Psalm 37:16-22 “Righteousness Is Better”

Translation & Sermon By Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 06 May 2018

INTRO:

In my first sermon on Psalm 37, I got into the first several verses which were full of commands about what to do when bad guys are doing well and good guys are having a hard time, especially the command not to fret, which is repeated three times. Other key commands were: Don’t be jealous; Trust God and obey Him; Settle down on the land; Associate with faithfulness; Delight yourself in the LORD; Commit your way to the LORD, and He will answer your request for salvation.
In my second sermon on this psalm, I started to get into the contrast-proverbs about the characteristics of the godly vs. the wicked, and the application was to be at peace and keep doing what’s right even when evil threatens to harm us, because we have a God who is powerful enough to save us from evil and to bring an end to evil.
In this third sermon I want to focus in on the humble/upright/Godly/righteous person who is profiled in the next several proverb-capsules in the middle of Psalm 37 and bring out the application that we shouldn’t fret over the current successes of the ungodly because righteousness and integrity is better.
You know, sometimes, I am tempted to look at this church from a worldly point of view and fall into despair. We don’t have lots of money; we don’t have lots of people; we don’t have name recognition; we don’t even have our own church building. When people ask what I do for a living, I say I’m pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church, and they say, “Where’s that?” Then I have to explain that we don’t have a building. After that one person replied that the church they go to has had a building for over 100 years, and I felt like they were saying it with disdain toward me. That makes me question sometimes whether I have invested my life in a worthwhile cause. But then I ask myself, why did I throw in with this church in the first place? Because I believed I could follow the Bible better in it. Because I believed I could raise my family better in it. Because I believed it had a better long-term future than most churches. And because I believe it’s better to fulfill God’s calling than to pursue what is popular or lucrative.
Reasoning things through like this helps unravel the lie that sin is better and helps us find the contentment which we left behind when we were not in our right mind, and brings us back to trusting Jesus because life in Him is really better.
That’s what David does here in Psalm 37, particularly in verses 16-24, comparing righteousness and integrity with wickedness and evil and recovering the conviction that God’s righteousness is better because:

It possesses better things;
it enjoys better what it possesses;
it has a much better future,
and it leaves a better legacy.

In this sermon, I want to look at these four comparisons, point by point. So let’s start back in at verse 16, which is the ninth letter in this alphabet acrostic, the Hebrew letter tet, but I’ll use the ninth letter of the English alphabet: I.

v.16-17 It’s better [to have] a little in the presence of the righteous than the wealth of many wicked men, because the arms of wicked men will be broken, and Yahweh upholds those who are righteous.

This proverb is a “better-than” contrast between the righteous and the wicked, with the reason being that despite a disparity of material possessions, one is “upheld/braced up/supported/sustained” by God while God “breaks/shatters/crushes” the other.
“Unless we are persuaded by faith that God cherishes us in His bosom as a father does His children, our poverty will always be a source of trouble to us; and, on the other hand, unless we bear in mind what is here said concerning the wicked, that ‘their arms shall be broken,’ we will make too great account of their present condition.” ~John Calvin
I’d rather be in a Chevy on its way home than in a Lamborghini on its way off a cliff!
I was just talking to a Christian from Nigeria last week, and he was saying that the home he grew up in was a thatched hut. His family had almost nothing; they didn’t even have forks or spoons, and they only had one cup for the whole family to drink from at meals. This man went on to say, however, that there were pastors in the capitol city of Lagos who were proclaiming that God would make people wealthy, and if you were really godly you’d be rich enough to buy your own plane.

That is wrong. That is worshipping wealth and using God simply as a means to make more money.
Simply because someone is rich doesn’t indicate much about their relationship with God or their eternal destiny. (In fact, Jesus warned that the wealthy are in a particularly dangerous situation spiritually.)
If we can turn our focus off of making money and getting things to instead love God and desire His presence, we will see God provide enough support for you to be able to enjoy life both now – and even more in the world to come.

Psalm 3:5-8 “…I laid down and I slept; I woke up because Yahweh upholds me. I will not be afraid of the myriads of a people which are in place against me [all] around. Rise up, Yahweh, Save me, my God, for You have hit all my enemies upon the cheek, you have shattered the teeth of the wicked To Yahweh belongs salvation – Your blessing upon your people…” (NAW)
Living a life that is right with God is better because you have God upholding you, you can sleep, you can not be afraid, you can be saved, you can be blessed. What you possess is better.
Not only do you possess better things if you are right with God though faith in Christ, you can also enjoy better the things you have!

v.18-19 Jehovah knows the days of those who have integrity, and their inheritance will exist for ever. They will not experience shame during a time of evil, and during days of famine they will experience satisfaction.

A new synonym for the “godly” is introduced in v.18: the tamim/blameless/upright/perfect – those with integrity. This integrity is defined in Psalm 18 as something David received from God, and it had to do with not living in sin. “So I have integrity with Him and I keep myself from my iniquity… This God…gives integrity to my way” (Psalm 18:23 & 28, NAW).
The LORD is intimately acquainted with what is going on in the life of these people He has made blameless and, as Psalm 139:16 puts it, “In Your book all [the days fashioned for me] were written… when as yet there were none of them.” (NKJV)

“God knows their days… He takes particular notice of them, of all they do and of all that happens to them. He keeps account of the days of their service, and not one day's work shall go unrewarded, and of the days of their suffering, that for those also they may receive a recompense. He knows their bright days, and has pleasure in their prosperity; he knows their cloudy and dark days, the days of their affliction, and as the day is so shall the strength be.” ~Matthew Henry
“Ever is this our comfort, that all events are known to our God, and that nothing in our future can take him at unawares. No arrow can pierce us by accident, no dagger smite us by stealth; neither in time nor in eternity can any unforeseen ill occur to us. Futurity shall be but a continual development of the good things which the Lord has laid up in store for us.” ~Charles Spurgeon, Treasury of David
“Nothing, therefore, is more profitable for us than to have our eyes continually set upon the providence of God, which alone can best provide for us every thing we need.” ~Calvin

Just as we see in Ephesians 1 that the inheritance of Christians is Jesus and the inheritance of Jesus is His people[1], so we see in the Psalms that what believers inherit is God Himself (16:5. “Yahweh is the allotment of my inheritance…”), and that what God will inherit is a people for Himself (33:12 “Oh the blessings of the nation where Yahweh is its God, the people group He chose for an inheritance for Himself!”).

When my kids were little, it was a big deal to them to get the special toy that came with their happy meal when I took them to McDonalds, but as my children got older, they began to realize that the toys McDonalds gives away are not worth much, rather, the valuable thing was that they got their Papa all to themselves for a couple of hours over lunch. That maturing of a child’s understanding gives us a window into understanding why God considers Himself an inheritance when we are often preoccupied in the meantime with simply getting certain material things.
God will exist forever and so will our souls, and so the inheritance of Him will last forever. 1 Peter 1:3-4 “Blessed is God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in accordance with His [having] a bunch of mercy, re-birthed us into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an imperishable and undefiled and unfading inheritance which has been preserved in the heavens for y’all’s disposal.”
Of this Augustine wrote: “There is therefore surely some blissful vision reserved for us; and if it can be now in some measure conceived, ‘darkly and through a glass,’ yet cannot we in any way express in language the ravishing beauty of that bliss, which God reserves for them that fear Him, which He consummates in those that hope in Him.”

Now, when a “time of evil” occurs, as v.19 calls it, people need salvation, and if their god can’t deliver, they experience shame:

Micah and Amos described an “evil time” as one in which everybody in the country is doing evil and so the citizens are being harmed by crimes of theft and violence. (Micah 2:1-3 “Woe to those who devise iniquity, And work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, Because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, against this family I am devising disaster… For this is an evil time.” (NKJV, cf. Amos 5:13)
That calls for deliverance from the evil of fellow men, so everybody calls on their god: Jer. 2:27 “Saying to a tree, 'You are my father,' And to a stone, 'You gave birth to me.' …in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise and save us.'” (NKJV, cf. Eccl. 9:12)
Of course, their idols won’t be able to save them in that day, but the one true God will save the remnant of those who trust in Him. "The LORD said: “Surely it will be well with your remnant; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.” (Jer. 15:11, NKJV)
Psalm 27:5 “For He will conceal me in a shelter during a bad day; He will hide me in a hiding-place of His tent...” (NAW)
Ps. 18:17 “He will cause to deliver me from my strong enemy and from the ones who hate me because they were stronger than me. They will confront me in my day of calamity[איד], but Yahweh will be [there] for support for me. So He will bring me out to [where there is] room; He will snatch me away because He delights in me.” (NAW)
Psalm 23:4 “Even when I shall walk in a ravine of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of evil because You are with me. Your rod and Your staff will comfort me – they will!” (NAW)

And, as we have already seen from previous psalms, those who take refuge in the one true God and wait on Him will not experience shame:

Ps. 31:1 “It is in You, Yahweh, that I have taken refuge; I will not ever be ashamed…”
Psalm 25:3 “….it is all those who wait on You that will not be shamed; the vainly treacherous ones will be shamed.”
“Who is the man that is ‘ashamed’? He who had to admit, ‘I have not found that which I was in hopes of.’ … ‘but hope maketh not ashamed.’ How is it that hope “maketh not ashamed”? Because it is placed on God. Therefore follows immediately, “Because the love of God is spread in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.’” ~Augustine

Even in days of famine, they will be satisfied/have abundance/enjoy plenty –

as was the case for the ancient Hebrews between Egypt and the Promised land in the desert: God provided plenty [שבע] of manna and quail to eat (Ex. 16:8).
It was one of the covenant curses in Lev. 26:26 that satisfaction would not come from eating.
But, as Psalm 22:26 put it, “Lowly ones will eat and be satisfied; they will praise Yahweh – those who seek Him.”
Remember Elijah, while the ungodly Ahab and Jezebel suffered under a famine for three years, Elijah ate food beside the brook Cherith, then all the bread he could eat in the home of the widow of Zerepath.

Following God’s righteousness and integrity is better because it gives better possessions and it allows us to enjoy those possessions forever without shame or dissatisfaction! Now on to the third reason (and the 11^th letter of the alphabet which took a bit of wordsmithing to come up with a “K”): the righteous have a much better future!

v.20 Kaput is what they’ll be, for evil men will perish, and the enemies of Yahweh will become like a choice portion of plump lambs. They will end in smoke.

Psalm 1:6 “Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish” (NAW, cf. Psalm 10:16).
The second phrase describing the evil as keyqar cariym is found nowhere else in scripture, so its translation is uncertain, but two possibilities are suggested in the modern English versions[2]:

The KJV reads “Fat of lambs” - the idea being that since, in the Bible times, fat was considered the most succulent part of the meat – and since lamb-meat was considered one of the best meats (Deut. 32:14, 1 Sam. 15:9, Amos 6:4), the wicked would be devoured right away, just like my kids quickly identify and snatch the biggest and best-looking steak when the platter comes off the grill onto the table before any of their siblings can claim it.
The NASB & NIV, on the other hand, read “Glory/beauty of the pastures/fields.” “Glory & beauty” would correspond to the most “valuable/choice” portion, and the word for “lambs” could also refer to the “pasture” where the lambs graze – and remember from verse 2 how quickly the grass on those fields withers.
In either case it is describing something that is valuable only for a brief time until it is gobbled up or dried to an ugly brown.
That’s also what the Apostle James noted about enemies of God is that they are friends with the world, orienting themselves around temporal pleasures[3]. That’s the fate of those who are at enmity with God “like the flowers of the field they will pass away” (James 1:11); “even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).
“Let them flaunt their scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day; the sword of Damocles is above their heads, and if their wits were a little more awake, their mirth would turn to misery… A puff is the end of all their puffing…” ~Charles Spurgeon

They will vanish/be consumed/come to an end in the fire of God’s judgment

Isaiah 9:18-19 For wickedness burns like fire; it devours thorns and weeds and it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. By the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts, land is scorched and the people are made like fuel for the fire…” (NAW)
That same smoke of the fires of God’s judgment shows up in the book of Revelation too: Revelation 14:9-11 “…If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall …be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image...” (NKJV)
That’s the future of those who don’t think God’s righteousness is better.

But don’t forget the good news that even enemies of God can be reconciled to Him: Romans 5:8-10 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” What must enemies of God do to be saved?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (NKJV)
Acts 16:31 “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (NKJV)
Better possessions, better satisfaction, a better future. And one more thing for today: a better legacy.

v.21-22 Lenient and giving is a righteous person while a wicked person takes a loan and does not make good, for it is those who are being blessed by Him who will possess the land, and it is those who are cursed by Him who will be cut off.

I was mowing my lawn Monday with an old push-mower, and my neighbor came up next to me and asked me if my riding lawnmower was broken. I replied that yes, it was broken. Then he said, “Come with me and get my riding lawnmower out of my backyard and finish your lawn with it.” I was a little taken aback at this offer. Nobody had ever chased me down while I was push-mowing a lawn before and made an offer like this. Besides, his machine was nicer than anything I had ever used before. But he said, “Come on now, we’re both Christians; it’s o.k.!” And wow, once I figured out how to operate his machine, I got my lawn done in no time flat. I was so thankful when I was done! I made sure to put his machine back exactly where I had gotten it out of his yard and to generously top off the gas tank, and to cover it just so with a tarp.
If you have borrowed anything and have not been conscientious to pay it back or return it in at least as good condition as you borrowed it, then by all means, make that right.

Furthermore, be very cautious about borrowing in the first place. (That goes for credit card debt too – by which I mean charging more than you can pay back in a single billing cycle).
Few of our contemporaries are willing to follow the New Testament command in Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another...” (NKJV)
Greed and impatience are often the motivation behind borrowing, and those are not godly attitudes. Can God give you contentment with what you can afford, and can you wait until God provides the means for you to buy more expensive things?
That is the way to leave a positive legacy.

Consider also that the wicked borrows from more than just his fellow-human[4]. He borrows life from God his Creator. He borrows food and water from that same Creator. He borrows time, sunlight, and a million other commodities owned by God, and what does the wicked repay God for this? Not thanks, not praise, not worship, but rather scorn, disregard, even cursing.

Do you bless God for all the blessings He has given you?

These applications are pretty elementary, but it’s the flip side of this proverb in v.21 that is more challenging: You would think that the opposite of borrowing and not repaying would be a careful concern to always pay back what you owe, but that’s not righteousness. Righteousness is giving graciously and generously (or “leniently” as I put it in order to get an “L” for the alphabet acrostic).

Jesus reaffirmed this in Matt. 5:42-45 “Give to the one who makes requests of you, and do not turn away the one who intends to borrow from you… “Love your enemies, [bless the ones who curse you, do good to the ones who hate you] and pray for the ones who persecuting you, so that y’all might bear family resemblance to your Father in heaven, because His sun rises upon evil men and good men, and He makes it rain upon righteous men and unrighteous men.” (NAW)
Likewise, the Apostle Paul wrote: “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, [WHY?] that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28, NKJV)

Those who are right with God are generous because generosity is God’s character. God doesn’t merely dot every “i” and cross every “t” and make sure every account is perfectly balanced. No, He lavishes blessings, and He gives to those who can’t pay Him back, and He gives to those who don’t deserve it.
How can we grow in reflecting this character of God?

What resources has God given you that you can be generous with? For some of us, it is our time, for others, it is money, for others, it is knowledge. The righteous leave a legacy by strategically using and generously sharing the resources God has given you.
That may mean writing a book or teaching classes or starting schools to share the knowledge God has blessed you with.
It may mean turning off the electronic entertainment devices and volunteering to help other people do things.
It may mean dreaming big dreams for God’s kingdom and agonizing in prayer until you see those dreams become reality.
For most of us it means making disciples of our children so that they multiply godliness in our world after we’re gone.

Verse 22 links generosity with blessing and cursing, starting with the word “ci/for” (omitted by the NIV). What is the link?

Without the vowels, it is not possible to tell whether the participles “blessing” and “cursing” are active or passive in Hebrew. The LXX interpreted them active “those who bless/curse” back when there were no vowels in the Hebrew text, but the Masorites interpreted them passively a thousand years later by spelling them with Pual vowels.
I think we can readily agree that the active and the passive interpretations are both supported by the rest of Scripture:

The active interpretation[5], as the Septuagint and Vulgate read: “For they that bless him shall inherit the earth; and they that curse him shall be utterly destroyed.” We can readily agree that those who bless the LORD sincerely will be blessed, and those who curse God will not be blessed. (I Cor. 12:3 “no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed’”)

What did it look like for the righteous to bless God? 1 Chron. 29:20-21 “Then David said to all the assembly, ‘Now bless the LORD your God.’ So all the assembly blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the LORD and the king. And they made sacrifices to the LORD…” (NKJV) We bless God with humble bowing before Him, speaking His praises, and celebrating His provision for the forgiveness of sin, which in the O.T. was animal sacrifices, and now is the proclamation of the good news of God’s forgiveness through the death of Jesus on the cross. That’s how we bless God.

And the passive interpretation of the modern English versions, also makes sense if God is the source of all goodness and blessing: if He blesses you, you are blessed, and if He curses you, you’re done for.

For those who trust Jesus to save them, remember what Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 “So, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours… whether the world… whether things in the present, whether things about to happen – all things belong to y’all. Y’all belong to Christ; Christ belongs to God.”

What an inheritance! And that inheritance of “all things” is ours to share generously as a legacy for the generations to come!

Conclusion

God’s righteousness is better because:

It possesses better things;
it enjoys better what it possesses;
it has a much better future,
and it leaves a better legacy.

Psalm 37:16-22[A]

Septuagint (Psalm 35)	Brenton’s translation of LXX	Douay-Rheims Vulgate	King James Version	Nathan A Wilson’s Version	Masoretic Text
16 κρεῖσσον ὀλίγον τῷ δικαίῳ ὑπὲρ πλοῦτον ἁμαρτωλῶν πολύν·	16 A little is better to the righteous than abundant wealth of sinners.	16 Better is a little to the just, than the great[B] riches of the wicked.	16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.	16 It’s better [to have] a little in the presence of the righteous than the wealth of many wicked men,	טז טוֹב מְעַט לַצַּדִּיק מֵהֲמוֹן רְשָׁעִים רַבִּים.
17 ὅτι βραχίονες ἁμαρτωλῶν συντριβήσονται, ὑποστηρίζει δὲ τοὺς δικαίους κύριος.	17 For the arms of sinners shall be broken; but the Lord supports the righteous.	17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken in pieces; but the Lord strengtheneth the just.	17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.	17 because the arms of wicked men will be broken, and Yahweh upholds those who are righteous.	יז כִּי זְרוֹעוֹת רְשָׁעִים תִּשָּׁבַרְנָה וְסוֹמֵךְ צַדִּיקִים יְהוָה.
18 γινώσκει κύριος τὰς ~~ὁδοὺς~~ τῶν ἀμώμων, καὶ ἡ κληρονομία αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἔσται·	18 The Lord knows the ` of the perfect; and their inheritance shall be for ever.	18 The Lord knoweth the days of the undefiled; and their inheritance shall be for ever.	18 The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.	18 Jehovah knows the days of those who have integrity, and their inheritance will exist for ever.	יח יוֹדֵעַ יְהוָה יְמֵי תְמִימִם וְנַחֲלָתָם לְעוֹלָם תִּהְיֶה.
19 οὐ καταισχυνθήσονται ἐν καιρῷ πονηρῷ καὶ ἐν ἡμέραις λιμοῦ χορτασθήσονται.	19 They shall not be ashamed in an evil time; and in days of famine they shall be satisfied.	19 They shall not be confounded in the evil time; and in the days of famine they shall be filled:	19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.	19 They will not experience shame during a time of evil, and during days of famine they will experience satisfaction.	יט לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ בְּעֵת רָעָה וּבִימֵי רְעָבוֹן[C] יִשְׂבָּעוּ.
20 ὅτι οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπολοῦνται, οἱ δὲ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἅμα τῷ δοξασθῆναι αὐτοὺς καὶ ὑψωθῆναι[D] ἐκλιπόντες ὡσεὶ[E] καπνὸς ἐξέλιπον.	20 For the sinners shall perish; and the enemies of the Lord at the moment of their being honoured and exalted have utterly vanished like smoke.	20 Because the wicked shall perish. And the enemies of the Lord, presently after they shall be honoured and exalted, shall come to nothing and vanish like smoke.	20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.	20 Kaput is what they’ll be, for evil men will perish and the enemies of Yahweh will become like a choice portion of plump lambs. They will end in smoke.	כ כִּי רְשָׁעִים יֹאבֵדוּ וְאֹיְבֵי יְהוָה כִּיקַר כָּרִים כָּלוּ בֶעָשָׁן כָּלוּ.
21 δανείζεται ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς καὶ οὐκ ἀποτείσει, ὁ δὲ δίκαιος οἰκτίρει καὶ διδοῖ·	21 The sinner borrows, and will not pay again: but the righteous has compassion, and gives.	21 The sinner shall borrow, and not pay again; but the just sheweth mercy and shall give.	21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.	21 Lenient and giving is a righteous person while a wicked person takes a loan and does not make good,	כא לֹוֶה רָשָׁע וְלֹא יְשַׁלֵּם וְצַדִּיק חוֹנֵן וְנוֹתֵן.
22 ὅτι οἱ εὐλογοῦντες[F] αὐτὸν κληρονομήσουσι γῆν, οἱ δὲ καταρώμενοι αὐτὸν ἐξολεθρευθήσονται.	22 For they that bless him shall inherit the earth; and they that curse him shall be utterly destroyed.	22 For such as bless him shall inherit the land: but such as curse him shall perish.	22 For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.	22 for it is those who are being blessed by Him who will possess the land, and it is those who are cursed by Him who will be cut off.	כב כִּי מְבֹרָכָיו^F יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ וּמְקֻלָּלָיו יִכָּרֵתוּ.

[1] “Eph. 1:13-18 “…you having believed, were sealed in the Holy Spirit of the promise, Who is a down-payment of the inheritance of us into redemption of His possession into praise of His glory… the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, resulting in [you] knowing: what the hope of His call is, what the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints is” (NAW)

[2] A third possibility was suggested by the Septuagint and followed by the Vulgate, but it makes little sense and was disputed by Hebrew scholars during that time period, so I will pass by it.

[3] James 4:3-4 “…you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures …Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (NKJV)

[4] Matthew Henry pointed out that their not paying back might be from greed and unwillingness to pay or might be from poverty and inability to pay, the former a condition of sin, the latter a condition of judgment. (cf. Spurgeon: “Partly because he will not, but mainly because he cannot.”)

[5] Calvin, in his typically terse judgment wrote that this interpretation is “absurd.”