Taking God’s Promises Seriously - Episode 104 - Psalm 37:17-19

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Well hey there, welcome to the podcast. Gonna do a bit of getting some of God’s amazing promises into the people that He loves so much. That would be you! Getting the promises of God into the people, fighting the good fight, the spiritual fight, for freedom in Christ. Grabbing hold of your true identity, you are who God says you are, period - that’s the truth, hang on to that! Don’t let go of that! That’s really what The Burt (Not Ernie) Show is all about.

 

Thanks for being here today. I’m so honored, so blessed, to share with you from Psalm 37. 

 

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. This is episode #104

We’ve been diving into Psalm 37 on the show and today we are looking at a few verses, 17 thru 19, from the New Living Translation.

 

Let me go ahead and read those three verses.

 

Psalm 37, 17, 18 & 19, NLT

17 

For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,

    but the Lord takes care of the godly.

18 

Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,

    and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.

19 

They will not be disgraced in hard times;

    even in famine they will have more than enough.

 

First promise we find here is that the strength of the wicked will be shattered. And remember that when God says will, He means it. He never says will and acts like He said maybe. No, will means WILL. So the strength of the wicked WILL, absolutely will be shattered. And you and I, we don’t bear the responsibility of ensuring that God’s promises come to pass. So you and I do not have to go about the task of shattering the strength of the wicked. I mean, say you are a judge, well you for sure have a vital role in society and God has placed you there, and some of that will include versions of dealing with wickedness. But for most of us, this is not the world in which we live and work, right? We have to simply trust God, and He is always and totally worthy of our trust, trustworthy is our God, and let Him do His will His way. In His timing, which is never the wrong timing. It’s never delayed, even when we feel like it is. It’s never wrong when God steps onto the scene and deals with some sort of wickedness. And the burden for that timing does not rest with us. The next promise is that the Lord takes care of the godly.

You and I, we are not godly in our own right. Any righteousness we have, and we do have it according to the New Testament, is in Christ and because of Christ. So this promise applies to us. It can be ours, any day of the week. Now keep short accounts with the Lord. Don’t be a grace abuser, ya know? Repent. Desire to live a life that honors Him and to just be yielded to Him day after day. We live in God’s grace but we don’t take God’s grace for granted. 

 

The Lord takes care of the godly. 

Is He going to not do this? This very thing that He has promised to do, will He not do it?

 

It’s pretty ridiculous to think He wouldn’t do what He has pledged Himself to do.

 

You’re going to be taken care of. I’m gonna say that again. You are going to be taken care of. And not just any old care, but God’s care. There’s nothing like it in the entire world. And here it is, promised to you. 

 

Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent.

 

Well that is good to know. Good to stand on this truth. And it is the truth, the absolute truth, because it is in the word of God and we know that it is impossible for God to lie. 

Like, He can’t. And both the Old and New Testament tell us that nothing is impossible with God, all things are possible. But one thing that is not possible? The impossibility is that God could ever lie. One thing - one impossible thing in an endless realm of impossibility…lying. 

 

My friend, God has not and never will lie to you.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It’s literally His name. Not a character trait, but who He is. And we know God keeps His word. His promises are kept promises and always will be kept promises. So, He will take care of the innocent.

 

Not my job, nor yours, to figure out how He should do that. He said He would, and He will, so I want to be expectant of it but not griping about how I don’t like how long it’s taking or I saw this on the news so that means God isn’t taking care of the innocent, or what about Hitler, and so on. We cannot put God on the same plane, the same level, that satan is on. Evil is not from God. But sometimes people, even Christians, even God’s own people, will kind of put Him there. He does not plan and He does not do evil. That’s not His bag - that lies at the feet of another, but not at nail-scarred feet. Know what I mean? 

 

Have enough faith to believe that He will do what He promised. 

 

And they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.

This is eternal. Not temporal. And that’s the kind of promise we have to lean into, ya know? Push past the now, what you can see with your eyes, and think about the next life, what comes next. Eternity. This is an eternal promise God is making to the innocent. Maybe some of what we see in the world is hard to understand, we can’t exactly make peace with it, but it helps when  we remember this life is not all that there is. This is a beautiful and comforting promise. Satan will usually want to cause discomfort in the face of a comforting promise. Satan will often want to try and make something seem ugly when it is in fact something beautiful from the Lord. But we are not unaware of his schemes, and so we can learn to see beyond the right now and stay expectant about what comes after. 

 

They will not be disgraced in hard times. Even in famine they will have more than enough.

 

This is a whopper of a promise. Ya know, have you heard about food shortages or anything lately? If not, you probably will. There is a storm brewing, my friends. And you may be in the camp of the new head of Twitter is gonna really make things better but I want to remind you that our hope cannot be in the dudes in charge of the Tweets. It needs to be in Christ alone. Do I love free speech? Sure. Do I depend on it for my eternal destination? Nope. First things first, and it’s always Jesus first. So to tie that into this verse, Psalm 37:19, man can try to pretty this up over here and also mankind as a whole can be dirtying things up over there, and we as the people of God, whom these promises are for, can rest in those promises no matter what is tidy here and dirty there. Food shortages are going to happen. Famine. That’s a horrible, horrible thing, ya know? And in light of the promise that even in famine the innocent will have enough, well first off we want to be among the innocent, so know Jesus as the One who has obtained the needed cleansing for sin that makes us innocent in the sight of God, that’s numero uno. And second, knowing this promise is for us, well then let’s be in prayer that more and more people all around the globe will come to know Jesus as their own Lord and God, as the disciple Thomas said when he saw the resurrected Jesus face to face, he said, “My Lord and My God” - not just the other disciples Lord, but his. Let’s pray that becomes a global reality, spreading and spreading every single day. And then pray that this promise, of having more than enough with food shortages taking place to still have more than enough, let’s be praying that over people worldwide. I’m serious about this.

 

Look, I take God’s promises so seriously that I pray them in this manner. You should too. If someone says that’s kind of silly, don’t ya think Jan? I’d say, “You got a better idea?” What’s a better idea than simply taking God at His word.

 

Aren’t those the moments in the gospels when Jesus was in awe? When He was so taken at His word that it was utter belief, ain't’ no room for disbelief? Let’s be those kind of people. Let's just try to have our Lord be in awe of our huge, huge faith. I mean, that’s a pretty terrific life goal if you ask me.

 

And it’s kind of my personal goal. But I hope you make it yours, too.

 

Okay, so what’s coming up? My course on Psalm 91! Audio based content, super easy to consume, just listen right in your podcast player, like where you are listening to this right now. One click and that’s it. It will release on May 15th (that’s a Sunday, so if it drops like a day earlier don’t be surprised). And it’s going to encourage and challenge you to pray big, bold, daring prayers based on what is promised to us in Psalm 91. I’ll be sharing the link to sign up here on the podcast and in the Show Notes as soon as it is up and running. 

 

Next time we are going to look at verses 21 to 24 from this same psalm, Psalm 37, and keep growing in our steadfast belief that every word of God proves true. 

 

He has amazing things He has promised to you and I am so glad you are getting all that He has for you in this life. 

 

Thanks for listening, please hit the subscribe button and if this has been encouraging maybe share it with a friend. You’ve been listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now on the Edifi app.