I read Psalm 37 for my devotions this morning. I knew it best for the promise of its fourth verse: if we delight in the Lord, He’ll give us the desires of our hearts.
A closer reading of the Psalm reveals specific declarations about ethics and succession. Those two covenantal points are connected with specific symbols.
Four quick observations:
- Disobedient people are compared to plants that wither or get mowed down (v. 1).
- Negative sanctions are associated with weapons. The evil man stabs himself in the heart with his own sword and has his arrows broken (v. 15).
- Ethical people are associated with the sun and light (v. 6).
- Inheritance/succession gets symbolized by earth/land (v. 9, 11, 22, 29, 34).
Experiments in Criticism 