The Great Hand-Off: Your Righteousness at High Noon Text: Psalm 37:5-6
Introduction: The Snapshot and the Movie
We live in an age of the snapshot. We scroll through an endless feed of curated moments, fleeting successes, and the gaudy prosperity of those who have no regard for God. And the constant temptation for the righteous, a temptation as old as David, is to fret. We see the wicked prospering, we see the ungodly celebrated in the high places, and we are tempted to envy them, to become exasperated, to wonder if our quiet faithfulness is really worth the trouble. We take a snapshot of the world at one particular moment, and it looks like the bad guys are winning in a landslide.
But God does not judge by the snapshot. He is the author and director of the entire motion picture, and He has already told us how it ends. Psalm 37 is a bucket of cold, clear water thrown on the feverish brow of the fretting believer. It is a collection of wisdom aphorisms, much like a chapter from Proverbs, designed to teach us to take the long view. David, writing as an old man, counsels the young to stop looking at the temporary success of the wicked and to start banking on the ironclad, covenant promises of God. The wicked, he says, are like grass; they are green for a moment and then they are cut down and carted off to the cosmic burn pile. The righteous are like a deeply rooted tree, and their inheritance is forever.
The entire psalm is a contrast between two ways of life, two destinies. But in our text, we find the absolute pivot point upon which this long view depends. It is not a matter of grimly holding on and hoping for the best. It is a matter of a decisive, active, and total transfer of burdens. It is the great hand-off. What we do with our anxieties, our reputations, and our desire for justice determines whether we will be consumed by fretting or established in peace. These verses teach us the divine transaction that moves us from the anxiety of the snapshot to the security of the whole story.
The Text
Commit your way to Yahweh,
Trust in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.
(Psalm 37:5-6)
The Divine Transfer (v. 5)
We begin with the central command, the lynchpin of a fret-free life.
"Commit your way to Yahweh, Trust in Him, and He will do it." (Psalm 37:5)
The word for "commit" here in the Hebrew is "roll." It is the same word used for rolling a great stone, like the one over the mouth of a tomb. It is a picture of a task you cannot accomplish. It is a burden too heavy for you to bear. You are to roll your way, your path, your entire life's journey with all its troubles, its apparent injustices, and its uncertain future, onto the Lord. Peter picks up this very theme when he tells us to cast all our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). This is not a passive suggestion; it is an active, decisive heave. It is the conscious act of taking your hands off the steering wheel of your life and reputation and handing the keys to God.
Your "way" includes everything. It is your career, your family, your reputation, your financial state, your health. It is particularly, in the context of this psalm, your sense of justice. You see the wicked prospering, and you are tempted to take matters into your own hands, to grumble, to scheme, to fret. But God says, "Roll that whole business onto Me." You are not the judge of the universe. You are not the cosmic scorekeeper. Your job is to roll the burden of a just outcome onto the only shoulders broad enough to carry it.
And notice the progression. First, you commit, you roll the burden. Then, you "trust in Him." Trust is not the prerequisite for the rolling; it is the posture you assume after you have rolled it. You have handed the package over. Now you trust the courier to deliver it. Trust is the quiet confidence that the one to whom you have committed your way is both willing and able to handle it. Trust is not passive resignation. It is active reliance. It is what enables you to "do good" (v. 3) while you wait, instead of sitting on the side of the road wringing your hands.
And the result? "And He will do it." The pronoun is emphatic. He Himself will act. He will bring it to pass. What is "it?" He will bring your "way" to its proper, God-ordained conclusion. He will accomplish what you, in your fretting and striving, could never accomplish. He will see to it that your life story, the one you entrusted to Him, reaches its glorious and just end. This is the great relief of the gospel. You don't have to manage your own vindication. You don't have to secure your own legacy. You roll it, you trust Him, and He does it.
Public Vindication (v. 6)
Verse 6 then describes the spectacular result of this divine transaction. What does it look like when God "does it?"
"He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday." (Psalm 37:6)
When you roll your reputation and your cause onto the Lord, He does not just file it away in some celestial cabinet. He brings it out into the public square for all to see. Your righteousness, which may have been obscured by slander, misunderstood by friends, or simply ignored by a world that celebrates wickedness, will be brought forth "as the light." Think of the dawn. The darkness may have seemed absolute and permanent, but when the sun begins to rise, the darkness cannot negotiate. It cannot fight back. It simply flees. God promises that the true character of His faithful saints will be made manifest in the same way. It will be undeniable.
But He doesn't stop there. He will bring forth your "judgment as the noonday." The word for judgment here is mishpat. It refers to your just cause, your vindication. And when will He bring it forth? At "noonday." This is when the sun is at its highest and brightest. It is the time of day when there are no shadows. Everything is exposed. Everything is clear. There is no ambiguity, no gray area, no room for spin. God is promising a full, public, and utterly unambiguous vindication for those who entrust their cause to Him.
This is a profoundly postmillennial promise. It is not just talking about the final judgment, though it certainly includes that. It is a promise for history. As the gospel goes forth, as the kingdom of Christ advances, the light gets brighter. The righteousness of the saints and the justice of their cause become more and more evident in the world. We see this in microcosm in the book of Esther. Haman plots in the dark, but Mordecai's faithfulness is brought into the noonday sun, and Haman is hanged on his own gallows. We see it on the grandest scale at the cross. The darkness seemed to win at noon, but three days later, the Son rose, and His righteousness was brought forth as a light that would fill the whole earth.
This is why we do not have to live under the tyranny of other people's opinions. We do not have to frantically manage our public relations. Our task is to be faithful in our calling, to do good, and to roll the results, the reputation, and the final verdict onto the Lord. He is a much better vindicator than we are. His timing is perfect, and His stage is the whole world.
Conclusion: The Fret-Free Life
So, what is the application? It is profoundly simple. Are you fretting? Are you consumed with anxiety over the apparent success of the wicked? Are you worried about your reputation, about whether you will get the credit you deserve, about whether justice will be done? If so, it is because you are carrying a stone that is too heavy for you. You are trying to be your own vindicator.
The command of God is clear. Roll it. With a decisive act of faith, roll your way, your cause, your reputation, your future, onto the back of the Almighty. And then leave it there. Trust Him. Get up and go about your business, which is to do good and to delight in the Lord.
When you do this, you are liberated. You are liberated from the need to control outcomes. You are liberated from the poison of envy and bitterness. You are free to love your enemies, because you know that God is their judge, not you. You are free to rejoice in the success of others, because your inheritance is secure in Christ.
And you can rest in this glorious promise: God will not forget your case. He has taken it up. He will act. And when He does, He will not do it in a corner. He will bring your righteousness out into the light, and He will display the justice of your cause for all the world to see, as bright and as clear as the noonday sun. This is the secret to a stable, joyful, and effective Christian life. Stop carrying the stone. Roll it onto Him.