“For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 37:9 Mean?
David contrasts two groups with two futures: evildoers will be cut off; those who wait on the LORD will inherit the earth. The verb "wait" (qavah) means to hope, to look expectantly, to remain patient in anticipation. It's not passive — it's active expectation directed toward God. The waiting is itself a form of trust.
The promise of inheriting the earth connects this verse to a long biblical tradition. Jesus quotes this concept directly in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). The inheritance isn't won through aggression but received through patient trust. The meek — those who wait — end up owning what the aggressive tried to seize.
The tension in this verse is temporal: when? Evildoers prosper now. The waiting ones don't have the earth now. The inheritance is future. David is asking his readers to trust a timeline they can't see — to believe that patient trust produces an outcome that outlasts aggressive self-promotion.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Is there a situation where you're watching the wrong people prosper while you wait?
- 2.What's the difference between passive resignation and the active waiting David describes?
- 3.How does the promise of inheritance rather than conquest change how you pursue goals?
- 4.What does 'waiting on the LORD' look like practically in your daily life?
Devotional
The evildoers don't wait. They grab. They seize. They take what they want now, by force if necessary. And they look like they're winning. The waiters — the patient ones, the trusters — look like they're losing. They don't have the earth. The evildoers do.
But David says: wait. The verb itself is the strategy. Wait on the LORD. Not passively, not resignedly — expectantly. The waiting is active trust, the conviction that God's timeline produces different outcomes than human impatience.
"Inherit the earth" is a quiet revolution. You don't conquer the earth — you inherit it. You don't seize it — you receive it. The meek don't fight for the world; the world is given to them. The inheritance model is fundamentally different from the conquest model. And it requires something conquest doesn't: patience.
If you're watching aggressive, unscrupulous people prosper while you try to do things the right way — if the evildoers seem to be inheriting everything while you're still waiting — David's word is: the inheritance is coming. The timeline is longer than you want. But those who wait on the LORD will inherit the earth, and those who seized it by force will be cut off.
Can you wait?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be,.... Not that they shall be annihilated or reduced to nothing,…
For evil-doers shall be cut off - See Psa 37:2. This will be the termination of their course. They shall not ultimately…
In these verses we have,
I. The foregoing precepts inculcated; for we are so apt to disquiet ourselves with needless…
the earth Rather, as in Psa 37:37, the land; and so in Psa 37:37; Psa 37:37; Psa 37:37; Psa 37:37. As the nations were…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture