Psalm 37

A David Psalm ^1-2Don'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.
   He'll give you your place in the sun
      while you watch the wicked lose it.

^35-36    I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
      croaking pretentious nonsense.
   The next time I looked there was nothing—
      a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.

^37-38    Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
      scrutinize the straight life;
   There's a future
      in strenuous wholeness.
   But the willful will soon be discarded;
      insolent souls are on a dead-end street.

^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.