Eternal Rewards in the Long Run

September 2nd, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Psalm 37:12-17 The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. 13 The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming. 14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. 15 Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken. 16 Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. 17 For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous.

In the world in which we live, this present darkness, the battle lines between good and evil are clearly drawn; they are unmistakable. When one observes how divided our society has become on social issues, politics, and religion, it appears that reconciliation is hopeless. The old days of family values based on Scripture are certainly gone. And what about chivalry in politics? Even in the Church, the arrogance of those who refuse to submit to Christ and His words in Scripture appears to be at its apex. False teachers abound, and many of them are sitting high on the pedestals of their mega-churches. Where is God in the midst of all this? Does He even care?

Actually, God is depicted as laughing at the wicked while they plot against the righteous (v. 12). Now this does not mean that God is taking such matters lightly; rather, God is laughing at those who think they are stronger than He, who think that hurting the righteous and their causes actually hurts Him. Elsewhere, God is depicted as laughing in Psalm 2, scoffing at those who think they are going to one day have a chance to judge Him, scoffing at their feeble attempts to overthrow Him. Why does God laugh at them? He knows their appointed end, having already decreed their eternal destruction. The point here is that God’s people are never to agonize over wicked people seemingly overpowering God’s people. God’s people are to trust that God has all matters under His control. The very spear that God’s enemies carry in their hearts and hands will one day kill them. It “will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken” (vv. 14-15).

In vv. 16-17, the Psalmist is essentially telling those righteous people persecuted by the wicked that they must have faith, faith that God sees them, hears them, and will ultimately bring justice to them. They may possess little, and they might even be under the strong arm of the unrighteous, enduring sorrow similar to the Jews in the Holocaust or Christians under the Communists in the decades of the 1940’s and beyond. But it is better to be righteous and have little than to be unrighteous and possess much. The fate of the latter is that their strength (“arms”) will be broken; the fate of the former is that the Lord God Almighty “sustains” them.

Verses 18-20 give insight into what God is doing and what He will do: “Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever. They will not be disgraced in hard times; even in famine they will have more than enough. But the wicked will die… They will disappear like smoke” (NLT). Therefore, for those who bask in their beauty, their riches, their power, their talent, or their intelligence—with no thought of God, there is no hope! The closest they will ever get to heaven is right here on earth. Yet for the righteous, the closest they will ever get to hell is right here on earth.

The “wicked who borrows and does not pay back” (v. 21a) are those who indeed have beauty, riches, power, talent, and intelligence—all on loan from God, borrowed from Him. Yet they do not pay back in the sense that they refuse to give glory to God. On the other hand, there is “the righteous [who] is gracious and gives” (v. 21b). Here’s the promise of God regarding them: “Those the Lord blesses will possess the land, but those He curses will die” (v. 22, NLT).

Food For Thought
P.C. Craigie summarizes all of this very well: “Why should morality be adopted, when it is self-evident that wicked persons seem to get along fine in this world?… In the short run, the wicked seem to prosper, whereas the righteous very often seem to suffer at their hands. But it is the longer run that counts, and in the long run the only true satisfaction is to be found in the righteousness which is the hallmark of the one who lives in relationship with the living God.”