The False Remedy

A woman reported she received a mail-in voter ballot for her cat that died twelve years earlier. This report is troubling, but knowing some people cast votes by mailing fraudulent ballots is more disturbing. Such actions are unfair; we live in a broken society, a society that can cause one to fret.

Fretting is a troublesome state of mind that temporarily calculates without God in the equation of the situation. As David penned these words, he wrote with a keen knowledge of the works of evildoers. Though his brothers mistreated him as a teenager and King Saul sought to kill him out of jealousy, David wrote confidently to not worry about troubling situations, not to fret or be envious of such evildoers. He was confident that those who devise wicked plans in their hearts, carry them out, and seem to prosper regardless of the evil intent, would one day receive recompense. David said, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 37:1).

What is it that you are fretting about today, that thing upsetting your state of mind, your soul? Worrying and agonizing do not change anything but can consume your thoughts and affect you physically. David writes that we should trust in the Lord, wait patiently for Him to act (v. 7), and not succumb to anger or retaliation (v. 8). All evildoers will one day be “cut down like grass” (v. 2). Evildoers think they are “getting away” with their selfish or evil schemes, but the Lord laughs at them because He knows their day is coming (v. 12). There will be a day of reckoning. 

All of life and every issue we face is in God’s hands, even unfair voting. Can God miraculously change any outcome? Absolutely! With all the unrest around you, choose to rest in God, wait patiently for Him to act. His timing is always right. Evildoers will not get away with their evil schemes; there is a day of accountability. God will one day “cut them down like grass”—unless they repent and get right with their Maker, the all-powerful, all-knowing, present everywhere, God.