Commentary - Psalm 36:1-4

Bird's-eye view

This psalm presents a sharp and glorious contrast. David begins with a deep look into the sewer of the wicked man's heart, and then, without missing a beat, he lifts his eyes to the majestic heights of God's character. The first four verses are a clinical diagnosis of the ungodly man's terminal condition. It is a downward spiral, a progression that begins with a faulty premise and ends in a settled state of rebellion. The problem is not external; it is a matter of the heart. The psalm is not an imprecation, a prayer for God to act against the wicked, but rather an oracle, a divine revelation about the nature of sin itself. It is a teaching psalm, instructing the righteous on the anatomy of rebellion so that they might see it, despise it, and flee from it.

The structure is straightforward. Verses 1 through 4 describe the character and course of the wicked. Verses 5 through 9 describe the magnificent character of God. And the psalm concludes with a prayer for protection based on that divine character, along with a confident prediction of the downfall of evildoers. The opening section, our focus here, lays the groundwork for everything that follows. The glorious goodness of God is set against the dark backdrop of man's determined wickedness.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 36 is a wisdom psalm of David, the servant of Yahweh. The superscription identifies it as being "of David," and it fits well within the broader collection of psalms that contrast the way of the righteous with the way of the wicked. It shares themes with Psalm 1, which sets out the two ways, and with psalms like Psalm 14 and 53, which describe the fool who says in his heart there is no God. This psalm, however, gives us a unique insight into the internal monologue of the sinner. It is as though David has been given a glimpse into the very operating system of rebellion. The "oracle" of transgression speaks from within the sinner's heart, a kind of anti-revelation, a lying whisper that governs his entire life.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Psalm 36:1

Transgression declares to the ungodly within his heart; There is no dread of God before his eyes.

David begins with the root of the whole miserable business. The KJV says, "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart," which is a possible rendering, but the one before us gets to the point more directly. Transgression itself becomes an oracle, a source of revelation, for the ungodly man. It speaks to him, and it speaks to him from the inside, "within his heart." This is a kind of demonic parody of the Holy Spirit's witness. The believer has the law of God written on his heart; the ungodly man has the law of sin inscribed there. He listens to the dictates of his own rebellion.

And what is the substance of this internal declaration? It is this: "There is no dread of God before his eyes." All the subsequent corruption flows from this one foundational lie. The man may be a nominal theist. He may check the "believes in God" box on a survey. But he is a functional atheist. He lives and moves and has his being as though God were not there, or as though the God who is there is not the God of the Bible. He is not holy, not just, and certainly not a judge. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, which means the absence of that fear is the beginning of every kind of folly. This is not just a mistake; it is a settled conviction. It governs what he allows his eyes to see and how he interprets what he sees.

Psalm 36:2

For it flatters him in his eyes For one to discover his iniquity and hate it.

Here we see the mechanism of self-deceit. Why does he have no fear of God? Because he has successfully flattered himself. The transgression that speaks in his heart is a smooth-tongued courtier, whispering sweet nothings about his own autonomy, his own wisdom, his own essential goodness. He is his own biggest fan. This flattery is so effective that it prevents him from seeing his own sin for what it is. The verse is a bit compressed, but the meaning is that his self-flattery works against the possibility of him ever discovering his sin and hating it.

He cannot see his iniquity because he is looking at a fun-house mirror that his own pride has set up. And even if a flicker of recognition were to occur, he certainly would not hate it. He has coddled his sin, nurtured it, and given it a place of honor in his heart. To hate it would be to hate himself, and his entire project is one of self-admiration. This is why true repentance is impossible without a supernatural work of God. The sinner's eyes are organized to prevent him from seeing what he must see in order to be saved. He is blind, and he loves his blindness because it tells him he can see just fine.

Psalm 36:3

The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to consider to do good.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And as he is, so he speaks. The internal corruption, rooted in a lack of fear for God and fertilized by self-flattery, now breaks out into the open. His speech is characterized by two things: wickedness and deceit. The wickedness refers to the substance of what he says, it is iniquity, vanity, trouble. The deceit refers to the manner, it is crooked, false, designed to mislead. He cannot speak straight because he does not think straight. His words are instruments used to manipulate the world to his own advantage, to maintain the fiction of his own goodness.

The second clause is telling: "He has ceased to consider to do good." This is not a man who is simply weak and falls into temptation. This is a man who has made a strategic decision. He has stopped thinking about it. The whole category of "doing good," as defined by God, has been retired from his mind. He has given up the pretense. He is no longer in the business of being wise or prudent in a godly sense. He has shut down that part of his internal life. His conscience, to the extent that it functions, has been told to stand in the corner and be quiet.

Psalm 36:4

He devises wickedness upon his bed; He sets himself on a path that is not good; He does not despise evil.

This final verse in the diagnosis shows the settled, deliberate nature of his rebellion. This is not just a sin of passion or a momentary lapse. First, he "devises wickedness upon his bed." In the quiet hours, when other men might commend their souls to God, he is plotting. His mind is a workshop for iniquity. He is an architect of evil, drawing up blueprints for the next day's sin. This is premeditated rebellion.

Second, "He sets himself on a path that is not good." He is not stumbling onto the wrong road by accident. He plants his feet there. He commits himself to the way of destruction. It is a deliberate choice of direction. He has surveyed the options and has chosen the path that leads away from God. The path is "not good," which is a classic Hebrew understatement. It is a path of death and ruin.

Finally, "He does not despise evil." This is the capstone of his condition. Far from hating evil, he is at peace with it. He is comfortable with it. He does not reject it, abhor it, or recoil from it. He has made friends with the serpent. This is the end of the downward spiral described in these four verses. From a heart with no fear of God, to a mind clouded by flattery, to a mouth full of deceit, to a will that actively plots evil and embraces it. This is the man without God. And this is the dark canvas upon which David is about to paint the magnificent, light-filled portrait of the mercy and faithfulness of God.

Application

The first and most obvious application is for us to examine ourselves. Does this portrait look uncomfortably familiar in any respect? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Therefore, a lack of the fear of God is the beginning of this entire miserable process. We must cultivate a holy dread and awe of God, which is the only antidote to the fear of man and the love of self. The Puritans feared God greatly and man very little. We have inverted that entirely.

Second, we must be ruthless with our own self-flattery. Sin is a master of disguise, and its favorite costume is that of "a minor character flaw" or "a reasonable exception." We must ask the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see our own iniquity and hearts to hate it. Confession is not telling God something He doesn't know. It is agreeing with Him about what He already knows. It is to say the same thing, to homologeo. If God calls it sin, we must not call it something else.

Lastly, we see here the trajectory of sin when it is left unchecked. It is not static; it is always progressing. It moves from the heart, to the mind, to the mouth, and to the feet. We must, therefore, deal with sin at the root, which is in the heart. We must plead with God to put His fear within us, so that we will not depart from Him. For the believer, this psalm is a stark reminder of what we were saved from. And it is a powerful motivation to run from the plotting of our own beds and into the strong tower of the name of the Lord.