Psalms 37:8-18

8 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes - it only makes things worse.

9 Before long the crooks will be bankrupt; God-investors will soon own the store.

10 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it; you'll stare at his once famous place and - nothing!

11 Down-to-earth people will move in and take over, relishing a huge bonanza.

12 Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in.

13 But God isn't losing any sleep; to him they're a joke with no punch line.

14 Bullies brandish their swords, pull back on their bows with a flourish. They're out to beat up on the harmless, or mug that nice man out walking his dog.

15 A banana peel lands them flat on their faces - slapstick figures in a moral circus.

16 Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,

17 For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are God-strong.

18 God keeps track of the decent folk; what they do won't soon be forgotten.

Psalms 37:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 37

\\<<[A Psalm] of David>>\\. This psalm, it is very probable, was written at the same time, and upon the same occasion, with the former; and describes the different states of good and bad men; and is full of exhortations, instructions, and advice to the people of God; intermixed with various encouraging promises. A late learned writer {h} thinks it was written for Mephibosheth's consolation under Ziba's calumny. {h} Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 2. p. 219.