²³The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. ²⁴When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand. ²⁵I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread. ²⁶All day long he is gracious and lends, and his descendants are a blessing … ⁴⁰The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him.

Three times this psalm tells us not to fret (verses 1, 7, 8), using the same Hebrew word in the same grammatical form: “Do not fret.” God is not given to meaningless redundancy, using verbal fillers in an obscure way. Think of it this way: God is saying, “Read my lips, I’ll repeat it—do not fret!” This is repetition for emphasis.

We all experience the emotion of fretting over something someone said, events that turned against us, or imminent danger. While we cannot easily control our feelings, we can control what we think—which will affect how we feel. As the apostle Paul wrote, we need to “[take] every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” That is personal self-control of the mind. And so, the way to combat the emotion of worry or anger that accompanies fretting is to go to the source of the problem.

Now, the cause of fretting is not the other person or the danger we face. No, the cause is what we think about those things. And that source is our mind, what we think about the situation that causes our fretting. So David, being quite experienced in dealing with opposition and danger, tells us to reframe our thinking. When we fret over a person threatening us, we need to stop and take a deep breath, so to speak. He writes, “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Then pointedly, we are to deal with our anger, which is interwoven with our worry. Scripture says, “[T]he anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

The remainder of Psalm 37 lays out the big picture from God’s perspective on the benefits of living righteously and the consequences of living wickedly. The prosperity of wicked living is short-lived in light of eternity. “The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming” (Ps. 37:13). But the righteous are blessed by the Lord. David is not speaking of “self-righteousness,” which is arrogance justifying its self-centeredness. Here a righteous person is one who desires to live in obedience to the Lord; this is not perfection, for only God is perfect.

A righteous person is one who strives to live for God. He is the one whom God establishes, the one in whom God delights (vs. 23). This is not a promise of a conflict- or trouble-free life. But it is the recognition that God will always be with us, giving us a hand up. David’s testimony over his lifetime is that God will never forsake people who live all out for God. They will never be reduced to the despondence of a beggar. Again, this does not mean a Christian will never die in a famine, but as a general truth, living for God will result in honesty and industry, not revenge or retaliation. The way of righteousness is the way of a good life, regardless of one’s financial or social status. That is a blessing.

So, we will not fret when we take control of how we think about our situation. God will not leave us or forsake us; He will hold our hand; He will not allow us to be reduced to despair; He will bless us and our children. Do you believe that? Therefore, do not fret! Choose to take refuge in Him and believe God will save you in some way or from your present situation.

Lord, I choose to reorient my thinking about my present circumstance. You are in control, and have revealed the end results for those who are against me. Therefore, I rest in You.