Commentary - Psalm 37:10-11

Bird's-eye view

This short passage is the heart of Psalm 37's argument, providing the foundational reason why the righteous must not fret because of evildoers. It presents a stark and total contrast between two destinies. The wicked, for all their apparent success and stability, are on a short timer. Their prosperity is a mirage, and their presence on the earth is fleeting. In a very short time, from God's perspective, they will be utterly and completely gone, so thoroughly removed that not even a trace of their former glory will be found. In their place, a new people will take possession. The lowly, the meek, those who do not strive in their own strength, will receive the earth as their inheritance. And this inheritance will not be one of struggle, but of deep and tranquil delight, an "abundant peace." This is the great reversal promised throughout Scripture, a promise that Jesus Christ picks up and places at the center of His kingdom manifesto in the Beatitudes.

The passage is therefore a potent injection of long-term perspective. It commands the believer to see the world not as it appears in the fleeting snapshot of a difficult moment, but as it is in the light of God's sovereign and unfolding purpose. The wicked are not winning; they are vanishing. The meek are not losing; they are inheriting. This is the reality that must govern our emotional and spiritual lives, delivering us from the corrosive sins of envy and anxiety.

Outline

Context In Psalm 37

Psalm 37 is a wisdom psalm, structured as an acrostic, that repeatedly addresses one of the most persistent temptations for the faithful: envying the prosperity of the wicked. The psalm opens with the direct command, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity" (v. 1). The verses that follow provide a series of reasons for this command, contrasting the fleeting success of the wicked with the ultimate, secure blessing of the righteous. Our passage, verses 10 and 11, serves as a central pillar of this argument. It moves from general statements about the wicked being "cut down like the grass" to a specific, almost cinematic, depiction of their disappearance and replacement. It is the promise that undergirds the call to "wait on the Lord" (v. 9), because waiting is only rational if you know what you are waiting for. These verses tell us exactly what we are waiting for: the complete removal of the wicked and the peaceful inheritance of the land by the meek.

Key Issues

The Great Dispossession

The central conflict of history is over inheritance. Who owns this world? The ungodly live as though they do. They build their empires, establish their corporations, and write their laws as though they are the landlords and everyone else is just renting. They have the deed, or so they think. But the consistent testimony of Scripture is that they are illegal squatters, and their eviction notice has been served. God owns the world because He made it, and He has assigned the inheritance of it to His Son, Jesus Christ. And through Christ, that inheritance is given to His people.

This passage in Psalm 37 is a beautiful summary of this great dispossession. It is not describing a transaction that happens only in some ethereal, spiritual realm, or only after the world has been burned to a crisp. Jesus quotes verse 11 in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt 5:5). He did not say they would inherit a cloud. He said they would inherit the earth. This psalm is describing a process that unfolds in history, on the ground. The gospel is the engine of this dispossession. As the kingdom of Christ advances, the influence of the wicked recedes. Their "place" is taken. This is not a call for carnal revolution, but for faithful patience. The meek do not take the land by force; they inherit it by grace. Their humility, their trust in God, and their refusal to play by the world's rules of power and coercion are the very instruments God uses to grant them the victory.

Verse by Verse Commentary

10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; You will look carefully at his place, and he will not be there.

The psalmist begins with a lesson in divine timing. "Yet a little while." From our vantage point, trapped in the day to day grind, the reign of the wicked can seem interminable. It does not feel like "a little while." But we are being called to adopt God's perspective, for whom a thousand years are as a day. The wicked are on a very short leash. Their time is running out. And their end is not moderation or reform; it is cessation. He "will be no more." This is an existence statement. He will be gone.

The second clause intensifies the first. Not only will the man be gone, but his entire established presence will be erased. The Hebrew for "place" refers to his foundation, his dwelling, his position in society. It's his house, his corner office, his endowed chair at the university, his seat in the senate. It is the whole apparatus of his influence. And the promise is that you will be able to conduct a forensic investigation of that place, to "look carefully," and you will find nothing. He will be gone, and his place will be gone. Like Ozymandias, king of kings, all that will be left is the lone and level sands stretching far away. This is the ultimate fruit of a life lived in rebellion against God: utter and total erasure.

11 But the lowly will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant peace.

Here is the great pivot, the glorious "but." The vacuum left by the wicked will not remain a vacuum. God is not simply clearing the board; He is resetting it with new players. And the new players are the "lowly," or the meek. These are the people who do not trust in their own strength. They are not self-assertive, grasping, or manipulative. In the eyes of the world, they are the losers, the doormats. But in the economy of God, they are the heirs. They are the ones who will "inherit the land." This is covenant language. The land was the promise to Abraham, the tangible sign of God's blessing and favor. Jesus universalizes this promise to mean the whole earth. The future of this world does not belong to the proud men who currently run it, but to the humble men and women who trust in Jesus Christ.

And what is the nature of this inheritance? It is not a new set of problems. It is not a burdensome responsibility. The meek will "delight themselves in abundant peace." The Hebrew is rich: they will take exquisite delight in a superabundance of shalom. Shalom is not merely the absence of conflict. It is wholeness, health, prosperity, security, and righteousness, all woven together. It is the state of things when everything is rightly related to everything else, all under the blessing of God. This is the goal of history. This is what the gospel produces. The inheritance is not just a title deed; it is a state of joyful, flourishing, and peaceful communion with God and with one another.

Application

The primary application of this text is a direct assault on our anxieties and our envy. When you turn on the news and see the wicked prospering, when you see ungodly ideologies marching through the institutions, when you feel small and your enemies seem large, this passage commands you to do one thing: wait, and trust. You are forbidden to fret. You are forbidden to be envious. Why? Because you have read the last page of the chapter. You know how this story ends.

This means we must actively cultivate the virtue of meekness. Meekness is not weakness; it is faith in action. It is the refusal to adopt the world's methods of coercion and self-promotion. It is the quiet confidence that God will vindicate His people in His time. We are to be faithful in our callings, to speak the truth in love, to build robust Christian households and communities, and to trust God with the outcome. The promise here is that the future belongs to the meek. It is a promise that should straighten our spines and calm our hearts. Our job is not to build the kingdom in our own strength, but to be the kind of people to whom God is pleased to give it. The way up is down. The way to gain the world is to entrust it to God. The way to victory is not through frantic striving, but through the quiet, delightful confidence of abundant peace.