Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Psalms 37:12-22
2). The Triumphs Of The Unrighteous Are Temporary, And For Them Retribution Will Come, While The Righteous Have An Eternal Inheritance To Be Enjoyed Both Now And In The Future (Zayin to Lamed - Psalms 37:12).
In a series of contrasts the Psalmist now brings out the activities of the unrighteous and what will finally result from them, and contrasts this with the activities of the righteous and the confidence that can be theirs. The emphasis is on the fact that God ensures in the end that righteousness triumphs and unrighteousness does not go unpunished.
Z ‘The wicked plot against the righteous,
And gnash on him with his teeth.
The Lord will laugh at him,
For he sees that his day is coming.'
The Psalmist first makes clear that for the unrighteous to plot against the righteous and bare his teeth against him, is for him to do the same to God. God is mindful of what is done to His people. But the Lord's response is simply to laugh at such folly, for He can see ahead and He knows that the day of retribution for the unrighteous is coming. Then they will gnash their teeth in another way. Thus His people also can have the confidence that, however badly they behave against them, the unrighteous will in the end receive their just reward. Their sin will find them out.
The point here is to emphasise the folly of those who go against God. It is not to suggest that God treats His people's sufferings lightly. He is not laughing at those. Nor is it to suggest that God enjoys punishing the unrighteous. We read elsewhere that ‘The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he might turn from his wickedness and live' (Ezekiel 33:11). The warning is rather that rebellion against God is futile, and that if men will not repent then only judgment awaits them. For the kind of laughter described here compare Psalms 2:4.
CH ‘The wicked have drawn out the sword,
And have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
To slay such as are upright in the way.
Their sword will enter into their own heart,
And their bows will be broken.'
In this further contrast the unrighteous are seen as priming their weapons in order to cast down the poor and needy, and slay the upright in heart (note the parallel between the poor and needy and the upright, bringing out that when the Psalmists speak of ‘the poor' they often simply mean the righteous). How different they are to God's Servant Whose sword and bow are intended only to do good (Isaiah 49:2).
But God's response is to turn the swords of the unrighteous on themselves, so that they enter their own heart, while their powerful bows He simply breaks. Such weapons are futile against God. It is a reminder to us that whatever ‘weapons' people bring to bear on God's people, they will in the end be turned back on themselves.
T ‘Better is a little that the righteous has,
Than the ostentatious abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
But YHWH upholds the righteous.'
We now have an explanation as to why the righteous are so much better off than the unrighteous. The unrighteous may have abundance of wealth, about which they make a great show, but they can be sure that in the end their arms will be broken. They will be rendered powerless and disabled. Meanwhile although the righteous may only have a little wealth, and walk in quiet humility, they can rejoice in the fact that they are upheld by YHWH. They are secure within His care.
Y ‘YHWH knows the days of the perfect,
And their inheritance will be for ever.
They will not be put to shame in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will be satisfied.
K But the wicked will perish,
And the enemies of YHWH will be as the fat of lambs,
They will consume,
In smoke will they consume away.'
For everything about the righteous, those who are mature in God, is known to God. He knows their days, and He guarantees their eternal inheritance. And what is more, when the hard times come they will not be put to shame, and when famine arrives God will ensure that their needs are met. For they are ever in His hands. As Jesus reminded us, ‘Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things' (Matthew 6:32).
In contrast the unrighteous have no future. They will simply perish and will be consumed like the fat of animal sacrifices that is burned up on the altar and is no more, rising up in smoke and evaporating into nothingness.
L ‘The wicked person borrows,
And does not repay,
But the righteous person deals graciously,
And gives.
For such as are blessed of him will inherit the land,
And those who are cursed of him shall be cut off.'
The unrighteous are contrasted with the righteous by the way in which they approach their possessions, In the one case they obtain it by greed and unfairness and are cut off and in the other they dispense their possessions freely and thus ‘inherit the land', that is, enjoy all God's future provision.
The one who borrows and does not repay is a common phenomenon, especially in the case of private debt. he is careless about his responsibilities, and threats other people's losses lightly, especially when he can gain by it.
How great is the contrast with the righteous man who sees his possessions as a means of blessing and helping others, especially the poor.
‘For such as are blessed of him will inherit the land, and those who are cursed of him shall be cut off.' Psalms 37:9 demonstrates that the ‘He' in these verses is referring to YHWH. As a result of the righteous blessing them they too will inherit the land because they will respond by righteousness and God will bless them (they will be blessed of Him and inherit the land, compare Psalms 37:9; Matthew 6:5). They respond to the righteous man's beneficence by responding to God. However, those whom God curses are those who do not dispense their possessions, but rather obtain the possessions of others by deceit. They are the undeserving who gather for themselves ‘unrighteous mammon'. They are thereby ‘cursed' and are thus cut off.