Notes on Psalm 36
God's Love
Brief Note on Psalm 36: God’s Love or Ourselves?
One of my readings this morning was from Psalm 36. I have been in the Psalms so much lately that my head is swimming in song. I recently (today!) completed a short project to read through the entire Psalter and find all the places where the Psalmist says someone is ‘blessed’ for doing something or being someone. There are many ways to be blessed according to the Psalms. I hope to write a follow up on that project soon.
This Psalm, 36, is like many Psalms to an extent. It gives us a picture of two ways. There is a marked contrast between the person in verses 1-4 and the God in verses 5-9. In the middle, is the author of the Psalm, David who is looking at both sides of this rather troubling picture. David’s ‘response’ is in verses 10-12 in the form of a prayer because what else is a person to do in such a situation? He prays to God that he will not end up like the person in verses 1-4 even though he is the person in verses 1-4.
I think I agree with Derek Kidner who surmises that the person in verses 1-4 is not anything or anyone unique: it’s all of us. Every single human who has ever lived on the earth is the decrepit person in verses 1-4. This person who listens to wickedness, has no regard for the Lord, who justifies his sin, hides his sin, speaks about his sin and can do little more than sin (‘he has ceased to act wisely and do good’), thinks about sin even when he is resting, sets a course for sin, and does not reject evil. This is the description that fits everyone at some point in time or another. The Psalm reminds me of Genesis during the flood where the thoughts of the human heart are described as only evil all the time. Or where the apostle Paul says that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ The point is that when we have no fear of God, when our attitude towards God is so poor, we embrace sin fully and it embraces us. "Wretched people that we are. Who will rescue us from this body of death?”
Yet verses 5-9 tell a different story because they talk about God’s love. David says that God’s love is vast, too vast perhaps for us to even consider! It extends to the heavens, it’s big as a mountain, and it is deep as the ocean. Derek Kidner says it poetically, God’s love is ‘too great to grasp.’ David doesn’t stop: ‘How precious is your steadfast love, O God!’ Kidner again is poetic in his description stating that God’s love is ‘too good to let slip away.’ We can’t grasp it, yet we cannot let it go. God’s love profoundly for us even though we know we are the person in verses 1-4. God’s love is far reaching and embracing: ‘The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings’ he writes. There are feasts! Delights! Joys! There is light! Abundance! It’s like being in Eden all over again. This is how the love of God manifests itself in our lives even now. I don’t think we have to wait; we simply need to be embraced by God’s love before we are so dark we can do nothing but embrace the evil.
If David’s thoughts are that God’s steadfast love is too great to grasp (5-6) and God’s love is too precious to let slip from our grasp (7-9) then I think his prayer gives way to this: God’s love is too good to ignore (10). It all comes down to God’s love for us. When he finishes out verses 11-12, I don’t think David is saying ‘let this be the lot of the evildoers.’ Instead, I think he is saying this is the lot of the evil doers and I don’t want to be among them. He is saying that a life apart from God’s love (1-4) is not a life he desires to live or be associated with. He doesn’t want to live or think that way. David wants to be embraced by God’s steadfast love.
David seems to be saying something like, “God’s love is so vast, so precious, and so good that I don’t have time to be dabbling in wrongdoing let alone making it my life’s work or my legacy.” The person in verses 1-4, all of us, need this love of God to upend us and our plans for worldwide domination and personal self-destruction. We need to know the Lord’s love so we don’t end up unable to rise above ourselves. We need help to stand up and be embraced by God’s steadfast love otherwise we will remain beaten down and dead; unable to rise (v 12).
Have a blessed day.