Psalm 37:19

They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:7-20 Let us be satisfied that God will make all to work for good to us. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world. A fretful, discontented spirit is open to many temptations. For, in all respects, the little which is allotted to the righteous, is more comfortable and more profitable than the ill-gotten and abused riches of ungodly men. It comes from a hand of special love. God provides plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting servants. They have that which is better than wealth, peace of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God; that peace which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot have. God knows the believer's days. Not one day's work shall go unrewarded. Their time on earth is reckoned by days, which will soon be numbered; but heavenly happiness shall be for ever. This will be a real support to believers in evil times. Those that rest on the Rock of ages, have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They shall not be ashamed in the evil thee - In times of calamity and trouble. The word "ashamed" here refers to disappointment; as when one goes to a fountain or stream for water and finds it dried up. See Job 6:20, note; and Psalm 25:2-3. The idea here is, that when thees of trouble and calamity come, in seasons of famine or want, they will find their expectations, arising from confidence in God, fully met. Their wants will be supplied, and they will find him to be their friend.

And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied - Their needs shall be supplied. God will provide for them. See Psalm 37:25. This is in accordance with the general promises which are made in the Scriptures, that God will provide for the needs of those who trust in Him. See the notes at Psalm 37:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18, 19. God, who knows His people's changes, provides against evil and supplies all their need.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They shall not be ashamed, for the disappointment of their hopes, but their hopes and desires shall be satisfied, as it follows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,.... Of affliction and persecution, or of old age, or in the day of judgment, when it will go ill with others; see 1 John 2:28;

and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied: whether it is understood figuratively of a famine of hearing the word, or literally of a proper famine of bread and water: these God will provide for them, as he did for Elijah, and they shall be sure unto them, and therefore let them not fret nor envy.

Geneva Study Bible

They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall {m} be satisfied.

(m) For God will give them contented minds, and that which will be necessary.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. Cp. Job 5:19-20.

in the evil time] R.V. in the time of evil, i.e. calamity.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - They shall not be ashamed in the evil times. If they fall into adversity, it will not cause them to feel shame. They will know that they are not being punished for evil-doing, but that God is trying them and purifying them (Job 36:8-11). And in the days of famine they shall he satisfied (comp. Psalm 33:19). Psalm 37:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The life of those who love Jahve with the whole heart is, with all its vicissitudes, an object of His loving regard and of His observant providential care, Psalm 1:6; Psalm 31:8, cf. Psalm 16:1-11. He neither suffers His own to lose their heritage nor to be themselves lost to it. The αἰώνιος κληρονομία is not as yet thought of as extending into the future world, as in the New Testament. In Psalm 37:19 the surviving refers only to this present life.