psalm 37: remedies for envy - friday 3rd week

If you read the whole of psalm 37 it is a psalm against envy.  Envy is basically a resentment, a feeling of resentment because the other has something which I do not have.  Psalm 37 gives us three remedies for envy.  First remedy, delight in the Lord.  Be happy that you are serving the Lord.  One of the tribes of Israel, the Levites, in the old testament were not included in the division of the promised land.  Why?  Because their inheritance is the Lord.  Serving the Lord is a delight.  If you do not delight in serving the Lord, you will find delight in things instead.

Second remedy, commit your way to the Lord and he will act.  Let us leave the judgement to God.  We should not resent others just because we feel that they are better rewarded than us.  In the end it is God who will act and so let us leave judgments, feelings of injustice, or impressions of unfairness to God. We don't go through life bitter and angry.  We just need to do what is right – to commit our way to the Lord.

Third remedy, God shall be our vindication.  There will always be times and situations when we feel misunderstood, when we feel cheated, when we feel we are in the losing end.  May times we feel resentment and bitterness in our hearts because we lose even though we feel we are right.  Stop harboring the hatred, stop harboring revenge.  It is God who will vindicate us.
The three remedies of envy – delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, and God shall be our vindication.