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God has promised that the wicked shall be cut off from the land and the blessings that attend it. God has promised the righteous and abundant prosperity in the Kingdom to come. An exposition of Psalm 37:9-11.
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What is Kootenai Church: The Psalms?
This series explores selected Psalms, starting with an introduction to the book of Psalms and its theological significance. It focuses primarily on Psalms 1, 2, 37, and 49, while also touching on imprecatory elements found in these and other Psalms. The series aims to help listeners understand the Psalms' relevance for Christian life and worship today.
We come now to verses 9–11 of Psalm 37. Verses 1–8 is the peace that God gives to His righteous ones. Verses 9–11 is a promise that God gives to His righteous ones. So let's read those verses together. Verse 9: “For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”
Last week we took a bit of a break to consider the land promise, which is mentioned six times in this psalm. In verse 3, you have the command to trust in the Lord and to do good, to dwell in the land and to cultivate faithfulness. And then the other five references to the land are all promises regarding a coming inheritance in that land. So last week we just reminded ourselves of what Scripture teaches concerning what we can expect as part of that land promise, that land blessing. You see it mentioned five times in this psalm.
Look at verse 9: “Those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.”
Verse 11: “But the humble will inherit the land.”
Verse 22: “Those blessed by Him will inherit the land.”
Verse 29: “The righteous will inherit the land.”
And verse 34: “Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”
We considered different interpretations or different ways that the land promise has been interpreted. One, that this refers to just entering the land under Joshua. We saw that can't possibly be. Second, as a promise of security and provision. Third, as a promise that they will live in the land all of their lives. Fourth, as a promise that the righteous will enjoy success in the land. But we observe that none of those interpretations can match the context because whatever is intended by this promise cannot be something that is also enjoyed and experienced by the wicked because the distinction is made all the way through the psalm that the wicked are cut off when the righteous inherit the land and they do not enjoy whatever it is that this land promise means. And it's not merely a picture of Heaven, it is the land—that is, the land that they were called to dwell on (v. 3)—but it is the land at a time and in a condition when the wicked are cut off and the righteous possess the land alone with abundant prosperity and enjoy abundant prosperity.
We saw that this promise will be fulfilled when the wicked are excluded (that's verses 9, 22, and 34), it will involve an abundant prosperity (that's verse 11), it is an eternal blessing that lasts forever (that's verse 29)—all of these in our psalm here, Psalm 37—and it will mean the exaltation of the righteous (that's in verse 34). So while the righteous lived in the land alongside the wicked, there was yet a future state of the land of Israel that the righteous would enjoy that involved an eternal dwelling, abundant prosperity, exaltation, and the removal of the wicked from the land. So the land is not a spiritual reality. It is not a symbol of something else. In fact, it is a promise of the very land that they lived on and were called to dwell in and cultivate faithfulness in. But they would experience, the righteous will experience, that land in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrected form. That is what the promise is.
Now that is something that is yet future for us, just as it was to them. We are waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. The righteous will receive an eternal prosperity in a renewed land blessed by God and purged of the wicked. Hear that again. The righteous will receive an eternal prosperity in a renewed land that is blessed by God and purged of the wicked. This is what God has promised.
So in verses 9–11, we see that God has promised something to the wicked and something to the righteous. There's a promise to the wicked in verses 9 and 10, and a promise to the righteous in verses 9 and 11. It's odd that you would have 9 and 10, and 9 and 11, but that's because of the structure of these three verses. Verse 9 tells us something about the righteous and something about the wicked. Verse 10 elaborates entirely on the wicked, and verse 11 elaborates entirely on the righteous. Verses 9 and 10 describe or promise the impoverishment of the wicked, and then verses 9 and 11 describe and promise the inheritance of the righteous. The impoverishment of the wicked and the inheritance of the righteous.
Let's look at verses 9–10. Notice how the evildoers are described or how the wicked are described. Verse 9, they are called evildoers; in verse 10, the wicked man. The term evildoers simply describes one who does bad, one who does something that is bad. It was kind of a generic term that was used to describe people who do harm or bring disaster, one who acts wickedly or spoils things, somebody who is good for nothing. That word could be used to describe somebody good for nothing or something that is good for nothing.
In verse 10, it's not so much a generic term for evildoer or somebody who spoils something, but verse 10 describes the guilt that is associated with the wicked. The term that is translated “wicked man” describes somebody who is condemned or guilty, a criminal. So there is a judicial component to it. In other words, the phrase “wicked man” in verse 10 describes the guilt associated with the doing of the evil. It is the opposite of righteous.
And this would be a good opportunity to highlight again the difference or distinction between the righteous and the wicked. When we're speaking of the righteous in terms of this psalm, and in fact in terms of all of Scripture, unless we're talking about the righteousness of God or the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the term righteous does not mean somebody who has never sinned, nor does it mean somebody who has earned God's favor. That's not what the term righteous means. It describes in this context somebody who has sinned, but somebody who, unlike the man in verse 10, his guilt is not imputed to him. He's not a guilty criminal.
I am a sinner, but I'm not guilty before God. I'm not guilty before God, not because I have done enough righteousness to overcome my guilt but because I have trusted in the righteous one and therefore all of my guilt is taken out of the way. So I can be a sinner, and I am, and I still sin and I confess that to the Lord, but I am not guilty before God's bar of justice. My guilt has been removed. The condemnation has been removed. I'm no longer viewed in the courtroom of God as a guilty criminal deserving of punishment and justice, but instead I am viewed as a son who has the righteousness of Christ. So a righteous one is one who is not credited or not counted as wicked before God but instead credited or counted as righteous in the sight of God by virtue of their faith.
So this—verse 10, “wicked man”—describes his guilt or his condemnation, and it reminds us that the justice that is described in verses 9–10, this is a just justice. I know that's redundant. But sometimes we have ideas of justice in our mind that are perverted or polluted, and this is not that kind of justice. What the wicked get in this psalm, in fact, what the wicked get at the end of time, is everything that they deserve, nothing less and nothing more. It's not an unjust punishment. It's not unwarranted. It's not over the top. It's not excessive. Neither does it leave anything out. This is the justice of God. The justice of God is perfect. So that nobody will be able to claim the wicked got away with something and they weren't punished for it, and nobody will ever be able to claim, certainly not the wicked, that their justice or their punishment was excessive or beyond the pale because God's justice doesn't work like that. So their justice is deserved, and the justice of God expressed in this psalm is an expression of His righteousness.
The reference to evildoer in verse 9 connects it back to verse 8. Remember verse 8: “Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.” And remember the warning there with how the righteous are to respond to the wicked in this life is not to fret over it because in the fretting of it and in the anxiousness over the prosperity of the wicked, then we become tempted to do the thing that the wicked do to get the things that the wicked have gotten, and in doing so then we become the very evil that we loathe. So here's the warning or the reason why you should not fret: evildoers will be cut off. And if you fret over the wicked and their prosperity and then you end up doing the very thing that they are doing, you become evil yourself and then you run the risk of being cut off, as the psalm promises. The wicked will be cut off, evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. So why should you not fret? You should not fret because it leads to evildoing and evildoers will be cut off. That's the justice that comes.
Notice the end of the wicked is described here. By the way, if you and I could see the end result of all wickedness, we would not envy them in the least. If we could just get that perspective on the wicked. That's what Asaph says in Psalm 73 when he says in verse 17 that he was perplexed over these things until, he says, “I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived [I saw, I understood] their end.” And once Asaph perceived their end, all of his envy of the wicked went away. Asaph says in Psalm 73, “Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form” (Ps. 73:18–20). That is total and utter and complete judgment. Asaph says, “I was envious of the wicked until I perceived their end. Once I perceived their end, no more envy.” If you and I could understand, if we could see everything that goes on in this world from the perspective of life a thousand, ten thousand years from now, we would not envy the wicked at all in this world.
This language of judgment and destruction is used in verse 9 when he says, “Evildoers will be cut off.” That word was used metaphorically to speak of rooting something out, eliminating it, removing it, excommunication or destroying something. It meant to cut down, to cut off, to exterminate, to destroy, or to consume. And in this context, it must refer to the wicked being cut off from the land promise. In other words, again, whatever the land promise is, and I'm postulating to you that it is the enjoyment of the blessed land of Israel in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ which is to come, that that land promise cannot then be enjoyed by the wicked because they are cut off or judged out of it. The promised blessing of what was given to Abraham's seed by promise from God is that they would reside in the land and it would be given to his descendants forever. That is what is promised. The wicked will be cut off from that. The wicked will never see the land of Israel in the state that the Old Testament promises that the land of Israel would be returned to.
Psalm 37:10 —look at verse 10 of our passage. It says, “Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.” This is utter removal. Verse 2 of our psalm says, “They will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.” These are all future realities. These are not things that necessarily happen to the wicked in this life. Sometimes the wicked are cut off immediately from the land of the living in this life. That happens. They're executed, they're judged, they suddenly die, God removes them, He kills them, He takes them out of this world. Sometimes that happens. But sometimes the Hitlers of this world die in the arms of their mistress. Sometimes in this world the wicked die in ease and comfort and luxury, in their sleep, peacefully, having never suffered any kind of torment or evil in this world whatsoever. Sometimes that happens, which reminds us that this world neither promises nor provides final judgment, a final execution of judgment. This world cannot do that.
And so these are future realities. Malachi 4:1 describes this. He says, “‘Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’” A total, consuming cutting off from the land and all blessing and promises.
Matthew Henry says this:
Good people have no reason to envy worldly prosperity of wicked people, nor to grieve or be uneasy at it, because the prosperity of the wicked will soon be at an end. Evildoers shall be cut off by some sudden stroke of divine justice in the midst of their prosperity, and what they have got by sin will not only flow away from them but shall be carried away with them.
Spurgeon said this: “Gone like a passing cloud, forgotten as a dream, what are his boastings and hectorings, and where are the pomp which made the poor mortals think the sinner blessed?” That's good. Where's the pomp? Where's all of his stuff? For soon the wicked will be cut off, and everything will go away with them, and nothing will remain.
And notice that verse 10 says this is going to happen in a little while. In a little while. Now, that was written probably, what, three thousand years ago? That doesn't feel like a little while, does it? But if we knew that it was going to happen three thousand years from now, would we still call that a little while? I would. Because a million years from now, that three thousand years is going to feel like just a little while. In other words, the judgment in the mirror is closer than it appears, right? It is just a little while. It will happen quickly. It will happen suddenly. And when we get on the other side of it, what we thought took a long period of time, we're going to realize those events just folded in one upon another and it all came crashing down so quickly. Why was I anxious over it? Why was I vexed by it?
Verse 10 promises that “the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.” This is a total removal. Nothing remains. It's not just the man in verse 10 that is removed or cut off, but you'll notice that his place is gone, his place is not there. His stead, his position, his abode, his place. Remember Psalm 1:6? “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” And we observe there that when God judges the wicked, it will not just be that the wicked are taken away, but ultimately and eventually the very way in which they walked, the conduct with which they conducted themselves, the choices that they made, the path of life, and everything about them also will perish so that those things are no more as well. Well, it's not just the wicked in Psalm 37 that are taken out of the way and cut off, but the very way in which they walk, their stead, their place, their abode, where they were, that vanishes as well. All of it is taken away.
A wicked man may be taken out of his estate and yet his estate remains, right? A wicked man may die and pass on his business empire and his land and his real estate holdings and all of his wealth and all of his possessions and everything that he owns and hand it off to somebody else. And somebody else could take that over and we’ll remember the business that was called after this man's name or what this man contributed to it. That tower, that building still has his name on the front of it. That product still bears his name and his mark upon it. So the wicked man may be removed, but not his place. His place might stay there. But in the final judgment, it's not just the wicked who are cut off, but his very place is taken away.
Let me give you an illustration. Back in Psalm 1, I mentioned to you that plum tree that I had that produced no fruit. I am pleased to report to you that it has been cut off from the land. I cut it off. I took it to the landfill where it will be burned just as Jesus said that fruitless branches should be burned. He said that it should be burned. I burned it. Make sure it's going to get burned. It's cut off from the land, but the place that it was is still there. The little stump, even though it's just this high, I can mow over it, it's still there. The roots are still in the ground. All the little dirt around the thing that I kept cultivated for the last decade of my life, that's all still there. All of the fertilizer that I poured onto that thing and the tree spikes, they're still all in the ground there. It's probably the richest piece of—soil-wise, it's the richest piece of property that I own, that little three feet by three feet where I had that tree there. Its place is still there. The tree is gone, but the place is still there. Now, if you think, “You sound bitter about that tree,” listen, I am bitter and I have every reason to be bitter. I spent ten years of my life cultivating that thing for nothing whatsoever. I have to start over. I nursed it from the time it was this big till the time it became far big enough to produce fruit. And it never did. It has been cut off from the land. But its place remains. I'd love to build a building right on top of it so that it's forgotten by me, my kids, my grandkids, everybody. Nobody remembers. Its place will be no more. For now, its place remains.
But when the wicked are judged, it will not just be the wicked who are removed, but the streets that bear their names will be gone. The buildings that bear their names will be gone. The industries that mark their names will be gone. The nations, the cities, the rivers, the bridges, the monuments to their wickedness, their bank accounts, everything they have held, their real estate, it will all be washed away so that in that kingdom, when the righteous inherit the land, nobody will ever say, “I remember that place. That was the abode of the wicked man.” Nobody will ever think that. The wicked and their memory will be forgotten forever, and their place will be wiped out and it will be no more. And the righteous will inherit the land.
This is a complete impoverishment of the wicked that is described in the psalm. It is not just God slightly tilting the scales a little bit more toward His people. It is God entirely flipping the table so that everything is different. The wicked are no more, their place is no more, everything that they held and had is no more, and their memory is forgotten from the face of the earth, and the righteous are given everything, abundance. Abundant prosperity, verse 11 says.
Now let's look at the inheritance of the righteous in verse 9 and 11. Notice how the righteous are described. They are described as those who wait for the Lord (v. 9). In verse 11, they are described as the humble. “Those who wait for the Lord” reminds us of the command in verse 7, just a couple of verses earlier: “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” So there's the consolation, or the command, we should say, to the righteous. The righteous are to wait patiently for Him. And here is the promise in verse 9: “Those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.” This is why we wait. So just as we do not fret because we do not want to be removed with the evildoers, so it is true that we wait for the Lord so that we may inherit the land that is promised to us in verse 9. We are waiting and believing the promises of God, trusting “that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). We are waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled when He will settle all accounts and bring justice and righteousness to bear on this earth and on all of the activities that have been done on this earth. And so we are those who wait for the Lord.
In verse 11, we are those who are referred to as the humble. “The humble will inherit the land.” Now I would prefer a different translation since to say that we are the humble kind of defeats that purpose just a little bit, doesn't it? At least it feels like it does. The definition of that word in verse 11 that’s translated “humble” means “the afflicted” or “the humble” and it can describe those who are humble because they are afflicted or those who appear in a humble state because of affliction. Because of the state that they dwell in, they are kind of poor.
Other translations translate that word as “meek.” It describes one who is afflicted and so is humbled by that affliction, one who is meek or powerless or without anything in this world, or at least without much in this world. The NIV and the ESV translate it as “meek.” So the ESV says, “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant [prosperity, or abundant] peace.” The very translation of that as “the meek shall inherit the land,” that probably reminds you of something that Jesus said in Matthew 5, that the meek shall inherit the earth. I do think that the Lord Jesus is alluding to or referencing Psalm 37 in His description there. In Matthew 5, He talks about blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, right? So He is describing the righteous in Matthew 5. He's describing the blessings that come to the righteous. And almost as if in the language of Psalm 37, Jesus is saying the meek or the righteous ones who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc., they will inherit the land. Jesus is alluding back to, if not quoting directly, Psalm 37.
And I would just remind you or point out something obvious there. Jesus did not feel the need to spiritualize that promise in Matthew 5. He just reiterated it. The meek will inherit the land. He didn't say, “The meek are going to inherit—it's actually Heaven now.” Jesus didn't say that. He talks about the land.
Their inheritance, what we inherit, is mentioned twice, verse 9 and verse 11, abundant prosperity. The land that is promised to Abraham, this is where the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will be seated. Christ will rule over the world, over Israel. The nations will be His inheritance, just as Psalm 2 describes. The kings of the earth will do homage to the Son, and He will receive an everlasting kingdom of safety and security. Jerusalem will be called “the Lord our righteousness,” as the Old Testament promised. The salvation of Israel and the fulfillment of all the new covenant promises will be part of that kingdom and part of that establishment of that kingdom. The exaltation of the righteous will happen when the wicked are removed from the earth in judgment, and Psalm 2:12 warns about this, saying, “Do homage to the Son, [O kings of the earth, lest His anger be kindled against you] . . . and you perish in the way. . . . How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” This is what is described in Psalm 2. Christ will return and will give to His people this land promise. Israel will be gathered into the land, they will be saved, and the Son of David will rule over Israel on David's throne in a kingdom that is marked by peace, safety, justice, righteousness, and prosperity. The humble will inherit the earth, just as Jesus promised.
Now notice in verse 11, at the end of the verse, it says they “will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.” That word delight is the same word used in verse 4: “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” We saw back in verse 4 that the delighting is a word that meant dainty or to refresh oneself or to pamper oneself. And the idea was that God, in verse 4, the Lord, Yahweh, is the delicacy or the dainty that we delight or refresh ourselves in, and that when we do that, He gives us the desires of our heart, God Himself being the finest of delicacies and the most extravagant of extravagances. So in verse 4, Yahweh is our choice delicacy. Our soul feasts on Him and we pamper ourselves in Him. And in the kingdom that is to come, we will delight, pamper ourselves, refresh ourselves, with all kinds of dainties which we would describe as abundant prosperity.
Now, does all of this talk about prosperity make you a little bit uncomfortable? No? Are some of you wondering to yourself, Has it been a while since Jim talked to Justin? He's up there talking a lot about prosperity. Has he checked some of this against the prosperity gospel? Because all this talk about prosperity, it kind of makes us a little uncomfortable, doesn't it? We have a song that we sing, which is Psalm—is it 118, Josh? He should know. He doesn't know. There's a song that we sing that is a reworking of one of the Psalms. I think it's Psalm 118 that says, “Send prosperity to Your servant.”
So, the prosperity gospel movement and all the hacks associated with that have entirely captured, and I will say bastardized, this idea that God blesses His people with prosperity. I am not a prosperity gospel preacher. You know that. You say, “Well, Jim, what is the difference?” The prosperity gospel of the modern day says that all of the wealth and health and happiness and prosperity is something that we enjoy now in this age and that we have a right to it and that is what is secured to us in the gospel, and if you don't have those things, it's because of a lack of faith. That's the prosperity gospel.
The Bible teaches that the prosperity for God's servant does not come in this age. It comes in the age that it is to come. It's a future reality. Yes, it is purchased for us through the death of Christ, but it is not guaranteed to us or necessarily provided to us in this age. It sounds, I understand, from what I just said—verse 4, we delight ourselves in Yahweh; verse 11, we're going to delight ourselves in abundant prosperity—it sounds as if we enjoy God in this life and gold in the life that is to come. But that's not what I'm suggesting at all. I am suggesting and saying that in the kingdom that is to come, we will enjoy both the Giver and the gift. Enjoy the Giver and the gift. And in fact, in the enjoyment of the gift, we'll reflect upon the Giver and allow us to enjoy the Giver in ways that we are never able to enjoy the Giver of those gifts even in this life.
The kingdom life is not a delight that is apart from God, but it is a delight in God and His gifts in a completely appropriate fashion. So in Isaiah 24:23, it says, “The moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.” And then a few verses later in the next chapter it says,
25:6 The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.
7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched out over all the nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” (Isa. 25:6–9 NASB)
Wait for the Lord. Those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. And in Isaiah it says on the mountain in Jerusalem the Lord will prepare a lavish feast. Now you have some idea of what a lavish feast looks like in this world, when the sons of this world prepare lavish feasts. I can only imagine what it's going to look like when the God of all creation prepares a lavish feast for His people. That is abundance. That is what we look forward to enjoying in the end. A lavish feast prepared for us by God on Mount Zion. That is what we will enjoy.
And this will not distract us from the Lord. In fact, it is an expression of God's goodness and His gifts to us. The good gifts that we enjoy in this life can and should be enjoyed in such a way that it lifts our hearts and affections toward the worship of God. Because we enjoy the gift, He becomes, in our mind’s eye and in our hearts, the central Giver of that gift, so that we can enjoy every good thing as an expression of worship and as an expression of our affection toward Him in thankfulness to Him.
But in this world, because sin dwells in us, the gifts that He gives us always run the risk of becoming in themselves idols that distract us away from delighting in God. So the gifts in this life that we receive, the good things, the abundance, any prosperity that we enjoy, luxuries, ease, conveniences, those good things that we delight in, they always bring with them the danger that it would draw our hearts away from the Lord onto those things. But in the Kingdom Age that will never be possible because in resurrected bodies we will have no sin within us. So every good thing that He lavishes upon His people will be enjoyed in a completely wholesome and holy and God-glorifying way so that the Giver of that gift gets all of the glory for it. So when we talk about abundance in the age to come and even abundant prosperity, that is what we have in mind. We are plagued in this life, but we will be pampered in the next. We are grieved in this life, but we will bask in the glory of the next. And we're cast down in this life, but this psalm promises that we will be exalted in the next. Those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. The wicked possess this world, we possess the world that is to come.
Now, there's a common objection that is raised to this idea of the kingdom, and let me just quickly deal with it. It is the view that my perspective or what I'm saying about the coming kingdom is entirely a physical and a carnal view of the kingdom that is to come. And we all know that spiritual things are better than physical things, right? And that anything physical is obviously a little icky, it's a little bad, it's kind of tainted by sin. And so if I have a physical view of a physical kingdom with a physical King over the physical earth and a physical rule of Christ from a physical throne in Jerusalem, that this must be a bad thing, and it would be better to view the fulfillment of the kingdom as being something spiritual that is to come because we all know that spiritual things are better than physical things. Well, if that's your perspective, then let me offer you a few thoughts.
Number one, that's going to come as a surprise to God because He has promised us for all of eternity that we are going to dwell in physical bodies on a physical planet in a glorified state. And we will enjoy physical things like trees and fruit and banquets and food and drink, cities, streets, lands, houses, thrones, buildings and people, all of which are physical realities. The Heaven that is to come is not us floating around in a disembodied state trying to shake hands with one another and not able to do so. The Heaven that is to come is a regeneration, a re-creation, a new heavens and a new earth, and we will dwell in that in glorified bodies forever without disease, without death, and without end. That is what is to come.
So we don't have to choose between physical realities and spiritual realities and to think that the spiritual is better than the physical. That's actually Gnosticism. That's what the Gnostics believe, that material is evil and only the spirit is good. And we're not talking about just a physical kingdom, but we're talking about a physical kingdom with spiritual dimensions to it that we can't even comprehend today. We're talking about a spiritual kingdom that involves the salvation of Israel, the Spirit living within His people, Christ ruling in our midst, body and soul serving God and glorifying Him, every good material thing used for Him and for the good of men, a kingdom of truth, justice, righteousness, holiness, worship, and obedience.
So we don't have to bifurcate between physical realities and spiritual realities and say, “Well, it must all be spiritual because spiritual is better.” No, it is a physical kingdom with spiritual dimensions to it, physical manifestations where everything that is done in the physical realm in that physical kingdom will be for the glory of God. That's what we all long for if we have any sort of holy affections whatsoever. That is what our hearts and souls long for, the ability to live in a world where we never die and are able to do all the things that we enjoy doing here, but to do it ultimately and fully and only for the glory of God without any sin present or without any danger of death and disease and destruction or it coming to an end.
What I really want is a life that is somewhat like this but way, way better than this in a physical realm that goes on forever where I cannot die. I can do all the things that I enjoy doing here, but I never have to die and I never have to worry about time running out either. Time is that cursed thing that I just think, man, I would love to do this, but . . . Look, the reason I'm bitter about that plum tree is because of the time that it wasted, ten years of my life that was spent. I don't have forever to grow trees. So time is the constraint here that spoils everything. But to live in a kingdom like that where time is not an issue—not that we don't experience it and not that it doesn't pass. It does. But it is never the issue, it is never a limiting factor.
To give you some idea of the kind of prosperity that is in view here, consider this. The word that is translated “prosperity” is the word shalom. Shalom. Now that's most often translated as what? Do you know? Peace. Well, that doesn't seem right to translate it as “prosperity.” It should be translated “peace,” right? Because I can have nothing and be at peace with that. So peace and prosperity are not necessarily the same thing. In fact, the word shalom has a wide semantic range, a large number of meanings. Of the 250 times that it's used in the Old Testament, it is translated “peace” 172 times, but it is also translated nearly 30 other ways. It has a large range of meaning.
The word shalom occurs later on in this psalm. Look at verse 37: “Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; for the man of [shalom] will have a posterity.” The man of peace. So there it's translated as “peace” in verse 37. And it means peace most often in the sense of an absence of conflict or strife. It can also mean soundness, completeness, safeness, satisfaction. It can refer to friendship or blessing, welfare, well-being, favor, security, health, prosperity, and even a friend. The Theological Word Book of the Old Testament offers this description of this word shalom:
It is completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment. Those are closer to the meaning. Implicit in shalom is the idea of unimpaired relationships with others and fulfillment in one's undertakings. [In other words, success and prosperity in what you do. That's the idea of shalom.] The classic statement of this concept is the Aaronic benediction in Numbers 6:24–26, which identifies the man to whom God has given shalom as the one who is blessed, guarded, and treated graciously by Yahweh. This is fulfillment through a divine gift. There's also a strong eschatological element present in the meaning of shalom. Messiah, David's greater Son, is specifically identified as the Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom, the one who brings fulfillment and righteousness to the earth.
So it can be used to encompass a large number of those ideas and it can be used to encompass a very small fraction of those ideas or definitions. I would suggest to you that what it has in mind here is not just the cessation of hostility but shalom in its fullest sense—that is, well-being, health, safety, security, friendship, success, the fullness of everything, peace, satisfaction, joy, rest, delight, anything you can cram into that idea of shalom that is expressed. How else would you describe that? Peace doesn't quite capture it because that's not everything, but the idea of prospering or having all of those things supplied in the most abundant and unending manner possible, that's prosperity. In every area of life, in everything that we experience, the complete fullness of all of that is shalom. We will delight ourselves in abundant prosperity.
Three times in the Old Testament it is translated as “prosperity.” It's used, interestingly, in the other psalm that deals with the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:3: “For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the [shalom] of the wicked.” So there the idea of fullness or fatness or success and prosperity is captured in that idea of what the wicked enjoy. Psalm 35:27 says, “Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; and let them say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified, who delights in the prosperity [or the shalom] of His servant.’” So why is it translated “prosperity” here? Because this psalm is dealing with the prosperity of the wicked, the success of their plans and their schemes, the peace that they enjoy while they plot against the righteous. So the promise of the psalm is that while it appears in this life that the wicked are deprived of nothing and enjoy an abundance of every good thing, it will all be taken away in judgment and they will suffer eternal privation, eternal privation. And while it feels in this life as if the righteous are deprived and suffer want, they will enter into a kingdom where they lack nothing forever.
And that provision, that perfect shalom, is connected to the promise of the land, a kingdom in renewed Israel to be enjoyed by all the righteous, Jew and Gentile, under the gracious and sovereign rule of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. This gives you some idea of what is meant by prosperity in the passage. It's not simply money. It's not merely gold. It's not just material provision. But it doesn't exclude that either. What if you could engage in productive work and commerce in a kingdom where the government didn't take half of everything you own? Would you enjoy a little more prosperity in that environment? And if corruption and death and decay did not suck the profit out of everything that you do, if you could get the fullness of return out of every last activity that you do, for the glory of God, wouldn't that be prosperity? It certainly would be. And that is what is promised and that is what is meant. Peace, rest, joy, delight, satisfaction, completeness, well-being, health, favor, blessing, abundant and lavish provision will belong to the faithful and to none other.
You see, this psalm not only gives us a different perspective on the prosperity of the wicked, it gives us a whole other idea of what prosperity is. It is not riches for a time, it is shalom for eternity. That is prosperity. That is what the righteous will enjoy. A lavish banquet on that mountain, the unending and abundant and complete provision of every kind. And we are called to live in the expectation of the fulfillment of that promise and to keep an eye toward the future where God will fulfill His every word.
And brethren, if God will fulfill His word to Abraham to raise Abraham from the dead and give him that land in the kingdom, and if God will fulfill His word to David to seat one of his descendants on that throne and to rule over Israel just as He has promised and to possess the nations as His inheritance, then God will fulfill His word to you. And His word to you is this: Those who wait patiently for the Lord, they will inherit the land. “But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity” (Ps. 37:11). That is what God has promised.