Ps.37.1-2 (wicked vegetation)

“Do not fret / because of / evil persons; - do not envy / those who do wrong. For / like grass / they will wither / quickly – and like green sprouts / they will die away.” As with most openings, these two verses represent a summation of the entire psalm. I want to focus on two things in this regard: the source of fret and envy; and the image of vegetation.

Fret and envy: It is not immediately apparent why the instruction to “not fret” is issued. What is about ‘evil persons’ that would cause this? Why would one envy those who do wrong? If we look at similar verses in the psalm an answer immediately emerges: the evil and ‘those who do wrong’ are successful. Their plans ‘prosper’ and they are like “luxuriant trees”. It would seem that all of the good things are in the wrong peoples hands. And it is precisely this divide that causes ‘fretting’ and ‘envy’. Fretting because it is infuriating and a cause of internal strife that those who are not in accord with goodness have goods. Envy because one does not have what, arguably, one should have. In the context of other psalms of lament we have spoke of a ‘hiatus’, a gulf that opens up when Yhwh ‘sees’ but ‘does not act’ (in some contexts it would be described as ‘forgetting’). Here, a similar hiatus opens up, and within that void there emerges, in some, ‘fretting’ and ‘envy’.  The wisdom teacher, however, is attempting to quell those concerns and pre-empt his student from attempting to close the gap on his own. Rather, he urges patience. And this leads into the image of vegetation.

Vegetation: these two images of grass and green sprouts at first seem to be parallel. However, they differ in important respects. First, the image of ‘green grass’ withering is used throughout the OT, and often in reference not to the life of the wicked but to live in general; it is often invoked as an image of the life of man in the face of Yhwh’s ever-living life. The point, though, is the fleeting nature of life. Here, the image is deployed to emphasize the fact that the wicked’s life will be short-lived, not in comparison necessarily with Yhwh’s life, but with that of the righteous. What is not stated but implied is that the sun’s rising and scorching heat is what causes the grass to wither. Later in the psalm, those who ‘commit their way to Yhwh’ will find their righteousness “come forth as a light, and your justice like the midday sun.’ This coheres well with the psalm as a whole: with the redemption of the righteous, the wicked will perish. This image is matched, or deepened, by the ‘green sprouts’ something else emerges. “Green sprouts” are young. For them to ‘die away’ would seem to be something that occurs ‘out of season’. Arguably, the withering of green grass is ‘natural’. Here, by contrast, the wicked are abruptly destroyed—as if by either a sudden famine, disease or trampling. Perhaps most important for this psalm is the fact that the wicked’s comparison to vegetation implies their being planted ‘in the land’. As we will see, there are no less than nine references to the wicked being “cut off” from the land, while the righteous will ‘inherit the land’. In this first verse, then, we find a combination of several images that will be thematically tied together as the psalm develops.