Psalm 37:34-40– Who would you emulate?

In the earlier verses David had established that the prosperity of the wicked are temporary, hence the righteous should not be envious. He also ascertained that the outcome of the righteous or the godly will definitely be more wonderful and lasting. Not only will we have security, but we will also have peace and stability. They will be permanent and lasting. Hence none of us who had placed our hope in the Lord and are walking with Him, should be discouraged to depart form this proven path.

With that, David then issued two final exhortations. The first is to wait on the Lord and to keep His way. The two verbs in the first line of verse 34 seem to contradict. To wait suggests being passive whereas to keep suggests being active. There is often a misunderstanding that trusting God means we don’t do anything at all. We are to just rely on God and passively wait for Him to act. This is absolutely a misnomer. Trusting God and waiting upon Him still requires us to keep searching His ways, and obediently act upon them. As time passes we will find ourselves deeply rooted in the path He had designed for us to travel. And the yield would be more than we can conceive. Peace will be a lasting experience. In the meanwhile the wicked may seem to flourish. They may even spread like a luxuriant tree. But there will come a time when everything they once had would be no more. And they would not be found anywhere.

The second concluding exhortation found in verses 37 - 40 is this: “Mark the perfect man and behold the upright.” Conscious or not, we are usually influenced by people we admire and give our attention to. Here David tells us that the kind of people we must identify and emulate should be those who place complete trust in God, and also upright in living. They are those that will seek for perfection in character and moral uprightness. They are the type of people whom the Lord strengthens, delivers and provides peace. Those who are wicked will experience the opposite. They will be destroyed. 

Who would we rather emulate? Looking at the outcome they both would ultimately have, the choice is clear. Let us be careful and judicious in our choice, diligent in our obedience, and vigilant in our walk. They all lead us to a definite outcome where we will experience the rich blessings of God in life now and here after!