Download the Bethlehem Baptist Church Mobile App
Available for iOS and Android
November 12/13, 2016
Jason Meyer | Psalms 36:1-12
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;
he does not reject evil.
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.
Oh, 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 the evildoers lie fallen;
they are thrust down, unable to rise.—Psalm 36
Introduction
Fill These Cities Update
We have finished our nine-week series on Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25. And like we said last week, this is not the end, but the beginning. So let me explain what will happen in the next three months: (1) November focuses on intended giving, (2) December focuses on actual giving, and (3) January will focus on looking at the intended and actual giving and prayerfully proposing a plan for the congregation to vote on at the January Quarterly Strategy meeting.
Psalms Introduction
Today we come back to our series on Psalms 1–41, which we entitled: Learning to Lament. Lord-willing we will finish it on the last week of Advent. We’ll look at Psalm 36 today. Remember that Psalms 34–37 are four Psalms focused on “innocent” or “unjust” suffering, while Psalms 38–41 will be four Psalms focused on suffering that comes in response to our sin.
One of the best ways to approach Psalm 36 is to compare it with Psalm 1. The two psalms have much in common in the way that they contrast the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous, but the order is reversed. Psalm 1 begins with the way of the righteous (vv. 1–3), then the way of the wicked (v. 4), followed by the end of the road (vv. 5–6). Psalm 36 begins with the wicked (vv. 1–4), then the righteous (vv. 5–9), but then there is a Closing Prayer (vv. 10–12). That closing prayer shows that the Psalmist feels surrounded by wickedness, and he is pleading with God that he will not get swept away with them into destruction.
Outline
We will walk through the passage one stanza at a time and then we will draw out its doctrine and apply it.
1. The Way of the Wicked (vv. 1–4)
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;
he does not reject evil.
I need to begin with an explanation of the term “wicked.” This can be “church language,” and we assume that everyone knows what it means. In modern day language, we tend to reserve the term for someone who is especially evil, like a moral monster. People have a bell curve in our society—people who are morally average and then people who are very moral or very immoral. Popular usage applies the word “wicked” in that way—as a reference to those who are very immoral.
That is not the way the Psalmist uses the term. It is a reference to people who reject God. It refers to who we are with reference to our standing before God. It doesn’t matter if someone appears warm, friendly, or affable. The wicked are people in rebellion against God and his ways. They have never repented of their rebellion and sought forgiveness for their sins so that they could be part of God’s family.
Verse 1 can be taken two different ways. It could mean that transgression (breaking God’s law) is the heart language of the wicked. Or it could be translated as an oracle of transgression. In other words, we hear the way transgression speaks to the wicked. “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked” (Psalm 36:1, NIV).
I lean toward taking verse 1 as an oracle of transgression in which we hear the way transgression speaks. I see a progression of five steps. The first step is the outright rejection of God: “There is no fear of God before his eyes” (v. 1). If wisdom begins with the fear of God, then wickedness begins with the rejection of God. What does it mean to “fear God” in contrast to having “no fear of God?” Tim Keller perceptively says that fearing God is “to be so filled with joyful awe before the magnificence of God that we tremble at the privilege of knowing, serving, and pleasing him” (The Songs of Jesus, p. 70). Therefore, he says the opposite would be the way that “sin shrugs at God.” Those who reject God may believe or not believe in his existence, but what they really reject is the fact that “He matters.” This attitude towards God is like a “spiritual cancer” that spreads throughout one’s whole life (p. 70).
Why do the wicked reject God? What they reject most is the whole idea of moral accountability. They don’t want anyone telling them what to do. They want to be free to call their own shots and follow a path that feels right for them. God is the King and the rightful Ruler, but they live in rebellion against that rule. That is the essence of the word “transgression.” Rebellion is a willful, premeditated decision to disregard the boundary markers that the Creator has revealed for his creatures.
Second, rejecting God means we reject a right understanding of ourselves (reality). Sin impacts our own perception of reality. “For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated” (v. 2). A literal translation is “he deals smoothly with himself in his own sight.” How does someone maintain a safe distance from a guilty conscience (fear of God)? Answer: Smooth it over in your own eyes or else you will see what you did and despise it. If people do not cover over or smooth over their sins, they would discover them and hate them (loathe or reject them). If seeing something would make us uncomfortable, we do what we have to do to stop seeing it. Shove it in the closet or put something over it so that it doesn’t seem as bad.
I once did that when I backed out of my garage and scraped the side of the van of one of my in-laws. I felt so bad about it that I took a scratch pen and tried to cover up the scratch so that it didn’t look as obvious. Someone would have to look real close to see the scratch or the little dent.
Why did I do that? I don’t want to think of myself as a reckless, thoughtless driver. I was a little ashamed, but I finally told them what happened because I knew it was wrong to try to hide it or smooth it over. We do the same thing in our relationship with God. We rationalize our rebellion and try to minimize it. You flatter yourself into believing that God doesn’t exist or doesn’t see how bad our sin is or that it doesn’t really bother him.
Third, our rebellion means we spread a false, twisted version of reality to others. “The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit” (v. 3). Do you see how our rebellion against God starts to affect others? We are not only trying to convince ourselves that we are a good person. Now the words of our mouths cannot be trusted—they do not give an accurate picture of reality. It leads to hurt and trouble and betrayal.
Fourth, our rebellion begins to completely color our reality so that we leave the path of wisdom altogether and become fools. “He has ceased to act wisely and do good” (v. 3). That is what happens when we reject a fixed point of reference like God. We trust our own sense of direction, and we leave the path of wisdom and lose touch with reality.
Fifth, rebellion spreads like cancer until it consumes us. “He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.” It begins to consume our thinking. How can I do more? (meditating and then plotting how to make it happen). Why mention “on his bed”? It becomes the default mode. It is what you daydream about or think about before you sleep— sometimes it keeps you awake. Rebellion has become an obsession. It grows to the point of meditating on evil and plotting how to make it happen (v. 4). One now has plans and goals and aims—the trajectory is entirely the wrong direction—it is not good, but it is not hated or rejected—it is embraced.
Alexander Pope (18th century poet) captures this well in a poem:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
Romans 1:30–32 gives the same downward spiral of sin:
… slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Paul says part of our rebellion against God is that we “invent ways to do evil.” We become inventors of evil and give our hearty approval. We become peddlers, producers, and inventors and investors of evil. In the end, the wicked person cannot reject what is wrong because it is no longer seen as hateful or wrong. The “depraved mind” (v. 28) approves evil instead of agreeing with God that such a thing is wrong. This is a scary path. Is there another way?
2. The Way of the Righteous (vv. 5–6)
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.
The way of wisdom is to begin with who God really is rather than reject him outright because we start with what we want. Adore the attributes of God! Look at his love, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgments. I find these verses so liberating and soul-stretching. We tend to make God fit into the confined spaces of our tiny minds and hearts, and these two verses say that God breaks every box and stretches beyond any limitation or imagination. God’s steadfast love and faithfulness is as high as the heavens and the clouds (v. 5). His righteousness is as majestic as the mountains and his judgments are as deep as the oceans.
Listen to Derek Kidner (Psalms, p. 147). I think he gets the scale and scope of this contrast right.
Here is a whole world to explore, a “broad place” to be brought into (cf. 18:19): unsearchable (heavens, clouds), impregnable (mountains), inexhaustible (the great deep); yet, for all that, welcoming and hospitable (6c-9). It is only man’s world that is cramping. Human fickleness makes a drooping contrast to this towering covenant-love and faithfulness (5); human standards, where all is relative, are a marshland beside the exacting, exhilarating mountains of His righteousness (6); human assessments are shallowness itself in comparison with His judgments.
That helps one feel the spaciousness and scope of God’s love. Now we have a right perception of God, we can respond rightly to God. God’s people find him incomparably precious and satisfying.
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.—Psalm 36:7–9
The contrast between the wicked and the righteous is not presented here in terms of law breaking versus law-keeping. God is the standard. The opposite of evil (rejecting God as irrelevant or indifferent) is valuing the worth of God’s steadfast love as exceedingly precious (v. 7). The opposite of evil that hides from God is to hide in God—taking refuge in the shadow of his wings. The opposite of an evil refusal to enjoy God is to gladly feast at the banquet spread at the table in God’s house and to drink from the river of his delights. The opposite of a love for the darkness is to come to God as a fountain of life and as the source of light.
I love how Psalm 36 interprets the river that flows from Eden as a picture of God’s presence with us. In God’s temple and in God’s presence the river of Eden flows to us as a fountain of life. We are called away from finding refreshment in empty entertainment and shallow, shot glass joys that don’t satisfy or quench our thirst. We are called to drink deeply from the river of delights (literally of “Edens”).
This picture in Psalm 36 is the photo-negative of evil in Jeremiah 2. Let’s be shocked again by the nature of sin.
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.—Jeremiah 2:11–13
What is sin? At its root, sin is rebellion against God. We have all believed that our way was better. We have rebelled against his rule and authority and have belittled his glory and beauty. Sin is the stubborn, stiff-necked refusal to drink deeply of the infinite delights of God. Sin is a double evil: We forsake the perfect fountain, and we think the broken stuff we build would be better.
The worst part is that we know our wells are broken. We never have enough. We spend our whole lives looking for a satisfying drink of something, but it never works. Yet we foolishly and stubbornly keep trying, saying, “Maybe this time.” It will never work. It is impossible to be satisfied without God. We are commanded to regard the evil of trying to satisfy ourselves apart from God as appalling and shocking (Jeremiah 2:12). Try to understand this evil from God’s point of view. I will try to paraphrase God’s perspective. God asks, “Do you really think you can dig a deeper hole? Do you really think you are going to find enough water to fill up the hole you are digging? Do you really believe that you make a better fountain? Will you really try to replace Me as the Perfect and Supreme Source of satisfaction? Are you serious? Look at who I am compared to what you built. Your well is broken. It won’t work. Your whole life will be one long, inevitable, and perpetual failure.” This is spiritual suicide. Our actions are both shockingly sinful and stupid.
3. The End of the Road (vv. 10–12)
Oh, 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 the evildoers lie fallen;
they are thrust down, unable to rise.
Those who know God and his steadfast love have a singular prayer: Let it continue! God forbid that I would be driven away from my only source of good, and light, and life, and joy. They want an everlasting supply of his steadfast love and righteousness. They don’t stop desiring him and delighting in him (v. 10).
But they also are self-aware enough to fear flattering themselves along with the wicked—that they can handle it without getting swept away by sin. We are not so arrogant as to believe that we can play with fire and not be burned or jump into a raging river and not get swept away. We don’t fool ourselves into thinking that we are such good swimmers that we can jump into a raging river and not get swept away. We see others who have done so and we have seen where that path ends. We see them fallen, thrust down, unable to rise.
Now that we have walked through the passage, let’s draw out the doctrine and apply it. Before I state it, let me put it into context. I have a huge burden today. I think many people, maybe even most Christians, do not understand the fear of God. We tend to think of it as a paralyzing fear that is the opposite of joy and safety.
Do you associate the fear of God with feasting on God? Gulping down the rivers of his delights? Finding refuge under the shadow of his wings? Our understanding of the fear of God needs to be expanded to include all the richness of the biblical witness.
The main point or doctrine of Psalm 36 is “the joy of fearing God.” Perhaps you have never put those two words together in a sentence like that. Have you ever associated fearing God with feasting on God? Do you ever put the fear of God together with the love of God? You must if you are going to be true to Psalm 36.
Where does the fear of God come from? It is a miracle. God has to change our hearts:
I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.—Jeremiah 32:39–41
The Father puts a fear for him in our hearts in his joy—with all of his heart and soul. Do you rejoice in his joyful work? Does your heart know his loving heart? Or does God seem like a stingy father who just tolerates you or is irritated at you and doesn’t love to give good gifts to his children?
It is little like a home that we stayed overnight in when I was preaching somewhere, and a family in the church graciously offered to host us. This house was a kid’s dream and a parent’s nightmare. Here is what I mean. It was like a display house for a toy and doll collector. Every room had things on display on pedestals—priceless, collectible, breakable stuff. My little kids were wide-eyed and wanted to grab everything and take it down and play with it. All those toys! It was not restful at all. I spent all my time trying to make sure that my kids didn’t break all that expensive stuff. It all looked so fun, but you were not supposed to play with the toys—you were just supposed to look at them and admire them without playing with them. Try explaining that concept to young children: I know they look like toys, but they are a different kind of toy than you have ever seen before—the kind that you cannot actually do anything fun with.
Many people see God that way. He made this world full of stuff to enjoy, but you can’t. You just have to keep saying no. Christian kill-joys just keep going around saying, “Fear him enough to say ‘no.’” Deny yourself. Don’t have fun. Don’t play with the toys. Here, watch how good I am at not playing with them. Look at my moral performance. That is how people think of the commands of God and the church of Christ. Psalm 36 looks at the fear of God in a different light. Fearing God cannot be reduced to abstaining from stuff. The fear of God involves faith-filled mingling of fasting and feasting, abstaining and partaking, denying and indulging.
Some people do not have a category for self-denial in the Christian life. You deny yourself something lesser to get something better—something that will satisfy for a moment but then bring shame and harm—a vicious cycle. I call you to see God’s commands as the words of a wise and loving Father with a depth of wisdom and right judgment that are way beyond us. God is not against your joy as a kill-joy. He gives commands against things that will kill your joy.
Imagine being in a raft and being tremendously thirsty: Your father offers you a bottle of cold, pure, filtered water. But you notice that you are surrounded by water. In fact, it looks more appealing. Your father says, “If you drink of that water, you will die.” The son shrugs and says, “I will try it.” It is wet and a little salty. Not bad. He didn’t die right away. He doesn’t know what he is talking about. Here I am surrounded by water and I have this dumb rule that I have to wait for a drink. No. I will get a drink when I want to get a drink, and I don’t want to wait upon your sense of timing for it.
Two False Responses to the Fear of God
Ditch #1: Irreligious Rebellion Against God
The wicked view the world and God in a certain way. They do not enjoy God. There are two ditches here: irreligious and religious. Some irreligious people look at the things in the world and they see things that they want, and then religious people tell them about God’s commands. The irreligious say, “That is so narrow and enslaving. You people that want to put that stuff on me are wicked people because you are judging me and trying to steal my freedom and joy (joy robbers).” So they try to find fullness of life in being free to break the rules (saved from the rules). Living it up involves breaking the rules (a crime spree) while on the run from God as a Cosmic Cop and Kill-Joy (Christians are like little deputies trying to pull them over and bring them before the Judge).
Ditch #2: Religious Rebellion Against God
There is another kind of wickedness: religious wickedness. Some wicked people are actually very religious. They don’t value freedom; they value self-denial. Things in the world may look appealing and attractive, but what is really impressive is the ability to abstain from those things in obedience to God’s commands. Wicked people are out there breaking the rules, but good people are in the church keeping the rules through their superior moral performance. It’s hard and it takes self-discipline and devotion, but they are up to the challenge. They try to be saved by rules. Fullness of life is found in being rewarded because rules are kept.
Good News of Great Joy: Obey the Gospel
Christians look at these things so differently. We don’t pretend that we are morally superior to anyone. Christianity begins by admitting that we are moral failures. We have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Our debt is so great that we cannot pay it back by being good enough—we cannot work for a wage that will earn enough to pay our debt.
I will again tell the story of the three chairs in the Psalms. On earth, there is a righteous chair and a wicked chair. The third chair is on high in heaven: The throne of God. Where do you sit? Almost no one self-identifies with the wicked. If you ask people to choose a chair, almost no one says, “Yeah, I am wicked. I am damnable. My proper place is in the chair that is destined for wrath.” No one chooses the chair of the wicked. Everyone almost immediately opts for the chair of the righteous.
And when the New Testament applies the Psalms, it tells us that our instincts our profoundly wrong. The New Testament takes us all by the hand and says, “Excuse me, you are in the wrong seat. Let me take you to your assigned seat: the wicked chair.” That is our proper place—it should be where we start—where we self-identify. We were all by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The whole Bible teaches that there is no one left to sit in the righteous chair, all are in the wicked chair. Listen to the way that Paul keeps quoting Psalm 14 and Psalm 36 in Romans 3:9–18 to apply to all of us:
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one; (Psalm 14:3)
no one understands; (Psalm 14:2)
no one seeks for God. (Psalm 14:2)
All have turned aside; (Psalm 14:3)
together they have become worthless; (Psalm 14:3)
no one does good, (Psalm 14:3)
not even one.” (Psalm 14:3)
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Psalm 36:1)
God’s just judgment puts all of humanity in the wicked chair. No one, not even one, is seated upon the righteous chair. Because the righteous chair was left empty, the Son of God left his chair (throne) in heaven. He is the righteous one. He trusted in Yahweh perfectly (Psalm 21:7). Jesus never even took a step down the downward spiral of sin. Never. He was tempted as we are, but he did not yield to a single temptation—he did not sin.
You might wonder at this point why this news is good news. Why is it good news to hear about one person who is perfect and sinless? But at the end of his life he shockingly left the righteous chair in order to take our place on the wicked chair. It was from that chair that he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1, Mark 15:34).
And the fire of God’s wrath fell and he absorbed it all in our place (Romans 3:25). His sacrifice fully swallowed up the wrath of God. We now have a right standing with God only because we are standing on singed ground.
What does any of this have to do with the fear and the love of God? Recall Psalm 36:7. “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” This concept of seeking shelter in the Lord occurs 25 times in the Psalms (15 of them are in Book 1: Psalms 1–41). The double doors of the Psalter close with the reference to blessedness of the person who takes shelter in the Savior (Psalm 2:12).
Think of that metaphor: “The shadow of your wings.” A mother bird shelters her young by letting the rain and wind fall on her. In the same way, the love of God sends the Son of God to save us by absorbing the wrath of God. We should fear running to any other shelter or savior. They are all false and counterfeit. God is the only safe place. His love is the only rescue from his wrath. The only way our debt can be paid is if God pays the debt himself. There is a soul-stirring beauty in this safety, but there is also a fearful reality to this safety, a terrifying warning.
Author Sharon Cress grew up on a farm. As a little girl she loved horses, but then a mother hen had some adorable little yellow baby chicks. I will let her tell the story:
Mother hen seemed to have a terrible time trying to get those fast-moving, hardheaded chicks to obey. She would cluck them to her, settle down on them to keep them warm, and then, one by one, we would see heads start peeping out from all directions. She would settle down again and fluff out some more, and in a moment, heads would all pop out again. Hard as she would try, those chicks were determined something was more interesting than staying warm and safe under her wings.
The chicks were only a few days old when the weather forecaster predicted a hard freeze. We threw extra hay in the barn, shut all the windows and doors, and watched as the horses snuggled together in their cozy stalls. The chickens all nested for the evening in their chicken house side. The hen and her brood settled in their soft nest. As we could have predicted, those curious little chicks would not stay under her. She went all through the routine fluff and rearranged several times, but heads continued popping out. We left for the night, wondering if the hen would ever get a wink of sleep because of these 14 rebellious chicks.
When we opened the farm doors the next morning, the mother hen’s usual patience gave way to panic. With agitation and frenzy, she cackled incessantly. Strewn around her were eight frozen dead chicks. The other six were huddled together deep under her feathers, never moving.
We don’t know what it was that attracted their attention away from the mother hen, but we know it was fatal and foolish.
What is it today that has drawn you away from the only safe place in the universe: The cross of Christ? Listen to Luke 13:34 … “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
I am praying that there will be none that leave here with those words still hanging over your heads as condemnation: “You were not willing.”
Most people do not have a category for how to connect fear and safety. Fearing God does not sound like finding a safe place in God. But that is exactly what it means. We fear our tendency to run to other shelters. We find safety alone in him. The feast is abundant and sweet, but some would rather starve than come. The shelter of God’s wings at the cross is a safe refuge, but some would rather hide from him than hide in him.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
Main Point: The doctrine of Psalm 36 is the joy of fearing God.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to keep drinking from the river of God’s delights in Christ. Pray for a grace to not get swept away by the flood of wickedness that surrounds us.