The Lord laugheth at him; for he seeth that his day is coming.
Psalm 37 speaks to people who watch evil succeed and wonder whether God has noticed. Verse 13 answers that worry with a startling picture. The plotting of the wicked does not trouble God, because He already sees the day it will collapse.
Where the Verse Sits
Verses 12 to 15 form a short unit about one subject — the wicked man and how God regards him. One writer sets the Lord's laughter against our fretting:
Verses 12 to 15 present the Lord's attitude toward the wicked. When we are taken up with how well the wicked are doing, we may fret and become angry and impatient. The Lord, however, derides the wicked who plot against the just. He sees that their day is coming. Under the government of God, the wicked will fall by the very violence they used against the upright.
What God Is Laughing At
The plot, the drawn sword and the bent bow all turn back on the man who prepared them:
The psalm notes his enmity against the righteous and his plots, and it notes that they still have a limit. The Lord derides his folly, and foresees his end. His sword, already drawn, enters his own heart. His bent bow snaps instead of firing. It shows the truth of the Lord's words, that all who take the sword will perish by the sword. It is a clear example of divine government.
One writer counts how often Scripture pictures God laughing, and shows what kind of downfall it points to:
The Scriptures do not often represent God as laughing. Three times in the Psalms they do so, and once in Proverbs, and in each case the same thing is in view. If men refuse His mercy, if they mistreat His people, if they deny Him and His Anointed and mock His authority and His Word, God will judge them in due season. And He will not only judge them. He will cast them down in a way that makes them look utterly ridiculous, a laughing-stock to every created being. The "laugh" will be on God's side in that day.
"His Day Is Coming"
The verse points to a day that is coming, not one that has arrived. One writer answers the impatience that this delay can stir up:
God intends to settle His accounts with the ungodly in His own time and His own way. He has unlimited time to do it. He is in no hurry, and He will do it in an hour of all hours most inconvenient for them.
Why the Wicked Hate the Righteous
Verse 12 shows the wicked man grinding his teeth at the righteous. One writer asks what provokes that hatred:
They plot against the righteous as the Pharisees plotted against the Lord Jesus (v. 12). Their hatred is so deep that it moves them to gnash their teeth. Why is this so? It is certainly not because they are harmed or threatened by believers. Rather, it seems perfectly clear that the godly character of believers is a testimony that grates on their consciences. They resent a testimony so unlike their own character, because it exposes them.
Judgment Belongs to God, Not to Us
If God laughs, the believer can stop trying to settle the score. The reason given is not only that we lack the right, but that we lack the character:
The judgment which will end his career is the act of God and not an act of ours. It is a good thing that it is His act. We are far too small, too biased in our thoughts, and too self-centred for God to trust us with it. Our anger and our wrath against sin can never have the high and holy character that belongs to God.
How the Psalm Reaches Us
Commentators read this psalm first as instruction for God's faithful people in a coming time of pressure, when evil openly runs the world; the same principles still hold for believers now. Waiting is presented as the surest proof of trust:
Patient waiting for Jehovah in heart and desire is the surest mark of trust. Circumstances may be in turmoil around us — violence and struggle. The soul waits for Jehovah's coming in when He will. The wicked may prosper; Jehovah has His own time, a time which is always right and sets all right. He may chasten for good. He may have plans He is bringing to maturity. He may be patient Himself with the wicked. He may have His own glory to bring out, and that glory is our everlasting joy. So there is no anger, no wrath, no fretting, no uneasiness. Fretting leads to doing evil, to indulging our own will in evil to meet evil.
Summary
- Seen — God notices every plot against the righteous; the enmity is real, but He sets its limit.
- Laughed at — His laughter is His verdict on the folly of it: the drawn sword ends in the plotter's own heart.
- Dated — His day is already fixed and already in God's sight; He is in no hurry, because He has settled the outcome.
- Released — Since the sentence is His act and not ours, fretting, anger and revenge lose their reason.
- Rested — Waiting on the Lord is trust at its surest: no anger, no wrath, no fretting while His time comes.