English · KJV

Psalm 37:10

“Rest in the Lord and Wait Patiently”Psalm 37:7–11
King James Version
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
For yet a little while H4592, and the wicked H7563 shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider H995 his place H4725, and it shall not be.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he shall not be.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
Therefore yet a litle while, and the wicked shall not appeare, and thou shalt looke after his place, and he shall not be found.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
And yet a little, and the wicked is not, And thou hast considered his place, and it is not.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
8 Hebrew words
  1. וְעוֹדve·'odand yetH5750Conj-w ¦ Adj-msAdjective Numerical Singular Masculine Absoluteוְandעוֹדyet
  2. מְעַטMe·'ata littleH4592N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  3. וְאֵיןve·'Einand there notH369Conj-w ¦ N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Constructוְandאֵיןthere not
  4. רָשָׁעra·Sha'[will be the] wickedH7563N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
  5. וְהִתְבּוֹנַנְתָּve·hit·bo·Nan·taand you will look carefullyH995Conj-w ¦ V-Hithpael-ConsecPerf-2msVerb Hithpael Consecutive Perfect 2nd Singular Masculineוְandהִתְבּוֹנַנְתָּyou will look carefully
  6. עַל'alonH5921PrepPreposition
  7. מְקוֹמוֹme·ko·Mohis placeH4725N-msc ¦ 3msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixמְקוֹמplaceוֹhis
  8. וְאֵינֶנּוּve·'ei·Ne·nuand there not [will be] heH369Conj-w ¦ N-msc ¦ 3msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixוְandאֵינֶthere not [will be]נּוּhe
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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In the KJVVerse 14,461 of 31,102 · 46.5%

Study this verse

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This verse

In a little while the wicked will be gone, so completely that a careful search of the place where he stood will find it empty.

“For yet a little while,”

The wait for justice is short in God’s reckoning, and it ends at the time he has appointed.

“and the wicked shall not be:”

The KJV supplies “shall” and “be” to make the English read. The sense is that the wicked man is gone, his power and his harm with him.

“yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place,”

“Thou” puts the reader in the scene as the one searching, looking carefully at the spot where the wicked man once stood.

“and it shall not be.”

The second “shall not be” confirms the first. Even the place is empty.

Rest in the LORD and Wait Patiently

Psalm 37:7–11

Summary

These five verses are David’s counsel for anyone troubled by the success of the wicked. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. Let go of the anger that the sight of evil schemes stirs up, because fretting over them leads to doing evil yourself. Then comes the reason. In a little while the wicked will be gone, so completely that you could search the place where he stood and find it empty, while those who wait on the LORD, the meek, will inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Jesus took up verse 11 in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Why God’s people need this counsel

Psalm 37 is a wisdom psalm, given by its title to David and written as an acrostic, its stanzas following the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. It teaches how to live faithfully in a world where the wicked often flourish, and it sets their short-lived success beside the lasting blessing of those who trust in the LORD. It opens, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 37:1), and promises that the wicked “shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb” (Psalm 37:2). Then come the great commands: “Trust in the LORD, and do good” (Psalm 37:3), “Delight thyself also in the LORD” (Psalm 37:4), and “Commit thy way unto the LORD” (Psalm 37:5). Verse 7 builds on these and turns to one particular temptation, the urge to fret over people who do wrong and prosper.

That temptation was sharp for Israel. God had bound himself to his people in covenant, and from the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 many expected that obedience would bring blessing and prosperity at once, and disobedience the curse. What they saw around them often looked like the opposite, and that brought distress and doubt. Job wrestles with the same question, and so does Asaph in Psalm 73. Psalm 37 answers by grounding faith in God’s justice, which is sure even when it is slow, and it repeats its promise until it sinks in: the wicked will wither, and the righteous will inherit the land and enjoy abundant peace.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him

The first command is “Rest in the LORD.” The Hebrew verb, dâmam, means to be silent, to be still, to hold one’s peace. David is calling for an inward quiet, a stopping of anxious striving and worry, and of the urge to strike back. It is a deliberate act. We choose to quiet our souls, to give up the need to control the outcome, and to lean on who God is and on his rule over all things. Isaiah gives the same counsel, “in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15), and Proverbs says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

The one we rest in is the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of the self-existent, eternal God who has bound himself to his people by promise. That is why stillness before him is reasonable. He is just, he is in control, and he will act.

“And wait patiently for him” adds endurance to stillness. The verb is chûwl. Elsewhere it means to bring forth or to form, as in Psalm 90:2, and it can also mean to tremble or to be in anguish. Here the KJV gives it as patient waiting, the waiting of someone who holds on in hope, sure that God will step in and keep his promises however long it takes and however hard the present is. God’s timing is often different from ours, and it is always better.

Does waiting patiently mean doing nothing?

Waiting on the LORD goes hand in hand with obeying him. The psalm’s own command is “Trust in the LORD, and do good”, so the one who waits keeps living righteously and serving God faithfully while he trusts God to keep his word. A farmer waits patiently for the harvest after he has planted and tended his field. Abraham waited for Isaac, believing God’s promise against all odds: “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

When the wicked prosper

The rest of verse 7 names what troubles us: “fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” The two lines describe the same man, first by his success and then by how he got it. He makes evil plans, and they work.

“Fret” translates chârâh, a verb meaning to grow hot or burn, used of God’s anger and of human anger alike. In the “fret” of verse 1 the same verb is glossed by one lexicon as “heat oneself in vexation”, and that is the picture here, of a person working himself into burning anger, envy or indignation as he watches the ungodly thrive. The fretting grows out of comparing our lot with theirs and judging God’s faithfulness by what we can see today, and at its root it is a lack of trust in his justice.

It is hard to watch injustice and stay calm. God made us to care about what is fair, and when people who disregard his ways flourish, anger, frustration and even doubt come easily, because we see the visible outcome and miss God’s unseen work. The psalm knows the struggle, which is why the words “fret not thyself” come three times in its opening verses. The cure is faith that God’s judgment is coming, as verse 2 has already promised, and that the success of evil schemes is short and stays under his eye until he judges.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath

Verse 8 follows the fire to where it spreads. Fretting that is left to burn becomes anger and wrath, and finally wrongdoing, so David says, “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath.” The word for anger, ʼaph, literally means the nose or nostril, and from there the face. Hebrew uses it for anger because of how anger shows, in flared nostrils and a flushed face. The word for wrath, chêmâh, comes from a root meaning to be hot, and it means heat or rage, and even poison. The two words stand in parallel and say much the same thing, though the second may describe a hotter, longer-lasting fury, the settled resentment that wants revenge. To forsake, ʻâzab, is to leave something behind, to let go of it and turn away from it.

These are commands, so anger is something we can lay down. chêmâh is often used of God’s own wrath, which sharpens the warning, because the right to avenge belongs to him: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Proverbs says, “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding” (Proverbs 14:29), James writes that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20), and Paul tells believers to “put off all these; anger, wrath, malice” (Colossians 3:8).

Then comes “fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.” The small word behind “in any wise” is ʼak, which means “surely” or “only”, and it gives the line its force: fretting surely leads to evil. The verb for doing evil is râʻaʻ, which covers what is bad, harmful or wicked, and also means to afflict, to displease or to do harm. Strong’s traces its sense of being good for nothing to spoiling something by breaking it to pieces, while other lexicons treat “to do evil” and “to break” as two separate verbs. The point of the line is plain. Anger that starts as a burning within can end in our doing the very wickedness that upset us.

How does fretting lead to evil?

Fretting is an inward burning that wears away our trust in God’s justice. The person who frets is taking matters into his own hands, because he has decided that God is too slow or too lenient. Then what burns inside comes out, in slander, in revenge, in bitterness, in dishonest dealing to get ahead the way the wicked do, or in giving up on faith because God’s ways look unfair. James traces the same path from desire within to sin without (James 1:14–15).

Is all anger sin?

The verse warns against the anger that turns into fretting and doing evil. Scripture also speaks of righteous anger, such as God’s anger against sin, or Jesus driving the traders out of the temple (John 2:13–17). Righteous anger is aimed at sin and injustice, it is controlled and short-lived, and it seeks restoration and the glory of God. Sinful anger centres on self, it lingers, and it breeds malice, bitterness and the wish for revenge. Paul writes, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26), and goes on, “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). What matters is how we handle anger and what we let it produce.

Evildoers shall be cut off

Verse 9 gives the reason for the commands, and it begins with “For”: “For evildoers shall be cut off.” “Evildoers” comes from the same verb, râʻaʻ, as “to do evil” in verse 8, so the one who gives in to fretting is heading toward the very people whose end this verse announces.

To be cut off, kârath, means to be severed or destroyed. It is the word of the covenant penalty, “that soul shall be cut off from his people” (Genesis 17:14), which meant expulsion or death. Here it means the end of the evildoers’ power and presence, and their removal from the place of God’s blessing and protection. The passive “shall be cut off” tells us whose doing it is. Their end is God’s sentence, carried out by his justice. Proverbs says the same: “the wicked shall be cut off from the earth” (Proverbs 2:22).

The other half of the verse is the promise: “but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” To wait, qâvâh, means to wait for, to look for, to hope for. It is eager, expectant hope, a steady reliance on God’s character and promises that holds on through trials. The promise of the land runs through Scripture. “The upright shall dwell in the land” (Proverbs 2:21), and Isaiah says of God’s people, “they shall inherit the land for ever” (Isaiah 60:21).

In a little while the wicked shall be gone

Verse 10 tells how soon and how completely: “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” “A little while”, mᵉʻaṭ, is a word for something small or few, here a short time. The flourishing of the wicked is brief, and God’s intervention comes in his appointed time. His timing is often unhurried by our reckoning, and Peter explains the delay we feel: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise” (2 Peter 3:9). The wicked man, râshâʻ, is one who is guilty and morally wrong, an actively bad and ungodly person who has broken God’s law.

“Thou shalt diligently consider his place” pictures a search. The verb bîyn means to understand or discern, so this is careful, attentive looking. His place, mâqôwm, is simply a place or spot, the place where he stood. Look for the man who once looked so secure, and you will find the spot empty. The words “shall not be” close both halves of the verse, so the point is made twice: the wicked man is gone without a trace.

Scripture says the same in many places. Proverbs promises that “the wicked shall not be unpunished” (Proverbs 11:21). Zophar tells Job that “the triumphing of the wicked is short” (Job 20:5), and that the wicked man “shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found” (Job 20:8). Malachi speaks of “the day ... that shall burn as an oven” (Malachi 4:1), and Revelation shows the dead judged before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11–15).

Does “shall not be” mean the wicked cease to exist?

The phrase speaks of a definite end to the prominence, power and influence of the wicked. They will be gone from their place of security and authority and from the land of the living, so that their reign on earth is over and the harm they do stops. That removal is what this verse describes, and other passages teach what follows it, as when Jesus says of the wicked, “these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).

The meek shall inherit the earth

Verse 11 repeats the promise of verse 9 and names the heirs: “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” The meek, ʻânâv, are those brought low in mind or in circumstances, the gentle and the needy, humble people who depend on God. In Israel they were often the vulnerable and the poor, who had God alone to rely on. Set beside the evildoers and workers of iniquity of verse 1, they are the true heirs, marked out by humility, gentleness and dependence on God, and God cares for them: “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way” (Psalm 25:9).

To inherit, yârash, is to occupy and possess, often by driving out those who held the land before, and so to seize or to inherit. The meek hold the earth as a lasting gift from God, a secure and rightful possession, while the wicked are dispossessed. The earth, ʼerets, can mean a land, a country or the whole earth. For Israel the promise pointed first to the land given to Abraham’s descendants under the covenants with Abraham and Moses, a place of security, blessing and God’s presence.

What is the earth that the meek inherit?

The promise begins with the land of Israel and reaches all the way to the new creation. For Israel, holding the land meant peace, prosperity and life under God’s rule, safe from those who would disrupt his order. Jesus repeated the promise in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:5) and opened it to all who belong to his kingdom. Its final fulfilment is “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1–4), and “He that overcometh shall inherit all things” (Revelation 21:7). So the promise was true in its first setting, and it is fulfilled in full when the meek dwell securely with God in his renewed creation.

Is meekness weakness?

Meekness is strength under God’s control. The meek person has surrendered his own will and strength to God’s greater power and wisdom. He can endure hardship without bitterness, answer injustice by trusting God to set it right, and use whatever power or influence he has with gentleness and humility. Jesus called himself “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), and in him meekness stood together with great spiritual authority and power.

The abundance of peace

The meek “shall delight themselves”, and the verb is ʻânag, the same word as in verse 4, “Delight thyself also in the LORD.” Those who delight in the LORD are given delight in the abundance of peace. The inheritance is the outward gift, and the delight is the inward joy and contentment that come with it.

The peace is shâlôwm, a state of completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and safety. “Abundance of peace”, rov shalom, is that peace in overflowing measure. It is God’s gift, the fruit of a right relationship with him, and it holds even when circumstances are hard. It stands at the end of these verses as the answer to the fretting at their start. The one who burned with vexation over the wicked ends in quiet, overflowing peace.

Christ, the meek one who waited on his Father

Jesus lived these verses perfectly. He rested in his Father and waited for him through great suffering, while wicked schemes looked as if they had won. In Gethsemane he prayed, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Peter describes him as the one “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). He laid aside anger and wrath and left his cause with God.

He was also cut off. Daniel says that “Messiah” shall “be cut off” (Daniel 9:26), with this same verb kârath, and Isaiah says that “he was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8). He was innocent, and his perfect obedience led to resurrection and exaltation, God’s full answer to the apparent triumph of the wicked. He humbled himself and was obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–8), and “even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The “little while” of the wicked is the short reign of sin, which Christ broke by his death and resurrection, for he is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Evil still shows itself, but its defeat is sure. John the Baptist said that Christ will “gather his wheat into the garner” and “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). In the new creation “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4), and “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Revelation 11:15).

Through faith we share his inheritance, as “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). His peace is the abundance of peace this psalm promises. We have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1), “he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), he says, “my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27), and “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” keeps our hearts (Philippians 4:7). The Spirit he gives produces in us the fruit of peace, longsuffering, meekness and temperance (Galatians 5:22–23), and so lets us put off anger and wrath. Now we wait patiently for his return, when he “shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:1), knowing that “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Learning to wait on the LORD

We live surrounded by comparison, with other people’s successes always on display, and some of the people who do best show little regard for God. This psalm teaches us to stop measuring our worth, our progress or God’s faithfulness by their gains. Resting in the LORD means laying our worries, our sense of injustice and our wish to be proved right at once at his feet, trusting that he is at work where we cannot see. Waiting patiently means keeping our hope fixed on his justice and his promises, and going on doing good while we wait.

When you feel the heat of fretting rise, the psalm gives you something to do with it. Bring it to God in prayer, let go of the wish to settle the score, and remember how short the wicked man’s time is and how long your inheritance lasts. The meek are the heirs. A quiet heart that trusts God is the heart he fills with the abundance of peace.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 37:7–20. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 14 verses
Passage under commentPsalm 37:7–20
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

In these verses we have,

I.The foregoing precepts inculcated; for we are so apt to disquiet ourselves with needless fruitless discontents and distrusts that it is necessary there should be precept upon precept, and line upon line, to suppress them and arm us against them.

1.Let us compose ourselves by believing in God: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him (Psalm 37:7), that is, be well reconciled to all he does and acquiesce in it, for that is best that is, because it is what God has appointed; and be well satisfied that he will still make all to work for good to us, though we know not how or which way." Be silent to the Lord (so the word is), not with a sullen, but a submissive silence. A patient bearing of what is laid upon us, with a patient expectation of what is further appointed for us, is as much our interest as it is our duty, for it will make us always easy; and there is a great deal of reason for it, for it is making a virtue of necessity.

2.Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world: "Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his wicked way, who, though he is a bad man, yet thrives and grows rich and great in the world; no, nor because of him who does mischief with his power and wealth, and brings wicked devices to pass against those that are virtuous and good, who seems to have gained his point and to have run them down. If thy heart begins to rise at it, stroke down thy folly, and cease from anger (Psalm 37:8), check the first stirrings of discontent and envy, and do not harbour any hard thoughts of God and his providence upon this account. Be not angry at any thing that God does, but forsake that wrath; it is the worst kind of wrath that can be. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil; do not envy them their prosperity, lest thou be tempted to fall in with them and to take the same evil course that they take to enrich and advance themselves or some desperate course to avoid them and their power." Note, A fretful discontented spirit lies open to many temptations; and those that indulge it are in danger of doing evil.

II.The foregoing reasons, taken from the approaching ruin of the wicked notwithstanding their prosperity, and the real happiness of the righteous notwithstanding their troubles, are here much enlarged upon and the same things repeated in a pleasing variety of expression. We were cautioned (Psalm 37:7) not to envy the wicked either worldly prosperity or the success of their plots against the righteous, and the reasons here given respect these two temptations severally: -

1.Good people have no reason to envy the worldly prosperity of wicked people, nor to grieve or be uneasy at it,

(1.)Because the prosperity of the wicked will soon be at an end (Psalm 37:9): Evil-doers shall be cut off by some sudden stroke of divine justice in the midst of their prosperity; what they have got by sin will not only flow away from them (Job 20:28), but they shall be carried away with it. See the end of these men (Psalm 73:17), how dear their ill-got gain will cost them, and you will be far from envying them or from being willing to espouse their lot, for better, for worse. Their ruin is sure, and it is very near (Psalm 37:10): Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be what they now are; they are brought into desolation in a moment, Psalm 73:19. Have a little patience, for the Judge stands before the door, James 5:8, James 5:9. Moderate your passion, for the Lord is at hand, Philippians 4:5. And when their ruin comes it will be an utter ruin; he and his shall be extirpated; the day that comes shall leave him neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1): Thou shalt diligently consider his place, where but the other day he made a mighty figure, but it shall not be, you will not find it; he shall leave nothing valuable, nothing honourable, behind. him. To the same purport (Psalm 37:20), The wicked shall perish; their death is their perdition, because it is the termination of all their joy and a passage to endless misery. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; but undone, for ever undone, are the dead that die in their sins. The wicked are the enemies of the Lord; such those make themselves who will not have him to reign over them, and as such he will reckon with them: They shall consume as the fat of lambs, they shall consume into smoke. Their prosperity, which gratifies their sensuality, is like the fat of lambs, not solid or substantial, but loose and washy; and, when their ruin comes, they shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God and be consumed as the fat of the sacrifices was upon the altar, whence it ascended in smoke. The day of God's vengeance on the wicked is represented as a sacrifice of the fat of the kidneys of rams (Isaiah 34:6); for he will be honoured by the ruin of his enemies, as he was by the sacrifices. Damned sinners are sacrifices, Mark 9:49. This is a good reason why we should not envy them their prosperity; while they are fed to the full, they are but in the fattening for the day of sacrifice, like a lamb in a large place (Hosea 4:16), and the more they prosper the more will God be glorified in their ruin.

(2.)Because the condition of the righteous, even in this life, is every way better and more desirable than that of the wicked, Psalm 37:16. In general, a little that a righteous man has of the honour, wealth, and pleasure of this world, is better than the riches of many wicked. Observe,

[1.]The wealth of the world is so dispensed by the divine Providence that it is often the lot of good people to have but a little of it, and of wicked people to have abundance of it; for thus God would show us that the things of this world are not the best things, for, if they were, those would have most that are best and dearest to God.

[2.]That a godly man's little is really better than a wicked man's estate, though ever so much; for it comes from a better hand, from a hand of special love and not merely from a hand of common providence, - it is enjoyed by a better title (God gives it to them by promise, Galatians 3:18), - it is theirs by virtue of their relation to Christ, who is the heir of all things, - and it is put to better use; it is sanctified to them by the blessing of God. Unto the pure all things are pure, Titus 1:15. A little wherewith God is served and honoured is better than a great deal prepared for Baal or for a base lust. The promises here made to the righteous secure them such a happiness that they need not envy the prosperity of evil-doers. Let them know to their comfort, First, That they shall inherit the earth, as much of it as Infinite Wisdom sees good for them; they have the promise of the life that now is, 1 Timothy 4:8. If all the earth were necessary to make them happy, they should have it. All is theirs, even the world, and things present, as well as things to come, 1 Corinthians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 3:22. They have it by inheritance, a safe and honourable title, not by permission only and connivance. When evil-doers are cut off the righteous sometimes inherit what they gathered. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just, Job 27:17; Proverbs 13:22. This promise is here made, 1. To those that live a life of faith (Psalm 37:9); Those that wait upon the Lord, as dependents on him, expectants from him, and suppliants to him, shall inherit the earth, as a token of his present favour to them and an earnest of better things intended for them in the other world. God is a good Master, that provides plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting servants. 2. To those that live a quiet and peaceable life (Psalm 37:11): The meek shall inherit the earth. They are in least danger of being injured and disturbed in the possession of what they have and they have most satisfaction in themselves and consequently the sweetest relish of their creature-comforts. Our Saviour has made this a gospel promise, and a confirmation of the blessings he pronounced on the meek, Matthew 5:5. Secondly, That they shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace, Psalm 37:11. Perhaps they have not abundance of wealth to delight in; but they have that which is better, abundance of peace, inward peace and tranquility of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God, that great peace which those have that love God's law, whom nothing shall offend (Psalm 119:165), that abundance of peace which is in the kingdom of Christ (Psalm 72:7), that peace which the world cannot give (John 14:27), and which the wicked cannot have, Isaiah 57:21. This they shall delight themselves in, and in it they shall have a continual feast; while those that have abundance of wealth do but cumber and perplex themselves with it and have little delight in it. Thirdly, That God knows their days, Psalm 37:18. He takes particular notice of them, of all they do and of all that happens to them. He keeps account of the days of their service, and not one day's work shall go unrewarded, and of the days of their suffering, that for those also they may receive a recompence. He knows their bright days, and has pleasure in their prosperity; he knows their cloudy and dark days, the days of their affliction, and as the day is so shall the strength be. Fourthly, That their inheritance shall be for ever; not their inheritance in the earth, but that incorruptible indefeasible one which is laid up for them in heaven. Those that are sure of an everlasting inheritance in the other world have no reason to envy the wicked their transitory possessions and pleasures in this world. Fifthly, That in the worst of times it shall go well with them (Psalm 37:19): They shall not be ashamed of their hope and confidence in God, nor of the profession they have made of religion; for the comfort of that will stand them in stead, and be a real support to them, in evil times. When others droop they shall lift up their heads with joy and confidence: Even in the days of famine, when others are dying for hunger round about them, they shall be satisfied, as Elijah was; in some way or other God will provide food convenient for them, or give them hearts to be satisfied and content without it, so that, if they should be hardly bestead and hungry, they shall not (as the wicked do) fret themselves and curse their king and their God (Isaiah 7:21), but rejoice in God as the God of their salvation even when the fig-tree does not blossom, Habakkuk 3:17, Habakkuk 3:18.

2.Good people have no reason to fret at the occasional success of the designs of the wicked against the just. Though they do bring some of their wicked devices to pass, which makes us fear they will gain their point and bring them all to pass, yet let us cease from anger, and not fret ourselves so as to think of giving up the cause. For,

(1.)Their plots will be their shame, Psalm 37:12, Psalm 37:13. It is true the wicked plotteth against the just; there is a rooted enmity in the seed of the wicked one against the righteous seed; their aim is, if they can, to destroy their righteousness, or, if that fail, then to destroy them. With this end in view they have acted with a great deal both of cursed policy and contrivance (they plot, they practice, against the just), and of cursed zeal and fury - they gnash upon them with their teeth, so desirous are they, if they could get it into their power, to eat them up, and so full of rage and indignation are they because it is not in their power; but by all this they do but make themselves ridiculous. The Lord shall laugh at them, Psalm 2:4, Psalm 2:5. They are proud and insolent, but God shall pour contempt upon them. he is not only displeased with them, but he despises them and all their attempts as vain and ineffectual, and their malice as impotent and in a chain; for he sees that his day is coming, that is,

[1.]The day of God's reckoning, the day of the revelation of his righteousness, which now seems clouded and eclipsed. Men have their day now. This is your hour, Luke 22:53. But God will have his day shortly, a day of recompences, a day which will set all to rights, and render that ridiculous which now passes for glorious. It is a small thing to be judged of man's judgment, 1 Corinthians 4:3. God's day will give a decisive judgment.

[2.]The day of their ruin. The wicked man's day, the day set for his fall, that day is coming, which denotes delay; it has not yet come, but certainly it will come. The believing prospect of that day will enable the virgin, the daughter of Zion, to despise the rage of her enemies and laugh them to scorn, Isaiah 37:22.

(2.)Their attempts will be their destruction, Psalm 37:14, Psalm 37:15. See here,

[1.]How cruel they are in their designs against good people. They prepare instruments of death, the sword and the bow, no less will serve; they hunt for the precious life. That which they design is to cast down and slay; it is the blood of the saints they thirst after. They carry on the design very far, and it is near to be put in execution: They have drawn the sword, and bent the bow; and all these military preparations are made against the helpless, the poor and needy (which proves them to be very cowardly), and against the guiltless, such as are of upright conversation, that never gave them any provocation, nor offered injury to them or any other person, which proves them to be very wicked. Uprightness itself will be no fence against their malice. But,

[2.]How justly their malice recoils upon themselves: Their sword shall turn into their own heart, which implies the preservation of the righteous from their malice and the filling up of the measure of their own iniquity by it. Sometimes that very thing proves to be their own destruction which they projected against their harmless neighbours; however, God's sword, which their provocations have drawn against them, will give them their death's wound.

(3.)Those that are not suddenly cut off shall yet be so disabled for doing any further mischief that the interests of the church shall be effectually secured: Their bows shall be broken (Psalm 37:15); the instruments of their cruelty shall fail them and they shall lose those whom they had made tools of to serve their bloody purposes with; nay, their arms shall be broken, so that they shall not be able to go on with their enterprises, Psalm 37:17. But the Lord upholds the righteous, so that they neither sink under the weight of their afflictions nor are crushed by the violence of their enemies. He upholds them both in their integrity and in their prosperity; and those that are so upheld by the rock of ages have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

3 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

3 quotes · AD 390–430
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 390Diodorus of TarsusPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PSALM 37
The wicked not only grows rich but even plots against the righteous, God’s permission causing both developments to go ahead; but let it not alarm you. God in his foreknowledge [is] aware of the fate of the wicked and [sees] the righteous person’s endurance.… God looks ahead to [the wicked person’s] fate and mocks his threats and his frenzy, aware as he is of the future. Thus in many cases when the wicked think they have gotten the better of the righteous, then it is that sudden ruin overtakes them when unexpected punishment is inflicted on them by God.
d. AD 397Ambrose of MilanPost-NiceneSourceCommentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms
(Verse 10.) But because he did not want to be redeemed through these means, and he believes he should persist in sin, of him the Prophet says: 'And yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: and thou shalt seek his place, and shalt not find it.' For how can he exist in the future, when the place of sin cannot endure? For this is the earth that opened its mouth to receive the blood of the innocent. And therefore in this earth is the place of sinners. The earth passes away, how then can the place of the sinner be found? I believe that the reason why God commanded there to be a firmament between the waters and the waters (Gen. I, 6) is so that He may discern sins from virtues; and the upper water, which praises the Lord, would remain free from error, while the lower water would be subject to sin. Indeed, the former sees God, but the latter does not: what is above the heavens sees Him; what is in the abyss does not. Hence it is also said: The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and trembled; the depths were troubled, the multitude of waters made a noise (Psal. LXXVI, 17). The abyss is disturbed by the deserving ones, upon which the deformed darkness lies, and therefore they cannot have peace. Hence, the legion of demons asked to be sent into the abyss, and they threw themselves into the waves with a great tumult (Matthew 8:31); in order to strangle the herd of pigs they had found. Therefore, sinners seek the abyss, where the darkness of shadows is.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceExposition on Psalm 37
"But how long is the sinner to flourish? How long shall I have to endure?" You are impatient; that which seems long to you, will soon come to pass. It is infirmity makes that seem long, which is really short, as is found in the case of the longings of sick men. Nothing seems so long as the mixing of the potion for him when thirsty. For all that his attendants are making all speed, lest haply the patient be angry; "When will it be done? (he cries). When will it be drest? When will it be served?" Those who are waiting upon you are making haste, but your infirmity fancies that long which is being done with expedition. Behold ye, therefore, our Physician complying with the infirmity of the patient, saying, "How long shall I have to endure? How long will it be?"

"Yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be" [Psalm 37:10]. Is it certainly among sinners, and because of the sinner, that you murmur. "A little while, and he shall not be." Lest haply because I said, "They that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land," you should think that waiting to be of very long duration. Wait "a little while," you shall receive without end what you wait for. A little while, a moderate space. Review the years from Adam's time up to this day; run through the Scriptures. It is almost yesterday that he fell from Paradise! So many ages have been measured out, and unrolled. Where now are the past ages? Even so, however, shall the few which remain, pass away also. Had you been living throughout all that time, since Adam was banished from Paradise up to this present day, you would certainly see that the life, which had thus flown away, had not been of long duration. But how long is the duration of each individual's life? Add any number of years you please: prolong old age to its longest duration: what is it? Is it not but a morning breeze? Be it so, however, that the Day of Judgment is far off, when the reward of the righteous and of the unrighteous is to come: your last day at all events cannot be far off. Make yourself ready against this! For such as you shall have departed from this life, shall you be restored to the other. At the close of that short life, you will not yet be, where the Saints shall be, to whom it shall be said, "Come, you blessed of My Father: inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world." [Matthew 25:34] You will not yet be there? Who does not know that? But you may already be there, where that beggar, once "covered with sores," was seen at a distance, at rest, by that proud and unfruitful "rich man" in the midst of his torments. Surely hid in that rest you wait in security for the Day of Judgment, when you are to receive again a body, to be changed so as to be made equal to an Angel. How long then is that for which we are impatient, and are saying, "When will it come? Will it tarry long?" This our sons will say hereafter, and our sons' sons will say too; and, though each one of these in succession will say this same thing, that "little while" that is yet to be, passes away, as all that is already past has passed away already! O thou sick one! "Yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be. Yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and you shall not find him."...
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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