In the sermon titled 'A Proper Response to 2020,' Trent Moody explores Psalm 37 to offer guidance on how believers should reflect on the past year and prepare for the next. The sermon emphasizes the importance of not fretting over evil doers or envious of workers of iniquity, as their prosperity is temporary. Instead, believers are called to trust in the Lord, do good, and dwell in the land, feeding on His faithfulness. Moody highlights the tendency to fret and be envious as stemming from a short-sighted view, encouraging believers to see beyond immediate circumstances with the eyes of faith. The sermon underscores the need for an active faith, not merely passive trust, and calls believers to delight in the Lord, as this mindset ensures that God will grant the desires of their hearts. The sermon concludes with an exhortation to trust in the divine plan, delight in God, and find peace in His eternal promises, regardless of worldly events.

What I want to speak about today. That was a good choice. Go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 37. And we'll be looking at hopefully the first 11 verses, but this message really has grown a little in my heart, so I don't want to keep us too long and so it might be part one and I'll maybe bring the next part next week but we'll see how that goes. Psalm 37 and I want us to think about the right response to 2020 or this past year as we're bringing this year to a close and really looking back I think part of the I think it's very important for us as we begin to look forward is that we also look back and see where God has brought us and where he is taking us so Psalm 37 I'm gonna read the first 11 verses.

This is the heritage of the righteous and the calamity of the wicked and it is a psalm of David. Thus says the Lord, do not fret because of evildoers Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass, cease from anger and forsake wrath.

Do not fret, it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more indeed you will look carefully for his place but it shall be no more but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you dear Lord for the Psalms.

Lord in the midst of chaos and all sorts of calamities around us and the challenges of life and when we see the wicked prospering Lord, our heart has a tendency to fret. We have a tendency to forsake trusting in you when we don't see things going the way we like for them to go. When we face challenges and we see sicknesses and even death of loved ones, trials and difficulties. But Lord, you call us back through the Psalms and you establish our heart and you set our feet upon the rock. You make our way straight.

You bring us out of a miry pit and you set our feet upon the rock and we're thankful for that Lord. So I pray that that would be the case today. That you would lift us up. That this will be a time of encouragement and also a time of looking forward not only as we look back at this past year but as we look forward that we know the course we are to take because it is the same yesterday today and forever that we would follow the word of the Lord which is established forever and we ask this in Christ's name amen so a right response to 2020 or this past year and then also as this becomes a two-part most likely a right preparation for 2021 And really it's interesting because these two aspects of this are the same. As we look back on what we have come from and where God is taking us, our duty is the same.

We are not people who are to be fiddling around with circumstances. Circumstances come, situations arise, but our feet are established upon the word of God that is forever. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word will last forever. So we're not tossed to and fro by the winds of culture. We are established upon the sure word of Almighty God.

So in considering this past year and all that we have seen, I have come to believe that Psalm 37 will really be a great aid for us in our response to this past year. The psalm has been described as a psalm in which the Lord hushes most sweetly the too common repining of his people and calms their minds to his present dealings with his own chosen flock and the wolves by whom they are surrounded. And that is what I desire to see today that our common repining, the uncommness or the fretting of our spirits would be calmed because of our Father who shepherds us. I love the instruction of Matthew Henry in regarding this psalm. He says in singing this psalm we must teach it and admonish one another rightly to understand the providence and to accommodate ourselves excuse me the providence of God and to accommodate ourselves to it at all times carefully to do our duty and then patiently patiently to leave the event with God and to believe that how black soever things may look for the present it shall be well with those who fear the Lord that fear before him.

So I have six precepts that I want to lay out for us. I'll probably only get to three of them, we'll see, that I believe will aid us as we respond to this past year. This response will be really just an inward response to us. And they're nothing fancy, it's just exactly what the scripture states is very plain very elementary it's just laid out for us verse by verse as we think about all of these events it's hard to imagine that that many events and circumstances and unusual happenings happened within a span of one year. But think back just for a moment of all the things that have taken place and think of the the emotions that you felt.

Think of possibly the uncertainties that you have experienced. Think of the trials that you have faced. We think of the loss of loved ones but yet we also think of the marriage of loved ones. We think of the birth of new children. So this year has been wrapped up in so many different aspects of highs and lows and uncertainties and all of these things together and as we think about this year he states this first and foremost do not fret because of evildoers.

One of the natural tendencies of our heart is when we find ourselves in circumstances that are out of our control that we seem to have this tendency to fret. Now this word fret here is not exactly what at least my mind would consider fretting would be worrisome. It's a little different than that although that is involved within it. Fretting here means to be grieved or to be troubled, to be displeased and it's closely associated with anger. So the psalmist here is dealing as you could tell as we read these 11 verses, the psalmist here is dealing with those workers of wickedness or iniquity who are prospering.

We see them growing up and flourishing and coming to power. And how do we respond to that inside? How do we respond? Sometimes it may be anger, sometimes it may be worry, it may be something that is grievous or even a troubled spirit. It is something that we see connected in verses eight, or in verse eight it says, cease from anger and forsake wrath, do not fret, it only causes harm.

That's something that we need to nail down and remember as we look back in our response to what has happened this past year The uncertainties and when we see things that we've been praying for not going our way. We see the election cycle and all the chaos surrounded by around that. We see what our governor has done. We see what city officials have done. Elections and all of these sorts of things are happening and our tendency there, the natural tendency of man, is to fret.

2020 has definitely given us many opportunities to fret but here David exhorts us not to fret because of evildoers. Now it's important to understand that this psalm, Psalm 37, is not a psalm where David is singing unto God as many of them are, but it is a psalm where David really is singing to other believers. There are times, and I love that in the scriptures, where it talks about singing, and we sing in our hearts making melody unto our heart and to the Lord, but we also are singing to one another. This is an encouragement psalm, is what it is. It is a song that was sung to bring encouragement and call forth from God's people a trust and an encouragement in God and that is really what I believe we need.

We need something that would call us back from this fretfulness and set that aside. Turn it away from our natural tendencies as when we see lawbreakers exalted, when we see God haters getting their way, When we see crimes and oppression without judgment, we get angry and we fret. Now these two reactions that we see here in this first verse do not fret because of evildoers nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. Fretting and enviousness often go hand in hand, or at least one leads to the other. The temptation that we find in our own hearts is that we want the power and the abundance that they possess.

We don't like seeing them prosper. We don't like seeing them get the place of power or authority, whether it be in our civil government or something on a different scale. We don't like to see that. And so we have a temptation there to become envious of these things. What will aid us in this battle against fretting and enviousness of wicked men?

You know it's often the case the reason we feel this fretting and with the reason we feel this enviousness is because we are short-sighted. As one commentator described it we are like men with their eyes half closed and we don't see clearly what God is doing. As often is the case, our short-sightedness and failure to look beyond the present state of where we are right now causes us to fret or to be envious. What we heard this morning is something that would definitely we need to be aware of we need to be understood and I thank my dear brother for bringing these things to us and to our attention. There's a tendency there when we hear that to fret, to be envious of the power that these wicked doers may have.

But my friend God is calling us not to fret and I'm going to show you what he's calling us to. So this first precept is do not fret because of evildoers. We are short-sighted and forget that they, as the scripture says, shall soon be cut down like the grass and they shall wither as the green herb. Spurgeon notes that evil men, instead of being envied, are to be viewed with horror and aversion. Yet, their loaded tables and their gilded trappings are too apt to fascinate our half-opened eyes.

Who envies the fat bullock, the ribbons and the garlands which decorate him as he is led to the shambles. Yet the case is a parallel one, for ungodly rich men are but as beasts fattened for the slaughter. Consider these workers of iniquity. Consider their end. Do not fret.

There is a God in the heavens who will take these people and they will soon be cut down like the grass and they will soon wither as the green herb. So I exhort you this afternoon do not fret but remember their end. Our Heavenly Father will soon do this and as we're looking to the book of Revelation, I want to quote one verse from there in chapter 14. In verse 14 the scripture says this, then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the cloud one like the Son of Man with a golden crown in his hand on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand and another angel came up out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe so he who sat on the cloud swung in his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped And this is talking about not reaping of the godly, this is talking about reaping of the wicked. Because you read on from this verse and through the rest of chapter 14 and he's talking about those reaping the grapes and he puts the grapes into the winepress of the wrath of God.

And that is where the wicked will be. There's no need to fret. There is a God in the heavens who is sovereign overall. The second precept here we see in verse 3 is this very simply, trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord.

I really don't have anything new to tell you today. Don't worry and trust in God. You've heard these things since you were a child. Trust in the Lord. Why is it that we have to be reminded over and over and over again?

Because we fail to do these things that God tells us to do. Our natural tendency is not to trust in God but to trust in the arm of the flesh. But here we are commanded trust in the Lord and do good. Faith sees clearer than sight. Don't look at our circumstances based upon what you see with your natural eyes.

Faith sees clearer than sight. I'm sure you've heard it said, seeing is believing. But when it comes to spiritual truth, believing is seeing. And you will see the things that God has for his people. Faith cures fretting, it has been said.

It has also been said that sight is cross-eyed and views things only as they seem. Hence her envy. Faith has clearer optics to behold things as they really are. Hence her peace. Hence her peace.

Those who trust in the Lord will be at peace though 10, 000 fall at their right side. They know who trust in the Lord that God is with them. There is a God in the heavens who watches over the affairs of men. This is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Christian life. Trust in the Lord.

Our tendency though, of course, is to doubt. Our tendency there, as we see these things going around us and the things that have happened this past year, and when we hear about the plans of the wicked, it talks about that, when we hear about the plans of the wicked, our tendency there is to doubt and to become fearful. We have seen many things this year that would cause us to doubt, but God exhorts you to trust in him. Trust when you cannot see the plan. Trust when the outcome is not what you prayed for.

Trust in the Lord, for he is guiding everything to a determined end. Now lest you think I'm calling you to this inactive faith that we just sit back and let go and let God that is not what I'm calling you to do that is not what David is calling you to do. Look at what he says, trust in the Lord and do good. It is not an inactive faith that God is calling us to. It is a faith that God wants us to do good.

That's what the scripture tells us throughout all of the scriptures, Old and New Testament, faith is active. Faith works. Trust in the Lord and do good. They always go hand in hand. True faith is never without good works.

Faith without works is dead. We possess an act of faith as James says in 2 18, show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Trusting in God to feed your family and then not going to work is not trusting God. That's testing God. We are to be the people who trust in God But there is a danger on the other side of this as well.

Doing good and not trusting God. Believing that our actions affect the outcome of all things and not trusting in God, but trusting in the strength of our own abilities. That is failure as well. There is always a ditch on both sides of the road folks. I mean I'm not that old but I have lived long enough to know there is always a ditch on both sides of the roads.

We must be careful. Faith without works is dead and works without faith is self-righteousness and leads to destruction. Trust in the Lord and do good. What is this good? Well, as simply put, the good is the Word of God.

All of it. Do good. How do you know how to react in this circumstance that we find ourselves in as we're ending 2020 with all of this chaos going around? We go to the Word of God. What does it tell us to do?

Don't fret, trust in the Lord. I don't care what happens in 2020. Don't fret, trust in the Lord, and you will be following the will of God for your life and do good. Do good. Do the things that God has told us to do.

It's easy to get caught up into the crowd doing those things that even your crowd may be doing that are not the good things that God has called us to do. So be careful. There is a ditch on both sides of the road. We may have people that we are following and we like and we appreciate what they say and maybe they're believers and maybe they're not but be careful you test all things by the Word of God you test the spirits to see if they're of God are these things of the Lord guard yourselves my friends but let me warn you there is a danger there as well Look to the Word of God to determine if the action is good or evil and then as the song says, let's see I miss my song, trust in the Lord I'll just say that. I had a song but I deleted it Mike, I believe that was the part I deleted.

Then he says this very interesting in the second part of verse 3, trust in the Lord and do good and then he says this dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Now we know that this psalm was written by David and it was written to the Jewish nation and God had given them a promise a promise of possession of the land that God had promised all the way back in the book of Genesis to Abraham and through his descendants and that they were to dwell in the land and God had a promised land for them. But my friends, we also have the promise of an inheritance. We have a promised land that we are looking forward to. We have a city whose maker and builder is God and it is eternal in the heavens.

But until that time we are to dwell in the sense in the land. Now this is wisdom poetry. It is addressed from man to man and it is a song of encouragement, a song sung for believers to believers. And here I believe is what David is encouraging us to do, and that is to continue trusting in the faithfulness of God's promises. That was the promise that God had given to Abraham and through his descendants that they would dwell in this land.

But this being a psalm is true also for the church. God has promised us something. We are to trust in the faithfulness of God. One of the things that God has said is, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And even though we may find ourselves tempted and tried and discouraged and pressed down and in great tribulation and persecutions, God will never leave you nor forsake you.

We have a promise of God that he is with us and that he will guide us in the way. Consider that the land to the Jews was the land of promise. It was their inheritance, the promise to Abraham. And David is telling us again, trust in God to care for us even when the wicked prosper. We have a promise.

We have a promised rest even when we are living in the midst of chaos and crisis. And then he says this, feed on his faithfulness. I believe this implies more than just a couple of things. First and foremost another translation writes it like this, and verily thou shalt be fed and truly you shall be fed. So he says trust in the Lord, do good, dwell in the land, or trust God in his promises to be faithful, and then feed on his faithfulness, or truly or verily you shall be fed.

This implies that our God is a good shepherd. And our minds immediately go to Psalm 23 and speaking about the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Dear church, God is our shepherd and truly you shall be fed. Do not fret, trust in the Lord, you shall be fed by a faithful shepherd who will feed you, he will lead you beside the still waters, he will lead you and make you to lie down in green pastures, your soul shall be fed. Similar to the exhortation of taste and see that the Lord is good.

Try him. I've tried him and God is good. Taste and see the Lord is good. There seems here in this next precept a progression that is these first two things take place. Do not fret, trust in the Lord, and then this, delight yourself also in the Lord.

In verse four, delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. You see you cannot delight yourself in the Lord if you are fretting and faithless. We are instructed and commanded to delight in the Lord. And so I have a question. Examine your heart right now.

Is the Lord your delight? What is it that delights your soul? Where do you find your peace? If not, if the Lord is not, why not? Well, I believe that it is two things specifically.

One, you are fretting over the wicked or over your negative circumstances and you're not actively trusting in the Lord through obedience to his word. But here we are given actual steps to take to move us from fretting to delighting. Do not fret, trust in the Lord, feed on his faithfulness, delight yourself in the Lord. Christ delighted in the Lord. Why?

Because God was his portion. The scripture says in Psalm 40, I delight to do your will, oh my God, and your law is within my heart. And this was quoted in Hebrews 10-7 and he speaks about Christ delighting to do the will of God. Christ delighted in the Lord and he had no place he said to lay his head. Christ delighted in the Lord and he lived under a Caesar and under a herod.

Christ delighted in the Lord and his own people hated him, mocked him, and crucified him. Be like Christ. As Scott often says, Jesus was the happiest person ever to live and that is because he delighted in the Lord. He delighted in the God, in his God, his Father. John 434 says Jesus said to them my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

There have been many things this past year that if they had gone differently I'm sure we have we would have been very delighted. We could have seen the turn of events happen in this way that we've been praying for and hoping for and and really desiring. Man we would be delighted. We would have been exuberant. We would have been tickled to death, but there is a delight that is so much on another level that the things of this world cannot affect our delight in God.

It's not based upon how things go, but rather on who God is. You find your greatest delight in the attributes of who God is and how he is working in your heart and life to reveal himself to you through his word and you will delight in the Lord and in fact he has ordained every event leading up to this point. Your shepherd has ordained specifically every event that we have seen in 2020. And he has and will or has ordained every event that will take place in 2021. Why are you fretful?

Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Believe in God. Trust in the Lord. You see, when we delight in God, we become like Christ. Christ trusted his father through all events.

He never doubted what the Lord was doing. He delighted to do the will of God even when he knew the will of God was for him to go and set his face like flint towards Jerusalem. And when he knew that he was going to go there and be mocked and condemned and beaten and crucified. He delighted in the will of God. Every event that God ordained for him he did not fret.

He trusted in God and so I call you to feed on the faithfulness of God and to delight in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart." And I will end with this one. He will give you the desires of your heart. But notice which part comes first. Delight in the Lord. Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The heart that delights in the Lord does not delight in the things of the world. Nor is it at all wrapped up with the temporal pleasures of the world. We don't look to the wicked and say, boy, I really want those things. I really think like this person over here who is not a believer. No, we delight in the things of God.

We find our pleasure and our joy in the things of the Lord. I don't know about you, but when I come here on Sunday morning and I see God's people coming in and they're coming in with joy on their faces and they come in because they want to worship God and they're willing to cast off the fears of the world that we see and they're willing to cast off of all of those other things that we even see professing believers fearful of and they come into the house of God and they're ready to sing and lift their hearts and praises to the Lord, that does my heart good. That causes me to delight in the Lord because I see that God has been working in your heart and life and he has given you the joy of his salvation. And it brings forth joy in my salvation. And it causes me to realize that there is a God in the heavens who's working in the hearts of men and women to bring them to this place, to cast off all fears, and to trust in the Lord, and to delight in the Lord and in his ways.

Matthew 7 verses 9 to 11 says this, Or what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread will he give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? You can delight in that God. He is better than any earthly father that you have or have not had, he will give you abundantly above all that you ask or think, which gives you greater delight that Jesus rules over the nations or that the election went the way you wanted it. You see my friends we should have more delight every Lord's day than over every temporal victory that would be over in four more years.

We have a God who is sitting on the throne and he rules over the nations of men and he does all his holy will. Do not fret. Trust in the Lord. Delight in the Lord. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you that you calm our spirits. You call us and you hush our worrisome minds. Your word is the lamp unto our feet and it is the light unto our path. Dear God I pray that every soul that is listening to your word right now that their hearts would be delighting in you. That there would be such a calm that comes over them, that they will remove all fretting, all worry, and all fearfulness, and that they will trust in the God of their salvation to shepherd them no matter what comes our way.

We have never seen the righteous baking bread. You feed your sheep. You are the good shepherd and we praise your holy name. Amen.