Psalm 37 · a question people ask
"Don’t fret because of evildoers" (37:1). Is it wrong to be troubled when the wicked do well?
The psalm's word is charah, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives in the form used here as "heat oneself in vexation" (tap fret). The psalm says three times not to (37:1, 37:7, 37:8), and it says where fretting leads: "Don’t fret; it leads only to evildoing" (37:8). Other Scripture records people bringing the same trouble to God in their prayers. Jeremiah: "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" (Jeremiah 12:1). Habakkuk: "why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he" (Habakkuk 1:13). Psalm 73 tells it from the inside: "For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (Psalm 73:3), with Psalm 37:1's word for envious (tap envious), "until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end" (Psalm 73:17). Psalm 37 doesn't speak of those prayers, and these notes don't say how its warning and those prayers fit together.
The verses
“By David. Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.”
“Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
“You are righteous, LORD, when I contend with you; yet I would like to plead a case with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?”
“You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,”