Letter 70: "Do not fret because of evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong.

Ambrose to the faithful. "Do not fret because of evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong. For like the grass they will soon wither; like green plants they will soon die away" (Psalm 37:1-2). I know why this psalm was written: because God's people have always been tempted to look at the wicked and say, "Why do they prosper while we suffer?" The temptation is real. You see men who lie, cheat, and oppress — and they live in mansions. You see the faithful widow, honest to a fault, and she struggles to feed her children. The arithmetic of this world does not add up, and the soul that demands fairness in the present tense will be driven to despair. The psalm's answer is not "Be patient and you will prosper too." That would be the same false equation with a delayed timeline. The psalm's answer is more radical: "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness" (Psalm 37:3). Stop measuring your life against the wicked. Stop keeping score. Do what is right because it is right, not because you expect a reward. "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread" (Psalm 37:25). This is the testimony of experience, not of theory. The righteous are not forsaken — but "not forsaken" does not mean "not tested." It means that in the testing, God is present, even when his presence is invisible. The wicked prosper for a season. The righteous endure forever. If you cannot see this now, wait. The grass is already withering; you just cannot see it yet. Trust the psalm. Trust the God who inspired it. And stop counting the mansions of the wicked. Farewell.

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