Psalms 36

Psalms 36:1-12

God the Fountain of Life Psalms 36:1-12 The servant of the Lord, as the superscription tells us, is speaking here. He is horror-stricken at the ways and thoughts of the ungodly. By a bold image, Psalms 36:1, r.v., margin; Transgression is personified as speaking in the heart of the ungodly, as the Delphic oracle in her dark cave; and the answer from that secret oracle is full of smooth but beguiling words. So our first parents found it. What a blessed thing it is to turn from man to God! Notice God’ s attributes as here enumerated: “thy lovingkindness” (r.v.), “thy faithfulness,” “thy righteousness,” “thy judgments.” The golden bracelet begins and ends with love. All nature speaks, to the heart that loves, of the love of God. But they who fly to God find Him even better than nature can proclaim. He is better than banquets for hungry men. Let His life arise in thee as a fountain, and ask for the illumination of His light. Serenely sheltered under the wing, or in the house, of God, the soul may look out, unmoved, on “ the wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.”

Thy loving-kindnessBy the inscription we are specially led to think of SERVICE in connection with this Psalm. The Lord’s service is indeed blessed. It constitutes perfect freedom. Christ’s household servants all become nobles.

Psalms 36:1-4 Contrasted Service. When there is “no fear of God before the eyes,” a man is free to “flatter himself in his own eyes.” It is a terrible thing when a man becomes headstrong in wickedness and abhors not evil.

Psalms 36:5-8 The Master’s Character. All natural symbols fail to set forth the glories of Nature’s Lord. We cannot scale his heights or plumb his depths or see his last star. His loving-kindness is precious (1 Peter 2:7). If you want men to leave other refuges, so as to shelter under the wings of God, begin to talk of His love: that will draw them (Psalms 36:8). Those who thirst for creature-delights have yet to learn something of the meaning of this abundant satisfaction (John 10:10). God gives sorrow by cupfuls and pleasures by riverfuls. The Hebrew word for Pleasures is “Eden.”

Psalms 36:9 In Thy light shall we see light. The deepest teachings of the Apostle John lie folded in this marvellous verse as the forest in the acorn (John 1:1-16; 1 John 1:1-7).

Psalms 36:10-12 The Servant’s Prayer. Set thy loving-kindness abroach, so that we may drink and drink again. Start the flow, that it may be like some fountain of oil, which the more it is drawn upon, the more it yields. The man who knows God is “upright in heart” and vice versa. But the servants of sin incur irrevocable ruin, while the servants of God stand in their integrity, unmoved (Isaiah 54:17).