Wednesday in the Word: Soon Fading

 

                Last Wednesday I started taking a slow look at Psalm 37, which is the Psalm God laid on my heart to study this year. Last week we talked about the phrase “fret not,” which is something that will probably be a lifelong work for me.

                This week I spent some time on verse 2: For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. “They” in this sentence refers to the wrongdoers/evildoers that appeared in the first verse.

                It’s a double-edged reminder. The truth is…we all fade and wither. None of us lives forever, right? While it feels comforting to our hearts to remember that those who choose to do wrong won’t be around forever, we also have to remember the same is true for us, so we would do well to use the days we have for the glory of God.

                Here are some notes I made as I studied that might offer a new insight to you, too!

*The climate in this part of the world allowed vegetation to grow and flourish quickly – but it also tended to die out just as quickly. That factors into this analogy. Sometimes the wrongdoers seem to grow and flourish quickly, but their downfall can come just as fast.

*Our days here can seem long, but if we’re able to pause how we view life in front of us and compare it with the length of eternity, we can see how very, very brief this time of prosperity really is. (This is so much easier said than done.)

*I read some notes in the Barnes commentary that said “The idea in the word rendered soon is that of haste or speed. The thought is not that it will be done immediately but that when it occurs, it will be a quick and rapid operation – as the grass falls rapidly before the mower.”

* The same commentary says about the herbs, “Not as the dry and stinted shrub that grows in the desert of sand, but like the herb that grows in a garden, or in a marsh, or by the river, that is full of juices, and that needs abundant water to sustain it…and that withers almost instantly when it is cut down.”

*That last part made me think of the passage in John where Jesus tells His disciples to abide in Him – for apart from Him, we can do nothing.

                So if we combine the sentences from last week and this week, the truths we’ve learned are that we shouldn’t get wildly incensed over those who do evil, because the truth is, their prosperity is very temporary, and when it’s done, it will be over quickly. And all of this is up to God’s timing.

                As I said earlier…it’s easier said than done. The fretting not, the perspective of how soon this life passes by…it won’t come naturally. But it sure is worth the work. I’m confident of it!