Day 138 – February 29, 2024: Psalm 36-39 and Proverbs 15-16

On a day when we only have psalms and proverbs one can easily run into another. There is one aspect of the psalms that I didn’t realize and I should have. Look at Psalm 37:11 where it states that the meek shall inherit the earth. It is then directly quoted by Jesus on the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:5, and it makes so much more sense within the context of the psalm rather than just when Jesus said it. We know that in the psalm the meek are the Israelites and the earth is the promised land that the Lord has promised to them over the time period in which he has established their covenant with them. Jesus is confirming this promise and reminding the people that God has not abandoned or forsaken them.

A commonality with the psalms and the proverbs that we read is that the wicked and the righteous are juxtaposed with the Lord showing favor to the righteous. Now, while this does not happen in real life, that the righteous are actually favored and we can see and experience that favoritism, there is a sense that the Lord requires us to be righteous because He is righteous. There is a constant repitition of making sure that if we are to follow the Lord, whose love is from everlasting to everlasting by the way, then we ought to emulate the righteousness that he exhibits.