Daily Devotions

Psalm 37:7

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!"

Here, David gives us yet another key to contentment: waiting patiently before the Lord.

In schooldays past, punishments were often lines of repetition. One teacher of mine in the 1960s chose an unusual phrase: instead of the familiar “I must not…,” he insisted on writing out one hundred times, “Patience is a virtue I must endeavour to possess!” At the time, it seemed little more than tedium—but the truth of those words echoes Scripture.

Leonardo da Vinci once described patience like clothing in winter: “Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”Patience shields the heart from bitterness.

David goes further by warning against fretting. The Hebrew word used here literally means “to burn” or “to be kindled.” We might say, “to get hot under the collar,” or “steaming mad.” When we see the wicked prosper, envy and anger can ignite within us. But God’s word directs us away from agitation and toward calm surrender. The believer’s task is not to rage or fret but to be still, to rest in God’s sovereign care, and to trust His timing.

To wait on the Lord is not passivity—it is active trust. It is the quiet strength of knowing that God is just, His purposes are good, and His plans will not fail.

Prayer

Lord of peace,
I come before You today acknowledging Your sovereignty and power.
Teach me to be still in Your presence and to wait patiently for Your hand at work.
When life feels unfair, when the wicked seem to prosper,
protect me from anger and fretting, and root me instead in trust.
Help me to surrender to Your timing,
to rest in Your love, and to shine with Your peace
even in the midst of unrest.
Thank You for Your unfailing love
and for guiding me on this journey of patience.
Through Christ my Lord I pray,
Amen.