Illuminated Coptic sanctuary banner

Psalm 37 (LXX 36) - The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

21 min read

Jump to chapter (153)
PsalmsSelect a chapter to jump directly
Intro123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151•
Audio narrationAlso in your podcast app

Psalm 37 is David’s long wisdom counsel for the soul that is disturbed by the success of the wicked. It does not deny injustice. It teaches the righteous not to let envy, anger, or fear pull them into the same darkness. The Psalm’s central promise, “the meek shall inherit the earth,” is taken up directly by Christ in the Beatitudes. The inheritance belongs not to the grasping and retaliatory, but to those who trust, wait, do good, and keep the law of God in the heart.

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 37
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 36. Here the Septuagint numbering is one lower, following its combination of MT Psalms 9 and 10.
Accepted authorDavid by superscription. Brenton/LXX begins, “A Psalm of David.”
Period in author’s lifeNo precise life event is given. The line “I was once young, indeed I am now old” gives the Psalm a late-life wisdom tone.
Christ prophecy statusMatthew 5:5 directly receives Psalm 37:11 (LXX Ps 36:11). This is New Testament reception of a wisdom promise, not a reason to treat every line as a separate prediction. The Christian reading finds its fulfillment in Christ the meek King and His people’s inheritance in Him.
Coptic lectionary/service useRetained annual/date readings include excerpts at Matins, Liturgy and Vespers. Amshir 12 provides a specific example of the Psalm’s support, inheritance and inward law being heard alongside watchfulness and faithful stewardship.
Numbering issueExplanatory references use MT numbering first, with the verified Brenton/LXX counterpart labeled. The embedded Scripture retains Brenton’s own labels. CopticChurch.net’s printed service references are attributed separately.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 37 is a wisdom Psalm. It reads like instruction from an elder who has watched many seasons of human life. The wicked may prosper for a time. The righteous may feel tempted to envy. But time reveals the difference between a life rooted in God and a life rooted in force, deceit, and grasping.

The Psalm sits in the Psalter as a pastoral correction to a common spiritual crisis: “Why does evil look successful?” Instead of giving an abstract explanation of God’s justice, David gives practices: trust, do good, delight in the Lord, disclose your way to Him, submit, cease from anger, wait, keep His way.

St Athanasius, in his Letter to Marcellinus, specifically recommends this Psalm when the wicked attack the weak and their apparent success provokes envy. His counsel makes the Psalm something to speak both to ourselves and to those under pressure: the oppressor’s strength must not become the measure of the victim’s hope.1

Geographical Significance ⛰️

No historical scene is identified. Lebanon—“Libanus” in Brenton—is named in the cedar simile, not as the location of an event in David’s life. The repeated “land” or “earth” carries the Old Testament promise of inheritance and, in Christ’s Beatitude, opens toward the final Kingdom: life with God when His justice and peace are fully revealed. The meek inherit what the violent cannot keep.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 37:1-11 (LXX Ps 36:1-11), do not fret, the meek inherit the earth

36:1 A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be envious of them that do iniquity. 36:2 For they shall soon be withered as the grass, and shall soon fall away as the green herbs. 36:3 Hope in the Lord, and do good; and dwell on the land, and thou shalt be fed with the wealth of it. 36:4 Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall grant thee the requests of thine heart. 36:5 Disclose thy way to the Lord, and hope in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 36:6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day. 36:7 Submit thyself to the Lord, and supplicate him: fret not thyself because of him that prospers in his way, at the man that does unlawful deeds. 36:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself so as to do evil. 36:9 For evil-doers shall be destroyed: but they that wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the land. 36:10 And yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be, and thou shalt seek for his place, and shalt not find it. 36:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The repeated command is not “ignore evil.” It is “fret not.” David knows that envy and agitation can make the righteous imitate the wicked. Anger can become a doorway into the very evil we hate. The warning concerns agitation that draws us into evil, not the mere experience of fear or distress.

The practices are concrete: hope in the Lord, do good, delight in Him, disclose your way to Him, submit, supplicate, cease from anger. This is not passivity. It is active trust. Submission is to the Lord; it does not require remaining in danger or concealing wrongdoing.

Delight in the Lord also gives direction to the heart’s requests. The promise is not that prayer will secure every advantage we envy in another person. We disclose our way to God so that He may guide it, not merely endorse it. He brings righteousness into the light: the truthful judgment of our cause need not depend on our ability to force recognition.

Christ quotes the heart of this passage in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:5). Meekness is not weakness. Christ Himself is meek, yet He conquers by Cross and Resurrection, not by grasping. The abundance promised here is finally an abundance of peace, not the defeated oppressor’s wealth transferred to us.

Augustine draws out that change of desire. Commenting directly on the meek’s inheritance, he turns the reader from envying luxury toward the lasting delight of life with God: “Peace shall be thy gold. Peace shall be thy silver. Peace shall be thy lands.”2

Psalm 37:12-20 (LXX Ps 36:12-20), the temporary strength of the wicked

36:12 The sinner will watch for the righteous, and gnash his teeth upon him. 36:13 But the Lord shall laugh at him: for he foresees that his day will come. 36:14 Sinners have drawn their swords, they have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy one, and to slay the upright in heart. 36:15 Let their sword enter into their own heart, and their bows be broken. 36:16 A little is better to the righteous than abundant wealth of sinners. 36:17 For the arms of sinners shall be broken; but the Lord supports the righteous. 36:18 The Lord knows the ways of the perfect; and their inheritance shall be for ever. 36:19 They shall not be ashamed in an evil time; and in days of famine they shall be satisfied. 36:20 For the sinners shall perish; and the enemies of the Lord at the moment of their being honoured and exalted have utterly vanished like smoke.

The wicked appear strong because they have swords, bows, wealth, and public honor. David says their strength is temporary. The Lord sees the end from the beginning. His laughter answers the aggressor’s pretension to invincible power; it is not amusement at the suffering of the poor.

The sword’s recoil in Psalm 37:15 (LXX Ps 36:15) is a severe prayer that violent designs turn back upon their authors and their weapons fail. It is prayer entrusted to God, not a command to take personal revenge. We may ask Him to stop an attacker and establish justice without becoming attackers ourselves.

The phrase “a little is better to the righteous” is one of the Psalm’s hardest lessons for a consumer soul. The righteous person may have less, but what he has is not poisoned by injustice.

St John Chrysostom offers a thematic parallel in Homily 80 on Matthew, section 4: covetousness leaves a person endlessly needy, whereas virtue is not measured by possessions or rank. This is not direct commentary on the Psalm, nor a denial that poverty and abuse cause real harm. It helps expose the false measure by which the wealthy wrongdoer seems enviable.3 The Psalm does not romanticize poverty, but it refuses to measure life by visible abundance.

The promises of support and satisfaction are not immunity from famine or suffering. They name God’s faithfulness within the very “evil time” the Psalm acknowledges. A hungry believer needs food and care, not an accusation that his faith has failed.

Psalm 37:21-29 (LXX Ps 36:21-29), mercy, falling, and the inheritance of the righteous

36:21 The sinner borrows, and will not pay again: but the righteous has compassion, and gives. 36:22 For they that bless him shall inherit the earth; and they that curse him shall be utterly destroyed. 36:23 The steps of a man are rightly ordered by the Lord: and he will take pleasure in his way. 36:24 When he falls, he shall not be ruined: for the Lord supports his hand. 36:25 I was once young, indeed I am now old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. 36:26 He is merciful, and lends continually; and his seed shall be blessed. 36:27 Turn aside from evil, and do good; and dwell for ever. 36:28 For the Lord loves judgment, and will not forsake his saints; they shall be preserved for ever: the blameless shall be avenged, but the seed of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed. 36:29 But the righteous shall inherit the earth, and dwell upon it for ever.

David’s contrast now becomes practical economics and mercy. The sinner takes and does not repay. The righteous gives because his security is in God. The fault is dishonest refusal, not unavoidable inability to repay; financial distress is not proof of wickedness.

Brenton’s “they that bless him” in Psalm 37:22 (LXX Ps 36:22) keeps the act of blessing in view. Augustine reads this as blessing God and becoming fellow-heirs with Christ. That is a Christian interpretation of the clause, not permission to substitute the service translation’s different wording, “those blessed by Him.”4

Psalm 37:24 (LXX Ps 36:24) is pastorally crucial: “When he falls, he shall not be ruined.” The righteous may fall. The promise is not perfection without weakness. The promise is that the Lord supports his hand. A fall under affliction is not abandonment; when we stumble into sin, the same dependence leads us to repentance rather than despair.

The aged voice in Psalm 37:25 (LXX Ps 36:25) does not erase every hard case of suffering. It is wisdom testimony, not a simplistic prosperity formula. The deeper claim is that God does not abandon the righteous, even when their lives pass through famine, pressure, or loss. Augustine confronts this difficulty directly: Scripture itself records the hunger of Abraham and Paul, so the promise cannot mean that faithful people never lack bread. His spiritual reading must not become an excuse to withhold actual bread from the hungry.5

“The Lord loves judgment” means that He loves justice and sets wrongs right. The avenging of the blameless belongs to Him, not to our private retaliation. Nor does the warning about the ungodly’s seed authorize hostility toward their children. Augustine notes that a wicked person’s child may become righteous, and reads the condemned seed spiritually as the works of wickedness that bear no lasting fruit.6 Our task remains the command immediately before it: turn from evil and do good. Refusing to exploit our neighbor is a beginning; compassion goes further and helps him.

Psalm 37:30-34 (LXX Ps 36:30-34), the law in the heart

36:30 The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom, and his tongue will speak of judgment. 36:31 The law of his God is in his heart; and his steps shall not slide. 36:32 The sinner watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him. 36:33 But the Lord will not leave him in his hands, nor by any means condemn him when he is judged. 36:34 Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are destroyed, thou shalt see it.

The righteous person is formed from the inside out. Wisdom in the mouth comes from law in the heart. This is close to the promise of the New Covenant, where God’s law is written inwardly (Hebrews 10:16).

For the Christian, the law in the heart is not merely memorized instruction. It is life in Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Word becomes internal, shaping speech, steps, judgment, and endurance. To speak “of judgment” is to speak with concern for what is just, not to cultivate a condemning tongue.

Fr Tadros Malaty, as a modern Coptic pastoral commentator, emphasizes the agreement of heart, speech and action in these lines. God’s commandment supports the believer’s walk rather than remaining religious language on the lips.7 A practical test is whether the truth we confess governs how we handle another person’s money, reputation, or need.

The wicked still watch and seek harm. The Psalm is not naive. But God will not abandon the righteous in the hand of the sinner. This does not promise that every accusation will be overturned in an earthly court: Christ and the martyrs endured unjust sentences. The persecutor’s verdict is not God’s final verdict. Waiting on Him therefore goes together with keeping His way, not surrendering to the enemy’s methods.

Psalm 37:35-40 (LXX Ps 36:35-40), what remains at the end

36:35 I saw the ungodly very highly exalting himself, and lifting himself up like the cedars of Libanus. 36:36 Yet I passed by, and lo! he was not: and I sought him, but his place was not found. 36:37 Maintain innocence, and behold uprightness: for there is a remnant to the peaceable man. 36:38 But the transgressors shall be utterly destroyed together: the remnants of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed. 36:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; and he is their defender in the time of affliction. 36:40 And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: and he shall rescue them from sinners, and save them, because they have hoped in him.

The cedar of Lebanon is tall and impressive, but in this Psalm it becomes an image of temporary arrogance. David has lived long enough to see the impressive wicked vanish.

The contrast is sharper than appearance against disappearance. Psalm 37:37-38 (LXX Ps 36:37-38) speaks of a remnant for the peaceable man, while even the remnants of the ungodly are destroyed. Something remains beyond the peaceable person’s apparent loss; evil cannot secure an enduring inheritance. Augustine reads that remainder in the light of Christ’s promise of life beyond death.8 Maintaining innocence matters more than preserving the appearance of success.

The ending returns to the Lord as salvation, defender, helper, deliverer, rescuer, and savior. The righteous are not saved because they are socially clever or naturally strong. They are saved because they hoped in Him. He is their defender in affliction, not a guarantee that affliction will never come.

This ending belongs deeply to Christ. He is the peaceable Man, the innocent One, the righteous sufferer, and the One whom the Father vindicates. In Him, the meek do not merely survive. They inherit.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The retained CopticChurch.net readings for Amshir 12, February 20, 2024, show how the Psalm’s counsel becomes watchful, practical faith.

  • At Matins, the source prints “Psalm 37:17 & Psalm 37:18 & Psalm 37:29” before Mark 13:33-37. The actual Psalm selection begins with the supporting clause only—Psalm 37:17b (LXX Ps 36:17b)—then speaks of God’s knowledge of the upright and their enduring inheritance. The Gospel calls the servants to watch, pray, and attend to the work entrusted to each. Waiting on the Lord is therefore not idleness: the One who supports us also gives us work to do.
  • At Liturgy, the source prints “Psalm 37:30-31,” corresponding to Psalm 37:30-31 (LXX Ps 36:30-31), before Luke 16:1-12. Law in the heart meets the Gospel’s demand for faithfulness in small things and in the use of entrusted wealth. The appointed apostolic readings place this beside service built on Christ, humility, vigilance and growth in the faith. The lesson is truthful stewardship, not admiration for dishonest success.9

These are particular service witnesses, not a unique appointment for one commemoration or a claim about every year’s observance. Other retained annual/date readings also place excerpts at Vespers.

The available Agpeya and Pascha references did not yield an appointment of the whole Psalm 37 (LXX Ps 36). There is, however, a clear Gospel echo at the Agpeya’s Sixth Hour: Matthew 5:1-16 includes Christ’s Beatitude receiving the meek’s inheritance promise. This is reception through the Gospel, not an appointment of the whole Psalm.10

Iconography Connection 🖼️

Psalm 37 can be contemplated alongside an icon of Christ teaching the Beatitudes, especially because Matthew 5:5 receives the Psalm directly. It also illuminates icons of desert saints and martyrs: people who appeared weak before the world, yet became heirs through meekness, endurance, and trust. Their holiness is not worldly success under a religious name. Their inheritance is hidden in God.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Do not let someone else’s evil govern your inner life. Fretfulness can become imitation. Bring the wrong before God without rehearsing how to repay it.
  2. Practice active trust. Hope in the Lord, do good, disclose your way, submit, supplicate, wait. Choose one good action that resentment has been delaying.
  3. Choose the little that is clean over abundance that corrupts. The soul cannot be fed by poisoned gain. Let honesty govern what you earn and compassion govern what you share.
  4. Let failure become dependence, not despair. When the righteous falls, the Lord supports his hand. Seek His help, receive needed care, and return to the next faithful step.
  5. Become meek in Christ, not merely quiet by temperament. The meek inherit because Christ, the meek King, gives the Kingdom. Ask Him for a heart free to do good without grasping or retaliation.

Footnotes

  1. St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, paragraph recommending Psalm 36 when the wicked attack the weak and provoke envy. Paraphrased from the available English witness; translator unidentified. ↩

  2. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, English Psalm XXXVII / Latin XXXVI, first discourse, §11, on the inheritance and abundance of peace. J. E. Tweed, translator; A. Cleveland Coxe, condensation and annotation; Philip Schaff, series editor, NPNF, First Series, vol. 8. Public-domain text at CCEL. The quotation expresses Augustine’s contrast between envied luxury and lasting peace with God; it does not adopt every detail of his account of the inherited land. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, Homily 80, §4, on covetousness, insatiable desire and virtue. George Prevost, translator; M. B. Riddle, reviser; Philip Schaff, series editor. Used as a thematic parallel, not direct Psalm commentary or a claim that victims suffer no real injury. ↩

  4. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, English Psalm XXXVII / Latin XXXVI, second discourse, §11, interpreting those who bless God as fellow-heirs with Christ. Text at CCEL. His biblical lemma and its verse label are not used to renumber Brenton. ↩

  5. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, English Psalm XXXVII / Latin XXXVI, third discourse, §§1-4, confronting the hunger of righteous people before offering a spiritual reading of bread. Text at CCEL. ↩

  6. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, English Psalm XXXVII / Latin XXXVI, third discourse, §§7-9, on doing good, God’s justice and the seed of the wicked. Text at CCEL. His reading of seed as works is a spiritual interpretation, not a replacement of the displayed wording. ↩

  7. Fr Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Commentary on the Psalms, chapter 37, discussion of the righteous person’s mouth, heart and steps, PDF pp. 566-567. Commentary access page. Modern Coptic pastoral witness; paraphrase only. ↩

  8. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, English Psalm XXXVII / Latin XXXVI, third discourse, §§14-15, interpreting the peaceable person’s remainder through Christ’s promise of life beyond death. Text at CCEL. ↩

  9. CopticChurch.net, readings for February 20, 2024, Amshir 12. Matins prints “Psalm 37:17 & Psalm 37:18 & Psalm 37:29” with “Mk 13:33-37”; the Psalm begins with the support clause only. Liturgy prints “Psalm 37:30-31” with “Lk 16:1-12”; its complete apostolic group is 1 Corinthians 3:4-23, 1 Peter 5:5-14, and Acts 18:24-19:6 by displayed content. The page prints the Acts heading as “Acts 18:24— & Acts 19:1-6.” The Gospel ends at Luke 16:12; the stewardship application does not depend on extending its endpoint. ↩

  10. Book of Agpeya, Sixth Hour Gospel, PDF pp. 98-99, Matthew 5:1-16. The Beatitude receives Psalm 37:11 (LXX Ps 36:11); this does not appoint the whole Psalm among the hour’s twelve Psalms. ↩

Reading statusLoading your browser-local progress
Saved only in this browser
Referenced Fathers:

Created: | Updated:

Related Studies & References

Referenced in Other Studies