Psalm 37:1-5

David encountered many evil people in his lifetime, Saul being a prime example. For all of us there are times when evil people do things which seem to threaten us in some way. This Psalm puts things in perspective and helps us deal with such situations.

The first thing not to do is to fret. This is the exact opposite of what we naturally tend to do. Nor should we be envious of them. The reason for this is that they will wither away. We think that the threat will remain forever and we can do nothing about it, but this is not true. There is no threat facing us today that will last forever. You can look at the threat and say "one day you will be gone".

So instead of fretting we are to trust in the Lord, do good, and enjoy safe pasture. It is so easy for us to become frozen by fear or worry. We need to counter this. "Enjoy safe pasture" is both a promise and a command. The Lord can enable us to enjoy life in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances, it is also the attitude we should adopt. Each day is a day for us to live life to the full.

The dangers seem to threaten our deepest longings and desires, but the truth is that if we delight in the Lord we will receive the desires of our hearts. Does this mean God will give us whatever we want? Yes and no! Let's start with the no. It does not mean we can treat God as a sugar daddy giving whatever want we ever have, and some prosperity teaching does tend to go down that road. Now let's get to the yes. It is equally useless to try and put desires into two boxes, one labelled Godly desires and the other ungodly. The key word in verse 5 is "heart". If set set our hearts on God then our desires will come into line with His heart and there will not be a problem. Now we have to be realistic, recognising that we are never completely rid of sin this side of eternity, so some desires will be wrong. But the goal is to be more and more like Jesus, and God's plan is to put His law in our hearts. We have not been called to a new set of rules, but to the person of Jesus Christ, called to be reconciled with the Father, called to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes people seem to worry about Biblical prosperity because they are afraid it leads to greed, selfishness or materialism, and some so called prosperity teaching does indeed do this and is utterly unbiblical. But the answer is not to reject prosperity, but to see all of what the Bible says. The more I become like Jesus the more of my desires will be fulfilled, the more of my prayers will be answered, It will also lead me to the cross, and lead me to carry the cross and to share more in His sufferings (and also the power of the resurrection).

Let us delight more and more in the Lord.