The Righteous and the Wicked
This Sunday is the last sermon in our Psalms series this year. We’ll be starting the book of 2 Timothy on September 13, and resume the Psalms next summer, God willing.
Psalm 37 is a great psalm to conclude this round, and it’s one unlike any others we’ve seen so far. It’s a wisdom psalm that reminds us a lot of Proverbs, and quite literally:
Psalm 37:1–2, “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.”
Proverbs 24:19–20, “Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.”
We might imagine, after all, that some of Solomon’s wisdom was gleaned from his father. Here’s another:
Psalm 37:16, “Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.”
Proverbs 28:6, “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.”
And the mention of “wicked” here is important. Like in the Proverbs, wisdom psalms like Psalm 37 often teach wisdom through contrasting the righteous to the wicked. Understanding the differences between the two — and that they are expected to act differently — is a gateway into learning how to live faithfully before and unto God. But before we get there, we need to know what makes someone either righteous or wicked. I’ll spend nearly half the sermon on this foundational point Sunday, and I’ll note the irony of how often both the righteous and the wicked don’t understand who they are. This is a problem that needs fixing. You are either righteous or wicked, and it’s good that you know which is which.
In the wisdom psalms, like the Proverbs, the wicked are those who do not trust in Yahweh. They not only refuse to trust him, but they behave as if he’s not real, thus becoming a fool (see Psalm 14:1). Wicked/foolish/faithless is their profile, set next to righteous/wise/faithful — and the faith piece makes all the difference. The fear of Yahweh is beginning of wisdom. You become forensically righteous (and progressively wise) through faith in Jesus.
One piece of difficulty in all this is how averse we are to thinking of someone as wicked, especially the nice godless folks we see around us day-in and day-out. People are more incentivized in our society to be less overt in their evil than people were in King David’s day. Part of this is the culture of civility that has permeated the Western world for a thousand years. Our concept of the “gentleman” — likely a derivation of chivalry — has led to our notion of “the good guy” (women have largely been considered the more virtuous sex). By this construct, there are lots of “good guys” (and ladies) out there, regardless of their posture toward God. And this way of thinking, at least over time, doesn’t help evangelism. We lose any urgency in calling good folks to repentance and faith.
But this isn’t a new issue.
It’s something Puritan Thomas Watson dealt with back in his day, when he first published The Doctrine of Repentance, in 1668. He refers to our day’s “good” people as “civil persons.”
Repentance is necessary for civil persons. These have no visible spots on them. They are free from gross sin, and one would think they had nothing to do with the business of repentance. They are so good that they scorn a psalm of mercy. Indeed these are often in the worst condition: these are they who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Their civility undoes them. … Morality shoots short of heaven. It is only nature refined. A moral man is but old Adam dressed in fine clothes. … Civility is insufficient for salvation. … I am not saying, repent that you are civil, but that you are no more than civil. (67).
It is not unloving to think someone is wicked if they are; it’s unloving to pretend as if they’re not, and therefore to never tell them the good news of Jesus who makes the wicked righteous. Like he did for you and me.
(As Watson so epically signed his valediction in 1668 …)
The well-wisher of your soul’s happiness,
Pastor Jonathan
