Psalm 37:22

For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:21-33 The Lord our God requires that we do justly, and render to all their due. It is a great sin for those that are able, to deny the payment of just debts; it is a great misery not to be able to pay them. He that is truly merciful, will be ever merciful. We must leave our sins; learn to do well, and cleave to it. This is true religion. The blessing of God is the spring, sweetness, and security of all earthly enjoyments. And if we are sure of this, we are sure not to want any thing good for us in this world. By his grace and Holy Spirit, he directs the thoughts, affections, and designs of good men. By his providence he overrules events, so as to make their way plain. He does not always show them his way for a distance, but leads them step by step, as children are led. God will keep them from being ruined by their falls, either into sin or into trouble, though such as fall into sin will be sorely hurt. Few, if any, have known the consistent believer, or his children, reduced to abject, friendless want. God forsakes not his saints in affliction; and in heaven only the righteous shall dwell for ever; that will be their everlasting habitation. A good man may fall into the hands of a messenger of Satan, and be sorely buffeted, but God will not leave him in his enemy's hands.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For such as be blessed of him - They who are his true friends.

Shall inherit the earth - See Psalm 37:9.

And they that be cursed of him - His enemies.

Shall be cut off - Psalm 37:9. This verse suggests a thought of great importance, in advance of that which had been suggested before. It is that, after all, the difference in the ultimate condition of the two depends on the question whether they have, or have not, "the favor of the Lord." It is not on the mere fact of their own skill, but it is on the fact that the one has secured the divine favor, and that the other has not. It is not by mere human virtue, irrespective of God, that the result is determined; but it is that one is the friend of God, and the other not. This consideration will be found in the end to enter essentially into all the distinctions in the final condition of mankind.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. cut off—opposed to "inherit the earth" (compare Le 7:20, 21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of him, i.e. of the Lord, as appears both from Psalm 37:20, where he is named, and from the nature of the thing, this being God’s prerogative to bless or to curse men. And this he mentions, both as the foundation, and as the proof of the certainty of their future happiness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For such as be blessed of him,.... Not of the righteous man; for he blesses them that curse and persecute him, and despitefully use him; but of the Lord, as the Syriac version expresses it; or by the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; both in a providential way, for it is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, and puts into a capacity to give to others; and in a way of grace, with an interest in God as a covenant God in Christ; and with the blessings of grace in him, with a justifying righteousness, pardon of sin, and a right to eternal glory. The Septuagint version, and those that follow that, render the words actively, "such as bless him"; either such as bless the righteous, who are blessed also, Genesis 12:3; or rather such as bless the Lord, as the righteous do, for all their blessings temporal and spiritual they receive from him; these

shall inherit the earth; See Gill on Psalm 37:9;

and they that be cursed of him; not of the righteous man, but of the Lord, according to the tenor of his righteous law, which they have broken:

shall be cut off; out of the land of the living; many of them in the midst of their days, and shall everlastingly perish.

Geneva Study Bible

For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. For &c.] The wicked man’s ruin and the righteous man’s ability to do good proceed respectively from the curse and the blessing of God.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - For such as be blessed of him (i.e. God) shall inherit the earth (see above, ver. 11). And they that be cursed of him shall be out off (see above, ver. 9). Psalm 37:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It is the promise expressed in Deuteronomy 15:6; Deuteronomy 28:12, Deuteronomy 28:44, which is rendered in Psalm 37:21 in the more universal, sententious form. לוה signifies to be bound or under obligation to any one equals to borrow and to owe (nexum esse). The confirmation of Psalm 37:22 is not inappropriate (as Hitzig considers it, who places Psalm 37:22 after Psalm 37:20): in that ever deeper downfall of the ungodly, and in that charitableness of the righteous, which becomes more and more easy to him by reason of his prosperity, the curse and blessing of God, which shall be revealed in the end of the earthly lot of both the righteous and the ungodly, are even now foretold. Whilst those who reject the blessing of God are cut off, the promise given to the patriarchs is fulfilled in the experience of those who are blessed of God, in all its fulness.