Psalm 37

This alphabetic psalm is about land. In Israel, a family's field was not an investment but an inheritance assigned by God, marked by boundary stones, and meant to return to the family at the jubilee. So when the psalm repeats that the meek shall inherit the earth and the wicked shall be cut off from it, first hearers heard a property question with a real answer: who will still be farming this valley in twenty years?

"They shall soon be cut down like the grass" and "wither as the green herb" describe the spring flush. After the winter rains, the hills turn green and flower for a few weeks; by early summer it is all gone. Grass on a flat mud roof came up faster and died faster still.

"The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy" is not metaphor in a countryside where a strong household with armed men could simply take a weaker neighbor's plot. The psalm's answer — their sword shall enter into their own heart — is the same recoil that the hunting pit pictures elsewhere.

"The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth" reflects a credit economy without banks. Neighbors lent seed, grain, oil, and silver to each other, interest-free by law, and the whole system rested on people paying back. A borrower who did not pay was stealing from the community's safety net.