Psalms 37

Fret because of evildoers, neither be envious of wrongdoers! Wesley: Fret not—Because they prosper in their wicked enterprizes. The opening refuses both fretting and envy when wrongdoers flourish.

Do not let their success set the temperature of your heart. Prosperity in wicked enterprizes is no pretense; fretting at it is still sin. Ask for quiet trust before envy takes root.

Calvin: Fret not thyself because of the wicked—the prosperity of the wicked, in which they greatly rejoice, should on no account vex the children of God, because it will soon fade. He condemns two allied affections: first fretting, then envy that would involve us in the same wickedness. All depends upon providence; unless persuaded the world is governed by God in righteousness, minds soon stagger.

Guard against the twin snare. When their ease irritates you, refuse the next step into envy; hold providence before your eyes until fretting loses its grip.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Grass-strength decays quickly; the green herb withers under heat without needing a human scythe.

Measure their flourishing by its end. Soon-fade is the antidote to envy; let the clock of their greenness steady your patience.

Calvin: if the wicked flourish today like grass, tomorrow they shall be cut down and wither. The judgment of God, like a scythe, shall cut them down so that they suddenly perish.

Wait the scythe rather than seize it. Their greenness is not permanence; refuse to rearrange your morals around a plant that withers.

Trust in the LORD and do good; live in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Trust is joined to doing good; dwelling and faithfulness belong together under his care.

Put trust first, then practice good where you dwell. Do not treat faithfulness as optional garnish on belief; inhabit the land as one who befriends what is true.

Calvin: Put thy trust in Jehovah, and do good—faith first, for God is author of all good and by his blessing alone prosperity is looked for; yet he connects this with a holy life. Dwell in the land: as if he had put them in possession; Be fed in truth—secure continuance under his protection.

Trust that governs life into uprightness. Refuse the split between confidence in God and doing good; dwell as those fed under his faithful care.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Delight in him is the path; desires follow that joy, not the reverse.

Seek delight in the Lord before you catalog wants. Train the heart to find pleasure in him; then ask with a heart already joyfully fixed.

Calvin: Delight thyself in Jehovah—set against the vain allurements that intoxicate the ungodly. If we stay our minds wholly upon God instead of roaming after idle fancies, he will liberally bestow what we shall desire: not whatever fancy suggests, nor all vain desires, but what suits those satisfied in the enjoyment of God alone.

Make him the portion that outruns the world's pleasures. Hold desires under delight in him; refuse to treat the promise as a blank check for every idle wish.

Commit your way to the LORD. Trust also in him, and he will act. Wesley: Commit—All thy cares and business, and necessities, commend to God by fervent prayer. Trust accompanies the commit; he will act.

Hand cares, business, and necessities to him in prayer. Do not keep a private management track beside the prayer; commend the way, then trust that he acts.

Calvin: Roll thy ways upon Jehovah—leaving the issue of all affairs to his will, patiently waiting for prosperity or adversity, cast all cares into his bosom. Trust in him: we render the honor due only when we entrust to him the government and direction of our lives. The remedy for envy and excess of sorrow is to fix eyes on providence rather than pretend we can bear the whole burden ourselves.

Roll the load off your shoulders onto his. Stop governing your life as if unaided wisdom were enough; trust him to act when the way is truly committed.

He will make your righteousness shine out like light, and your justice as the noonday. Wesley: Judgment—It shall be as visible to men, as the light of the sun, at noon-day. Hidden integrity will not stay buried forever.

Wait for noon visibility, not midnight vindication on your schedule. Ask him to bring righteousness into the light; refuse bitter haste that would force the dawn.

Calvin: he will not suffer righteousness always hid in darkness, but will maintain it and bring it forth to the light—as night is dispelled by day. When integrity meets calumny or seems to lose its labor, expect the dawning rather than conclude God disapproves innocence.

Let the coming light sustain hope under dark misjudgment. Do not read delay as divine rejection of your uprightness; wait the noonday he has promised.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen! Wesley: Rest—Do not repine at his dealings, but quietly submit to his will, and wait for his help. Stillness and patient waiting answer the prospering schemer.

Practice quiet submission while you wait for help. Repining at God's dealings and fretting at the prospering man both break stillness; return to rest before the Lord.

Calvin: Be silent to Jehovah—faith restores humble, peaceful submission and appeases the tumults of the heart. Wait with hope and patience; fret not because of the man who prospers in his way or who accomplishes wicked devices. The great temptation is fortune smiling on the ungodly as if God approved their wickedness.

Silence the tumult rather than argue with providence. Hold still until he executes his work; refuse to let another man's successful evil set your heart on fire.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret; it leads only to evildoing. Wesley: Fret not—Either against the sinner for his success; or against God. Do evil—If grief arise in thee, take care that it do not transport thee to sin. Anger, wrath, and fretting are chained toward evil.

Check grief before it becomes sin. Forsake wrath at the sinner's success and refuse anger at God; fretting is not a harmless mood—it leads only to evildoing.

Calvin: accumulation of terms restrains anger, allays wrath, and assuages passion—numerous remedies for a hard disease. Fret not so as to do evil: the offense we take at the wicked's prosperity leads to sin unless speedily checked.

Lay a bridle on tumultuous passion. Do not wait until fretting has already drafted you into evil; cut the chain early where anger and wrath begin.

For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. Wesley: The earth—This for the most part was literally fulfilled in that state of the church. Cutting off and inheritance are the two ends that steady waiting.

Wait for the Lord rather than seize the land by fretting. Inherit-the-land hope is for those who wait; do not envy those soon to be cut off.

Calvin: the happiness of the ungodly is only a mask; estimate the present by the state in which it will terminate. Those that wait upon the Lord—not first named as righteous but as waiters—shall inherit the earth. Possession is not always realized as fixed ease; they live as strangers, yet are rightful heirs, eating bread with quiet conscience under his hand.

Judge by the end, not the mask of present ease. Wait under the cross without abandoning the promise; inherit as heirs who still sojourn, not as those who demand unbroken rest now.

For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there. Wesley: Not be—He shall be dead and gone. Diligently—Industriously seeking him. His place—His place and estate, and glory. A little while reframes the whole scene.

Look again after a little while. Place, estate, and glory that seem permanent will not be there; let that empty place preach patience.

Calvin: Yet a little while—guard against rash, hasty judgment. Suspend judgment; exercise thoughts in meditation upon providence until God shows the full time is come. Looking upon his place and not finding him confirms the prior word.

Give providence time before you rewrite the doctrine. A little while is enough to empty the wicked's place; wait without stopping at every trifle of present appearance.

But the humble shall inherit the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Wesley: But—Those who patiently bear God's afflicting hand, and meekly pass by injuries. Peace—Partly of outward peace and prosperity, which God in his due time will give them: but principally of inward peace, in the sense of God's favour and the assurance of endless happiness.

Learn meekness under affliction and injury. Inherit-the-land and abundant peace are for the patient; seek principally the inward favour that outlasts outward ease.

Calvin: instead of waiters he now speaks of the meek—hope alone produces meekness, restraining the flesh's impetuosity. From this passage Christ takes Matthew 5:5. Peace: while the ungodly are agitated, the faithful rejoice in abundance of peace—not exempt from trouble, but sustained by tranquillity, accounting trials temporary.

Let hope train meekness rather than revenge. Delight in abundant peace as present composure under trial and as pledged rest; refuse to treat meekness as weakness while you wait for the land.

The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord will laugh at him, Plot and gnashing answer the meek's peace with open hostility.

Name the plot without matching the teeth. Meek inheritance does not annul present malice; keep peace without pretending the wicked have gone quiet.

Calvin: anticipates the objection—where is tranquillity when the wicked plot mischief? He confesses they burn with rage and gnash with teeth, yet their endeavors shall be vain. The design is to prevent fear that they can do with us according to their pleasure.

Admit the danger and still deny their sovereignty. Plotting and gnashing are true; they are not final. Rest in God's aid rather than in a fantasy of unopposed quiet.

“The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.” Wesley: His day—The day appointed by God for his punishment or destruction. Divine laughter is not indifference; it is certainty of the appointed day.

Read the Lord's laugh as scheduled justice, not as delay that abandons you. His day is coming; let that calm the urge to force a day of your own.

Calvin: God laughing seems cold comfort until we learn it is a trial of patience—he connives for a time, yet by the eye of faith we behold him laughing, assured he is not idle in heaven. He sees the day of their destruction at hand; weep patiently while he laughs, that tears may be a sacrifice of obedience.

Join faith's sight of his laughter. Do not call silence divine absence; ask light to see the coming day so you can wait without murmuring for private revenge.

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright; Armed intent targets the poor, needy, and upright.

See the weapon pointed at the weak and the upright. Prayer for peace does not deny drawn swords; bring the threat to God without laying down uprightness.

Calvin: although the wicked draw sword and bend bow to destroy the righteous, their efforts shall return upon their own heads. The righteous are called poor and needy—afflicted without cause, upright in ways as well as heart.

Expect conflict, not unbroken ease, while you wait the promise. Uniform quiet is not what this psalm pledges; hope of a blessed issue under threat is.

“Their sword shall enter into their own heart.” Their bows shall be broken. Rebound judgment: the weapon turns home; the bow fails.

Leave the rebound to God. Do not envy the drawn sword; ask that malice cancel itself under his hand while you keep an upright way.

Calvin: their sword shall enter into their own bowels; their bow shall be broken. God may seem only to laugh for a time, yet he denounces vengeance—the ungodly prevail so little that their own arms undo them.

Trust the broken bow more than your counterstroke. When swords are out, wait the self-wounding of evil rather than baptizing your own blade as providence.

Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked. Little with righteousness outweighs crowded wicked wealth.

Prefer the little that is clean. Abundance of many wicked is a poor trade for a quiet conscience; learn to call the smaller portion better.

Calvin: contrasts the limited possessions of one righteous man with the riches and wealth of many wicked. David speaks not so much of external grandeur as of the secret blessing of God that truly enriches—the righteous fed as with manna, the ungodly hungry in abundance.

Weigh by secret blessing, not by pile size. Look forward by faith to hidden judgments; the little upheld by God outvalues the many arms soon to break.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. Broken arms versus upheld righteous—the reason the little is better.

Trust the upholding more than the presently strong arm. Strength that will be broken is not worth envy; lean on the Lord who upholds.

Calvin: nothing stable in the world except sustained by God's power; the righteous only are upheld, and the power of the ungodly shall be broken. Wait patiently till God arise and break their arms; the best consolation in infirmity is that God himself upholds and strengthens us.

Measure stability by who upholds you. Do not magnify present wicked strength; wait for broken arms and rest in being held.

The LORD knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever; Wesley: Knoweth—Observes with care and affection. The days—All things which befal them, their dangers and fears, and suffering. For ever—To them and their seed for ever: and when they die their inheritance is not lost, but exchanged for one infinitely better.

Rest in affectionate knowledge of your days. Heritage forever includes the exchange at death for what is infinitely better; do not read 'forever' as mere unbroken earthly tenure.

Calvin: Jehovah knoweth the days of the upright—he is not ignorant of their dangers and needed help. Because we are regarded by God, our inheritance is everlasting. Cultivate meekness and uprightness if you would live under that care.

Set your eyes on providence that numbers your days. Peace in pilgrimage comes from being known and kept; refuse anxious self-provision that ignores his knowledge.

“They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil.” In the days of famine they shall be satisfied. Evil times and famine do not cancel his care for the blameless.

Expect supply without expecting exemption from hard seasons. Abundance in famine is his faithfulness; shame-avoidance is for those he knows.

Calvin: the faithful have no right to expect flesh's exemption from affliction; they are assured of deliverance in the end. Hunger and adversity are common to both; the difference is that God stretches forth his hand toward his own. Fullness may be spare living that still truly feeds, while the ungodly devour and are never satisfied.

Hold abundance as gracious adequacy under trial. Do not call God unfaithful when the table is plain; receive his hand in evil times as true plenty.

But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of the LORD shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke they vanish away. Wesley: Fat—Which in an instant melts before the fire. Glory that melts and smoke that vanishes mark their end.

Watch pasture-glory become smoke. Instant melt before the fire is the counter-image to green flourishing; let it loosen envy.

Calvin: contrast—the righteous satisfied in famine, the ungodly perish in affluence. Enemies of Jehovah are consumed as the preciousness of lambs; no stability—they vanish away quickly into smoke.

Read their fatness as prepared for sudden consumption. Refuse to trust glory that smoke can erase; stay with the heritage that remains.

The wicked borrow and don’t repay, but the righteous give generously; character shows in debt and in gift.

Practice generosity that gives, not borrowing that will not repay. Let open-handedness mark the righteous path this psalm praises.

Calvin: not chiefly a rebuke of fraud, but a display of blessing—God deals bountifully with his people so they can aid others, while the ungodly never have enough and their poverty leads to fraud and rapine. Covetousness stays hungry; the righteous receive enough to show mercy.

Trace open hands to God's blessing. Ask for sufficiency that can give; refuse the hunger that borrows without intending to repay.

“For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land.” Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off. Blessing and curse divide inheritance from cutting off.

Seek the Lord's blessing as the ground of inheritance. Generosity and land-hope hang on being blessed by him, not on grasping.

Calvin: whatever we need for life and for humanity toward others comes only from God's favor and blessing; if he withdraws his grace, the abundance of the whole world would not satisfy. Those blessed by him inherit; those cursed are cut off.

Name blessing as the spring of both bread and open hands. Do not credit land or liberality to bare technique; receive and give under his favor.

The steps are established by the LORD. He delights in his way; Wesley: Established—So that he shall not fall into mischief. Establishment and delight in the way belong together.

Ask for established steps in a way that pleases him. Delight in his way is not flattery of your path; seek ordering that keeps you from mischief.

Calvin: Because the way of the godly is acceptable to God, he directs their footsteps to a happy issue. They attempt nothing not pleasing to him; their manner of life aims to obey what he commands, and footsteps refer to external success under that blessing.

Tie success to a life aimed at his will. Do not expect established steps while delighting in a crooked way; walk acceptably and look for his ordering.

Falling is not in doubt; headlong ruin is denied because the Lord upholds.

Expect trouble without expecting abandonment. When you fall into affliction, grab the upheld hand; refuse despair that reads every fall as final casting down.

Calvin: not falling into sin as the proverbial reading, but severe afflictions so mitigated that the godly faint not—'cast down, but not destroyed.' The only difference from the unbelieving is that their falls are not deadly; the slightest fall would destroy us utterly did not God uphold us by his hand.

Take falls as fatherly-tempered trials. Do not demand unmoved ease; trust that being cast down stops short of destruction because he holds your hand.

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread. Wesley: Forsaken—These temporal promises, were more express to the Jews in the times of the Old Testament, than to Christians. Lifelong observation underwrites the claim.

Receive the testimony without hardening it into a cruel absolute over every case. Trust his care for the righteous and their children; read Old Testament expressness with Christian hope that still expects the Father's provision.

Calvin: many righteous have been reduced to beggary; God does not manifest favor equally in temporal things. He chastises some, heals others, exercises patience, and yet the promise is not vain—he bestows earthly blessings as proofs of favor only so far as expedient. If any of the faithful are brought to beggary, they should lift minds to the blessed state that recompenses what is wanting here; God makes such provision that, contented with their lot, they are never in want.

Hold the aged witness with the limits providence itself teaches. Refuse both cynical denial of the promise and a rigid rule that shames every poor saint; trust fatherly provision, including when the form is spare contentment.

All day long he deals graciously and lends, and his offspring are blessed. Wesley: Blessed—Not only with spiritual, but with temporal blessings. Ongoing mercy and a blessed seed.

Keep lending generously as a lifestyle. Pray that children become a blessing; let spiritual and temporal mercies both be received with thanks.

Calvin: grace is a fountain never exhausted; displayed toward the faithful, they can assist others. His seed shall be for blessing—God's favor continues from fathers to children; there is no inheritance more certain than when God receives the children into like fatherly favor.

Trace open-handed living to an unexhausted fountain. Seek blessing that runs to the next generation; refuse to spend mercy as if it ended with you.

Turn away from evil, and do good. Live securely forever. Wesley: Dwell—Thou shalt dwell in the land, and afterwards in heaven. Moral turn and lasting dwelling go together.

Depart from evil and practice good as the path of dwelling. Land now and heaven afterward answer the same call; do not split holiness from hope of forever.

Calvin: to realize the blessedness spoken of, abstain from evil, do the duties of humanity, and do good to neighbors. The two tables: keep hands from mischief, and live not only for private interest but for the common good. Dwelling forever is not always unbroken earthly planting, yet God preserves his people under his wings.

Join negative and positive obedience. Turning from evil without doing good is incomplete; seek the forever-dwelling under his preserving care.

For the LORD loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Rest in his love of justice and refusal to forsake saints. Preservation forever steadies you when forsaking seems near; leave the wicked's seed to his cutting off.

Calvin: confirmation on a higher principle—God takes pleasure in righteousness and truth; the world is directed by his providence. He forsaketh not his meek ones—not by cherishing them always in ease, but after exercising them under the cross, coming to their help. The seed of the wicked cut off: punishment may extend to posterity when judgment seems delayed.

Tie preservation to his love of justice, not to uninterrupted comfort. Wait through cross-exercise; trust he does not forsake saints even when help is not yet visible.

The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever. Inheritance and forever-dwelling restated for the righteous.

Hold forever-dwelling as sure for the righteous. Repeat the promise against the eye that only sees present displacement; inherit by continuing in righteousness.

Calvin: repetition is not superfluous—it is hard to impress. Everlasting habitation means God preserves them under his wings amid troubles; inward peace surpasses other privileges. Daily experience may seem to deny present inheritance, yet according to the measure of faith we feel the blessing that flows continually.

Receive the repeated promise by faith's measure. Do not call forever-dwelling fiction because sojourn is rough; live as preserved heirs under his wings.

Wesley: The mouth—Having shewed, God's singular care over the righteous, he proceeds to give a character of them. Judgment—Of God's judgment, word or law. Character follows care.

Let wisdom and justice shape speech. The cared-for righteous are also the speaking righteous; match mouth to the law you love.

Calvin: definition of righteousness against hypocrisy—speech in sincerity and truth; the law reigning in the heart; conversation ordered aright. The righteous speak honorably of God's righteousness and approve what is just without fraud or varnish.

Test righteousness by mouth, heart, and walk. Refuse to claim the promises while the tongue runs deceit; utter wisdom and justice as marks of the thing.

The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps do not slip. Wesley: Heart—His thoughts, meditations and affections are fixed upon it. Slide—Slide, or swerve, from the rule, from God's law. Heart-law keeps steps from slipping.

Fix the law into thoughts and affections, not only into talk. Fixed meditation is how steps stay; ask for heart-inscription that prevents swerving.

Calvin: integrity of heart—the law of God has its seat in the heart; it alone prescribes the best rule, restrains lusts, and imbues with love of righteousness. Steps shall not slide: though tempted and maliciously pressed, because the law rules within, they stand or at least adhere to the right course.

Seat the law in the heart as the spring of steady steps. Do not trust bare resolve against pressure; ask for inward reign of his word that keeps you from sliding.

The wicked watch the righteous, and seek to kill him to death. Surveillance and lethal intent against the righteous.

Admit the watch without panicking into sin. Being hunted does not nullify the prior character of wisdom and heart-law; stay upright under the eye that wants you dead.

Calvin: illustrates possession of the earth—God preserves his people though beset. Faithful are not promised a life free of trouble; they are daily delivered as sheep out of the mouth of wolves. Terrible stratagems seek property and life, yet courage holds because God watches over them.

Read danger as context for preservation, not as cancelation of the promise. The wicked watch; the Lord also watches. Hold firm under threat.

The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is brought to trial. Non-abandonment and non-condemnation under trial.

Trust rescue from the wicked's hand and a true verdict when judged. Delay may stretch to the edge; still refuse the conclusion that you are abandoned.

Calvin: Jehovah will not leave him in his hand—deliverance is not always at first; often delayed till we seem at the point of death. When haled to judgment and overwhelmed with slander, rest in God's protection who will manifest innocence. Even martyrs have an avenger in heaven; earthly blessings remain at God's disposal.

Wait non-abandonment through delayed help. When trial and slander peak, lean on the Judge who will not finally condemn the upright he owns.

Wait for the LORD, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off. Waiting plus keeping the way; exaltation, inheritance, and sight of cutting off.

Join patient waiting to obedient keeping. Inheritance is not for those who abandon the way while they wait; look on the cut-off as a future sight, not a present private project.

Calvin: returns to exhortation—trusting his promises, do not be drawn by temptation into sinful ways. Hope and patience restrain from the unlawful. He uses exalt because God often stretches forth his hand when the faithful seem overwhelmed. The wicked perish before the eyes of the godly.

Wait and keep when overwhelmed. Exaltation to inherit may come from the dunghill or the grave's edge; stay in his way until you see the cutting off.

I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree. Wesley: Bay-tree—Which is continually green and flourishing even in winter. The psalmist has seen with his own eyes the ruthless man flourishing like a green tree.

Admit you have seen winter-green prosperity of the ruthless. The vision is allowed; envy is not. Remember the next verse while you look.

Calvin: from experience—the ungodly, puffed with prosperity, spread themselves and give terror to the innocent. Terrible, spreading like a high broad tree—insolence that vaunts immoderately.

Name the terrifying greenness without bowing to it. Personal sight of ruthless power is part of the psalm's realism; hold it as temporary spectacle.

But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found. Wesley: Yet—He was gone in an instant. But—There was no monument or remainder of him left. Instant absence after green spreading.

Seek the vanished ruthless and learn from the empty place. Instant gone and no monument preach louder than their winter green ever did.

Calvin: he passed away—vanished; sit still for a time that all the world admired in their prosperity may appear only a mist. I sought his place, and he was not found.

Give time for the mist to clear. Do not rebuild envy on a tree already gone; let 'behold, he was no more' settle your patience.

Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. Wesley: Peace—Though he may meet with troubles in his way, yet all shall end well. Mark and behold the opposite tree.

Fix your eyes on the blameless and upright. Troubles in the way do not cancel a future of peace; mark that end when green ruthlessness distracts you.

Calvin: diligently consider instances of grace and judgment; it is vain to judge by first aspect. Extend view as from a watchtower—the end of reprobate and righteous differ. Suspend judgment if God does not immediately accomplish what he has spoken; the end is not yet come.

Mark the upright from the watchtower, not from the first glance. Give God time; hold the future of the man of peace against impatient verdicts.

But transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off. Wesley: Together—All without exception. Total cutting off of the wicked's future.

Set their future against the peace-future of the upright. Altogether destroyed leaves no envied remainder; stop fretting for a cut-off end.

Calvin: the end of the wicked shall be cut off—after severe trial of his servants, God converts their adversity into blessing, while he turns the mirth of the ungodly into mourning.

Wait the reversed ends. Do not read present mirth of transgressors as their future; their end is cut off together.

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The LORD is named as both the source of salvation and a stronghold in trouble.

Locate salvation and stronghold in the Lord alone. Trouble is assumed; the stronghold is promised. Run to him, not to fretting, when the time of trouble arrives.

Calvin: whatever may happen, the righteous shall be saved because they are in God's hand and cannot be forgotten. Salvation expected from God is infallibly certain because God is eternal and governs by his power. Depend upon God not only in prosperity but when sorely afflicted; enough if he imparts strength so they do not faint.

Anchor certainty in his eternal hand. Ask strength for anguish as truly as deliverance from it; he is stronghold in trouble, not only after it.

The LORD helps them and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they have taken refuge in him. Help, deliverance, salvation—because they take refuge.

Take refuge as the because of deliverance. Help is not owed to the self-secured; run to him, and receive help, deliverance, and saving from the wicked.

Calvin: God will deliver—admonishing the children of God to endure afflictions patiently; if he prolongs them, recall that after he has tried patience he will in the end deliver. He helps, delivers from the wicked, and preserves because they trust in him.

Endure prolonged trouble with refuge still fixed. Deliverance may come after trial; keep trusting under the delay until help and saving arrive.