Iris,
I can't help but respond to this post because the Lord miraculously gave me Psalm 37:9-11 at a time when I was facing the permanent loss of my young daughter (she was 22 months old) to her father who was relentlessly threatening and strategically positioning himself to abduct her to the Middle East during our divorce and custody lawsuit and to deny her and I any contact with each other for the rest of our lives. I was facing certain failure in the Texas family courts to protect her by preventing her abduction and I was facing a futile battle with U.S. immigration (the INS and now Department of Homeland Security) to deal with his other illegal behaviors. Everything around me was HOPELESS and everyone around me kept telling me to GIVE UP and then His miracle occurred (that story is TOO long to tell) and the Lord spoke the exact scripture to address my fears and my need for His Strength and His Hope amidst the chaos that surrounded me. Those three verses brought me through a five year custody fight that left me the winner at every turn, at the last hour and to everyone's amazement, even my own lawyers. I would show up in Court for hearings my ex-husband requested, with the odds clearly stacked against me because of the then lack of laws to provide protection for my daughter, only to walk out victorious every time with a signed Order already in my hand. Court orders were handwritten by court clerks and signed by judges right then and there and that just does not happen. I had to face a Muslim Imam who ruled in my favor. And every time my ex-husband filed motions against me, he ended up with less then he had as far as access to our daughter is concerned. He has remained under supervised visitation with her since the day after he walked away from our marriage (9/11/96), and she is currently in her eleventh year of the Lord's protection. AND, I was able to have his petition for U.S. citizenship denied, solely by the Lord's Hand, AND in 2003 I was successful in getting international parental child abduction prevention legislation passed in Texas (that I co-authored with another Texas mother in my predicament) that has since become a model act (and the Lord involved me in that process) and is currently being implemented by states across our nation, solely by the Lord's Hand.
During that time, there were many other scriptures that lifted me up and comforted me and taught me about God's Omnipotent Will in my life, but again and again and again I would fall upon Psalm 37:9-11 whenever people were trying to advise me to make decisions that He was showing me were rooted in their fears and not in His Will. Every time I walked into a courtroom or a meeting with lawyers, I clung to that scripture, knowing that I know that I know that He gave it to me for a purpose and He was faithful to fulfill it.
There were many times during that process that I wanted to interject my own interpretation as to what it meant (i.e., "he" was going to DIE) but the Lord has taught me that it is HIS Will in that scripture that will come to pass. My ex-husband is still in the picture, but 14 months ago he moved to California, after apologizing to me for all that he had done (telling me I never deserved it), thanking me for raising such a beautiful daughter, and promising me to never again file anything against me in a court of law. He has weekly phone calls to our daughter and twice-yearly visits that are always supervised (and he pays for all of them). Is he dead? No. Has the evil man been cut off from our life? Yes. Do I live in an abundance of peace over this situation? Yes. Oh, and I must add that "the meek shall inherit the earth" was instruction to me as to how to behave amidst all of this. I was told by my lawyer that she wished all of her clients behaved like I do and the firm wrote off my entire bill!!! As for the words my ex-husband spoke to me 14 months ago, I thought to myself, "That's fine, but the Lord has already spoken His Word about it and it was long before you were ever born!"
Iris, I don't know why you are asking for interpretation or comments but I hope that there is something in what I said that has answered you and given you hope. The Lord's Word is my breath and the substance of my being, and Psalm 37:9-11 is very sweet to me, indeed.
In His Service,
Cathy