Psalm 36

Introduction

About to be turning in your Bibles to the 36th Psalm. 36th Psalm. Or Psalm 36, however you wish to put it. Our brother Guy Richards read that for us this morning as we began our period of worship together. And we’re going to examine that text in a little closer detail throughout the remainder of our time together. What a wonderful occasion it is when we can come together and we can go to our great God and Father in prayer. We can sing so many wonderful hymns extolling his virtues. And there’s a reason why we extol his virtues. And I hope that our examination of Psalm 36 this morning will help us to appreciate exactly why it is that we praise Him for who He is, while we think about the characteristics of our great God.

Psalm 36 is a wonderful passage. It is really a short story, if you will, encapsulated in these short 12 verses, where three characters are described. In fact, entitling this lesson, I simply call it the wicked, the Lord, and the believer. Because all three are really characterized in this short psalm. You have, first of all, the wicked in the first four verses, and then you have the Lord described in verses 9 through, I’m sorry, 5 through 9, and then the response of the believer in verses 10 through 12. I’ll be reading this morning and looking at this passage from the English Standard Version. Most of you know that I typically use the New American Standard. But when it comes to the Psalms, if you can always read different passages and different translations, and it puts it just a little bit different way.

1. The Wicked: The Oracle of Transgression

And I thought in examining this morning and looking at several different translations, I just thought the English standard perhaps gave it to us in a way that’s easiest for us to understand and mean it makes it meaningful to us. So I’ll be reading from that version this morning. Let’s begin by looking at what the psalmist says of the wicked in Psalm 36 and verses 1 through 4. The text says, Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed.

He sets himself in a way that is not good.

The first thing that I want you to understand about the wicked in this Psalm is that the psalmist is proclaiming that the wicked has a God. But the problem is that the wicked’s God is not Jehovah God. None of our translations will read it this way, but the literal reading of Psalm 36 would be the oracle of transgression. That phrase, the oracle of, is always used of the Lord in the Bible. The prophets would speak of the oracle of the Lord. The word of the Lord coming through the prophets in this manner. But you’ll note here that it’s not the oracle of the Lord. It is the oracle of transgression. It is the oracle of transgression that this wicked person has in his heart. And so, of course, since that is in his heart, that is why speaking to him.

There is no fear of God before his eyes. He has chosen what is his God. He has chosen that which he will serve. This idea of sin or transgression being personified, is not alone in this text. You may remember what the Lord said to Cain. What does he say about sin? It is at your door. It is just waiting. Sin and that passage in Genesis chapter 4, and I believe it’s in verse 7, being personified. Also, the Apostle Paul, for instance, in Romans chapter 6 would speak of how we make ourselves slaves to sin. Not slaves to the devil, but slaves to sin itself. And that seems to be what the psalmist is speaking of here. That the wicked has made himself a slave of sin.

It is sin that is speaking to him. It is transgression that is speaking to him in his heart. And because it is transgression speaking to him, he will not listen to God. There is no fear, there is no reverence for God. There is not even a dread of God in his heart. Because he is consumed by following wickedness. And so, since he has rejected God, and he has chosen his own God, he has allowed sin to be master of him, that of course affects his behavior. I don’t often read quotations from commentaries, but this one was so striking to me, I thought I would share it with you. And speaking of verses two through four, this text says, having dispensed with the fear of God, which was the foundation of wisdom, he had become a moral cripple.

Think of that. Having dispensed of the wisdom of God, the foundation of wisdom, he has become a moral cripple. And read what it says of him in verses two through four. He flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. He has deceived himself. Since he has rejected God, since there is no fear of God in his eyes, he is now deceiving himself that what he is doing is just fine and dandy. There is no one, there is no God who can find it out and hate him because of it. Or shall we say, hate his sin? He’s deceived himself. He’s his own master. He’s following his own course. And there is no one who could possibly punish him for his actions.

And so his actions are described in verses three through four. I want you to note in these two verses that you have active wickedness and you have passive wickedness. You have that which is going out and literally doing the wicked things, but then you also have this failure to do what is right. So we might say the active and the passive aspect. So he says, the words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. We might say that is active on his part. But then it says, he has ceased to act wisely and to do good. So not only is he going out there and doing that which is evil with his mouth, but he’s failing to do that which is good in his life. And then in verse 4, he plots trouble while on his bed.

He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. Same two things. He is actively plotting ways in which he can transgress. He is actively plotting ways in which he can sin and deceive and harm. And in doing so, he does not reject evil. Let’s make my own mistake. When the fear of God is not before our eyes. These are the things that will typify our lives as well. When we are not mastered by the one true God. And again, what Paul says, we are a slave of something. Someone is our master. Either we are slaves of God or we are slaves to sin. You have to choose which one you will serve, Paul says in Romans chapter 6. And the psalmist is laying it out for you right here.

2. The Lord: Your Steadfast Love, O Lord

Here is the results of when you have chosen to serve sin. When it is transgression that is speaking in your heart, then you’re only fooling yourself. And it will influence, it will affect every aspect of your being. It will affect all of your behavior. You will fail to do that which is good in the sight of God, and you will do that which is wrong in the eyes of God. But he does not go from this to describe the righteous. We might anticipate that kind of a juxtaposition or that kind of a contrast. Here is the wicked, but here is the righteous. No, he doesn’t leap to the righteous. He then begins to describe God. He says in verse 5, Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds, your righteousness is like the mountains of God.

Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. When you look at verses five and six, you have several characteristics of God mentioned there. His steadfast love, or you may have loving kindness or even mercy as a translation in your text. Faithfulness, righteousness, and judgments. While certainly all those are characteristics of God, I think when we approach this Psalm, really, all these things are to further describe one central aspect of God, and that is his loving kindness or his steadfast love or his mercy.

If there was a term to describe what we would think of as grace in the New Testament, that is the term that is used throughout the Old Testament, his loving kindness, which is extolled over and over and over again in the Old Testament text. That is what we might refer to as grace today. And so when it’s speaking of his loving kindness, and you’ll note that this idea of his loving kindness is found three times in this text, beginning in verse 5, beginning in verse 7, and then when we come to verse 10 and the prayer of the believer, we have this matter of his loving kindness again. And so as I approach this on my approach it from all describing the loving kindness and extolling the loving kindness or steadfast love of God.

So what is he saying about it? Well, in verses five and six, he is proclaiming, extolling the greatness, the magnificence of the loving kindness or steadfast love of our God. And you’ll just note the physical terms in which it is described. It extends to the heavens, to the clouds. So you might just say the vastness of it, the greatness of it, or you might even say the inability to fully search it all out because it is so great. The mountains described in the next verse, impregnable. And then the deep, that which is unsearchable. Just as the Apostle Paul was saying in the book of Ephesians. How can we truly know the love of our God? We can’t fully understand it. We can’t fully comprehend his great love for us.

And it seems to be that’s what the psalmist is proclaiming here. But then when he gives these other characteristics, if you will. Well, since he is steadfast in his love, he is great in loving kindness, and that is manifest in his faithfulness. His faithfulness in the covenants that he has made with mankind throughout creation as a manifestation of his loving kindness. He will be there for his people. You can bank on it. He will always be there for his people. His righteousness.

This is how awesome our God is, as we have sung this morning. But then you’ll note a change, of course, beginning in verse 7. We think of God and we extol his awesome nature. We think of God as our creator and how unlike God we are. But then we also think of God in a very personal sense. As the one who is there for us, the one who is there with us, and the one who loves us like none other. And that is the idea in verses 7 through 9. That this great God, whose loving kindness extends to the heavens, is right there for us, longing to bless us. And so he says, How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

You, of course, understand what the idea of taking refuge in the shadow of his wings refers to. That idea of the protection of God as he is shielding his people. That phrase is found throughout the scriptures. Boaz would describe it of Ruth, who had come to Israel to seek the refuge of God. The psalmist used it time and time again. And you may also recall of Jesus’ lament for Jerusalem, Matthew chapter 23, how he longed to shelter them under his wings, but they had rejected him. But here the psalmist is saying, here’s the confidence we have in you, God. We know that you are the refuge of your people. The children of mankind take refuge in you. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

Another one of those interesting phrases could be literally translated the river of Eden. You think of Eden as described in Genesis 2 and the four rivers that were there. The idea of God being there with man, the idea of God giving life and sustaining man there in Eden. And that idea of a river of life found throughout the scriptures as well. I’m going to go over to a couple of passages now. First of all, I’m going to go over to Ezekiel 47. Those of you familiar with the prophet Ezekiel know that Ezekiel was prophesying to God’s people in a very turbulent time. They have been taken away into captivity, in fact. And Ezekiel is there with the captives in Babylon. But in the latter half of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is describing the great renewal and restoration of God’s people.

And so he says in verse chapter 47, I’ll just paraphrase the first part, in describing the sanctuary and the temple of God, that there was a river flowing out from that sanctuary. And that river was going out and giving life. And I’m just going to skip down to the final couple of verses. Verses 12, just verse 12, actually, of Ezekiel chapter 47. And on the banks on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail. But they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Here is the river of God flowing forth from God, from his sanctuary.

And on either side of the river are the trees that give life and that they can eat. Many of you are already thinking of Revelation 22 in the picture of those who would dwell with God. Revelation 22 and beginning in verse 1. Then the angel showed me the river, the water of life, brightest crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its trees, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. And no longer there’ll be anything accursed. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. When the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 36, that those who experience the love of God, they will have protection. They will feast the idea of they will be given life by God. In his abundance, they will drink of the river of his delights. And then he says in verse 9, for with you is the fountain of life. In John, the seventh chapter, on the day of the feast of Booths. And Jesus is there in Jerusalem. And he says to the people in John chapter 7, and I’ll be reading from verses 37 and 38, Jesus proclaimed on that occasion, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. And whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

3. The Believer: The Prayer of the Believer

Those who love the Lord and are his people. This is what they know they experience. They drink of his water. They have the water of life. And perhaps this is the juxtaposition of the righteous with the wicked. If it is the wicked that has transgressions, speaking deep within their heart, then it is the righteous, who because they dwell in God, and he is the light, then they see light, and they follow light. The wicked who are out to harm. The wicked who do not fear God. The contrast being made with God Himself. And so the passage ends with the prayer of the believer. It says in verse 10, O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart.

Who is this love for? Well, of course, it is available to all of man. The passage had already said back in verse 7, the children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. So this idea of the protection and God feeding the people is available to all. But who is it that will experience in verse 10? Those who know you. Of course, that’s much of what Jesus has to say while he was here on this earth. That if you must know God, you must know him. You must come to know him and understand him and follow him to know God. So let your steadfast love, your loving kindness continue to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart. The wicked who do not fear God.

They’re not righteous. They do not have the upright heart. They cannot experience the loving kindness of God. It may be that David in the pending this psalm is thinking of those who had afflicted him and those who would continue to afflict him. And so he is beckoning out to his God and appreciating who his God is. You save me. I know you can. I know you will. He goes on in verse 11. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. If the wicked, as we already read in verse 4, if they’re continually on their bed plotting out evil, then who are they plotting evil against those of God’s people? What are we to do? We think in our modern society, we think of the godlessness that reigns in our society.

We think of how man has set himself against God, and as man has set himself against God’s people. And so what are we to do? Where is our safety? Where is our protection? In the loving kindness of God. Perhaps we ought to pray for us and our families every night. Exactly what the psalmist prayed for in verse 10. Continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There’s our confidence, there’s our assurance. It’s not in man. But our confidence and our assurance for the protection that we need is from God and him alone. We can have the assurance that ultimately the wicked will not prevail.

And so the psalm ends.

There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. If you’re familiar with the life of David, and we don’t know exactly when this psalm occurs. Perhaps it was in the time of Saul. Perhaps it was during the time in which David was being afflicted by those round about him. And you can imagine in David’s life that there were times in which he could very easily think it’s over. The wicked, they are going to prevail. They are going to slay me. But since he had this great confidence in God, he could look forward and see there, they lie fallen. He can see their end. They lie fallen. They cannot rise. But I am safe and secure in God. We wonder how things are going to turn out.

Conclusion

We wonder what will come of the world in general. We wonder what will become of our country in particular. We wonder what will become of our families. When it seems that the wicked prosper.

We don’t know that. But what we do know is the end. Even as David could look out and see as a present reality, the evil have fallen. The evil will not rise. But as we maintain our confidence in God and recognize the greatness of our God, and recognize that not only is he a great and awesome God, but he is a God who longs to protect us and feed us. And as we long for His loving kindness to be upon us, then we know what the end is.

The wicked, they will fall and they will not rise. We’re going to sing a song of an a verse of an invitation song. And the simple invitation that we would make this morning is, wouldn’t you like to have God on your side? But you’ve got to choose who’s going to be your God. Is it going to be this life? Is it going to be transgression? Is that what’s going to speak to you? Or will it be God and Him alone who speaks to you? Think about that as we stand and sing the first verse of this song. Come to Jesus.