Psalm 37:20

Psalm 37:20, in plain English

The wicked and everyone who opposes God will be destroyed—their glory will fade away like smoke. They'll vanish completely.

Why it's here

David brings his psalm to its conclusion with a final promise: the wicked don't have a secure future. What looks glorious now will disappear. The metaphors of grass withering, fields losing their glory, smoke vanishing—all reinforce that wickedness is temporary and ephemeral.

Who's speaking

David, ending with the note of ultimate judgment and the certainty that God's justice will be complete.

Where it sits in the story

This points to the final judgment throughout Scripture and to Jesus's teachings about the end times. Evil doesn't win. God's kingdom will ultimately be established fully, and everything opposed to it will be no more. For those suffering under wickedness, this is hope. For the wicked, it's warning.

The scholarly reading

The wicked and God's enemies will perish with the rapidity and finality of a field's glory fading or smoke dissipating—they leave no trace.

Language and setting

The triple image—'kelod sadeh' (like the glory of the fields), 'yiblu' (they will vanish), 'ka'shan yikhlal' (like smoke they will fade away)—accumulates poetic force to establish irreversible obliteration. The progression moves from beauty to nothingness; human glory to nothing. This verse provides the psalm's ultimate consolation: evil's final status is nonexistence.

Voice

The wisdom teacher, concluding with the most comprehensive vision of judgment's totality.

Significance

This apocalyptic vision of the wicked's complete dissolution forms the theological culmination of the entire psalm and connects to prophetic imagery of judgment (Isa 40:6-8). In the New Testament, this becomes the basis for assurance about divine justice: 'all things are under his feet' (Heb 2:8, citing Psalm 8, echoing this psalm's conviction of divine sovereignty).

18The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will last forever.

19In the time of evil they will not be ashamed, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied.

20But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.

21The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous are gracious and giving.

22Surely those He blesses will inherit the land, but the cursed will be destroyed.

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.