My favorite Psalm right now in the message version!! A David Psalm Psalm 37 1-2 Don’t bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippings and wilt like cut flowers in the sun. 3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed, settle down and stick to your last. Keep company with God, get in on the best. 5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done: He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon. 7 Quiet down before God, be prayerful before him. Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder, who elbow their way to the top. 8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes—it only makes things worse. Before long the crooks will be bankrupt; God-investors will soon own the store. 10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it; you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing! Down-to-earth people will move in and take over, relishing a huge bonanza. 12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in. But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him they’re a joke with no punch line. 14-15 Bullies brandish their swords, pull back on their bows with a flourish. They’re out to beat up on the harmless, or mug that nice man out walking his dog. A banana peel lands them flat on their faces— slapstick figures in a moral circus. 16-17 Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked, For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are God-strong. 18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk; what they do won’t soon be forgotten. In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high; when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full. 20 God-despisers have had it; God’s enemies are finished— Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time, vanished like smoke in thin air. 21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns; Righteous gives and gives. Generous gets it all in the end; Stingy is cut off at the pass. 23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God; his path blazed by God, he’s happy. If he stumbles, he’s not down for long; God has a grip on his hand. 25-26 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard— not once have I seen an abandoned believer, or his kids out roaming the streets. Every day he’s out giving and lending, his children making him proud. 27-28 Turn your back on evil, work for the good and don’t quit. God loves this kind of thing, never turns away from his friends. 28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made, but bad eggs will be tossed out. The good get planted on good land and put down healthy roots. 30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone, rolls virtue around on his tongue. His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins; his feet are as sure as a cat’s. 32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous, he’s out for the kill. God, alert, is also on watch— Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head. 34 Wait passionately for God, don’t leave the path. 39-40 The spacious, free life is from God, it’s also protected and safe. God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil— when we run to him, he saves us.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:57:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015