How to reconcile Psalm 37:32-33 with the Shoah and ongoing persecution?

[ethereality]

What does God intend to tell us with these verses of Psalm 37?

32 The wicked spies on the righteous and seeks to kill him.
33 But the LORD does not abandon him in his power, nor let him be condemned when tried.

Apparently this condemnation happened during World War II and continues happening in Christian persecution around the world. How are we to base our understanding on the literal meaning of the text when the literal meaning is false? If we are to understand the text to refer instead to our final judgment by God and entry into heaven, then why doesn’t the text say that plainly?

 

[Mintaka]

The Lord is primarily concerned with people being condemned to Hell, not with earthly courts.

 

[jcrichton]

What does God intend to tell us with these verses of Psalm 37? Apparently this condemnation happened during World War II and continues happening in Christian persecution around the world. How are we to base our understanding on the literal meaning of the text when the literal meaning is false? If we are to understand the text to refer instead to our final judgment by God and entry into heaven, then why doesn’t the text say that plainly?

Hi!

…literal meaning… the problem with literal meaning and the Bible is that anyone seeking only a literal sense/value excludes the divine sense/value of the passage.

If we read the passage within the context of the Psalm we find the meaning both relevant and factual:

• The wicked (evil/bad) is never content with itself (grass is always greener…); so he (or she) will look with envious eyes at anyone who appears to best him (or her).
• The righteous (the Believer) is content within his (her) means as he (she) considers everything in Christ (I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20))–this of course causes confusion, hatred, and envy in the mind of the wicked.
• On the temporal plane the wicked may have the upper hand at the expense of the righteous but the righteous prospers even during the worst of oppressions and his/her spirit is never broken as his/her power and inheritance is Christ.

Are we to confuse the unfolding of the world at man’s hand (power/justice/ambition) with God’s Promise?

Let’s see what Christ said:

33"These things I have spoken to you, so that*** in Me ***you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (St. John 16:33)

Maran atha!

Angel