Psalms 37:1,2

Psalms 37:1

We need words of soothing such as are breathed in the text. There is enough in society, both profane and professedly religious, to vex the spirit and trouble it with bitterest grief. The slanderer's foul tongue is ever ready to attack a holy character. Envy's cruel hand is continually outstretched to purloin the crown and the sceptre which would never rightfully fall to its lot. The Psalmist teaches us:

I. That there has ever been a generation of evil-doers. He refers to this generation with the utmost familiarity. All ages have been blackened with the shadow of evil-doers. Notice the terrible energy implied in the designation "workers of iniquity." Reference is not made to men who make a pastime of iniquity, or who occasionally commit themselves to its service, but to those who toil at it as a business.

II. That the servants of God are not to be moved from their course by the generation of the unrighteous. The meaning which the Psalmist conveys is this, that however obscure or trying may be the secular position of the godly, they are not to murmur against the social government of God because the unrighteous are surrounded with all the luxuries which the most extravagant ambition can desire.

III. That a terrible doom awaits the generation of evil-doers. There are three facts which call for the attention of Christians: (1) Your fretfulness is an imputation on the Divine government. (2) Your fretfulness falsifies your attachment to Christian principles. (3) Your fretfulness gives society an erroneous idea of the Gospel.

Parker, The Cavendish Pulpit,p. 193.