The Great Real Estate Transaction Text: Psalm 37:28-29
Introduction: The Cosmic Land Dispute
We live in a world that is confused about ownership. The secular mind looks at the earth and sees a cosmic accident, a fortunate collision of matter and energy, and concludes that it belongs to no one. It is a planet up for grabs, and so the motto becomes, "finders keepers," or more accurately, "the strong and ruthless keepers." History, in this view, is nothing more than a long and bloody land grab. But the Christian faith begins with a radically different premise. We confess that "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This is not a mere statement of origins; it is a title deed. Because God made the world, He owns the world. Every square inch of it, every molecule, every moment in time belongs to Him.
Psalm 37 is a commentary on this great cosmic land dispute. It addresses the age-old problem that vexes the saints: why do the wicked prosper? Why do the ungodly, the covenant-breakers, the men who live as though God does not exist, seem to be winning? They build their empires, they amass their fortunes, they mock the righteous, and they appear to be the ones who are inheriting the earth. The psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us not to fret. Do not be envious. Their success is a mirage. Their prosperity is a dandelion puff in a hurricane. There is a final verdict coming, a great real estate transaction at the end of history, and God has already told us who the ultimate heirs will be.
This is not, as some pietists would have it, a promise of a spiritual, ethereal, disembodied heaven, while the devil gets to keep the dirt. This is a promise about the earth. It is a promise about history. It is a promise that God's people, the meek, the righteous, will inherit the very ground beneath our feet. This psalm is a foundational text for a robust, optimistic, world-conquering eschatology. It teaches us that the kingdom of God is not a losing proposition, a perpetual minority report. The plan of God is not to rescue a few bedraggled survivors off a sinking ship. The plan of God is to sink the pirates and give the ship to His Son. And with His Son, to us. Let us therefore attend to God's own legal declaration concerning the future of His world.
The Text
For Yahweh loves justice
And will not forsake His holy ones;
They are kept forever,
But the seed of the wicked will be cut off.
The righteous will inherit the land
And dwell in it forever.
(Psalm 37:28-29 LSB)
God's Character and His People (v. 28)
The entire promise rests on the bedrock of God's unchanging character. The psalmist begins with the ultimate reason why we should not fret about the apparent triumphs of evil.
"For Yahweh loves justice And will not forsake His holy ones; They are kept forever, But the seed of the wicked will be cut off." (Psalm 37:28)
First, "Yahweh loves justice." This is not a mild preference. God is not a detached, neutral arbiter who could take justice or leave it. He loves it. The Hebrew word for justice, mishpat, refers to the created moral order of the universe. It is the plumb line of reality. It means that right is right and wrong is wrong, because God is God. Because He loves justice, He must, by His very nature, hate injustice. This means that the current state of affairs, where wicked men prosper by their wickedness, is an intolerable offense to the Creator of the world. His love for justice is the absolute guarantee that a day of reckoning is coming. The universe is not a random, meaningless chaos; it has a moral grain, and that grain runs directly against the temporary success of the ungodly. The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate proof of this. At the cross, God's love for justice was so great that He would not spare His own Son, but poured out the full measure of wrath against sin upon Him. And because He did, He can now justly forgive us. God's love for justice is the foundation of our hope.
Second, because He is a just God, He is a faithful God. He "will not forsake His holy ones." Who are these holy ones, or saints? They are not people who are sinlessly perfect. They are those whom God has set apart for Himself by His covenant of grace. They are His possession. And because they belong to Him, He will not abandon them. The world's loyalties are fickle. Friends betray, nations fall, but Yahweh's covenant faithfulness is forever. This promise of preservation, "they are kept forever," is not just about our individual souls being secure in heaven. It is a promise about the historical perseverance of the people of God. The Church will not fail. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. The cause of Christ in the world will not be extinguished. We are not a beleaguered remnant fighting a losing battle. We are being "kept" by the power of God for a glorious, historical victory.
The flip side of this preservation is the fate of the wicked. "But the seed of the wicked will be cut off." In the Bible, "seed" refers to more than just immediate offspring; it refers to legacy, influence, and future. The covenant promises generational blessings. But rebellion against the covenant brings a generational curse. The wicked man may build a great house, but it is built on sand. His name will rot. His influence will dissipate. His line will be extinguished. God's love for justice demands it. While the righteous are being "kept," the wicked are being "cut off." It is the language of husbandry. God is the great gardener, and He will not allow diseased branches to choke out the life of His vineyard forever.
The Promised Inheritance (v. 29)
Verse 29 brings us to the glorious climax of the promise. It is the great reversal, the final outcome of the cosmic land dispute.
"The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever." (Psalm 37:29 LSB)
Here is the promise in plain terms. Who gets the real estate in the end? The righteous. And what is the real estate? The land. Let us be very clear here. The efforts to spiritualize this away, to make "the land" a wispy metaphor for heaven, are a betrayal of the robust, earthy, creational promises of God. Of course, our ultimate hope is the new heavens and the new earth, but that new earth is this earth, renewed and glorified. Jesus, quoting this very psalm, said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). He did not say they would inherit a harp and a cloud.
The promise is that God's people, those who are declared righteous through faith in Christ and who then walk in that righteousness, are the true and final heirs of the world. This is the engine of a victorious, postmillennial eschatology. It means that the Great Commission is not a suggestion for us to make a few converts before the world burns. It is a command to disciple the nations. And as the nations are discipled, they are brought under the Lordship of Christ, and the culture begins to reflect His justice. Over the long haul of history, as the gospel does its work, the righteous will, in fact, inherit the land. They will build the institutions, shape the cultures, and exercise dominion under God. The wicked are temporary squatters on God's property, and their eviction notice has been served.
And this inheritance is not a short-term lease. They will "dwell in it forever." This points to the permanence of Christ's kingdom. It will have no end. The work we do now in faith and obedience is not for nothing. We are not just polishing brass on a sinking ship. We are laying the foundations for a kingdom that will fill the earth and last for eternity. The wicked grasp for the present and lose the future. The righteous, by faith, lay hold of the future and, in God's good time, receive the present as well.
Conclusion: Heirs of the World
So what is the practical takeaway for us, living in a time when the wicked still seem to be prospering? First, we are commanded not to fret. Our emotional state must be governed by God's promises, not by the headlines. To be envious of the wicked is to show that we believe their lie, that their temporary plunder is the true treasure. We must, as the psalm says elsewhere, "delight yourself in the LORD."
Second, we must live like heirs, not like orphans. We are to be about our Father's business. This means faithfulness in our callings, obedience to God's law, and a joyful confidence in the victory of our King. We are not called to a cowering, defensive posture. We are called to advance, to build, to plant, to teach, and to take dominion in the name of Jesus Christ.
The justice of God guarantees the outcome. His faithfulness to His people secures our place in that outcome. The great real estate transaction of history is already underway. The wicked are being cut off, and the righteous are inheriting the land. Let us therefore live in light of this glorious reality. Let us trust in the Lord and do good, so that we may dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture, forever.