have to interact with both those we are for and those who we are against. We might have to look the one we oppose in the eye and see that they too are human. The first step, according to the psalmist, is not to be concerned with or envious of others. Rather than railing against evil, he says do good. Doing good begins with delighting in the Lord, because the Lord is good.   God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)  There is a natural tendency for people, for us all, to become more like that which we focus on. Is it any wonder then that our society and our culture is becoming increasingly dark and violent? We say we want our children safe in their schools, their homes and their neighborhoods, while we entertain them with violent games, violent music and violent movies and shows. Even with adults, when we fill our minds with and focus on negative things, we become more negative. If we delight in the Lord, we will become more like Him. He will give us the desires of our heart; not that we get what we want, but rather that what we want is what He wants.  

Because we focus on the negative in our society and our culture, fear and anxiety are off the charts. The psalmist has an answer for that also. He continues:  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. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. 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. But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.   The advances in technology and the abundance of material things available to us, make us a very impatient culture. We want our food in minutes. We get frustrated if we cannot access all the information about every subject in seconds. We want what others have. We want everything and we want it now. We rage against other drivers if they cost us even a few extra seconds. The psalmist says:  Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.  In Luke 6:27-28 Jesus says:  “I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”    What if we would cease from anger? What if we would bless the driver that pulled out in front of us or cut us off rather than cursing them? At the end of the day, we ourselves would have less anxiety and stress. We would have more peace and rest.

The psalmist says:  The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy, To slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart, And their bows will be broken. Better is the little of the righteous Than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked will be broken, But the Lord sustains the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, And their inheritance will be forever. They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, And in the days of famine they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish.    All of the riches and things of this world, which we strive for, will fade away and vanish, either in our own lifetime or when we are gone. The inheritance of the blameless is forever. It is eternal. It may seem at times that evil comes out on top, but in the scheme of eternity even a lifetime of worldly success is but a twinkling. In Mark 8:36-37 Jesus says:  “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

The psalmist says:  Depart from evil and do good, So you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.    You may not believe, as I do, in the salvation of the Lord for eternity. But even so, if you will trust and learn from the wisdom of the psalmist, if you will indeed do good;  if you will cultivate faithfulness, if you will focus on and commit to what is good, you will find peace and rest. If you will patiently and diligently seek what is good, and what is light, you may find God and delight in Him.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit help me to remain focused on You, to delight in You, Your goodness and Your light. Give me patience with others as You have had patience with me. I do trust in You and my desire is that I would daily cultivate my faith and my faithfulness, that my desires would be what You desire. Thank You for peace and rest.  Amen.