Psalms 37:34
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Wait for the LORD and keep His way, and He will raise you up to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Let the eye of faith directed hopefully to Jahve go on its way, without suffering thyself to be turned aside by the persecution and condemnation of the world, then He will at length raise thee out of all trouble, and cause thee to possess (לרשׁת, ut possidas et possideas) the land, as the sole lords of which the evil-doers, now cut off, conducted themselves.
Open source ↗The psalmist's conclusion of this sermon (for that is the nature of this poem) is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the same things. I. The duty here pressed upon us is still the same (Psa 37:34): Wait on the Lord and keep his way. Duty is ours, and we must mind it and make conscience of it, keep God's way and never turn out of it nor loiter in it, keep close, keep going; but events are God's and we must refer ourselves to him for the disposal of them; we must wait on the Lord, attend the motions of his providence, carefully observe them, and conscientiously accommodate ourselves to them. If we make conscience of keeping God's way, we may with cheerfulness wait on him and commit to him our way; and we shall find him a good Master both to his working servants and to his waiting servants. II. The reasons to enforce this duty are much the same too, taken from the certain destruction of the wicked and the certain salvation of the righteous. This good man, being tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked, that he might fortify himself against the temptation, goes into the sanctuary of God and leads us thither (Psa 73:17); there he understands their end, and thence gives us to understand it, and, by comparing that with the end of the righteous, baffles the temptation and puts it to silence. Observe, 1. The misery of the wicked at last, however they may prosper awhile: The end of the wicked shall be cut off (Psa 37:38); and that cannot be well that will undoubtedly end so ill. The wicked, in their end, will be cut off from all good and all hopes of it; a final period will be put to all their joys, and they will be for ever separated from the fountain of life to all evil. (1.) Some instances of the remarkable ruin of wicked people David had himself observed i…
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!
Do not say, “I will avenge this evil!” Wait on the LORD, and He will save you.
For the evildoers will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked.
Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.