Four Steps to a Fruitful Christian Life — Paris Reidhead

Psalm 37 and the Four Steps to a Fruitful Life

Psalm 37. Our meditation is going to be in this very, very precious psalm. There's some portions of scripture to which one finds himself drawn over and over again, because it's so appropriate. Psalm 27.

Psalm 37. And if you've never underlined the four steps to a fruitful life, you better get your pencil handy, because you'll need it. It'll prove of help to you. Psalm 37. And it's important that you should have certain scriptures that are so well known by you, so much a part of your life that, well, there are just certain circumstances that cause them to raise up, spring up in your heart.

Refusing Fear and Leaving Injustice to God

Notice how it begins, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. David is here exhorting himself, the Spirit of God is exhorting David, David is exhorting us to remember that our poise, our joy, our peace does not depend upon others.

You remember how I've said it in the past, nothing that ever happens to you hurts you, it's only what you do about it. Well, you could translate this first verse that way if you wanted. I suppose it would be a very free translation paraphrase to say, remember what happens to you doesn't hurt you, it's only what you do about it.

But that's essentially what he's saying, because if you fret with that inner disturbance of your own spirit, you're injuring yourself. I saw it just the other day in a little restaurant where I had to stop.

It said, ulcers aren't caused by what you eat, but by what's eating you. Well, this is what David is saying, again in a very free translation. Don't allow yourself to be fretted, to be eaten by what others do or are doing.

Remember, remember. Well, what do you remember? They shall soon be cut down like the grass. There was a time in my life when I thought that I was God's little ice pick, and the only function I had in the world was just to puncture every balloon I could find, just to show everybody.

And you know, this is a dreadful, just a terrible, terrible way to be. If I had understood what I'm trying to understand about Psalm 37, I'd have realized that God's able to take care of all these things.

God's able to take care of it. I remember some years, oh, ten, twelve years ago, someone had attacked very unjustly on doctrinal issues some of the things that I had believed in. I was quite disturbed.

And my wife said, dear, well, you don't need to do that. Truth crushed to earth will rise again. And if it's true, then you profit from it. If it isn't true, commit it to the Lord. Well, this is what he says.

They'll soon be cut down like the grass withers the green herb. As we rake the yard in the spring and gather up all the dry grass, we realize that that grass that's now nothing but just to be removed was the flower of beauty last summer.

Oh, don't worry. Don't worry. Don't let your heart get disturbed. Don't allow yourself to be troubled. That's what he's saying. Now, I said the four steps to a happy, joyous, fruitful Christian life. The first is the first word of the third verse.

Trusting in God's Character

Now, underline it. Underline it so that you see it. Every time you open Psalm 37, you'll see it. It'll leap out at you. Trust in the Lord. Leave the person that's doing ill and wrong, unless it affects the church, unless it's in such a way that your moral responsibility as an overseer in some way, either in your home or in the church, is involved.

But as far as reprisals, as far as trust in the Lord, he's able to take care of problems. He solves problems. He answers difficulty. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. This is David's answer.

Trust in the Lord and do good. Don't let your conduct, your words, your attitudes be influenced by what other people do. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Now, I like that. That's great encouragement. The fact that God has told us in this verse that the primary, the first step and the foundation of our life of rest and peace is in the character of God. His ability to chasten.

Do you have fear of God? The longer I go on with the Lord, the more conscious I am of the fact that he's my father and I'm his child, and as much as he loves me, he's perfectly prepared to whip me to pieces if need be, for my own good.

And you say, well, that isn't a very nice way. I don't like to think of that. I remember I was speaking at a conference a few years ago, and I spoke to a group of young people who were very unruly, on our God is a consuming fire, and you're to serve him with reverence and godly fear.

And no sooner had I finished than the missionary got up and changed his message and said, young people, isn't it wonderful? We don't need to fear the Lord anymore. Well, they didn't. They didn't fear him.

But I fear him. I know him well enough. I know that God, I can trust in the Lord, just as I can trust in the state police. If I go too fast, they're going to be faithful. They're going to stop me, give me a ticket.

I can trust their faithfulness. Yeah, that's right. And I can trust my heavenly Father's faithfulness. If I need to spank him, he loves me too much to let me get by, but he's going to spank me. Now, I think that's good.

I don't, that doesn't trouble me in the least. Does it trouble you? Does it trouble you, the fact that your Father loves you enough so that if you need it, he'll spank you? You know, really, you should be troubled if you need it, and he doesn't spank you.

Because he says, whom he chastens every child, scourges every son. The person that's troubled is not the one who is chastened, but the one who is, should be, at least. Trust in the Lord. Trust in him to supply your needs.

And if your need happens to be spanking, trust in your Lord to give it. Trust in the Lord to do it. Have implicit confidence in the character of God. He's not going to alter his character to accommodate your condition.

Delighting in God's Will

I'm glad of that. I'm so glad of that. I'm so glad that I can absolutely trust that God's going to do right. That means me and you, he's going to do right. Now, it's great encouragement to know that. Now, the next thing is, and you underline the first word again, delight.

Delight thyself also in the Lord. Some folks say, well, I remember hearing one say at least, this was the key to God's cash box. Oh, my, my, my. If you think this is the key to his cash box, you're mistaken.

This isn't how you get your hands where God's provision is. This is how you get your heart where God's purpose is. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And I recall one person saying some time ago, well, I've done that, and he hasn't given me the desire of my heart.

What is the desire of the heart? My desire is so and so, but I said, you haven't delighted yourself in the Lord. Well, what do you mean? To delight yourself in the Lord is to be delighted with his will, and absolutely committed to his purpose.

And you want his will more than life itself. To delight yourself in the Lord isn't to find that he's delightful to you, but in the sense in which he's just sort of doing everything that you want him to do, as a means to an end.

To delight yourself in the Lord is to come to that attitude where you say, Lord, thy will be done. I love, I delight to do thy will, O God. It is my meat night and day. This is to delight yourself in the Lord, where the, not only have you implicit confidence in his character that he will do what is right, but you are delighted when he does what is right, and you completely rest in it.

This means also when he's going back to what we said, when he chastens you. It's rather hard to look into the face of a father that's just chastened you and say, thank you, Father, I needed that, and I'm very grateful for it.

I've never had that happen to me with my children. I don't suppose any of us are very anxious to do it with our heavenly Father. But really, this is what he means, that we can look into his face and say, thank you.

Well, why? What would we want anyway? We wanted his will. We wanted his will. Do you want position? And so you say, well, now I'm going to delight myself in the Lord, and he'll give me the position I want.

Oh, but you've missed it. To delight yourself in the Lord is to be delighted with what he wants for you and not what you want for you, because you feel his will is so much wiser and better than yours.

Delight yourself in the Lord. I'm delighted with what God wills for me. Hard. Don't think for a moment it isn't hard. But of course, the whole of life is a series of adjustments to the will of others.

If it wasn't so, we'd all be wild animals out in the woods. Caring at each other like beasts in the field. To delight yourself in the Lord is to have come to the place where you look and say, I will be done.

To delight yourself in government is to look at the community and the state and the nation. And I'm grateful that there's government to protect me and others from me. To delight yourself in your employer is that the rules that he exacts and the tasks that he presents are worthy of my loyalty and my service.

To delight yourself in the Lord, therefore, is to come to the place where all that God plans and all that God purposes for you has become the passion of your heart. Now, that isn't hard. Trust in his character.

He's God. Him that cometh to God must believe that he is what he says he is. Delight thyself in his will. Now, the third rule to a happy, fruitful, joyous Christian life is the first word in the fifth verse.

Committing to God's Plan

Commit. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, he shall bring it to pass. Commit thy way unto the Lord. So many times we make plans that don't work out. We're disappointed. I suppose God wants us to continue to make plans, but he doesn't want us to be disappointed.

I think we should always make our plans and not say, Lord, bless my plans for you, but this is the best I can see and understand. Now, you choose. It's been stated, man proposes, but God disposes. Are you prepared to say, Lord, my days, my times are in your hands.

The ministry of my life is in your hands. How much do you trust the Lord? How big is God? Is he big enough to take good care of you? Is he big enough to know what's best for you? Is he big enough to look out for his investment in you?

What investment does God have? The blood of his own dear son. The life of his son. If God's invested this, don't you think that he's quite capable of taking your time and your plans and your hopes? I think he is.

I believe that you can with just open face and joyous heart say, Lord, I will be done. I'll never forget as a young boy, young in Bible school, facing the necessity of having to quit school at the close of my third semester.

I was not well, and I had no money, and I just felt I had to quit. And all my friends were warning me of the utter disaster of quitting, stopping. And here I was feeling in my heart that God wanted me to do it, however foolish it seemed, and I had to commit my way to him.

And the way? Stop. It seems so ridiculous, seems so odd, seems so strange that God would lead somebody in Bible school after a year and a half to quit. Stop. But I did. I committed my way to him. I'm so glad that it's such an issue, seemingly so big, because here it seemed to me that God had called me to his service, and now he was just leading me to stop.

Could I trust him, or was I going to have to just take this thing in my hands and force it through? It was a terrific battle, days that I thought about it and nights that I prayed over it, and finally I came to the place where this is what was.

For the first time, really, that I had ever faced an issue as to whether or not I could commit my future, my plans, my hopes, my ministry to the Lord. Well, you're going to face that. You have faced it.

Every time there's a test or an issue, you're facing it again. Commit your way unto the Lord. You're facing such issues daily. You want the greatest glory out of your life for the Lord Jesus Christ. Commit your way unto the Lord.

You want your life to be the most fruitful and useful. Commit your way unto the Lord. This is what he's asking of you, that obedience. Someone said, blind obedience. No, not blind obedience at all. It's because I trust in the Lord.

I have implicit confidence in his character. I delight in his will that I can commit my way unto him. This isn't blind. This isn't blind faith. This is the eyes that see clear into the very council room of eternity and know that where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works which God has before ordained, we should walk in them.

Commit thy way unto this foreordaining love of God as a tailor-made life for you. Commit thy way unto the Lord. I recall someone at the time of my ordination saying, are you willing to commit your life to the Baptist ministry?

It was in the Minnesota Baptist Convention. I said, no, sir. Why are you asking for ordination? Because I've committed my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, that's not good enough for me. We have to expect loyalty.

I said, I am prepared to give loyalty. He said, good, that's what I want to hear. To whom? To the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, that's not what I want to hear. Commit thy way unto the Lord. It's too easy to commit our way to anyone else.

Commit thy way unto the Lord. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. All these issues. See, if you defend yourself when the problem arises, you use up what's worth defending by your defense.

There's nothing left. It's like having a hundred dollars and having to use two hundred dollars to protect the hundred. You might as well have let it go in the first place. You would have been just broke.

Now you're a hundred dollars in debt. And so it is, if you have to defend your reputation and defend something, you might as well stop. Because if you defend it, you use up what's left right there, and you're worse off than you were before.

And so David is being assaulted by Saul. He's being accused of every vile thing by Saul. He's being hunted, and hated, and persecuted by Saul. And he says, what about these evil doers? Threaten not thyself.

What about all these calumnies that are being leveled against me? All these accusers? What about them? The Lord will bring forth our righteousness as the light and our judgment as the noonday. Just leave it.

Just leave it. Let's go. Just rest. Don't fret yourself. Trust in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord. Commit your way unto the Lord. Well, you see, we all are by nature impatient. So the seventh verse and the first word gives us the fourth step onto the plateau of blessing and joy and victory.

Resting in God's Timing

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. See, so frequently when we trust and delight and commit, right now we want to have the answer. Well, David said to his own heart, God's time isn't yours. We're in such a hurry.

Such a hurry. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass, cease from anger, forsake wrath.

Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, for evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Rest, rest, rest. Well, isn't this wonderful? Four steps. Here you are in the midst of your problem.

Take the first step, trust in God's character. Take the second step, delight in God's will. Take the third step, commit to God's plan. Take the fourth step, rest for God's day. Wonderful. So easy. So easy to have peace.

So easy to have joy. Isn't it? Yes, it is. But here again is one of the paradoxes and conundrums of the Christian life. What is so easy is so terribly hard. Why? Because it's my nature to trust in me, my skill, my ability.

It's my nature to delight in my plans. It's my nature to commit myself to my ability. It's my nature to rest for a minute, then to go right on with it, take after it. This is completely contrary to nature.

Trust in the Lord. Delight thyself in the Lord. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Rest in the Lord. Will you underline it? Will you think about it? Will you live in it? Will you ask God to make it real in your life?

You're facing an unknown future. No problem in that. I don't need to know the future as long as I know the one who knows the future, you see. I don't need to fret myself because I know the one who has the wisdom and the power.

Well, I just have to come back here again and again and again and again and say, Lord, make this to be more than words I've underlined, but make it to be the life I live. I know my heart. Just because you've read it, don't think you have it.

You know, if you go home and memorize between now and tomorrow morning, the first nine verses of Psalm 37, and use them tomorrow and be sure that you can memorize them and write them down and test yourself, see that you get the punctuation right, everything right.

Do you know something? The month of May would be a far richer month than April was, just because of this. Not just because you memorized it, but because you lived in the good of it, made it yours. What more need we?

That's enough to go to prayer, isn't it? It's enough to meet the needs of our friends, concerns of our heart, our future, our ministries, our burdens, our desires. It's all there. Shall we do it? Let's just tell the Lord how worthy he is of trust and how easy it is when we know him to delight ourselves in his plan and why we ought to commit our way unto him and then ask him to give us patience because we don't have it to rest and wait for the Lord.

Shall we go to prayer? Let's bind our hearts together in love for the Lord Jesus, because the Lord of whom he speaks is the one who went to the cross for us.