Psalm XXXVI
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord.
1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, That there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to
be hateful.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be
wise, and to do good.
4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed;
He setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
5 Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto
the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great
deep.
O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
7 How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house: And thou shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
10 O continue thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee; And thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the
wicked remove me.
12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen! They are cast down, and shall
not be able to rise.
The title. He whom the Holy Ghost employs to write in these strains of elevated thought and intense feeling, is one not ashamed of his God. It is David; and as in Psalm xviii. 1, so here he describes himself as ‘’Servant of Jehovah.” Perhaps it was specially appropriate to use this designation in a Psalm that shews us so fully the apostasy of men and a world in rebellion. David glories in being “Servant” to Him whom men desert and despise.
The plan. Like Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 3 □^^J^ speaking in the Lord’s
name to Balak, so the Psalmist, in a kind of irony, represents “transgression” as uttering its oracle to the wicked. The first verse reads thus: —
“Transgression utters its oracle to the wicked in my heart! {i.e., my heart thus apprehends their meaning,) There is no fear of God before his eyes!” — (Rengstenberg*)
And then he states seven features of the man who has no fear of God. All this prepares the way for the contrast, Jehovah’s character and thoughts towards us, verses 5-9. Nor is he done till he has shewn us the Fountain of life, surrounded by the redeemed, and then pointed to the ruin of the lost, “Yonder are they fallen,” (ver. ] 2), — scenes that carry us forward to the Great Day and its issues.
What a Psalm is this! David, and David’s Son, and every member of the household of faith, must always have found it congenial; it is such a picture of earth, and such a glimpse of Godhead-glory and grace. It suggests the deliverance of all creation, “man and beast,” and streams of bliss in reserve
* Tholuck renders it, “A divine oracle says from the depth of my heart, concerning the wickedness of the ungodly” — adopting in substance the version of Symmachus and Luther. All agree that QJ^J is very peculiar.
for us. It abounds in allusions to Old Testament history — allusions that make it more fragrant and savoury; as when verse 7th sings of Jehovah’s care of “man and beast,” thereby calling up before us the ark of Noah, and the rainbow that spanned it after the flood; or when verse 8 sings of “the river, ^’ as if to remind us of the streams that watered Paradise (” a hver of thy pleasures” ]1V!); or when “the fountain” is spoken of, as if to send our thoughts to Deut. xxx. 20, Israel’s fountain. It is such a song of Zion as can be appreciated only by meditation deep and frequent — such solemn meditation as will try to gaze up to those heavens (verse 5), wherein mercy dwells; penetrate those clouds in which faithfulness is hid; climb and explore the massy mountain-heights of justice {hills of God, worthy of his greatness, glorious and immense); cast the line into the fathomless deep of his judgments, {i.e., his providential dealings); and feel drawn by that grace that leads men to the shade of the Almighty wings, and then to the rivers of pleasure which flow from the fountain of life. If asked to describe what we see in this Psalm, we would say, We see here
The Righteous One looking up to the God of grace from amid a world lying in wickedness.