Psalms 37:8

REASONS FOR NOT FRETTING OVER EVIL-DOERS

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:

Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing.

For evil-doers shall be cut off;

But those that wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the land.

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:

Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he shall not be.

But the meek shall inherit the land,

And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

"Yet a little while, and the wicked shall be cut off" (Psalms 37:9), There is very likely a double meaning here. A lifetime on this earth is indeed a very brief time; and that fact is surely in view here; but the whole period of probation of mankind, which is concurrently extensive with the Christian dispensation is also but "a little time." The Lord has told us through the apostle John, that "The devil has great wrath (against mankind), knowing that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:12).

"And he shall not be" (Psalms 37:10). The marginal reading is that, "It shall not be," meaning that the place of the wicked shall not be found. Without this change, the meaning is simply that, "He (the wicked) shall not be found in his place."

"They shall inherit the land" (Psalms 37:9) The meek shall inherit the earth (v. 11). It should be noted that we have substituted the word "earth" for "land" in Psalms 37:11, for two reasons: (1) The Septuagint (LXX) renders it "earth"; and when Jesus Christ quoted from this chapter, he deliberately chose the reading, "The meek shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). It is our opinion that the preference of the Blessed Saviour should be allowed here (and everywhere, for that matter). It could not possibly have been an accident that Jesus used the word "earth." The Septuagint (LXX) has "land" in Psalms 37:9, and `earth' in Psalms 37:11; and Christ obviously, therefore, deliberately selected the correct rendition

It is not true that the "meek shall inherit the land of Canaan," the meaning usually assigned by scholars to "land" in this context, but they shall inherit "the earth." Of course, there are suggestions in this of that "new heavens and a new earth" promised through the apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:13).