The End of the Story: Two Destinies Text: Psalm 37:37-38
Introduction: The Snapshot and the Video
We live in an age of the snapshot. Our entire culture is geared toward the immediate, the instantaneous, the here-and-now. We want our news in 280 characters, our food in three minutes, and our justice delivered yesterday. And because we are creatures of our age, this malady infects our theology. We look out at the world and we see the wicked prospering. We see them on magazine covers, we see their godless ideologies celebrated in the public square, and we see their children inheriting their fortunes and their influence. And in our fretful moments, we can be tempted to envy them, just as David warns against at the beginning of this psalm.
This is because we are judging by the snapshot. We are looking at one frame of the movie and assuming it is the final scene. But the Word of God does not give us snapshots; it gives us the whole video. It tells us the end of the story. Psalm 37 is a wisdom psalm, written by an old man who has seen more than a few reels of the film. David is giving us the long view, the perspective of eternity, which is the only true perspective. He is telling us to stop looking at the temporary and gaudy success of the wicked and to start considering the end game.
The entire psalm is a sustained argument against the temptation to envy evildoers. It contrasts the fleeting prosperity of the wicked with the enduring inheritance of the righteous. And in our text today, David brings this contrast to a sharp, definitive point. He sets two men before us, two paths, and two ultimate destinies. This is not complicated, but it is foundational. All of humanity is walking one of these two roads, and the destination is fixed. You are either the man of verse 37 or the man of verse 38. There is no third way. And the ultimate difference between them is not their present comfort, but their final end, and the end of their children.
The Text
Observe the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity. But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
(Psalm 37:37-38 LSB)
The Upright Man's Future (v. 37)
David begins with a command to look, to pay close attention.
"Observe the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity." (Psalm 37:37)
The world tells us to observe the successful man, the powerful man, the man who gets what he wants. But God tells us to fix our gaze on the blameless man, the upright man. Now, we must be clear. In a world after the fall, "blameless" and "upright" are not terms of sinless perfection. David, the author of this psalm, was certainly not sinless. This is not about a man who never makes a mistake. Rather, this is a description of a man's settled character, his trajectory. The blameless man is the man whose sins are covered by grace, who walks in faith, and whose life is oriented toward obedience to God. He is "upright," meaning he walks a straight path, guided by the straight edge of God's law, not the crooked and winding paths of his own lusts.
And what is the defining characteristic of this man? He is a "man of peace." The Hebrew here is shalom. This is far more than the mere absence of conflict. Shalom is wholeness, completeness, flourishing. It is the positive state of well being that comes from being rightly related to God. Because this man is at peace with God through faith, he is able to be a man of peace in his dealings with others. He is not fretful, not envious, not striving. He is resting in the Lord, trusting His timing, and delighting in His law. This is the meekness that inherits the earth, as David has already said in this psalm.
And what is the ultimate blessing promised to this man? "He will have a posterity." The Hebrew word is acharit, which means an end, a future, a remnant. In our therapeutic age, we think of blessing in terms of personal fulfillment and inner contentment. But the Bible is generational. It is covenantal. The great blessing promised here is a future, a godly line, children who will carry the covenant forward. God's promises are not just for us as individuals; they are for us and for our children. The man of peace, the one who trusts God, is promised that his legacy will not die with him. His faith will be passed down. This is the great hope of the covenant: that God will be a God to us and to our descendants after us.
The Transgressor's Dead End (v. 38)
The contrast could not be more stark. After telling us to behold the upright man, David shows us the alternative.
"But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off." (Psalm 37:38)
Here is the other side of the ledger. The "transgressors" are those who step over the line of God's law. The "wicked" are those whose hearts are bent away from God and His standards. They may look like they are winning for a season. They may build empires, accumulate wealth, and have their names plastered on buildings. They may laugh at the man of peace and his quaint moral scruples. But God says they are on a dead end street.
Their end is destruction. Not a mild setback, but total ruin. "Altogether destroyed." This is the great and terrible reality that our world works so hard to ignore. There is a final judgment. There is a reckoning. The party will end. The wicked, who seem so permanent, so rooted in the earth, will be plucked up and thrown into the fire. As David says earlier in the psalm, they will be cut down like the grass and wither like the green herb. Their prosperity is a mirage, their security an illusion.
And notice where the final blow lands. Just as the blessing for the righteous was generational, so is the curse for the wicked. "The posterity of the wicked will be cut off." Their line will come to an end. Their name will be blotted out. They build their houses for themselves, they name their lands after themselves, but their rebellion against God ensures that they have no future. They sow the wind of godlessness, and their children reap the whirlwind of judgment. This is not because God is punishing children for the specific sins of their fathers, but because sin is a spiritual cancer that, apart from the grace of God, is passed down through the generations, corrupting and destroying everything it touches. The wicked man teaches his children his wickedness, and in so doing, he saws off the very branch upon which they are sitting.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Man of Peace
This psalm presents us with a choice. We are to observe these two paths and their two destinations and choose wisely. Do we want the fleeting pleasures of transgression, which end in total destruction for us and our children? Or do we want the settled peace of the upright, which ends in a lasting, generational inheritance?
But we must see that this psalm ultimately points beyond David, beyond any merely human "blameless man." It points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truly blameless and upright one, the only one who was perfectly sinless. He is the ultimate "man of peace," the Prince of Shalom, who made peace between God and man by the blood of His cross.
And what was the result? He was, for a time, "cut off" (Isaiah 53:8). He was destroyed, it seemed, on that cross. The wicked appeared to have their victory. That was the snapshot. But the video kept rolling. God raised Him from the dead, and because of His perfect obedience, He was given the greatest posterity imaginable. "He shall see His seed" (Isaiah 53:10). His posterity is the Church, a vast multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation. We who were transgressors, we who were wicked, have been grafted into His family. We have been made blameless and upright in Him.
Therefore, the command to "observe the blameless man" is ultimately a command to fix our eyes on Jesus. When we do, we see the pattern for our own lives. Through faith in Him, we are declared righteous. By His Spirit, we are enabled to walk as men and women of peace. And through His covenant promise, we have the sure hope of a posterity. The promise is for you and for your children. Do not envy the wicked. Their story is a tragedy that is almost over. Look to Christ. Your story is a comedy that has just begun, and it ends with a wedding feast that will never end, and a posterity that will fill the new heavens and the new earth.