Aleethia!

As we’ve studied through Colossians and other New Testament passages, we’ve been told to “walk by faith” or “in the Spirit” and to kill our old sin-nature. But what does that look like?

This morning we’ll turn to David for some help in understanding Paul. David is a guy I can relate with. He had humble origins. He became King, but was troubled by enemies and even the rebellion of his own children, most of his life. At many times in his early career, he was troubled by the fact that wicked people seemed to be prospering and doing well, while he, and others like him who were God fearing folk, seemed to be struggling to get by.

In Psalm 37 he addresses this issue, but he also touches on some of the same ideas that Paul has been teaching in Colossians, and David helped me grasp the concepts a little more readily.

Now David doesn’t build a theological frame work before giving practical advice, the way Paul does. He just jumps right to the practical, and the theology is just part of it. So he starts the Psalm with by telling us not to ‘fret’ because of evil doers, and not to be envious of them.

If you ‘fret’ over something you are worried, anxious, distressed, upset. The dictionary says it means to

upset oneself, concern oneself; agonize, sigh, pine, brood, eat one’s heart out.

The Hebrew word means “to grow warm, or burn.” It’s a burning in the heart. An agitation that can even lead to anger, stemming from worry.

What causes us to worry?

David tells us in verses 3-6. Worry comes when we aren’t living by faith, when we aren’t trusting God.

OK, here’s the deal. When Paul tells us in Colossians that we are to “seek the things that are above” and that our “life is hidden with Christ in God”, what he’s saying is kind of hard to really grasp. We can assent to it mentally, but actually understanding it at a level that let’s us apply it, is more difficult. But David is helping us out here.

David is talking about a situation we can all associate with. We’ve all been there. When you’re going through something tough in life, and you look around and see that some other person, who you know to be a non-Christian and not a good person, just seems to have everything going their way. And we think to ourselves, “Why am I having to go through this? I’m a better person than they are! I’m supposed to be God’s child! Why is that person having it go so well, when my life is falling apart?”

I know I thought this way when my mother died. She was such a good, godly woman that I just couldn’t understand why God let her get cancer and die, while all these people who smoke and drink and cuss and do all kinds of evil things are walking around enjoying long life. And it’s not just the length of life. My mom suffered in terrible pain for years because of that cancer. I admit, I fretted about it. I worried over it until I became bitter and upset with God about it.

So David jumps right to this situation that we’ve all faced, and says, “Don’t do that!”

Why? What reason does he give? What’s his logic?

In verse two he say “for”, this is his because statement. We are not fret and/or be envious of evil people who prosper,

For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

He goes on several times to make this same point. Look to the future, look to eternity. This life, here and now, is not our ultimate reality. Our problem is that we often look at this world as if it were reality. When Paul tells us to

…walk by faith, not by sight… (1 Corinthians 5:6-10)

This is what he’s talking about. Charles Spurgeon put it well.

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. ¹


This idea can be seen in the movie The Matrix. The whole premise of the movie is that the world as we know it isn’t real, it’s a computer simulation, a virtual reality. All mankind live as slaves, connected into the Matrix to keep us under control. All, that is, except a small band of freedom fighters who live outside the Matrix. These people know what the world is really like.

In the movie they free a character named Neo. Once he’s free of the matrix and see’s what reality looks like, he has a hard time believing it. When he has to go back into the Matrix (the world) he retains the appearance he had originally. Another character tells him this is “residual self image, the digital projection of your mental self”. When he’s in the Matrix, it looks, feels, smells, and tastes REAL. But he knows it’s not.

That is like us as Christians. Once we’ve been regenerated, and born spiritually, we start to see the world as it really is, under the sovereign control of Jesus. And we know our place in reality, united with Christ. Our problem is the same as Neo’s. We have a “residual self image” that we carry around with us. We keep looking at the world and thinking this is reality, when we know it’s not. Paul tells us in Colossians to put that residual self image to death. We are a new creature now. But as long as we’re walking around viewing the world as reality, we’re going to fooled.

Neo encounters opposition to his new life in the Matrix. Agents are the bad guys who always defeat you. For us, it’s sin. Neo tries several times to fight an agent with everything he’s got, but to no avail, they are too strong and too fast.

Eventually the agents (sin) kill him in the Matrix. He dies in a very real way. But then something happens, he opens his eyes and stands up. He allowed his old self to die, and when he looked this time, he didn’t see the simulated world around him, he saw the computer code. He saw reality. One of the other characters, shortly before this had questioned one of his actions and someone else had responded that he was behaving this way because “He’s starting to believe.” He was starting to “walk by faith, not by sight.”

Neo is seeing by faith in this scene

The same is true of us. If we let our residual self-image die. No, if we intentionally put it to death as Scripture commands us, we will start to walk by faith and see clearly for the first time. We’ll start to see reality around us. Instead of seeing someone in our way, slowing us down in line at the grocery store, we’ll see a lost soul, made in the image of God, who needs to hear the truth of the Gospel and be set free as we are.

When we walk by faith, when we look at the world through the lens of the Gospel, by faith, we’ll see reality all around us.

It should motivate us to action.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; (Psalm 37:3)

James tells us that

…faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17)

Paul talks about the “obedience of faith” in the book of Romans (Romans 1:5, 16:26).

This is where we are this week in our midweek Colossians study (Colossians 3:12-17).

Learning to “walk by faith” involves not only our vision (of reality) but also putting feet to that vision. That’s the whole picture behind the expression “walk by faith”.

I want us to see two more things and then we’ll be done.

First, what is the object of trust. In what/whom are we to trust? The world would have us trust in money, or scientific knowledge, or logic, or a host of other idols, including ourselves.

Our trust is to be placed only in the Lord. The LORD of Hosts is his name. Jesus Christ

…is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

That is where our faith is to be placed. In Christ alone.

The second thing I want us to see is that, not only are we to trust in Christ, and obey Christ, but we are to delight in Christ.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Christ is to be our treasure. There is great joy in trusting him and obeying him. The words of the old hymn come to mind.

Trust and obey
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
Than to trust and obey

There are many other things we could discuss in this Psalm.

Verse 6 tells us it’s not about our effort, but his, working in us.

Verse 7 tells us to rest in (or be still before) the Lord.

Verse 28 gives us a picture of the perseverance of the saints.

There are many topics of great truth to be discovered here, but you’ll have to meditate on them for yourself.

1. Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol 1. P.171