Psalm 37: 3 Dwell in the Land

A common catch phrase among Christians is that we are to be "in the world but not of the world." This isn't an erroneous concept, but it oversimplifies what the scriptures describe as a more complex approach to the world in which we live.

On the one hand, I John 2:15-17 tells us clearly, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." That' what we're supposed to put off. Actively, intentionally reduce the ways in which you are in love with the world and it's ways.

That same apostle, John, gives us the corresponding opposite intentional action, the things we're supposed to put on. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

That's a lot of love. Given that our mission in this world is to share the gospel and shepherd the people of the world to be reconciled with God, does it make sense for us to do anything less than to love the world the way God does?

He certainly doesn't love the evil done by the people of the world. He doesn't love their hard heartedness, but He does love their hearts and wants to touch their hearts with his love.

We are not of the world, but God has placed us in this world in order to be His ambassadors of light in the dark corners of the world. We're charged with refreshing the world by being His salt

John 17:14-15 records Jesus' prayer to His Father regarding His disciples.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

The day will come when Jesus takes all His followers out of the world, to join Him in our eternal home before the throne of God. But until that time, our purpose is to make our homes in the place where He has put us, among the people who don't know there is a better home.

If we throw our lives into living out that mission, rather than constantly fighting against the evildoers and the imperfections of this world, the Lord will protect us and bless us while we're here.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture

Psalm 37:3

Dwelling in the land implies much more than just squatting on the land or taking up a temporary, detached residence in a place.

The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 adn Ezekiel 34 has brought us into a land that may be filled with dangers, but He will always provided green pastures in which we can rely on His protection and guarantee of eternal safety.

As long as He is with us, we can live joyfully in this world, even among the evildoers, as living examples of His goodness and grace.

A Pandemic of Loneliness

I am lonely.

As I write this, it's Sunday morning, the 15th of November, in the year 2020, the loneliest of years. 

As of today it's been 36 Sundays since my wife and I went TO church. It's kind of lonely sitting in my basement, watching on my computer screen as the "assembly of the saints" assembles on the other side of town.

We've been able to continue meeting with our small group, or Life Group, on Monday nights, via Zoom. In fact, we've had significantly fewer cancellations since we began meeting online than we did when we were gathering at our house. Our group has actually thrived during this time, like never before. I think it's because we're all a bit lonely, and we crave the virtual togetherness. We've opened our hearts and souls to one another on Monday nights, sharing our trials and frustrations, our emotional swings, our loneliness.

And I have been lonely. In March I left my office at the university for the last time, moving my laptop, it's dock, three screens, keyboard, mouse, speakers -- the whole setup - to my basement. What I didn't move to my home were my office mate and all the other people I used to see every day at work. There have been some lonely and difficult days, working at home.

And then, in August, my job left me. I was one of many who have been laid off. After 41 straight years of working full time, settled into the routine of going TO work every day, I no longer even had that. It's a whole new level of isolation. And loneliness.

There's a particular depth of loneliness that comes when you begin to suspect you've been caught out, finally exposed as a fraud. 

The thing is, there has been an incredible upside to being at home these past eight months. For the first time in 42 years of marriage, my wife and I have been together at home nearly all day every day. 

It's good. We talk more often. We talk longer. Our individual lives have adjusted to one another's schedule and rhythm. It's very good.

And yet, still, even as we are together more than ever, it's still true that we are lonely.

But we know we're no different than nearly everyone else, especially during this year, during this Covditide.

We're all experiencing a  Pandemic of Loneliness.

I know there are others, including friends in my own home church, who have also been sent home from their workplace, either to remote in from home or to not work at all (except for the never ending task of competing with all the other lonely people who are trying to find a job).

There are other people, moms and dads, who have had to quit working or remote from home or make drastic adjustments to their work schedule so they can be at home with their children who can no longer go TO school. All these parents sincerely want to be there for their children, but there is still a guilty loneliness that comes with such a drastic change.

And let's not forget the kids themselves. They're still able to DO school, with the help of a computer or tablet. But they're not IN school, not physically WITH their classmates and teachers. Karen is teaching piano lessons by way of Zoom, and she hears the loneliness in their voices when she asks them how school is going.

On the other end of the age spectrum are the senior citizens. The grandmas and grandpas and others who are at highest risk from this virus, but are physically isolated from the very people who could be their emotional support - their families and friends. I've only been in the physical presence of my son. Cody, twice in these 8 months. It's lonely.

People will say, At least you know that God is always with you. And this is true. But just knowing that doesn't really make me feel any less lonely.

This may sound like a strange thing to suggest, but I think Jesus was sometimes lonely. If he went through everything we go through, he surely must have had his lonely times.

Throughout this time I've been drawn again and again to the biblical record of Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

There in the Garden, on that last night, Jesus went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives. He left most of the followers behind and took just his closest friends farther in with him. And then, it says in Luke 22:41, he went even farther, about a stone's throw beyond them, and knelt down and prayed.

It's so often true that, even in our loneliness, we just need to withdraw from people. Even Jesus, on the loneliest night of his life, felt the need to talk and pray with his closest friends, but then felt the urge to take those extra steps to be even more alone with his loneliness.

Why did he do this? Because it was his habit. 

In Luke 5:16 we're told that when the crowds were pressing in on him, Jesus would escape not only the crowds but also his friends. It says he "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

Jesus knew the truth that just assuming God's presence isn't the same as intentionally dwelling in his presence. He knew that the best answer to loneliness is to embrace that aloneness by finding a lonely place, and to intentionally spend a significant amount of time dwelling in the presence of the Father.

And that's what he chose to do on the night when he was about to be betrayed. 

What could be more lonely than to be betrayed? 

To be honest, I feel betrayed by the people who laid me off. The very people who so often told me how important I was to the work we were doing, they kicked me to the curb and I haven't heard from them since. 

Betrayal and loneliness go hand in hand.

Jesus was so lonely, he begged the Father to find another way. "If possible, let this cup pass from me!"

Later, on the cross, he would cry out to the Father again in agonizing loneliness: "My God, my God, Why have YOU forsaken me?"

I know very well that some of the anger, the sense of betrayal that I have struggled with during this time is, deep down, my anger at God. Sometimes it feels like He is the one who has betrayed me.

When Jesus went back to his disciples, his closest friends, they were asleep. He asks them, "Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?" That's the agony of loneliness in his voice. 

Loneliness craves people who care. Anyone who cares. 

The next time you share in the communion cup and bread, meditate on Jesus' loneliness on that last night. And then think about the people you know who are probably lonely and plan how you can intentionally encourage them. Also, make a plan for how you can intentionally seek out a lonely place in the midst of your own loneliness, and go deeper than you ever have in your study and prayer to become closer to God.

My Father,

If it is possible, may this cup of loneliness be taken from me. And may it also be taken from my friends here at Blue Ridge, and from the many millions who are in agony during this Pandemic of Loneliness.

Thank you, Jesus, for walking the lonely path to the cross. Thank you for your lonely sacrifice.

Psalm 37:3 Do Good for the Lord

As a kid, the only good thing about a trip to the doctor or dentist was the Highlights magazines that were in every waiting room. The full-page Hidden Images puzzle could keep me busy for quite a while. And the jokes and stories were fun.

But my favorite part of each Highlights was the Goofus and Gallant cartoon. For a kid raised in a church culture of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, the simple morality of Goofus and Gallant was appealing.

Goofus: "Gimme a pencil!"
Gallant: "Please give me a piece of paper."

Goofus: "How much will you pay me to shovel your walk, Aunt Sue?"
Gallant: "I'll shovel the walk, Dad!"

Goofus: "I wish I had no little brother."
Gallant: "I'm glad I have a little brother."

Squirrels are scared of Goofus.
Squirrels eat from Gallant's hand.

I question the wisdom of the lesson that last one was teaching to young readers, but you get the idea. Most of them were simple little two-panel morality plays. Others were disturbing in their depiction of a juvenile sociopath contrasted with an overly perfect child.

In Psalm 37, David offers up his own contrast, this time between the evildoers of verse 1 and the "good doer" of verse 3.

Trust in the Lord and do good,,,

Psalm 37:3

It might appear that David is presenting an overly simplified contrast in the same tone as Goofus and Gallant. But in the context, David is laying out three possible ways a follower of God might respond when he or she feels like fretting or envying in reaction to evildoers.

One option is to give into your worst inclinations and react with your own bad actions. Allow your anxious fretting to fester and turn into resentment. Let your envious heart take action against the object of your negative thoughts.

This is the route that leads to Christians filling social media with "Christianized" versions of the mean memes, half truths, and politicized spin used by the evildoers of the world.

Another option would be to make a show of doing good. This sort of behavior is the kind that earns the dismissive label of "do-gooder".

The do-gooder constantly reminds people he's the type of person who "doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, and doesn't go with girls who do", as though such elemental morality best represents the heart of God. Evil doers generally react negatively toward such people because they come across as fake and condescending toward people who live differently.

If the only things you can offer to unbelievers is a list of things you don't do, if the primary good thing you lay claim to is going to church, they're probably going to dismiss you as nothing more than a hollow do-gooder.

The third option is to seek constructive and productive ways of doing good. I'm talking about the kind of good things that are out of the ordinary, the sort of lifestyle that strikes people as genuinely sacrificial and loving.

When the evil deeds of the world frustrate you, find a way to help make the world better. Get messily involved in the messy lives of messy people. Help the poor and the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor people who have hit rock bottom, go out of your way to care for the sick and elderly.

Give it a try. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes for you and for others.

Doing practical good can redirect the urge to respond to ungodly people with your own evil actions or self righteous behavior.  It engages the biblical principle of putting off your bad habits and putting on good habits (Ephesians 4:17-32).

Doing good is also the best way to draw people toward the Lord - even the very evildoers who frustrate you. If you can learn to see them not only as people who are doing evil, but also as people whose only hope is to know Jesus, it becomes easier to re-train your "knee jerk" reactions toward productive goodness.

Train your heart away from Goofus, beyond Gallant, and toward Godly.

Psalm 37:3 Trusting in the Lord

Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord . . . .

Psalm 37:1-3a

Put off this. Put on that instead. 

The principle of Put off/Put on is found throughout the scriptures. Paul and Peter and Jesus and David and Solomon and others repeatedly come back to the concept. In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul hammers home the idea, with numerous specific examples. 

Real change, lasting transformation, comes through this process, energized by the Holy Spirit.  Put off the ungodly and self-indulgent habits. Replace them with godly and righteous habits. 

That's what David is saying here. Your feelings say to dwell on your anger and frustration. But don't go with your feelings.

Go a different way. Go with trusting in the Lord.

Don't trust in the chemical reactions generated in your body by your feelings. Instead, trust the Lord who created you and your body chemistry. Spiritual disciplines can prepare you to make constructive use of the anger-produced chemicals like adrenaline, rather than allowing yourself to be driven toward destructive reactions. "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." (Ephesians 4:26-27)

Don't trust in your power to combat evil, as though you were a spiritual superhero. Trust instead in God's overall plan for righteousness. "No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause." (Psalm 25:3)

Don't trust in the self-promoting emotions of envy. Instead, trust the plans the Lord has for you, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). The more you train yourself to trust that God has a specific plan for you, the less you'll be apt to give in to thoughts of envy about the success and welfare of others people.

Don't trust in the same earthbound strategies and plans and purposes as the people who you see doing wrong. Trust in the ways of the Lord. Achieving what you see as a righteous purpose by unrighteous means will never achieve the righteous purposes of the Lord. "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness." (Romans 6:13)

Trust in the Lord.

Psalm 37:2 Grass

On a hot July afternoon, I watched, appropriately socially distanced, while my 13-year-old grandson mowed our lawn. He looked tired and hot, not at all surprising since he'd been mowing various lawns all day in low-90s temperatures. He had wanted to earn money of his own this summer, and his parents wanted him to learn the value of working hard to earn that money.

I don't do hardly any of the mowing any more, because my deteriorating knee just doesn't deal well with the mechanics of pushing the "self-propelled" mower. My wife mows occasionally, but as the temperatures heat up, her body reacts poorly to the weather and doesn't need to be pushing a mower around either.

And so we offered to pay Ethan to mow our yard sometimes this summer. I think he charges us less than he might someone else, but we pay him more than he initially asked. And it's good to see him so regularly during this long season of the pandemic's enforced isolation.

We also get to see his parents, because someone has to drive the truck to bring the 13-year-old and his mower. They also do more than their share of work while he's mowing. Our son makes the rounds with the weed eater and he and our daughter in law have worked hard over the past few weeks to clean up the large amount of sticks and leaves accumulated in our near-forest backyard.

Cooter commented that July was starting to be like it normally is in Missouri. He's seeing signs on all the lawns they visit of the grass becoming sun-bleached and dry.

Like the grass, all three generations of this family are growing older. Karen and I are like the grass and vines and weeds that are declining under the summer's heat. Cooter, as a little boy, didn't really care for short pants. He would try to tug them down to cover his legs.  Now he's 35, an astonishing age for someone who was once so small.

Even Ethan and his younger brother Jude are growing older at a speed I can hardly keep up with. They'll be grown and gone and approaching the time of withering like grass themselves, long after the thresher has harvested my soul.

It happens to all of us, to the best of us and the worst of us.

Do not fret because of those who are evil
   or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Psalm 37:1-2

Why would Ethan fret about the grass and what new challenges it's going to throw at him next week when it comes time to mow again? Our lawn is not going to suddenly develop sentience and plot to do us harm, like in that silly movie, The Happening. It's just grass. Grass does what grass does.

People do what people do. Evil people are going to do wrong, because that's the direction they've trained their hearts to lean. People who have trained their hearts toward good will do good, and should keep their minds and actions focused on doing good.

Our grass is just going to keep being grass, even after Etan mows. It'll keep being what it is until it dies. 

And it will die.

Ethan will also die. But before that time, he'll find greater things to train his heart toward. Over the past two or three years, as he's passed through those most formative waking up years of 11-13, we've all - his parents and grandparents - watched the scatter-brained boy begin to seek out just who it is God is training him up to be.

And we saw, and it is good.

Psalm 37:1 Envy

They say there's a heaven for those who will wait
  Some say it's better but I say it ain't
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
  The sinners are much more fun
You know that only the good die young
  I tell ya
Only the good die young
Only the good die young

    Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young

Recent polls and studies agree that a majority of young people who have grown up in the church will leave the church within a few short years after finishing high school. For some reason we're not hanging on to our kids.

One reason is that the churches where they're growing up are not preparing them to think critically and to be intellectually prepared for the challenges they face outside the cocoon of their youth.

"We need to think more clearly, to teach more clearly. We need to stop using words like liberal and conservative and, instead, talk about things like critical thinking in the church. We should be talking about how to sort through what’s biblical and what’s not. How to “think Christian” is really, really important. " (David Embree, The State of Campus Ministry, Christian Standard Magazine)

Another common reason for young people leaving the church, perhaps greater than being ill-prepared intellectually, is the lure of the culture of the "unchurched".

Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong...

Psalm 37:1

Even those millennials and Generation Z who do stick with church involvement are highly likely to accept and adopt the philosophy and lifestyle of the post-modern, post-church world at large in which they spend their lives

They (we) look at the life-in-a-box rules taught by previous generations of Christians and then look out through the stained glass windows at the seeming freedom and fun of the rest of the world and think, "I want what they have."

Envy is not only wanting what someone else has, but being willing to go out of your way and compromise your otherwise pure principles to take it for yourself. It's usually thought of in terms of stealing or cheating or even committing violence against someone in order to take what they have.

In the context of young believers envying the lives of their unbelieving peers, they're willing to steal from the lost people around them the opportunity to see God-flavors and God-colors of a life lived intentionally for the Lord.

Maybe they're willing to make that selfish choice because the church in which they grew up never actually set concrete examples and trained them in how to be salt and light.

Most of them, having made that choice to be a n imitator of those who do wrong rather than an imitator of Christ, leave the church altogether. A lot of those continue to think of themselves as believers of a sort. They're the ones who will shrug and answer "sure" when asked if they still believe. But they want their cake and to eat the forbidden fruit, too.

Psalm 37 provides a curriculum for teaching and leading young believers in a better way to make choices about the bert way to live.

Psalm 37:1 Evildoers

Who is evil? Who are the evildoers?

In Romans 1:29-31, Paul refers to "they invent ways of doing evil." Such people are lumped in with a list that includes not only generally agreed upon evils (murder, God-haters), but also things most of us would have to admit to commiting at some time in our lives (gossip, disobey parents).

Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 9:12, warns about the danger of being ensnared into the jumbled net of the evil around us.

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Satan is at work in this world to mess with us, to get us to become evil like him. His primary tactic is to lure us into getting involved in things that aren't good but don't seem to be actually evil. From there, it's  a slippery slope.

In my own heart, I know the greatest evil to which I've fallen prey is the temptation to see myself as 'good", compared to THOSE evil people.

“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”

  Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

He's right. Those EVIL PEOPLE are no worse than you or me, but not because it's okay to be evil. They're no worse than us because we also have evil in our hearts.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

Nurturing evil in your heart leads to psychological problems, to “madness in our hearts”. Not just the sort of evil madness that leads to murder, rape, or criminal activities, but also heart-driven anger, jealousy, impatience, selfishness. Once evil sets its roots in you heart, it bears fruit through misdirecting your energy and focus.

Don’t swim around in the pool of evil that builds up in your heart. Instead, intentionally engage in positive acts of goodness, thereby overcoming the evil that wants to take over your heart.

Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:13-15

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Matthew 12:35

And then there's Psalm 37.

Do not fret because of those who are evil . . . 

Psalm 37:1 

David begins by telling us not to get pulled in by the evil around you, pulled into worry, frustration, anger. Don't get sucked into responding to evil with evil.

He goes on to list about two dozen positive, concrete actions we can take as our righteous and productive response to evil times and evil people.

Try this as a first step: dwell on one verse from Psalm 37 each week. Read it and memorize it.

Repeat it to yourself when you're following the news reports each day, and think creatively about how the week's verse provides practical advice for responding intentionally to evil times.

Repeat the verse of the week to yourself every time you're considering posting something on social media or engaging in conversation. Make sure your public comments reflect the Word you're hiding in your heart, rather than the evil that's trying to invade your heart.

40 verses, 40 weeks.  Do it in 40 days, if you prefer.

The change in your life will be amazing.