Psalm 37:title–20

A David Psalm

^1–237Don’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.

^3–4Get insurance with God and do a good deed,

settle down and stick to your last.

Keep company with God,

get in on the best.

^5–6Open 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.

⁷Quiet down before God,

be prayerful before him.

Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,

who elbow their way to the top.

^8–9Bridle 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.

^10–11Before 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.

^12–13Bad 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.

^14–15Bullies 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.

^16–17Less is more and more is less.

One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,

For the wicked are moral weaklings

but the righteous are God-strong.

^18–19God 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.

²⁰God-despisers have had it;

God’s enemies are finished—

Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,

vanished like smoke in thin air.