Psalm 37:7-9 – “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”
The dictionary defines the word “fret” as worry, anxiety, feeling uneasy, being distressed, getting upset, and feeling unhappy. Most of us have experienced these feelings at some point or the other. Fretting might actually be our second nature! And yet in the verses above, David repeatedly reminds us not to fret. The fact that the phrase “fret not” is mentioned three times in this short passage shows how important it is.
But why do we fret? We fret when someone who didn’t work that hard gets a better result than us. We fret when the corrupt prosper and the righteous suffer. We fret over the evil in the world today, allowing fear and anxiety to envelop us.
David clearly says that fretting leads only to evil. So what should we do instead? We can be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait for Him. God does have certain standards, and one of them is that the wicked will not prosper. Rather than fretting, we need to sit still in God’s presence and allow His peace to wash over us. The Lord will act on our behalf, we just need to wait patiently and not give up too soon.
