Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more
Psalms 37:9-11 A prayer for an end to terrorism
“For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”
Psalms 37:9-11 NASB1995
The Lord has a way of pointing me in some interesting directions when I’m looking for inspiration. Longtime readers of Heaven On Wheels know that I use a “random” method of selecting Bible verses to write about - in other words, I let God show me what He wants me to study and interpret. In the early days of HOW I generated a random number between 1 and 16, which pointed me to a topic like “anger, anxiety, temptation, stress…” and so on. I found that method to be somewhat restrictive, so lately I’ve been using the DailyVerses.net random verse picker.
Today He directed me to Psalm 37:9-11, which seemed very relevant in light of the news of the terrorist attacks on Israel. I pray that the slaughter will stop soon, but it would not surprise me at all to see the violence escalate on both sides.
This psalm starts with a promise that the Lord will take care of His people in this world and in the world to come. Evildoers, like the terrorists who have been butchering, raping, shooting, and beating any Israeli they meet regardless of age, will be cut off by the Lord. Whatever sick happiness these horrible people may be experiencing as they dance in the streets with their flags for social media coverage will be short-lived in light of the counterattacks that are bound to come and in light of a glorious eternity that they will never experience.
The terrorists are having their day of demented happiness, but it will be short-lived. This psalm says it clearly — “Yet a little while, and the wicked man will be no more.” Those who love terrorists and are praising them at this time will soon, like the terrorists, be of no standing at all — “you will look carefully for his place and it will not be there.” As my favorite preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “The shortness of life makes us see that the glitter of the wicked great ones is not true gold.”1
But the humble will inherit the land… Jesus quoted this Psalm in the Sermon on the Mount, using words that had been written a thousand years before His ministry. And they will delight themselves in abundant prosperity…
The Israeli people have been delighting themselves in abundant prosperity. When we visited Israel several years ago, we found the country to be divided. On the one hand, the Israeli people are successful in everything they do — agriculture, technology, you name it. The Palestinians complain about being segregated into walled-off areas, but give them free rein to wander into the other parts of the land and they fall into the age-old trap of wanting to destroy the Jewish homeland. So they are left to their own areas and given work permits to travel into the other areas… which they have used to their advantage in the latest terrorist attacks.
In the midst of the killing that has been going on for thousands of years in this region of the world, what are Christians to do? We have only one choice: Pray for peace, pray that both the Muslim and the Jew come to Christ, and that they come to know the love of Jesus as typified by 1 John 4:7:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
1 John 4:7 NASB1995
Those who love one another don’t slaughter each other. In the meantime, we can rest assured that in a little while, the wicked man will be no more.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I pray for the souls of those people killed in the terrorist attacks on Israel. I pray that Your vengeance, not that of humankind, comes down on those who committed the attacks. I also pray with all my heart that those on both sides of this conflict will come to accept the Good News that Your Son — my Savior — brought to Earth two thousand years ago, and that they too may be filled with the peace that passes all understanding. In the name of Jesus I pray, AMEN.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The Treasury of David: Volume 1" (Psalms 1-57) (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1988)