The Promised Land (Psalm 37; Jeremiah 31-33) | Worship Service

Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with our call to worship from the book of Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 through 5 a voice is calling prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness make smooth in the desert a highway for our

God let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low and let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken this morning let's begin our worship service by singing together angels we have heard on high in the bulletin regarding fellowship dinners if you would like to sign up for a round of the fellowship dinners the details for that are in your bulletin so pay attention there and then tonight is children's youth children's program here at the church starting at 6 p .m.

so you can join us for that with some special music and a program that Rachel Gordon has put together for us that's tonight at 6 right here in the sanctuary and then two things

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that as long as we're doing a study in Psalm 37 that the book on Psalm 73 which deals with the same subject the prosperity the wicked that's on 50 % off so these are $5 we ran out of them that day if you didn't get a copy and wanted some they're restocked out there and then also in your newsletter for the month of December Paul Taylor wrote the column there on the star

Bethlehem and he has made his book available on the star Bethlehem Bethlehem star for $5 so each one $5 buy them together a special deal 10 bucks and you can get them both out in the foyer you went to school in Clark Fork you know that's a good deal 10 bucks a special take advantage of that if you went to school in Clark Fork this is a book this is a book all right this is the time for peace and goodwill toward men so turn your

Bible to Psalm 140 please Psalm 140 and we'll read this entire

Psalm all 13 verses and I'll ask you to stand with me as we pray Psalm 140 rescue me

O Lord from evil men preserve me from violent men who devise evil things in their hearts that continually stir up wars they sharpen their tongues as a serpent poison of a viper is under their lips keep me

O Lord from the hands of the wicked preserve me from violent men who have purpose to trip up my feet the proud have hidden a trap for me and cords they have spread a net by the wayside they have set snares for me

I said to the Lord you are my God give ear O Lord to the voice of my supplications

O God the Lord the strength of my salvation you have covered my head in the day of battle do not grant

O Lord the desires of the wicked do not promote his evil device that they not be exalted as for the head of those who surround me may the mischief of their lips cover them may burning coals fall upon them may they be cast into the fire into the deep pits from which they cannot rise may a slanderer not be established in the earth may evil hunt the violent man speedily

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor surely the righteous will give thanks to your name the upright will dwell in your presence we stand with me as we pray let's bow our heads our father we give you our thanks and our praise for your good and kind providence over us your people we thank you that in your good grace you have saved us that you have redeemed us by the work of your son and it is for that purpose that we gather here each and every

Lord's Day to celebrate afresh the salvation that we have in Christ to find our hearts renewed and strengthened by your word strengthened by our fellowship with one another encouraged by the unity that we share in your son we gather together given opportunities to serve one another and encourage one another and you continue to feed us from your word and by your spirit and by your good hand and we thank you for that we pray that our fellowship together our unity together a love for one another may be sweet may be encouraging and may feed our souls we thank you for your word and what you have revealed in your word about your protection and provision in your promises to the righteous we thank you that though we live in a world that is surrounded by wickedness and submerged in wickedness we are surrounded by the wicked we know that you have a purpose for that that we would be a light and a testimony to them calling them out of and away from their deeds of darkness and out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your son we know that you have a purpose in that in sanctifying us your people and preparing us for lives of ministry and serving us serving and preparing us for the glory that is to come and so we pray that you would strengthen our hearts and encourage us together and be glorified through our worship and our fellowship and our time here together may you be honored by the words of our mouth the meditation of our hearts and may you be pleased with the offering of worship that we give to you our great

God and King amen have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although existing in the form of God did not regard equality but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave by being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross book of Psalms to Psalm 37

Psalm 37 and let's begin with a word of prayer before we jump in jump into our text father we come to your word aware that we are dependent always upon your spirit and upon your grace and upon your teaching to understand the depth and the significance of what is revealed in your word and we want to read your word and understand your word not just on a superficial level but with an understanding that is given by the and granted by the

Spirit of God who wrote this book help us to understand what is written here in the way that the

Spirit would intend and the original off audience would have understood it we pray that you would encourage our hearts together as we spend this time in your words sanctify us by your word and pray that you would conform us to the image of Christ fix through our time here fix our hope and our affections upon the grace that is to be revealed to us at the coming of the

Lord Jesus Christ and the glory that awaits those who are yours in your son we ask in his name

Amen we come now to verses 9 through 11 of Psalm 37 we've covered the first eight verses which described the peace that God gives to the righteous we're picking it up now this morning at verse 9 so read with me 9 through 11 for evil doers will be cut off but those who wait for the

Lord they will inherit the land yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there but the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity these three verses constitute the second section of this psalm that we are looking at seeing another thing that God gives to the righteous namely a promise of a glory and a grace that is to come you see it in verse 9 the righteous will inherit the land verse 11 the humble will inherit the land and this promise of a land that is to come and the inheritance in that land is the central promise of this entire psalm there are a number of promises in the psalm but this one is repeated in various ways throughout the psalm you see it mentioned in verse 3 the land mentioned in verse 3 trust in the

Lord and do good dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness just notice there that they were already living in this land and they were to live there and to enjoy the allotment that God had given to them and to and to cultivate faithfulness meaning that they were to live faithfully in the land that God had given to him that's verse 3 there's a command there to dwell in the land but then the rest of the references to the land in this psalm all our references to inheriting the land and I'm just gonna let you

I just want your eyes to sort of glance at each of these references as we work our way through them look at verse 9 evildoers will be cut off but those who wait for the

Lord they will inherit the land verse 11 the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity look at verse 22 but those for those who are blessed by him will inherit the land but those cursed by him will be cut off verse 29 the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever verse 34 wait for the

Lord and keep his way and he will exalt you to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off you will see it so there are six references there to the land and one way of dividing this psalm is to break the psalm up around the references to the land in all of these verses that you have just looked at that's one way of dividing the psalm in the passage that concerns us for this morning or at least will briefly is in verses 9 and 11 you see that it is mentioned twice and I want you to notice something about the structure of verses 9 through 11 notice in verse 9 there's a promise regarding the wicked in the first line of that verse and then there is a promise regarding the righteous in the second line of the verse evildoers will be cut off and those who wait for the

Lord they will inherit the land and then notice that verse 10 elaborates on the promise or the statement regarding the wicked in the first line of verse 9 verse 10 says yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there so all of verse 10 is an elaboration on the statement in the first phrase of verse 9 and then verse 11 elaborates on the second line of verse 9 but the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity so now the question is this what is this that is being promised what was the land promise what is it referring to what is intended by this promise is it symbolic is it metaphorical who enjoys this has this already happened is this going to happen in the future and if so what is it going to look like will we share in this or is this something that was just for the

Jews just for Israel how should we understand this promise now because or since I should say this promise of the land is mentioned all the way through this psalm it would behoove us at the beginning of this psalm to sort of make the case and frame an understanding of what the author has in mind with all of these references throughout the rest of the psalm that way we're just sort of lay the groundwork for this and build a foundation of what is this land promise so we can understand that and then we can just refer back to this sermon over the course of the next couple weeks however long it takes us to work through the rest of the psalm as we sort of refer back to what what again was the land promise so that's what we're doing today now as you might suspect there are a number of different ways that the promise of the land was interpreted

I'm going to give you four possible interpretations four of what I think are five and I'm going to briefly critique each one of these first some people could suggest that this land promise refers to the

Israelites entering the land under Joshua entering the land under Joshua that the righteous would inherit the land now if that is the case then that means that all of the promises that are mentioned in Psalm 37 have already been fulfilled even in David's day but it can't be referring to Joshua coming into the land and conquering the land since this was written 400 years after that and all of the references to this are yet future events they will inherit the land the wicked will be cut off so I don't really think it is referring to what happened in Joshua's day it can't be something past since it is promising something that is yet future and you notice from verse 3 that the people to whom

David was writing in his day are commanded in verse 3 to dwell in the land meaning they were already there was already a reality for them second some have suggested that the references to the land here in the psalm are merely references or promises of security and provision security and provision in other words they are symbolic of God's protection of the nation of the righteous and sort of metaphors or similes a symbol of God's provision in the land his abundant provision in the land and his protection of the

Jews in the land in fact this is John Calvin's interpretation of the verse he says this quote now keep in mind

Calvin wrote in longer sentences than we are used to thinking today this would never you could never get this in one tweet so I'm going to give you the this

I'll kind of briefly pause to explain what it is that Calvin is saying moreover Calvin says this quote moreover

I have just now and on several other occasions stated the sense in which this everlasting habitation upon the earth which is here promised to the righteous is to be understood namely that although they are surrounded by the troubles and changes which occur in this world yet God preserves them under his wing and although there is nothing lasting or stable under heaven yet he keeps them in safety as if they were sheltered in a secure haven that was one sentence now what

Calvin is saying is that the sense in which we are to understand this everlasting habitation of the earth that is promised is simply to be understood as God preserving the righteous under his wing and keeping them in safety

Calvin goes on to say this and finally they enjoy in addition to this that inward peace of mind which is better than a hundred lives and which is therefore justly regarded as a privilege surpassing in value and importance all others period close quote now

I don't disagree with Calvin that God protects his people or that God provides for his people or gives peace of mind to his people or graciously blesses his people in that way

I don't object to that at all but he's simply saying that the the land promise is a promise of God's preservation of God's safety and provision for them in the land and that this is a promise that God would give them peace of mind so it's simply a symbol for God's provision protection and peace now

I would suggest to you that if that is what the psalmist meant the psalmist could have said that in other words he could have said

God is our refuge he is our protector he is our shield and in fact other psalms do say that don't they you can drop your book of psalms open to almost any psalm and read it and you will see a psalmist referencing those very things so if that's what the psalmist intended if that's what

David meant by the promise of the land he could have been far clearer than he was other passages do say that but this psalm describes them dwelling in the land and inheriting it forever a third possible interpretation is that this promise was that they would live in the land for the duration of their lives and that as long as they were not unfaithful and were not wicked that they would not be expelled from the land like they were in Babylon in other words the promise is to the righteous

God will let you live in the land but if as a nation or as a people you turn from the Lord then he will kick you out of the land just as he did 400 years after the psalm was written when the

Jews disobeyed and they were kicked out of the land and exiled in Babylon in other words their obedience would secure their time in the land and they would not be driven out in exile some people say that that's what is being promised here except they were in the land and they were commanded to live there and if that's what it is referring to then the wicked would have enjoyed the exact same blessing since the wicked were prospering at this time and if this is just a reference to them not suffering under exile then the wicked could live alongside of the righteous and live and dwell in the land and enjoy the same promise in other words that interpretation nullifies the promise because the to enjoy the same thing that is to stay within the national borders of Israel and live in that land the wicked in fact prospered in that same land and died and were never driven out until 400 years later when

Babylon came in and and drove the entire nation out and in fact it would turn the promise on its head since 400 years later when the wicked were rebellious and the nation did rebel there were there was a remnant of righteous in the land and they were actually driven out of the land weren't they

Shadrach Meshach Abednego Jeremiah Daniel they were all exiled from the land and so what does this promise mean to them if we're just talking about dwelling in the physical land of Israel they were righteous men who in fact were not allowed to dwell in the land and live in it in peace and safety since they were exiled along with of the rebellious