The Unfathomable Goodness of God Text: Psalm 36:5-9
Introduction: Two Worldviews on a Collision Course
Every psalm, in one way or another, is a tale of two cities. Every psalm sets before us two paths, two kinds of men, two ultimate destinies. Our psalm today, Psalm 36, is no different. It begins with a profound and disturbing diagnosis of the wicked man. The first four verses give us a portrait of a man whose entire operating system is rebellion. Transgression speaks to him like an oracle, deep in his heart, and the central message of that oracle is this: there is no fear of God before his eyes. From that poisoned well flows every other evil: self-flattery, deceitful words, and a settled commitment to mischief. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
And then, in verse 5, the camera pivots with breathtaking speed. It's like stepping out of a cramped, dark, smoke-filled room into the brilliant sunshine of a crisp autumn day, with a vast mountain range on one side and the endless ocean on the other. After diagnosing the claustrophobic, self-referential world of the wicked, David throws open the shutters to the cosmos and shows us the God who defines all reality. The contrast could not be more stark. The world of the wicked is a tiny, narcissistic echo chamber. The world of God is as vast and glorious as the heavens.
This is the fundamental choice set before every human being. Will you live in the cramped basement of your own self-worship, or will you live in the boundless, sun-drenched world of God's goodness? The wicked man has no fear of God, and so his world shrinks down to the size of his own hateful heart. The righteous man fears God, and so his world expands to the infinite dimensions of God's own character. What we are about to study in these verses is not a sentimental poem about God being nice. It is a description of the very fabric of reality. It is an invitation to come out of the darkness and into His marvelous light.
The Text
Your lovingkindness, O Yahweh, is in the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O Yahweh, You save man and beast.
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the sons of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
They are satisfied from the richness of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
(Psalm 36:5-9 LSB)
The Dimensions of God (vv. 5-6)
David begins by describing four attributes of God, using the grandest possible imagery drawn from the created world.
"Your lovingkindness, O Yahweh, is in the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O Yahweh, You save man and beast." (Psalm 36:5-6 LSB)
First, he speaks of God's lovingkindness. This is the great covenant word, hesed. It means loyal love, steadfast mercy, covenant faithfulness. And where is it? "In the heavens." It is as high and vast and untouchable as the sky itself. It is not a fickle human emotion that comes and goes with the weather. It is the very atmosphere of God's cosmos. His faithfulness, a related concept, "reaches to the skies," or to the clouds. His promises are not grounded in the shifting sands of human reliability, but are as certain as the celestial bodies.
Next, David brings the imagery down to earth, but the scale is no less majestic. "Your righteousness is like the mountains of God." Think of a vast mountain range, solid, immovable, serene, and majestic. That is the character of God's righteousness. It is not a set of arbitrary rules He made up. It is the very bedrock of reality. It is an objective standard that cannot be moved or negotiated with. It simply is. It is the fixed point by which all other things are measured.
Then, "Your judgments are like a great deep." His justice is like the enormous, unfathomable ocean. You cannot measure its depths. You cannot chart all its currents. This does not mean it is arbitrary, but rather that it is exhaustive and comprehensive. God sees all the connections, all the causes, all the consequences that are hidden from our view. When we are tempted to question His wisdom, we are like a man in a rowboat trying to take the measure of the Pacific with a yardstick. His justice is too profound for us to fully grasp, but it is perfect and all-encompassing.
Imagine yourself on a ship at sea. To your right, you see a mountain range stretching as far as the eye can see. That is God's righteousness. To your left, a vast, deep ocean, stretching for thousands of miles. That is His justice. And arching over it all, from horizon to horizon, is the endless sky of His lovingkindness and faithfulness. This is the world we live in. This is our God. And notice the result of this majestic character: "O Yahweh, You save man and beast." This immense God is not a distant, deistic abstraction. His grand character results in tender preservation. He is the sustainer of all life, from the highest of men to the lowliest of animals. His cosmic glory has profoundly local implications.
The Refuge of His Wings (v. 7)
From the cosmic scale, David moves to the intensely personal. The same God whose character fills the universe provides intimate shelter for His people.
"How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the sons of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings." (Psalm 36:7 LSB)
The word hesed, lovingkindness, appears again. David began by saying it was as vast as the heavens, and now he says it is "precious." It is both immense and valuable. It is a treasure. And because this covenant love is so precious, men are drawn to it for protection. "The sons of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings." This is the language of a mother bird gathering her chicks under her wings for safety (cf. Psalm 91:4; Matthew 23:37). The God of the mountains and the deep is also a God who tenderly stoops to shelter His vulnerable children.
This is a crucial point. We do not run from the God of absolute righteousness and deep justice. We run to Him. Why? Because His righteousness and justice are enveloped in His steadfast love. For the man in rebellion, the mountains of God's righteousness are terrifying, and the deep of His justice is a place to be drowned. But for the one who comes under the shadow of His wings by faith, those same attributes become our protection. The cross of Christ is where the mountain of righteousness and the deep of justice met, so that the heavens of lovingkindness could be opened to us forever. In Christ, we find that the safest place in the universe is right next to the very character of God that our sins deserve to be crushed by.
The River of Delights (v. 8)
Taking refuge in God is not like hiding in a drab, concrete bunker until the storm passes. It is to be brought into a place of feasting and celebration.
"They are satisfied from the richness of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights." (Genesis 36:8 LSB)
Those who take refuge with God are not just protected; they are provided for lavishly. They are "satisfied from the richness of Your house." The word for "satisfied" here means to be saturated, to drink one's fill, to be fattened. This is not about getting just enough to scrape by. This is the language of opulent abundance. God is not a stingy host. He does not parcel out His blessings with an eyedropper. He loves to throw a feast for His children.
And what do we drink at this feast? "You give them to drink of the river of Your delights." The word for "delights" here is the plural of Eden. He gives us to drink from a river of Edens. This is a picture of overflowing, unending pleasure and joy. God is not a cosmic killjoy. He is the source of all true pleasure. As C.S. Lewis noted, God is not the one who forbids pleasures, but the one who offers pleasures so great that all the cheap, muddy pleasures of sin look like the pathetic things they are in comparison. The wicked man in verse 4 devises mischief on his bed. The righteous man is feasting in the house of God, drinking from a river of Edens. Which sounds better to you?
The Fountain and the Light (v. 9)
The psalm culminates in two of the most profound statements in all of Scripture about the nature of God and our relationship to Him.
"For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light." (Psalm 36:9 LSB)
Why is God's house so rich? Why does He have a river of delights? "For with You is the fountain of life." He is not just a channel of life, or a reservoir of life. He is the source, the spring, the fountainhead. All life, physical and spiritual, flows from Him. He is the self-existent one, the "I AM," who has life in Himself. Therefore, to be near Him is to be near life itself. To be separated from Him is to be separated from the only source of life, which is the definition of death. The wicked man who has no fear of God is a man who has turned his back on the fountain of life and is trying to dig his own cisterns, but they are broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).
And finally, "In Your light we see light." This is a foundational statement for all knowledge, all truth, and all understanding. God is the ultimate reality. He is the ultimate light. We cannot see anything truly unless we see it in relation to Him. A secularist tries to see the world by the light of his own reason, which is like trying to understand a Rembrandt painting by the light of a single match in a dark room. You might see a few colors, a few shapes, but you will miss the whole picture. You will not understand what you are looking at. But when God shines His light, the light of His Word and His Spirit, on the scene, we begin to see everything as it truly is. We see ourselves, we see the world, we see sin, we see grace, and we see Christ, all in their proper relationship. Without God's light, we are blind. In His light, and only in His light, do we truly see.
The Gospel of Abundant Life
This entire passage is a glorious portrait of the triune God and the salvation He provides. The lovingkindness of the Father is in the heavens. The righteousness of God is like the great mountains, a righteousness that was perfectly fulfilled in the life of the Son, Jesus Christ. The judgments of God are a great deep, a deep that Christ descended into on the cross, bearing the full weight of our sin.
Because of what Christ has done, we are invited to come and take refuge under the shadow of His wings. We are invited into the house of God, not as servants, but as sons. We are invited to be satisfied with the fatness of that house, a richness secured by the blood of the Lamb.
Jesus Christ Himself stood up at the feast and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38). He is the one who gives us to drink from the river of God's delights. He is the fountain of life made manifest. "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).
And He is the light of the world. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). To see the world through the lens of the gospel is to have the light of God switched on. It is to see everything in its true color and true dimension. The choice is the same one the psalm sets before us: the cramped, dark world of the rebel, or the vast, abundant, light-filled world of God. To believe the gospel is to step out of the one and into the other, to find that the God of the mountains and the seas invites you to His table to drink from a river of Edens, forever.