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FRET NOT (Psalm 37)

Fear brings paralysis to the human heart.

When you get frightened, something happens. You can’t think straight. Your emotions go haywire. It is very difficult to live in any normalcy, and certainly very difficult with joy, when fear is possessing your thoughts and controlling your life.

Psalm 37 is for anxious hearts. I don’t know when David wrote it. It could have been at any one of several points in his journey. But I have a good idea that it was a time when he was afraid of others and what was going on around him.

That is very symbolic for all of us because it is the people and circumstances around us that provide so much anxiety. We have to get our eyes off all of that and back on the Lord.

Verses 1-8: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. 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, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”

The entire psalm is 40 verses long, but I believe these first eight verses are powerful for a couple of reasons.

1. God tells us what NOT TO do.

The words “fret not” are mentioned in verses 1, 7 and 8. This is the psalm that says, “Stop living filled with anxious worry and care.”

God may allow certain circumstances in your life, but He never puts anxious care into your heart. You bring it on yourself, take it from another person, or perhaps listen to the whispers of the Devil. Anxious care never has its origin in God, of whom it is said in I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

2. God tells us what TO do.

He doesn’t just say no and leave it at that. Here are the positives, and the things we can do to drive out fear.

- Trust and obey (verse 3). The combination of faith and obedience always goes together. We believe the Lord and we obey Him. We trust that God is in control, and then we yield to His control.

Decide for yourself today that you are going to be someone who believes God and obeys God. You can’t change everything around you or straighten out everyone else, but you can trust the Lord and obey Him.

The result is a promise that “so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” You can claim the promise if you apply the principle. Count on the fact that God will take care of you.

- Find your joy in Him alone (verse 4). Do not set your joy on people, things, or circumstances. You are not to be elated when they are good or dismayed when they are bad. Find your joy in the Lord.

Did you know that the Christian life is supposed to be a delightful life? It doesn’t mean the circumstances or the people you deal with are always delightful. But when you delight in the Lord, “he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” That is not everything you want; instead, the Lord puts His desires in you.

This thought is repeated in this psalm, in verse 23: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” I like what Spurgeon said: “Our lives are graciously ordained by God; we are not doomed by fate.”

Your life is in the hand of a good God. We delight in the Lord, and He orders our steps. Once He has done that, we delight in Him again. We learn that God’s way is best, and we rejoice in what He has chosen for us.

- Commit your way to the Lord (verse 5). This commitment is more than just a prayer; it is a way of life. It means saying constantly, “Lord, I am yours.”

The word “commit” actually means “to roll away.” It is the idea of rolling a heavy burden onto something or someone else. It is similar to the thought in Psalm 55:22. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” It is about rolling your whole life over to Him.

Recommit yourself to God today. Say to Him, “Lord, I am in Your hands, and I know Your way is perfect.”

- Rest in Him (verse 7). Here it means to be silent. Don’t we all just love to talk, find out what other people think, or tell them what we think? We need to just get still before the Lord and wait on Him.

In time, God’s plan will always come to pass. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.”

- Avoid anger (verse 8). There is a connection between fear and anger. When you get fearful, you have a tendency to take it out on everyone else.

You are going to live today in fear or by faith. We all need to choose faith. God can be trusted — with our families, our finances, our future, our fears — with everything.

Fret not.