John Piper, in a sermon, “Battling the Unbelief of Envy”:
This is a great Psalm for talking about how to fight envy because it starts off with the main point of “Don’t be envious.” Then I count six solid reasons for why not to be envious in the first 11 verses. What I’m trying to do tonight is give you an example of how to fight the fight of faith in your devotions.
When you wake up in the morning and notice a feeling of envy inside you towards somebody at work, a family member, or somebody, and you say, “This shouldn’t be there. What can I do about it?,” here’s what you do you. You get out the Bible, kneel down in prayer, and start reading. You look for the biblical promises that explode envy. But to do that you have to realize, first of all, that envy is a form of unbelief.
So lets look at Psalm 37:
“Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrong doers.”
So there it is. Basic statement: be not envious of wrong doers or get all fretted about them.
“For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.”
And then I think verse 3 tells us what we ought to do instead. This is the opposite of envy:
“Trust in the Lord, do good.”
And then the next phrase could be a command or a promise. It’s both I think. The RSV says,
“So you will dwell in the land and enjoy security.”
It could be “enjoy security,” but, literally, it is “feed on faithfulness.” Either way I think it means God’s faithfulness, and so the idea of security is right and good.
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him.”
Notice these positive things that you’re supposed to put in place of envy in your emotions. “Trust” (verse 3), “delight” (verse 4), “Commit” (verse 5), and “trust” again in the second half of verse 5. So the reason I chose Psalm 37 tonight is because it teaches us that envy is unbelief, or has its root in unbelief. And the opposite of envy we see is faith, or trust, or delighting in God, or rolling your burdens onto the Lord.
So I hope it is clear that when we are beginning to envy—when we’re starting to look at somebody and resent that they have something and we don’t—and we’re beginning to lose our peace and contentment in God because of it, the issue is faith.
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