properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
evil
רָעָ֑הra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
time
בְּעֵ֣תbe.'Et
H6256
time · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
days
וּבִימֵ֖יu.vi.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
famine
רְעָב֣וֹןre.'a.Von
H7459
famine · noun, common masculine singular absolute
satisfied
יִשְׂבָּֽעוּyis.Ba.'u
H7646
to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 33:19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Proverbs 10:3 The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.
Job 5:20-22 In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
Isaiah 33:16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
Amos 5:13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the so…
Micah 2:3 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 37:7-20
In these verses we have,
I. The foregoing precepts inculcated; for we are so apt to disquiet ourselves with needless fruitless discontents and distrusts that it is necessary there should be precept upon precept, and line upon line, to suppress them and arm us against them. 1. Let us compose ourselves by believing in God: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him (Psa 37:7), that is, be well reconciled to all he does and acquiesce in it, for that is best that is, because it is what God has appointed; and be well satisfied that he will still make all to work for good to us, though we know not how or which way." Be silent to the Lord (so the word is), not with a sullen, but a submissive sil…
God, who knows His people's changes, provides against evil and supplies all their need.
John Gill on Psalms 37:19
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,.... Of affliction and persecution, or of old age, or in the day of judgment, when it will go ill with others; see 1 John 2:28;
and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied: whether it is understood figuratively of a famine of hearing the word, or literally of a proper famine of bread and water: these God will provide for them, as he did for Elijah, and they shall be sure unto them, and therefore let them not fret nor envy.
John Calvin on Psalms 37:16-19
Psalm 37:16-19
16. Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. [31] 17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but Jehovah upholdeth the righteous. 18. Jehovah knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be everlasting. 19. They shall not be ashamed in the season of adversity; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
16. Better is the little of the righteous, etc This verse, without any sufficient reason, has been variously rendered. The word hmvn, hamon, [32] which is rendered abundance, indeed, sometimes signifies a great multitude of men, and sometimes abundance of things; sometimes, too, an adjective of the plural number is j…
The Church Fathers
Those choosing a blameless life enjoy providence completely; even if they encounter disasters, they will emerge superior to them; and when need becomes endemic, they will receive sufficiency from God, and in addition will enjoy everlasting goods.
"They shall not be ashamed in the evil time" (ver. 19). In the day of trouble, in the day of distress, they shall not be "ashamed," as he is ashamed whose hope deceives him. Who is the man that is "ashamed"? He who saith, "I have not found that which I was in hopes of." Nor undeservedly either; for thou didst hope it from thyself or from man, thy friend. But "cursed is he that putteth his trust in man." Thou art ashamed, because thy hope hath deceived thee; thy hope that was set on a lie. For "every man is a liar." But if thou dost place thy hopes on thy God, thou art not made "ashamed." For He in whom thou hast put thy trust, cannot be deceived. Whence also the man whom we mentioned just above, the now "strengthened" righteous man, when fallen on an evil time, on the day of tribulation, what saith he to show that he was not "ashamed"? "We glory in tribulation; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; but hope maketh not ashamed." Whence is it that hope "maketh not ashamed"? Because it is placed on God. Therefore follows immediately, "Because the love of God is spread in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us." The Holy Spirit hath been given to us already: how should He deceive us, of whom we possess such an "earnest" already? "They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied."...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Famine · Righteous — Righteous
Judgments · Saints: Provided for, during — Saints: Provided for, during
Time · Particular periods of, mentioned: The evil time — Particular periods of, mentioned: The evil time
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The life of those who love Jahve with the whole heart is, with all its vicissitudes, an object of His loving regard and of His observant providential care, Psa 1:6; Psa 31:8, cf. Psa 16:1-11. He neither suffers His own to lose their heritage nor to be themselves lost to it. The αἰώνιος κληρονομία is not as yet thought of as extending into the future world, as in the New Testament. In Psa 37:19 the surviving refers only to this present life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 37:18-20
The Lord cares for the blameless in this life and for eternity, but the wicked will perish.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 37:19
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time. Calamities will come, but deliverances will come also. As the righteous never reckoned upon immunity from trouble, they will not be disappointed when they are called to take their share of it, but the rather they will cast themselves anew upon their God, and prove again his faithfulness and love. God is not a friend in the sunshine only, he is a friend indeed and a friend in need. And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. Their barrel of meal and cruse of oil shall last out the day of distress, and if ravens do not bring them bread and meat, the…
