Psalms 37:20, commentary and pictures

The wicked shall perish, which means they die and are destroyed until they cease to exist and are blotted from existence, the opposite of everlasting life. They are consumed away like the fat of lambs burned on the altar, a most inflammable and perishable substance chosen to show certain and total burning, melting like tallow in a candle until none is left. The rising smoke that then dissipates forever is the memorial of a completed burning once gone forever, not ongoing life or torment, for the fire is unquenched only till its work is finished. In contrast to their temporary prosperity, the righteous and meek who trust God inherit the earth made new wherein dwells righteousness, and as soon as the enemies are consumed into smoke those blessed of God possess the very place where they were punished. Their end is death and everlasting destruction in its final result, even the second death, not continued life in misery or endless conscious torment, leaving a clean universe with no ever-burning hell but only blessing and universal worship.

Language and Imagery

The wicked shall perish, and to perish is to die and be destroyed, to come to nothing and cease to exist and be blotted from existence. Perishing is the opposite of everlasting life, so those who believe receive unending life while those without the gospel vanish and live nowhere else. Their end is utter destruction, not preservation alive in endless suffering or endless conscious existence.

They shall consume away, and to consume is to destroy through decomposition and dissipation and waste and fire. Consuming destroys until the substance is reduced to ashes and nothing remains, and the wicked as enemies of the Lord pass away like smoke. Like fat consumed by fire they waste away until they are gone.

The fat of lambs is the fat burned on the altar of burnt offering in the earthly sanctuary, as in the burnt offerings of the Mosaic service. As sacrificial fat is wholly consumed by fire until nothing remains and only smoke is left, so the wicked perish and consume away and are not preserved forever in the fire. They are ranked with the most inflammable and perishable substances to show they come to an end and are consumed and devoured by fire, proving total destruction and utter excision rather than continuance in life or torment. The comparison is deliberately chosen among perishable and combustible materials and never among imperishable or enduring substances, and like fuel picked for how fast and fully it burns rather than for power to resist flame it shows the certainty and totality of the burning. The great heat of that fire proves the completeness of its work of consuming them, not that the flame itself burns forever, and they perish completely rather than merely being banished from God's presence.

Like tallow in a candle that burns away completely, the wicked are finally burned up and consumed and will be no more. The lamb's fat pictures material that melts and disappears in a flame, and a burning candle gradually disappearing until none of it is left illustrates final destruction by fire. The image of consuming into smoke means nothing remains, so the wicked melt and waste away and disappear completely and do not live eternally in fire.

Smoke signals that devouring fire is consuming them, and smoke from their torment indicates that destruction is taking place. Because what the fire consumes is limited, it is eventually dissolved, and when nothing remains to sustain the fire they perish utterly and only smoke and ashes remain. After the flames have tormented them they perish and decompose, leaving ashes on the earth that mingle with the soil, while their smoke rises and dissipates forever and leaves nothing remaining. That endlessly rising and dissipating smoke is the memorial of a completed burning once gone forever, not ongoing life or torment, with forever describing how long the smoke ascends rather than endless life or torment for mortal sinners and things belonging to time. The fire is unquenched only till its work is finished, and the smoke rising forever signifies utter consumption rather than endless conscious suffering.

Context and Contrast

Psalm 37 belongs among David's songs that teach trust and confidence in God with assurance that wickedness will ultimately be overthrown and good will triumph. It expresses sorrows and afflictions together with encouragement, assurance of divine help, and final deliverance from persecutors.

The verse sets the temporary prosperity of the wicked, who are cut off, against the future everlasting inheritance of the righteous and meek who trust in God. That inheritance is the earth made new wherein dwells righteousness, the renewed earth as the eternal home where the righteous inherit the land and dwell securely and in peace forever to eternity, not merely the blessings or unequal prosperity of this present life. God delivers and saves those who trust in Him, and the destruction of the wicked is God's judgment, not a task given to the meek. Through redemption the just will have the purpose of humanity's dominion fulfilled and inherit the earth, while the wicked who oppose the Lord perish, are consumed away, and do not share that inheritance.

As soon as the enemies are consumed into smoke, those blessed of God inherit the earth and possess it. This proves the wicked cannot continue to exist, because the very place where they are punished is then occupied by the righteous. Their consuming is their end, a final destruction by fire on this earth at the time the wicked receive their reward, not unending torment.

In the psalm's teaching about affliction, outward circumstances do not by themselves reveal a person's character or standing with God. Salvation through Christ is connected with the righteous being accepted through His merits as they partake of His Spirit and bear its fruits in feelings and actions in harmony with God's law, which are necessary for the atonement to avail. The psalm implies that the wicked will be resurrected.

Complete Destruction Taught

The wicked and the enemies of the Lord perish completely and are utterly consumed and devoured like fat burned into smoke until they vanish, cease to be, and have no continuing existence anywhere in creation. Like the fat of lambs that burns and turns to smoke, they consume away rather than continue to live, and their end is utter destruction and complete extinction, not eternal life in misery or continued life. In the final judgment this is their recompense in the earth when they are cut off, leaving no enduring existence.

Their end is death and everlasting destruction, not continued life in misery or endless conscious torment. The punishment is eternal and forever in its final result because they never live again and will never be resurrected, while the fire itself goes out when nothing remains to burn and its work is done. What remains is nothing but ashes and no place for them, so the verse does not describe an eternally burning hell. Their destruction brings rebellion and sin to an end and allows justice to be fully carried out, with God rewarding every man according to his deeds. In the execution of that destruction some suffer far more than others according to the sins done in the body on earth before they are consumed away.

They become as though they had never been, with no place found, losing life and identity forever without resurrection to unite their elements. In a little while after the final judgment the wicked shall not be and their place shall not be found, for they cease to exist and will not rise again, cut off until neither root nor branch is left. This is the end of their existence in their distinct form as conscious, intelligent beings, not the annihilation of matter which is changed in form, as matter reduced by fire to smoke. It is utter annihilation, the only way to pass beyond the bounds of time and space, belonging to the wicked and not to the righteous, whose reward is eternal life in a real, tangible home on a tangible earth wherein dwells righteousness. This takes place at the perdition of ungodly men after the second resurrection, a thousand years after the first resurrection, when fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them, the same fire that melts and purifies the earth, when every rebel voice is hushed in death and Satan and all his followers, deceiver and deceived, are burned up root and branch like perishable chaff. It is the second death that follows the death common to all men, falling on all who remain under abiding wrath, who vanish like smoke and shall not see life nor be finally restored to divine favor.

Their removal leaves a clean universe with sin and all its sad effects blotted out. There is no ever-burning hell and its inhabitants writhing in agony, no eternally burning receptacle of torment, and no discordant wailing of the damned, but only blessing, happiness, and universal worship with every living creature giving honor to God and the Lamb. This fulfillment comes in the renewed earth, when sinners have been consumed out of the earth until they are no more and only the righteous remain living to join together in a universal song of praise to Him on the throne and to the Lamb. They perish completely on this earth at the day of judgment by devouring fire from God, consumed away into smoke until their place shall not be, leaving the righteous recompensed with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Their destruction ends sin and suffering rather than allowing them to continue forever; it satisfies justice while showing mercy, and leaves the universe purified from sin.

The burning pictures the destruction of sin without the sinner when separated from sin, like sacrificial fat burned on the altar. The fat removed from a sin-offering represented sin, and its burning until only ashes remained pictured the end of those who refuse to separate from sin. But God destroys the sinner because the sinner keeps sin in character and will not part from it.

Time Place and Manner

The wicked receive their reward by being burned up with fire on this very earth where they did their deeds, not in a separate place called hell for endless misery, and at that same time the righteous are recompensed in the earth and possess it. As soon as the enemies are consumed into smoke those blessed of God inherit the earth, which proves they cannot continue to exist anywhere else because the very place of their punishment is then occupied by the righteous. Their consuming is their end, stated again in different words as the promise that the meek shall inherit the earth.

At Christ's coming the wicked are destroyed by fire so that no continuing life remains on the earth, for they perish and consume away like fat burned to smoke. Those who persist in wickedness meet this consumption when Christ comes. One position places their final settlement then as everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, by which they are brought to nothing and banished from God and from everything else in the universe as though they had never been, with no return because the destruction is everlasting and not temporal.

The weight of teaching places the final execution of judgment after the thousand years, when all the wicked of all ages are raised and join in rebellion surrounding the holy city and the camp of the saints. Then fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them, overspreading the earth as water once covered it in the flood, reducing them to ashes like burning fat consumed into smoke. This is the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men for which the earth is kept, the day that burns as an oven and burns up the proud and wicked as stubble, also called the lake of fire which is the second death, whether reckoned at the coming of Christ or at the end of the thousand years, and it cannot last forever but must end. It takes place just before God makes the whole earth new, when the wicked go out from the city and are judged. After that great burning day the earth is renewed and becomes the everlasting dwelling of God's people.

In that devouring the punishment is dreadful and long-continued, with each punished according to deeds done in the body and tormented with stripes according to guilt, some suffering far more than others before they are consumed away. While they are consuming the smoke of their torment ascends, meaning a complete and final destruction is accomplished on them rather than eternal torment, with many or few stripes according to guilt. After they have thus dissolved into smoke there is no resurrection to unite their elements and bring them to life again, and God's anger ceases in their destruction. Yet the destruction is complete and final, not unending misery, so that every man is rewarded according to his deeds and the sentence is fully executed until the wicked shall not be any more.

The righteous within or upon the walls of the city are protected during this fiery punishment just before the new heavens and new earth and can see it and witness it while beholding the King in His beauty. The wicked outside the city of God fall under fire from God at the end of the judgment after the thousand years and perish like burning fat becoming smoke. They are reduced to ashes under the feet of the redeemed and do not suffer everlasting torment or continue to exist apart from God but receive the fate they choose. Like combustible material they vanish completely, which teaches annihilation rather than continued existence away from God.

The threatened fire is called unquenchable and the worm undying because neither is stopped or put out before devouring its fuel, but both continue only till their work of utter destruction is finished and then die out of themselves for lack of anything left to burn. The image of fat consumed in fire explains Christ's words about hell and the fire that never shall be quenched, showing final punishment as complete and utter destruction rather than eternal conscious suffering. The comparison concerns the certainty of their destruction, not how long they burn, for judgment's fire cannot be put out while anything remains for it to consume but ends when its fuel is gone. Thus the wicked waste away and vanish like smoke, wholly devoured.

The same fire that devours them melts and purifies the earth, consuming everything marked by sin and the effects of the curse. It is called perdition, second death, destruction, and perishing, taking place on this earth after the judgment in the fires that renovate the earth and bring in new heavens and a new earth. It falls at the perdition of ungodly men after the second resurrection, a thousand years after the first, when fire from heaven devours them and every rebel voice is hushed in death, with Satan and all his followers, deceiver and deceived, burned up root and branch like perishable chaff. They are annihilated not as matter but as conscious and intelligent beings, becoming as though they had not been, while the righteous at last have a kingdom of eternal felicity on this earth made new and inherit the earth. Their destruction is therefore part of the final judgment by fire which consumes them and purifies the earth for righteousness as the everlasting dwelling of God's people.

Doctrine and Scripture Links

The wicked perish and vanish like smoke, which proves that man does not have a naturally immortal soul and that the unrighteous do not possess natural immortality or receive immortality to live forever. To perish means to cease to exist, to die and come to nothing, with identity lost forever and no continuing life as conscious souls after death, but total destruction and the end of existence by being burned up and passing away completely. Their end is not eternal conscious misery or going on living forever in torment, but being consumed into smoke and devoured, with devour meaning to eat up in total destruction. This stands directly against the doctrine of eternal torment and immortality of the soul, which contradicts the verse and comes from the serpent's lie that sinners shall not surely die. After they are raised to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom while they themselves are thrust out, and after they surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fire coming down from God out of heaven devours them.

The final consequence and wages of sin is death, even the second death, for those who reject redemption and continue in transgression and remain under abiding wrath, rather than the death that came through Adam. As enemies of the Lord they perish completely, consumed and disappearing like fat burned in a fire until they are smoke, pictured by the slain animals in the sanctuary service which David saw when he went into the sanctuary. Their corruption results in decay and death, not in an incorruptible, never-ending existence in misery, while eternal life belongs instead to those who sow to the Spirit. Their end is everlasting destruction, not temporary punishment followed by restoration, and the punishment is death. God attached the death penalty to sin, and it is not arbitrary, because sin and death are inseparably connected and universal harmony can only be restored after sin entered by removing sin, so the incorrigibly wicked who will not develop character in harmony with God must be destroyed lest if permitted to live they would to all eternity remain an element of discord.

The fat separated from the sin-offering, peace-offering, and other offerings represents sin belonging to the Lord, and its removal pictures God's people separating themselves from sin through the Word of God and putting sin away. Its burning by fire until only ashes remain pictures cleansing from unrighteousness when forgiven, Christ giving himself for sins and purchasing them to destroy sin and give peace and give deliverance to its rightful owner, and the final end of sin, sinners, and the originator of evil. Like sacrificial fat consumed by fire and vanishing into smoke, the wicked and the Lord's enemies perish completely and come to an end. God destroys the sinner because the sinner keeps sin in character and will not part from it, so those who refuse to separate from sin and will not give up sins perish in the great burning day.

The truth that the wicked perish stands out in every part of the Bible and disproves universal or nearly universal salvation and the false security of future happiness that lures people to eternal ruin, showing that the finally impenitent will not be finally restored to divine favor and shall not see life. They vanish like smoke and become as though they had not been, burned up and left with neither root nor branch, in the second death that follows the death common to all men and falls on all who remain under abiding wrath. Finding anything contrary belongs to the last days when men will not endure sound doctrine but turn away from the truth to fables. Like burning fat, vanishing smoke, melting wax, tares bound in bundles and burned, chaff burned up, stubble burned root and branch in a day burning as an oven until only ashes remain, and fuel, and like lifeless branches separated from Christ that wither and die and are cast into the fire, the wicked lose form and substance and become as though they had not been. When given by comparison, the fate of the wicked in Scripture is always likened to the most perishable and combustible and inflammable substances, never to imperishable or enduring substances that withstand the action of the elements and the ravages of time, because God is a consuming fire whose wrath devours adversaries. After the thousand years, when all the wicked of all ages are raised and join Satan in rebellion, fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them, overspreading the earth as water once covered it in the flood, and they perish completely, consumed away into smoke like burning fat. This is the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men for which the earth is kept, the day that burns as an oven and burns up the proud and wicked as stubble leaving neither root nor branch, taking place at the perdition of ungodly men after the second resurrection a thousand years after the first resurrection in the same fire that melts and purifies the earth. Then sin and sinners are destroyed, every rebel voice is hushed in death, and Satan and all his followers, deceiver and deceived, are burned up root and branch like perishable chaff and stubble reduced to smoke, annihilated not as matter but as conscious and intelligent beings, leaving a clean universe with no place for an eternally burning receptacle of torment and no discordant wailing of the damned in the universal anthem of praise, with punishment as everlasting death and never a resurrection.

The doctrine of Christ in both Old and New Testaments is that the wicked will be utterly annihilated, perishing and being completely consumed away, and the unquenchable fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah shows that eternal fire means eternal effect in their destruction. They suffer material, bodily torment in the final destruction as they perish consumed like the fat of lambs until they vanish like smoke. Christ cleanses his kingdom by removing sin and those who do evil like refuse burned away, leaving a clean kingdom whose subjects do the Father's will through Christ.

Warning and Comfort Applied

The verse gives calm composure when a murderer is acquitted in a travesty of justice and then publicly celebrated with triumph, for the wicked who escape human punishment for taking life will still perish. Christians have the promise of seeing the wicked cut off, with the wicked and the Lord's enemies perishing while the righteous who trust in Him are preserved, delivered, saved, and inherit the land forever. That destruction is the judgment of the Judge of all the earth, not a task given to the meek to carry out, for the meek are to preach the Gospel and show Christ's meekness.

The doom pictured is to be escaped by turning to God and becoming His friend, with reconciliation made possible through the death of Christ. Those who choose not to serve God receive no good, but perish with death as their end rather than eternal life. This happens because they choose their own way, reject knowledge and the fear of the Lord, refuse God's counsel, and despise correction, so they receive the fate they choose and their place will ultimately be no more.

The incorrigibly wicked are those who will not develop character in harmony with God, and they must be destroyed rather than left alive to suffer and sin forever. God attached the death penalty to sin, and it is not arbitrary, because sin and death are inseparably connected. If permitted to live they would to all eternity remain an element of discord, so universal harmony can only be restored after sin entered by removing sin. Their destruction brings rebellion, sin, and suffering to an end and allows justice to be fully carried out, satisfying justice while showing mercy and leaving the universe purified from sin.

The verse stands among prophetic warnings that the wicked will perish when the great time of trouble comes, so those who reject the truth are in danger of destruction. As canceled church-debt notes are burned, so the Lord's enemies will likewise be consumed away like fat consumed in fire and vanishing as smoke.