Here’s the Real Difference... Psalm 37: 37-40 (TPT)

Abba,
Be with us as we look at these last few verses of Psalm 37, help us to get to the Truth that you have for us today. Help us to see these verses as the encouragement that they are. Thank you that we can hide in You. Thank you that you are our strength. Thank you that our future is not determined by our past or present, but by Your promises. You promise us peace and prosperity. Where is it, oh, God? Where is it? Yes, I’m impatient to see the end of the wicked play out before my eyes here on earth. I trust that You will see it done on our behalf, but when?
Amen

Psalm 37: 37-40 (TPT)
But you can tell who are the blameless and spiritually mature.
What a different story with them!
The godly ones will have a peaceful, prosperous future
with a happy ending.
Every evil sinner will be destroyed, obliterated.
They’ll be utter failures with no future!
But the Lord will be the Savior of all who love him.
Even in their time of trouble, God will live in them as strength.
Because of their faith in him, their daily portion will be
a Father’s help and deliverance from evil.
This is true for all who turn to hide themselves in him!

Blameless and spiritually mature, eh? Just as a warning, I may be a little salty in this devotion. I guess I’m not as mature, nor as blameless as I need to be, then? I’m struggling, here. This passage, and even indeed most of the chapter, even as hopeful and reassuring as it is, feels like pouring baking soda into vinegar right now. I know that I shouldn’t be discouraged or despair, but I’m having a moment as I write this. There’s the unvarnished truth. I’m having a black moment, but it will pass.

I know that the Lord will make it right, but it hurts to be reminded when it doesn’t look like there any real movement in that direction in the moment. It actually reminds me of a Proverb... “Like removing a coat on a cold day is one who sings songs to a heavy heart” (Proverbs 25:20) Forgive me for being a bit of a downer today. Ok, I think I’m through it. Back to the Word.

The godly will have a peaceful and prosperous future. Cling to that as we go through the hell of the fallout of all the wind that the wicked in our world have sowed, yes, the whirlwind [storm] is nearly upon us. Allow it to do what it was designed to do, that is, cleanse the world. We who are the godly, who do our best to follow the Father’s ways will be able to stand again at the end of it all.

The wicked, on the other hand, will be utterly destroyed. They will be utter failures, with no future. I couldn’t help but hear those lines in Trump’s voice, lol. Yes, for all of their plotting and scheming to take us down, for all of their planning to live forever, they will come to noting in the end, and will die and be forgotten. Is that what this whole chapter has been about? Waiting for the wicked to just die off? I like the more spiritual interpretation, as I see it as more encouraging rather than, just wait, you’ll outlive them and take back what they took from you before you die.

God will be with us and help us through the storms of this life as long as we are faithful to him. That is the bottom line that I am seeing through this entire Psalm. That is the difference between the godly and the wicked: the godly are protected, even from the fury of the wicked, where the wicked enjoy no such protection. Even when it seems like they will never be ended, remember, they, too, will die, and no one can take their wealth or power with them into the great beyond.