Psalms 36: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The psalm opens with a description of a wicked man: he has no fear of God, flatters himself about his own sin, plots harm even in bed, and has given up on wisdom and good. It then turns to the LORD, praising his faithful love, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgments, and describing how people find shelter, food, drink, and light with him. It closes with a request that God keep his love toward those who know him, that the foot of pride not come against him and the hand of the wicked not drive him away, and a statement that the evildoers lie fallen and cannot get up.

Claim by Claim

1. 36:1
   • An utterance concerning the transgression of the wicked man is within the speaker's heart.
   • There is no fear of God before the wicked man's eyes.
2. 36:2
   • The wicked man flatters himself in his own eyes.
   • His self-flattery lasts until his iniquity is found out and hated.
   • It is unclear whether the flattery blinds him to his sin or continues only until his sin is exposed.
3. 36:3
   • The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
   • He has stopped acting wisely.
   • He has stopped doing good.
4. 36:4
   • He plots mischief while on his bed.
   • He takes a stand in a way that is not good.
   • He does not reject evil.
5. 36:5
   • The LORD's covenant love reaches to the heavens.
   • The LORD's faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
6. 36:6
   • The LORD's righteousness is like the mighty mountains.
   • The LORD's judgments are like the great deep.
   • The LORD preserves man and beast.
7. 36:7
   • God's covenant love is precious.
   • The children of men take refuge in the shadow of God's wings.
8. 36:8
   • They are filled to the full from the abundance of God's house.
   • God gives them drink from the river of his delights.
9. 36:9
   • With God is the fountain of life.
   • In God's light we see light.
10. 36:10
    • The speaker asks God to continue his covenant love to those who know him.
    • The speaker asks God to continue his righteousness to the upright in heart.
11. 36:11
    • The speaker asks that the foot of pride not come against him.
    • The speaker asks that the hand of the wicked not drive him away.
12. 36:12
    • There the workers of iniquity have fallen.
    • They are thrown down.
    • They are not able to rise.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

36:1

The Hebrew of this line is famously difficult. The word behind "saith" (ne'um) is the formal term for a solemn pronouncement, normally used of a message from God (the poet describes sin speaking to him with that same oracular authority. Hebrew manuscripts also differ over whether the speech happens in "my heart" (the poet's) or "his heart" (the wicked man's), which is why translations vary. "Fear of God" here means reverence and awe, the sense that God must be reckoned with), not fright.

36:2

Another badly damaged line in the Hebrew, and translations diverge sharply. The words can mean that the man flatters himself too much to detect his own sin, or that he flatters himself until his sin is exposed and found hateful. Either way the point is self-deception; the exact grammar is disputed.

36:3

"Left off" is older English for stopped or gave up. "Iniquity" is a broad word for wrongdoing, with the underlying sense of something bent or twisted out of its proper shape.

36:4

"Mischief" in 1611 meant serious harm or ruin, not childish naughtiness, and "deviseth" means plots deliberately. The picture is of a man using his quiet private hours, lying down at night, to work out how to damage people.

36:5

"Mercy" translates the Hebrew hesed, one of the key words of the Psalms. It means committed, loyal love, the steady care owed within a binding relationship, not pity or leniency. It appears again in verses 7 and 10, where the King James has "lovingkindness."

36:6

The phrase behind "the great mountains" is literally "the mountains of God," a Hebrew way of saying the mightiest mountains there are. "Judgments" means God's rulings and decisions, not condemnations; "a great deep" is the vast primeval ocean, the standard Hebrew image for unmeasurable depth. The two halves set an unmissable height against an unfathomable depth.

36:7

"Shadow of thy wings" draws on a bird sheltering its young under its wings, a common image for protection; the same phrase could also call to mind the outstretched wings of the carved figures over the ark in the sanctuary. "Children of men" is a Hebrew idiom simply meaning human beings.

36:8

"Thy house" is the temple, and "fatness" refers to the rich portions of animals offered there, which worshipers ate as a shared meal, so this describes guests being fed at God's table. The word behind "pleasures" (adanim) shares its root with the name Eden, so the river of delights faintly echoes the river that watered that garden.

36:9

"Fountain" here is a spring welling up from the ground, the source of a stream rather than an ornamental fountain, the picture is of water that never stops flowing.

36:10

"O continue" translates a verb meaning to draw something out or stretch it, like paying out a rope. The request is that God keep his loyal love running on rather than letting it stop. "Upright" means straight or honest, the opposite of the twisted speech described in verse 3.

36:11

Foot and hand stand for the whole person acting: being trodden underfoot was a standard image for total defeat, and the "hand" of the wicked is their power to drive someone from home or land.

36:12

"There" is abrupt in the Hebrew and points at a scene the poet seems to see in front of him, as though gesturing at the place where the wrongdoers have already fallen. Some translators read the verbs as past (it has happened), others as a confident view of what is certain to happen.