Psalm 37 (Part 07) – Psa 37:13-14 – The LORD Laughs at the Wicked Who Persecute the Poor and Upright

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Psa 37:13 – “The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.”

1. The only time the Lord is said to laugh in scripture is when He is laughing in derision at the wicked (Psa 2:4; Psa 59:8; Pro 1:26).
2. The Lord laughs at the wicked because He sees that his day is coming.
3. “His day” is the day that the wicked will be judged (1Sa 26:10; Job 18:16-21).
4. The Lord has appointed a day that he will punish the wicked.
5. For some, that day comes in this life (1Ti 5:24), for others it happens on judgment day (2Co 5:10; Rev 20:11-12).
6. When Jesus comes back on “His day” to judge the earth (Luk 17:24), for the wicked, it will be “his day” that the Lord saw coming long ago.

iii.    Those that plot against the righteous (Psa 37:12) will be confounded (Psa 35:4).

1. Confounded ppl. 1. Discomfited, abashed, put to shame or mental confusion; confused, disordered, etc.
2. God will plot to do evil against those who plot to do evil (Mic 2:1-3).
3. When wicked men plotted to murder the Son of God, God laughed at them from the heavens and proceeded to destroy them (Psa 2:1-9).

Psa 37:14 – “The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.”

2. The wicked prey on two types of people: the poor, and the righteous.
3. The poor and needy
4. The poor are hated by their neighbors, family, and friends (Pro 14:20; Pro 19:7).
5. But never forget, it’s better to be poor and righteous than rich and wicked (Pro 28:6).

iii.    The wicked have no regard for the poor (Pro 29:7).

1. The poor and needy, along with the widow, fatherless, and stranger, are a weak and easy target for the wicked (Zec 7:10; Psa 94:4-6; Job 20:19; Job 24:1-10; Job 24:14; Psa 10:2, 8-10).
2. The wicked are told to rob not the poor because they are poor (Pro 22:22).
3. Wicked rulers often oppress the poor (Pro 28:15).

vii.  It is a wicked generation who devour the poor (Pro 30:14).

viii.Those that oppress the poor to increase their riches will be made poor by God (Pro 22:16).

1. It is especially injurious and insulting when a poor man oppresses another poor man (Pro 28:3).
2. The righteous
3. Upright adj. – III. fig. 8. a. Of persons: Adhering to or following correct moral principles; of unbending integrity or rectitude; morally just, honest, or honourable. b. Of the mind, qualities, actions, etc.: Marked or characterized by integrity or probity; having conformity or accordance with moral rectitude.
4. Conversation n. – 1. The action of living or having one’s being in a place or among persons. Also fig. of one’s spiritual being. Obs.

iii.    The just are an abomination to the wicked (Pro 29:27).

1. The poor man who is an upright man is especially odious to the wicked (Pro 19:1; Pro 28:6).
2. The wicked focus their persecution on the righteous.
3. Evil rich men condemn and kill the just who don’t resist them (Jam 5:6).
4. The wicked target the upright (Psa 11:2).
5. The strange woman hunts for the precious life (Pro 6:26).