As we return to our study of Psalm 37 David has made a contrast of the wicked and righteous.  His question is ‘why do the wicked prosper while the righteous are tried’?  The wicked seem to get along without God and do it successfully.  Have your Bible open as we study verses 12-22 which I have entitled “Their Endeavors Are Conflicting”. In verses 12-15 we find ‘The Endeavors Of Their Plots’.  David tells us in verse 12 they “…plotteth against the just,’ This word means to plan or devise evil against another.  In verse 14 we are told that the wicked came doubly armed with ‘sword’ and ‘bent bow’.  They have the desire to take down the upright. What is our Lord doing during their ordeal?  In verse 13 we are told that the “…Lord shall laugh…for he seeth that his day is coming.”  In verse 15 we are told that they will fall on their own sword.  I think of Haman in the book of Esther.  He was enraged with hatred towards the Jews and Mordecai.  He built a gallows to hang Mordecai on.  Our God humiliated Haman by making him parade Mordecai through the streets on the king’s horse crying to the people that this is the one the king desires to favor.  If that was not enough he hung Haman on his own gallows.  The same happened with Saul.  He was so vile to David that in the end his only way out of this world was to fall on his own sword.  Some of our Lord’s last words on earth were “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Let us now look at verses 16-20 which I call “The Endeavor Of Their Possessions’.  In verses 16-17 we are encouraged not to be impressed with the riches of the wicked because the Lord “…upholdeth the righteous.”  “We would soon suffer with John than eat with Herod.” (Spurgeon)  The world’s slogan has always been more is better.  The Lord teaches always that less is better.

In verses 18-20 David magnifies the all-knowing providence of our God.  He knows how many days we have on this earth.  He knows we shall receive an eternal inheritance.  He knows the days of the wicked will go up like the fat of a lamb in the fire.  Their life will be consumed like smoke.  Nothing in our future can take our God by surprise in time or eternity.

In verses 21-22 we have ‘The Endeavor Of Their Provision” In verse 21 the wicked borrow money they cannot pay back but we are assured that we will inherit the earth. “If God’s providence is our inheritance we need not worry about the price of wheat.” (Spurgeon) For our day the wheat could be replaced with gas for the car.

We are told that the righteous will receive ‘mercy’.  The word means to withhold from us what we deserve.  The provision for the wicked will be justice.  In verse 22 He says He will ‘curse’ the wicked.  What a horrible thought to live under the curse of an angry God.  We read in the days of witches they would put a curse upon people.  Their curses would be a Sunday school picnic to living under the curse of a Holy God.  We are told in verse 22 not only are they cursed but also they will be ‘cut off’.  The word has the idea of a sudden death without warning.  When we read the testimonies of our God about the end of the wicked how we thank Him for the day He declared us righteous and numbered us with the redeemed.

Let us not live our lives thinking upon the endeavors of the wicked.  Let us remember the words of our Lord in Luke 16:15b “…for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”