Sandwiches

 Of David.

 Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:1-8)

Psalm 37 is the third wisdom psalm, but it’s too long to cover in one day. Like Psalms 1 and 14, it focuses on relationships. Today’s section is book-ended with “Do not fret” and the apparent prosperity of those who do wrong. It’s the bread of the passage. In between, there’s a layer of filling. I think it’s something tasty and good for us, but maybe a bit too chewy. You might think it’s something else.

In the bread, we’re not only told not to fret, but not to be envious or afraid. To be envious is more than wanting what someone else has. That’s jealousy. If I’m jealous and go out to buy what you have, I’m satisfied. If I’m envious, I want to destroy you for having it, even if I never end up getting it. It’s hatred or ill-will toward the one who has. We’re told not to envy them because their success is short-lived. WE may not think it short-lived enough, but that’s the point of the admonition not to do it. When we envy, the person we envy and the thing we envy them about become gods. They and/or the emotions involved control our lives. Wisdom tells us that “keeping up with the Joneses” isn’t really the key to a happy life. When we focus our attention on them and what they have, while we may not be hanging with the bad-uns physically, but we are emotionally.

The alternative, as it has been in the previous psalms, is to focus our attention on God and to trust Him even when things don’t seem to be going as well for us as they are for someone else. In time, our victory will come. It may not look the way we want our victory to look, and we’ll need to adjust to that. Our victory may be to dismiss that lesser sort of victory for one that fits us better. This is a problem I face. I like my job. I like many things about my life. But I still struggle with the fact that my life doesn’t look like what I think success is supposed to look like. I don’t think I cross the border between jealousy and envy, but how can I enjoy what is when what is isn’t what I think is supposed to be?

Instead of envy or jealousy, we’re supposed to eat another sandwich. The bread is to trust God. The filling is the set of behaviors that result from trusting God: doing good, dwelling in the land, enjoying safe pasture, delighting in the Lord, committing our way to Him, being still, and waiting for God to act. Again, if we turn our focus away from “everyone else is, has, and does” and to doing what we can with what we have where we are now, we’ll not only give God time to work in our lives, but stop getting in the way of His doing so. There’s great wisdom in that.