Don't Envy the Wicked
For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants. Psalm 37:2 · Berean Standard Bible
What looks impressive and powerful right now—all that evil success—won't last. It'll dry up and blow away like grass in the heat.
You're hearing this right after being told not to fret. Now David tells you why you don't need to fret: there's a built-in expiration date on wickedness. The wicked person might seem invulnerable for a season, but the laws of the universe are against them. Everything temporary appears permanent until it isn't.
David, the poet and observer of human nature, reminding himself and others of what he's learned about how life actually works.
This echoes what Solomon would later explore thoroughly in Ecclesiastes—the vanity of pursuits apart from God. But it also points forward to Jesus's teachings about building on rock versus sand. The righteous foundation lasts; everything else crumbles.
The wicked's prosperity is temporary and illusory; like vegetation dependent on moisture, they will rapidly wither and fade.
The comparison to grass ('deshe') and tender plants invokes the arid Palestinian climate where vegetation without water dies within days—a vivid, observable reality. This wasn't abstract theology but lived experience; anyone watching seasonal drought understood the metaphor's force. The contrast implies the righteous possess roots in something more durable.
The wisdom teacher, now employing what we call a 'gnomic' or proverbial statement—the universal voice of observation and natural law.
This connects to the creation narrative's ordering principle: what grows apart from the source of life (God) cannot endure. It also foreshadows the prophetic critique of human pride and institutional corruption—Isaiah's comparable language about flesh withering (Isa 40:6-7) shares this vocabulary and theological force.
1Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
2For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.
3Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Read all of Psalm 37 — The temptation to resent the success of evil people is ancient. David's counsel: be still, wait, and trust. The wicked are grass.
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