Psalm 37:25-26 - April 26, 2009

Ps 37:25-26 "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. 26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed." NIV

Verses 25 and 26 echo the preceding passage in their declaration of two principles; the Lord will not forsake the righteous and their nature is to relate to their personal finances with a spirit of generosity. It is impacting to consider that these concepts have so captured David’s heart in this season of his life that he expands on the same issues in verses 25-26 that he has just presented in verses 21-24. David is looking back over the span of his life and teaching from the wisdom generated by personal experience. David has been a shepherd, a military leader, a persecuted refugee, a king, a husband, a father, a musician and worshipper and in all of these diverse experiences he is able to make a powerful statement of the Lord’s faithfulness towards the righteous. “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.” What a compelling invitation to live uprightly!!
Here is a man of such incredible prominence and experience in the ways of the Lord and his testimony is that the Lord has been consistently faithful, not only to the righteous but to their heritage – their children. It seems as if the second verse in this portion of the psalm is the explanation of the lifestyle that has brought such blessing. David simply states “they are always generous and lend freely.” Of all of the justifications for receiving God’s faithfulness that David could have chosen to focus on it is thought provoking that his attention is on the fact that those who have been blessed have demonstrated a lifestyle of generosity in
giving and compassionately lending.
This passage is so confidently confirming in its witness as it echoes the principle that Jesus teaches more clearly in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”KJV The righteous man has tapped into the principle of sowing and reaping in the very attitude of his heart. His generous nature perpetuates his prosperity. In Mt. 24:12 Jesus talks about the reality that in the last days lawlessness will increase and as a result the love of many will be greatly diminished. It can only be assumed that this same lawlessness will impact the culture and the economic realms in such a way that people will be greatly tempted to hoard and adopt desperate attitudes towards the meeting of their personal needs. This spirit will bring all of those who adopt its values into a place of barrenness and lack that flows out of their fear and unwillingness to continue to sow the seed of generosity. It is vital in this hour that God’s people believe God’s promise that we can prosper regardless of the current economy and give ourselves more fully to living a life that is sowing to the spirit not to the
realms of the flesh.