Delighting in the Abundance of Peace

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek

for they shall inherit the earth

Let’s consider what Psalm 37 teaches us about meekness. Look at Psalm 37:11.  But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

First of all, we can see that, unlike a lot of what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, this is not new news.  The meek shall inherit the earth.  Hearing Him make that statement, should have triggered their minds back to this psalm – to the additional promise of abundance of peace and a further explanation of what this meekness is.  Notice also, that verse 9 tells us something else about those who inherit the earth – those who wait on the Lord.  It appears that this Psalm is linking the two – the meek are those who wait on the Lord.

Let’s just look at verses 5 and 7 of this psalm and see what these people are like:

1.  (5, verse 3 says it too) Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. They trust in God. The meek begin by trusting God.  They believe that He will work for them and vindicate them when others oppose them.  Biblical meekness is rooted in a confidence that God is for you and not against you and He will take care of you and be your defender.

2.  Again, from verse 5 – They commit their way to God.  The Hebrew word for commit means literally “to roll”.  The meek have discovered that God is trustworthy, and so they roll their way (the things of their lives) onto the Lord.  I love just picturing that.  We tend to picture God as being up – rightfully so – He’s in heaven.  So, when I first thought of rolling something onto God, I thought of rolling it uphill.  Isn’t that so like us?  We think that committing something or someone to the Lord is like pushing this burden up a hill and all too often we lose strength and it rolls right back on us.  How much better, to picture, pushing our burdens over a cliff to the Lord.

3.  Psalm 37:7 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 brings wicked schemes to pass.

They rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  Resting here is stand still.  They don’t give the Lord advice, they don’t move out ahead of Him; they don’t react.  Moses stood still and let God deal with his challenging siblings.  Not that they are lazy, but the meek have a steady quietness about their lives in the midst of upheaval.

4.  Still in verse 7 They don’t fret over the wicked.  And notice this about the wicked – who prospers in his way.  The meek don’t fret – even when it looks like the wicked are prospering, doing well, and not paying for what they have done or even are continuing to do.

From Psalm 37, we can see that the meek begin by trusting God, which leads to committing their way to God.  Or – we can see that it begins with committing our way and that leads to trusting Him – trusting Him more, as we discover His faithfulness.  The meek commit their way to the Lord believing, trusting He will use his power and mercy to do good for us.  Then they wait patiently and quietly for the outcome, not giving way to anger or fretfulness when the outcome they desire is not happening.

As you scan Psalm 37, share about a verse that speaks to you or ministers to you.  There are many!