“Wait
for and expect the Lord and keep and heed His
way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; [in the end] when the wicked
are cut off, you shall see it” (Psalm 37:34 Amp.).
Yesterday
evening I quoted from Psalm 37 to a friend, and in particular, about how she
ought not to fret about those who seem to prosper while she is seemingly
languishing in squalor. Then today, lo
and behold, within my devotional reading this morning, I again encountered
Psalm 37.
I
recommend to all those who need to be encouraged, that they read Psalm 37
today. It is about inheriting your
inheritance. But patience and humility
is needed to accomplish this inheriting; fretting only leads to evil, and
impatience to haughtiness. And
haughtiness will not inherit the land; arrogance and strife will not possess
their own vessels in honor (“In your patience possess ye your souls”; “By your
endurance gain your lives”—Luke 21:19 KJV and HCSB respectively). This is an honor which is accomplished only
through humility maintained habitually.
“In
HUMILITY receive the word implanted,” said James the apostle (which he also
said “is able to save your souls”—see James 1:21); in other words, through
meekness/humility, possess back that soul (or life) of yours you lost (into
God’s hand) when you were first converted.
In order to gain life, you lost it; now the mature grain is in the
head. It is time to gain yourself back
as booty in all places that you go.
Others are falling by the sword (being cut down by His holy word),
famine (a famine of hearing God in this grave hour), and wild beasts (people
devouring people, backbiting and cannibalizing one another in vicious
self-promoting); but you have not learned Christ in this fashion! All flesh is being destroyed in this late
hour of time; do not seek great things for yourself; be content with the
awesome gift of eternal life in your soul.
I hear
the Lord saying, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down (America as
she is presently constructed), and what I have planted I am about to uproot,
that is, the whole land. But you, ‘are
you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I am going
to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the LORD, ‘but I will give your life
to you as booty in all the places where you may go’” (Jeremiah 45:4-5
NASB). On the surface, this is a most
sobering word, and indeed, even to its depths, it is sobering, but I would
suggest that the meaning is not so much about a physical disaster as it is a
spiritual one (which no doubt affects the natural). For those of us who are spiritual, the
destruction of all flesh is our day of deliverance, our breakthrough! This promise to the prophet Jeremiah is a
promise to us; our prize is our life, and always, in the midst of
judgment. The meek inherit the earth,
not the strong (within themselves).
We are
the land, the earth, which the meek or humble alone possesses. Our soul is our life; Jesus Christ is the
eternal life married to our mortal life which by its matured consummation of
that marriage makes the eternal life ours in manifested reality now in this
lifetime upon planet earth. God is
healing His body in this late hour. The
time for possessing the kingdom has arrived.
DO NOT FRET. Have faith! “Look at the proud; his soul is not
straight or right within him, but the [rigidly] just and the
[uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith and in
his faithfulness” (Habakkuk 2:4 Amp.).
Indeed, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate
faithfulness” (Psalm 37:3 NASB).
Faithfulness
is not an event, but a diligent and persistent practice. Cultivating faithfulness is accomplished like
a farmer accomplishes his early morning chores and daily hard labor. God causes the increase, but we must
diligently tend to the garden, weeding out evil weeds and terrible tares daily
and consistently. If we do, if we plow
ahead irrespective of contrary conditions, we will flourish, even in a dry
land. Deep darkness is covering the
peoples, but there is light in our camp.
“He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to be favorable]
will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you know not what is the way of the wind,
or how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so
you know not the work of God, Who does all.
In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your
hands, for you know not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether
both alike will be good” (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 Amp.).
The
promise God makes to the uncompromisingly faithful, to the one who makes God
their chief joy, is herein this Psalm 37 described: “Delight yourself in
the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also
in Him, and He will do it. He will bring
forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the
noonday” (Psalm 37:4-6 NASB). Be at
peace children; your eyes will only look at the destruction of the wicked, but
it will not come nigh thee. The judgment
or verdict has arrived, and the gavel has dropped; its thump resounds in your
favor; it resolutely, and with great authority, declares: “Not guilty!”
For
you, the time of your inheritance, is arrived; look at all the times Psalm 37
declares it (each verse in the Amplified):
“Evildoers
shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look
for the Lord [in the end] shall INHERIT the earth” (9).
“The
meek [in the end] shall INHERIT the earth and shall delight themselves in the
abundance of peace” (11).
“The
Lord knows the days of the upright and blameless, and their HERITAGE
(another form of the word “inheritance”) will abide forever (18).
“For
such as are blessed of God shall [in the end] INHERIT the earth, but they that
are cursed of Him shall be cut off” (22).
“For
the Lord delights in justice and forsakes not His saints; they are preserved
forever, but the offspring of the wicked [in time] shall be cut off. [Then] the [consistently] righteous shall INHERIT
the land and dwell upon it forever” (28-29).
“Wait
for and expect the Lord and keep and heed His
way, and He will exalt you to INHERIT the land; [in the end] when the wicked
are cut off, you shall see it” (34).
Yes,
in patience we must continue to possess our souls, just as in patience we will
possess the earth in paradisiac fashion in the age to come. But would if I were to tell you that that age
is dawning? For those who are awake, the
day is here! Inherit the soul God died
to restore to you, and with it, in its force of life emanating from within to
without you, make your circumstances paradise.
Do not give up; endure to the end, endure until the land yields her
pleasant crop, a crop derived from incorruptible Seed.
The
days are evil, the looming clouds of darkness are breaking with acidic rain, “But
the salvation of the [consistently] righteous is of the Lord; He is their Refuge
and secure Stronghold in the time of
trouble. And the Lord helps them and
delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they
trust and take refuge in Him” (Psalm 37:39-40 Amp.). It is well with my soul; is it with yours?
