to see · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
wicked
רָשָׁ֣עra.Sha'
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine singular absolute
power
עָרִ֑יץ'a.Ritz
H6184
fearful · adjective, masculine singular absolute
spreading
וּ֝מִתְעָרֶ֗הu.mit.'a.Reh
H6168
to be (causatively · conjunction + verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular absolute
green
רַעֲנָֽןra.'a.Nan
H7488
verdant · adjective, masculine singular absolute
tree
כְּאֶזְרָ֥חke.'ez.Rach
H249
a spontaneous growth · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Job 5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
Job 21:7-17 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Psalms 73:3-11 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Esther 5:11 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and…
Job 8:13-19 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
Isaiah 14:14-19 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Ezekiel 31:6-10 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and…
Ezekiel 31:18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 37:34–end
The psalmist's conclusion of this sermon (for that is the nature of this poem) is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the same things.
I. The duty here pressed upon us is still the same (Psa 37:34): Wait on the Lord and keep his way. Duty is ours, and we must mind it and make conscience of it, keep God's way and never turn out of it nor loiter in it, keep close, keep going; but events are God's and we must refer ourselves to him for the disposal of them; we must wait on the Lord, attend the motions of his providence, carefully observe them, and conscientiously accommodate ourselves to them. If we make conscience of keeping God's way, we may with cheerfulness wait on him and co…
of which a picture is given, under the figure of a flourishing tree (compare Margin), which soon withers.
John Gill on Psalms 37:35
I have seen the wicked in great power,.... Meaning some particular person invested with great power, in great authority among men, one of the spiritual wickednesses in high places; such a man as Haman in Ahasuerus's court; and though the psalmist does not choose to mention his name, he doubtless had him in his mind; as either Saul, or Doeg the Edomite, or Ahithophel, or some such man, who was in an exalted station of life; and it may be when he himself was in low and distressed circumstances: the word used (c) signifies one formidable and terrible, striking terror to all around; of whom others are afraid, as Aben Ezra interprets it, Isaiah 29:20;
and spreading himself like a green bay tree:…
Psalm 37:34-36
34. Wait upon Jehovah, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee, that thou mayest inherit the earth: when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it. 35. I have seen the wicked terrible, [45] and spreading himself like a green bay tree: [46] 36. And he passed away, [47] and, lo! he was not: and I sought for his place, and he was not found.
34 Wait upon Jehovah, and keep his way David again returns to the style of exhortation, in order that the faithful, trusting to God's promises and sustained by them, may not suffer themselves to be drawn hither and thither by any temptations through devious and sinful ways, but may persevere steadfastly in the service of God. In the first p…
The Church Fathers
"I have seen the ungodly lifted up on high, and rising above the cedars of Libanus" [Psalm 37:35]. And suppose him to be "lifted up on high;" suppose him to be towering above the "rest;" what follows?
You see a cedar raised to a great height on the loftiest peak, yet it can be shattered by the wind; it can be burned down by fire; it can grow old and decay. Such are the rich in this world. They make a grand display and shine, with a worldly sort of splendor, like Mount Lebanon. They are propped up by the powers of this world and positively exult in their money and their riches. To you the rich person seems to be something, that is, until you are able to say, "Passing over, I shall see." For just as Moses passed over, in mind and soul, material things and saw God; you, too, if you will only pass over from this place and lift up the footsteps of your mind to God's grace, will see that the rich person is nothing. Yes, nothing, even though in this world he appeared so high and mighty.
It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation. For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator. For it is written, "The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it." [Proverbs 2:21-22] And again [the Scripture] saith, "I saw the ungodly highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, behold, he was not; and I diligently sought his place, and could not find it. Preserve innocence, and look on equity: for there shall be a remnant to the peaceful man." [Psalm 37:35-37]
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
Bay tree — Named only in Ps. 37:35, Authorized Version. The Hebrew word so rendered is ereh, which simply means “native born”, i.e., a tree not transplanted, but growing on its native soil, and therefore…
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…
Bay Tree · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Envy · Prosperity of the wicked should not excite — Prosperity of the wicked should not excite
Happiness · Their power — Their power
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Is derived from: Their power — Is derived from: Their power
Trees · Different kinds of mentioned: Evergreen — Different kinds of mentioned: Evergreen
Wicked (People) · .Green bay tree — .Green bay tree
Wicked, The, Are Compared To · Green bay-trees — Green bay-trees
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).
עריץ (after the form צדּיק) is coupled with רשׁע, must as these two words alternate in Job 15:20 : a terror-inspiring, tyrannical evil-doer; cf. besides also Job 5:3. The participle in Psa 37:35 forms a clause by itself: et se diffundens, scil. erat. The lxx and Jerome translate as though it were כארז הלבנן, "like the cedars of Lebanon," instead of כאזרח רענן. But אזרח רענן is the expression for an oak, terebinth, or the like, that has brown from time immemorial in its native soil, and has in the course of centuries attained a gigantic size in the stem, and a wide-spreading overhanging head. ויּעבר does not mean: then he vanished away (Hupfeld and others); for עבר in this sense is not suitab…
The wicked might appear to be flourishing like a tree (cp. 52:8; 92:12-13), but they eventually die and are forgotten (37:2).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 37:35
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
A second time David turns to his diary, and this time in poetic imagery tells us of what he had observed. It were well if we too took notes of divine providences. I have seen the wicked in great power. The man was terrible to others, ruling with much authority, and carrying things with a high hand, a Caesar in might, a Croesus in wealth. And spreading himself like a green bay tree. Adding house to house and field to field, rising higher and higher in the state. He seemed to be ever verdant like a laurel, he grew as a tree in its own native soil, from which it had never been transplanted. No particular tree i…
