In many ways, Psalm 37 was a lifesaver for me. I was going through a difficult time as a young woman, and I was  angry. One day I opened my Bible and began to  read Psalm 37.  Words leapt from the  page,  *“Be angry no more, have done with wrath.”  I was  jolted out of the emotional spot, I was stuck in.

For the first time in months, I stopped fuming, and began to search for a better and healthier way. Psalm 37 speaks especially to those, who are struggling and being mistreated. It encourages us to trust God, to do our part, and let God do the rest.

There are certainly times when it seems like the wicked are winning. And we are on the downside of their winning. When the psalmist talks of the wicked, the focus is on those with great wealth, taking from the poor. **“The Lord,” the psalmist’s says, “Is a lover of justice and will not abandon the faithful.”

Reading the psalm this week, it was difficult not to reflect on mass firings of federal employees. Stories have flooded the news, of people getting emails saying they were being fired because of their poor performance. While their superiors had given them excellent evaluations. Cruelty has been at work in the midst of this.

Those making decisions on whom to cut, know so little about the agencies they are tearing apart, they have “accidentally fired” 300 people managing our nuclear weapons. In the national shortage of airport controllers, buyout messages were sent to all controllers, encouraging them to leave the profession. As the bird flu threatens to become another pandemic, people monitoring outbreaks, were also, “accidentally fired.” Meanwhile, some of the employees who decided to take the buyout they were offered, have now been fired, and have been told they are ineligible, for what they had been promised. Cruelty, seems to be the point.

In unfair and unjust times, God continues to remind us, that our deepest call is always to trust that God is doing what we cannot. To trust that God knows more than we know . . .  Trust that God is acting on our behalf, in ways unknown to us, but acting nonetheless.

Our part, while we wait to see how God is acting, is to continue to do good, to promote justice, and commit our way to the Lord.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in God, and God will act. God will make your righteousness shine clear as the day and the justice of your cause like the sun at noon.” Psalm 37:5-6 REB

*Psalm 37:6 REB
** Psalm 37:38 NAB