The Great Reversal: God's Courtroom and the Snares of the Wicked Text: Psalm 37:32-33
Introduction: Two Kinds of Courts
We live in an age that is obsessed with justice, but has no coherent definition for it. Our generation wants to talk about justice constantly, but they want to do so after having thrown out the only standard by which justice can be measured, which is the law of God. The result is a cacophony of competing grievances, a marketplace of victimhood where the loudest and most resentful bidder wins. What we are witnessing is not a pursuit of justice, but a pursuit of power disguised in the robes of justice. It is the justice of the mob, the justice of the algorithm, the justice of the morning's headlines. And in such a world, the righteous man often finds himself in the dock.
The world has its courts, and it has its verdicts. And very often, those courts are rigged. The wicked, who despise the law of God, are very often the ones sitting in the judge's seat, wearing the robes, and wielding the gavel. They spy on the righteous, they lay snares for him, they seek to entrap him, and they are animated by a homicidal hatred for the man who, by his very existence, is a rebuke to their rebellion. The world's system is geared to condemn the godly and exonerate the wicked. We see it all around us. The man who stands for biblical marriage is called a bigot. The woman who defends the life of the unborn is called a misogynist. The pastor who preaches the whole counsel of God is labeled a purveyor of hate speech. The courts of men are frequently kangaroo courts.
But there is another court. There is a higher court, a supreme court, from which there is no appeal. It is the court of the living God, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. And in that court, the proceedings are not determined by public opinion, but by divine character. The evidence is not manipulated, the witnesses are not bribed, and the Judge is not swayed. This psalm, and our text in particular, is written to comfort the saints by reminding them of this ultimate reality. It pulls back the curtain on the temporary successes of the wicked and shows us the final verdict. It teaches us to judge by the video, not by the snapshot. The wicked may win a few preliminary hearings, but God always presides over the final appeal.
The Text
The wicked spies upon the righteous And seeks to put him to death.
Yahweh will not forsake him in his hand; He will not condemn him when he is judged.
(Psalm 37:32-33)
The Malice of the Wicked (v. 32)
We begin by examining the nature of the threat in verse 32:
"The wicked spies upon the righteous And seeks to put him to death." (Psalm 37:32)
This is not a description of petty disagreements or minor squabbles. This is a description of deep, spiritual antipathy. The conflict between the wicked and the righteous is not a misunderstanding; it is a war. It began in the Garden when the serpent set himself against our first parents, and it was codified in the enmity God placed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). This is Cain and Abel. This is Saul and David. This is the Sanhedrin and Jesus. This is the world and the Church.
Notice the activity of the wicked. He "spies upon" the righteous. The Hebrew word here suggests watching intently, observing for an opportunity to ambush. The wicked man is a hunter, and the righteous man is his prey. He watches for a misstep, a stumble, a moment of weakness. He is looking for something to twist, something to misrepresent, something to use in his prosecution. This is the spirit of the accuser, Diabolos, the slanderer. He is a prosecutor looking for a crime, any crime, to pin on the people of God.
And what is his ultimate goal? It is not simply to disagree with the righteous, or to inconvenience him. The text is stark: he "seeks to put him to death." This is a homicidal rage. Why? Because the very presence of a righteous man is an intolerable indictment of the wicked man's life. The righteous man, by trusting God, loving his neighbor, and walking in obedience, holds up a mirror to the wicked, and the wicked cannot stand the reflection. He sees his own rebellion, his own lawlessness, his own guilt, and rather than repent, he seeks to shatter the mirror. The hatred of the wicked for the righteous is, at its root, a hatred for the God whom the righteous serves. They cannot strike at God directly, so they strike at His image-bearers, His children.
We must not be naive about this. When we determine to live godly in Christ Jesus, we will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). The world is not a neutral playground; it is occupied territory, and the prince of this world does not take kindly to defectors from his kingdom of darkness. He will use his pawns, the wicked, to spy, to slander, and, if he can, to slay.
The Providence of God (v. 33)
But the wicked is not the ultimate actor in this drama. His leash is held by a sovereign hand. Verse 33 gives us two glorious promises that serve as the bedrock of our security.
"Yahweh will not forsake him in his hand; He will not condemn him when he is judged." (Psalm 37:33)
The first promise is one of preservation in the midst of trial. "Yahweh will not forsake him in his hand." The wicked man may succeed in laying his hands on the righteous. He may drag him into court. He may throw him in prison. He may, for a time, appear to have him completely in his power. From a human perspective, the situation can look utterly bleak. Joseph was in the hand of his brothers, and then in the hand of Potiphar, and then in the hand of Pharaoh's jailer. David was in the hand of Saul, cornered in the wilderness. Daniel was in the hand of the Babylonian bureaucrats. The Lord Jesus was in the hand of Caiaphas, and Pilate, and the Roman soldiers.
In all these instances, it looked as though the wicked had triumphed. But the promise here is that even when the righteous is "in his hand," he has not been forsaken by God. God's providence is not thwarted by man's malice. In fact, God's providence masterfully uses man's malice to accomplish His own good purposes. Joseph's betrayal led to the salvation of a nation. David's persecution prepared him for the throne. Daniel's imprisonment led to the humbling of a pagan king. And Christ's crucifixion led to the redemption of the world. God's promise is not that we will never be in the hand of the wicked, but that we will never be forsaken there. He is with us in the fire, and He governs the flames.
The second promise is one of ultimate vindication. "He will not condemn him when he is judged." This points to the final verdict. There are two courts in view here. First, there is the court of man, where the righteous is being judged. And second, there is the court of God, where that first judgment is being judged. The wicked may secure a guilty verdict in the lower court. They may succeed in their slander. They may get the righteous man cancelled, fired, or even executed. But that is not the final word.
There is a higher court, and in that court, God is both the Judge and the defense attorney for His people. The ultimate judgment is not what men say about us, but what God says about us. And what does God say? For those who are in Christ, He says, "There is therefore now no condemnation" (Romans 8:1). Why? Because our condemnation was already borne by another. The Lord Jesus Christ stood in the dock for us. The wicked spied on Him, sought to kill Him, and succeeded. He was handed over, judged by a corrupt court, and condemned. But in that great transaction, God did not forsake Him utterly. He raised Him from the dead, vindicating Him, and in so doing, He secured the acquittal of all who belong to Him. When the righteous is judged by men, God will not ratify their wicked verdict. He overturns it. He declares His servant "Not Guilty," not because of the servant's own righteousness, but because of the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to him.
Living in the Great Reversal
So how do we live in light of this? This is not a call to passive resignation. It is a call to robust, courageous faith. This psalm begins with "Fret not thyself because of evildoers." This is the central command. We are not to become agitated, anxious, or envious when we see the wicked prospering in their schemes.
First, we must understand that the storyline of this world is a story of reversal. The world's values are upside down. It calls evil good and good evil. It honors the proud and despises the humble. But God's economy is one of constant reversal. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. He who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who exalts himself will be humbled. The cross itself is the ultimate reversal, what looked like the greatest defeat was in fact the greatest victory.
Therefore, when we find ourselves on the receiving end of the world's malice, we should not be surprised, as though some strange thing were happening to us. We are simply playing our assigned role in God's great story. The world condemns us? Good. It is a sign that we do not belong to the world. As Jesus said, "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).
Second, our confidence must be in God's final verdict, not in our immediate circumstances. We are called to be faithful, not necessarily successful in the world's eyes. Our job is to speak the truth, live righteously, and do good, and then to commit the outcome to our faithful Creator. Sometimes God delivers His people from the fire, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And sometimes He delivers them through the fire, like the martyrs who went to the stake. But in both cases, they are delivered. In both cases, God does not forsake them. In both cases, He does not condemn them.
This is the essence of what theologians call the perseverance of the saints. But it is better described as the preservation of the saints by God. We persevere because He preserves us. He holds us fast. No one can snatch us out of His hand, or out of the Father's hand (John 10:28-29). This is our security. The wicked can spy all they want. They can scheme and plot and seek our lives. But they cannot touch our ultimate standing before God. They cannot overturn the verdict of justification that was sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So wait for the Lord. Do not take matters into your own hands. Do not repay evil for evil. Trust in the Judge of all the earth, who will always do right. The court is in session, but the final verdict has not yet been read out for all the world to hear. But for those with ears to hear, the verdict has already been rendered in Christ. You are acquitted. You are vindicated. You are safe. And in that final day, when every crooked judgment is made straight, the wicked will be cut off, and the righteous will inherit the land.