Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: As we pray the Psalms again today, we come now to Psalm 37. David says there in verse 1, Don't worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass they soon fade away, like spring flowers they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take the light in the Lord and He will give you the desire your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him and He will help you. Down in verse 6, He will make your innocence radiant like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday. Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act.
Don't worry about evil people who will prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry. Turn from your rage. Do not lose your temper. He says down there in verse 14, the wicked draw their swords and string their bows to kill the poor and the oppressed, to slaughter those who do right, but listen to verse 15.
Their swords will stab their own hearts. Their bows will become broken. There's almost a turning in that happens to evilness, to wickedness, and to evil. Verse 16, It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and rich. That's almost a psalm and a proverb.
Verse 17, For the strength of the wicked will be shattered but the Lord takes care of the godly. Verse 20, the wicked will die off. The Lord's enemies are like the flowers in a in a field. They will disappear like smoke. Verse 25, once I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the godly abandoned.
What a promise. Verse 26, the godly are always given generous loans to others and their children are a blessing. Verse 34, put your hope in the Lord. Travel steadily along His paths. He will honor you by giving you the land.
And then down in verse 37. Look at those who are honest and who those who do good for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace, but the rebellious will be destroyed. They have no future. The Lord rescues the godly He is their fortress in times of trouble. The Lord helps them rescuing them from the wicked He saves them and they find shelter in Him.
A few thoughts of reflection for us. 1st Psalm 37 it's 40 verses that's long. I didn't get a a chance to cover them all so I would encourage you to go back and reflect more on it, but what you'll come to find is this, contrast again between the wicked and those who trust in the Lord and there's a strong invitation back in verse 1 where he says don't worry about the wicked. Another translation might say, don't fret, and this is a common word that we find in scripture not to fret, and fretting has kind of this combination. It's a it's a buffet, if you will, of, kind of anxiety, a kind of worry, and a kind of concern for other people whose lives are going better than yours.
And so this becomes the tone of Psalm 37 and even the prayer that, like, lord, other people who aren't doing what they should be doing seem to be living a better life than me. Why is it that me, a godly person, is is suffering? And so this is an honest prayer before God of, like, yo, lord, look, like, look at my situation. How come they're not having to go through these things? Which is why throughout this psalm, you see the encouragement to be reminded that the future of the godly, though you might not see it fully right now, will be radically transformed by God's promises.
He will take care of you, and which is why he has that encouragement there in verse 7, to sit still in the presence of God and to wait patiently for him. Now that phrase, to wait patiently, is actually in Hebrew the same word twice. Be patient. Be patient. So it's almost an intensification of, listen, in light of how you see things not being fair, be patient.
And I love that invitation, Lord. As we think about our own lives, we confess now in prayer that there is a desire in us that says things are not fair. And so would you help us now by your holy spirit to, in patience, be still and not to fret about the ways of the wicked, not to feel like we deserve better. We come before you and we confess those things, and we ask god that by your grace, you would give us a steadfast spirit today that knows with confidence that you hold our future. Because Jesus, you have accomplished life for us in your death and resurrection, and so we know that our future is in your hands and there is glory that awaits us.
And so would that give us the power and the joy today to be patient. We pray these things in his name. Amen.