Ps. 37.34 (exaltation and possession)

“Wait for Yhwh – and observe / his way – and he will exalt you / to take possession / of the land; - you will see / when the wicked / are cut off.” Following on the heels of our previous reflection, this section fills out and confirms all that we observed. It fills it out by including the individual in the dynamic between Yhwh and the wicked. As we saw, the previous section abruptly transitioned from the wicked to Yhwh without any reference to any action taken by the righteous. Here, they are implored to “wait for Yhwh” and to “observe his way”. There is both a passive (‘wait’) and active (‘observe his way’) element to this, although both of them are centered entirely on Yhwh. This section deepens the previous one by reference to the word “wait”. In the previous section it was the wicked who were ‘lying in wait’ for the righteous; here, the righteous are told to ‘wait on Yhwh’. As to the wicked, their waiting is one of cautious planning; they can see the righteous, but they are biding their time to pounce at just the right moment. For the righteous, their ‘waiting’ is very different: they are waiting on another, Yhwh. Their ‘waiting’ is something that presumes their trust in Yhwh’s ability to protect them from enemies they cannot see. This observation flows into the next—for the wicked, their success is something they grasp at from their hiding place. For the righteous, it is completely different. Their success comes from Yhwh: “he will exalt you to take possession of the land.” The wicked wait and grasp. The righteous wait and are given victory. The image of ‘exaltation’ can also catch our attention. The fact that this is directly linked with ‘taking possession of the land’ and ‘seeing when the wicked are cut off’ could remind us with a previous verse: ‘and he will make your righteousness come for as a light, and your justice like the midday sun’. We saw in that context that this image of ‘light’ was related to the righteous being given the land and the wicked being ‘cut off’. There, the righteous who were currently in the shame of darkness would later be revealed in the light of their righteousness as those to whom Yhwh gave “the land”. Here, ‘exaltation’ seems to be almost another way of saying the same thing: a type of lifting up into the public eye in glory, when one can, without anxiety, occupy a position of prominence. From that great height the righteous “will see the wicked cut off”. The teacher is now telling his student that he will come to see the same thing the teacher has seen throughout his life: the fact that the righteous are protected and the wicked are destroyed. The teacher has referred in three places to things he has seen personally: the destruction of the wicked, the preservation of the righteous, and the ‘cutting off of the wicked’. In this verse, we hear him telling his student that he will likewise come to be a ‘witness’ to such things. And they will not occur by his doing; it does not say the righteous will cut them off. Rather, just as with the conquering of the land, it will be Yhwh’s doing. It will be handed to them. Lastly, it seems important that whereas the wicked were before known to be ‘lying in wait’ and therefore unable to be detected by the righteous, here they are going to be ‘seen to be cut off’. Once the righteous are exalted, everything will be made clear and the righteous will no longer exist in a state of anxiety. Their trust in Yhwh will have been vindicated and their blindness will be rectified.