The Great Divorce and the Great Downfall Text: Psalm 36:10-12
Introduction: Two Ways to Live
The book of Psalms, from the very first word, sets before us two paths, and only two. There is the way of the righteous, which is like a tree planted by rivers of water, and there is the way of the ungodly, which is like chaff that the wind drives away. There is no third way, no demilitarized zone, no comfortable neutrality. You are either in Adam or you are in Christ. You are either walking in the counsel of the ungodly or your delight is in the law of the Lord. And here, at the close of Psalm 36, David brings this great antithesis to a sharp and practical point. He has spent the first part of the psalm diagnosing the wicked man's heart, a heart that has no fear of God before its eyes. He has then soared, contrasting this cramped, deceitful foolishness with the magnificent scope of God's character, His lovingkindness, faithfulness, and righteousness.
Now, having seen the lay of the land, David prays. And his prayer is a request for preservation and a declaration of war. It is a plea that God would continue to do what God does for His people, and a confident assertion of what will ultimately happen to God's enemies. This is not a prayer for a truce. It is a prayer for final victory. We live in an age that wants to blur every line God has drawn. Our culture despises antithesis. It wants to pretend that the foot of pride and the hand of the ungodly are just alternative lifestyle choices. It wants to imagine that the workers of wickedness can simply agree to disagree with the upright in heart, and that everyone will get a participation trophy in the end.
But the Word of God will not have it. Reality will not have it. David's prayer here is a petition to maintain the great divorce between the righteous and the wicked, and it ends with a prophetic vision of the great downfall of all who set themselves against the Lord. This is a prayer for all saints in all ages who feel the pressure of a world that hates the God they love.
The Text
Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come upon me,
And let not the hand of the ungodly drive me away.
There the workers of wickedness have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.
(Psalm 36:10-12 LSB)
Covenant Loyalty for Covenant People (v. 10)
David begins his petition by asking God to keep being God to His people.
"Continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, And Your righteousness to the upright in heart." (Psalm 36:10)
The prayer is for God to "continue" His lovingkindness. The Hebrew word here is for drawing out, or prolonging. It's a request for an unbroken, uninterrupted supply of God's covenant loyalty. And what is this lovingkindness? It is the great Hebrew word hesed. This is not a sentimental, squishy affection. Hesed is covenant faithfulness. It is rugged, unrelenting, loyal love. It is the love that says, "I have set my affection on you, I have made promises to you, and I will not abandon you." It is the glue of God's relationship with His people.
But notice the recipients. This hesed is not for everyone indiscriminately. It is for "those who know You." This is not about intellectual knowledge, not about knowing facts about God. The word for "know" here is yada, which speaks of intimate, personal, relational knowledge. It's the knowledge a husband has for his wife. It is the knowledge that comes from fellowship, from walking with God, from trusting Him. To know God is to be known by Him. And to be known by Him is to be loved with an everlasting hesed.
And then David parallels this with a request for God's "righteousness to the upright in heart." God's righteousness here is His justice, His right-ness in action. It is His commitment to act in accordance with His own perfect character. For the believer, God's righteousness is not a threat, but a promise. It is the assurance that God will vindicate His people, that He will keep His word, that He will act to save. And who receives this? "The upright in heart." This is not a claim to sinless perfection. David, of all people, knew he was not sinless. Rather, an upright heart is an undivided heart. It is a heart that is sincere, not playing games with God. It is a heart that, when it sins, confesses and returns to the path. It is a heart that is fundamentally oriented toward God, even when it stumbles.
So the prayer is this: "Lord, keep your covenant love flowing to your covenant people, and keep your saving justice at work for those whose hearts are true to you." It is a prayer that God would maintain the distinction He Himself has made.
A Prayer Against Invasion (v. 11)
From asking for God's positive blessing, David moves to a plea for divine protection from two specific threats.
"Let not the foot of pride come upon me, And let not the hand of the ungodly drive me away." (Psalm 36:11)
First, he prays against "the foot of pride." This is a vivid metaphor. It's the image of being trampled, of being crushed under the arrogant contempt of the wicked. Pride is the native language of the fallen world. It is the central sin of the devil, who was not content to be a creature but wanted to be the Creator. The proud man lives as though he is the center of the universe, and he therefore treats those who fear God with disdain. David is praying, "Lord, do not let their arrogant worldview crush me. Do not let their contemptuous sneer have the final say."
This is a profoundly relevant prayer. We are surrounded by a culture that is drowning in pride. It is a pride that insists on redefining reality, on calling evil good and good evil. And that pride has a foot, and it wants to bring that foot down hard on the head of the church. It wants to stamp out the faithful. David's prayer is that God would be a shield against this arrogant assault.
Second, he prays, "let not the hand of the ungodly drive me away." The "hand" here speaks of action, of violence, of concerted effort. The "ungodly" are those who live without reference to God. Their actions flow from their godless hearts. And their desire is to dispossess the righteous, to drive them from their inheritance, to make them wanderers. The ungodly want the righteous to lose their place, to be removed from the land, to be silenced. David is praying for stability, for rootedness. He is asking God to secure his footing in the face of those who would uproot him.
Taken together, these are prayers against the two great weapons of the world: arrogant ideology (the foot of pride) and coercive action (the hand of the ungodly). David asks God to protect him from both the sneering propaganda and the physical persecution of the wicked.
The Prophetic Vision of Final Justice (v. 12)
The psalm ends not with a question, but with a declaration. David's prayer lifts his eyes from his present troubles to the final, certain reality.
"There the workers of wickedness have fallen; They have been thrust down and cannot rise." (Genesis 36:12)
Notice the sudden shift in tense. He says they "have fallen." He speaks of a future certainty with the confidence of a past event. By faith, he sees the end from the beginning. "There," he says, as if pointing to a specific place on the battlefield of history. Where? Right where they stood in their pride. Right where their hand was raised to strike. In the very place of their arrogant assault, that is the place of their eternal ruin.
The "workers of wickedness" are not just dabblers in sin. Their work, their craft, their vocation is wickedness. And their end is to fall. But this is no mere stumble. They "have been thrust down." This is a violent, decisive, external action. They do not simply collapse under their own weight; they are thrown down by the mighty hand of God. The same God whose hand preserves the righteous is the God whose hand casts down the wicked.
And their fall is final. They "cannot rise." There is no recovery, no second chance, no appeal. Their downfall is total and irreversible. This is the end of the way of the ungodly. It looked prosperous. It sounded confident. It felt powerful. But its end is destruction. The foot of pride that sought to trample the saints will be broken, and the hand of the ungodly that sought to drive them away will be withered. They will be utterly and eternally unable to stand in the judgment.
Conclusion: Stand, Therefore
So what does this mean for us? It means that our prayers for perseverance are grounded in the covenant faithfulness of God. We should pray, boldly, that God would continue His hesed to us, because He has promised to do so. We should ask for His righteousness to defend us, because we are the upright in heart, not by our own perfection, but by the imputed righteousness of Christ which makes our hearts true.
It also means we must understand the nature of the battle. We will face the foot of pride. The world will mock. It will condescend. It will label you a fool and a bigot. And we will face the hand of the ungodly. They will seek to remove you, to cancel you, to drive you from your place in the public square. Do not be surprised by this. Instead, pray as David prayed: "Lord, preserve me."
And finally, it means we must live with the end in sight. When the foot of pride seems to be winning, when the hand of the ungodly seems to be prospering, we must, by faith, look "there." We must see the final verdict. The workers of wickedness have already fallen. Their doom is signed, sealed, and will one day be delivered. They are cast down, and they cannot rise.
Therefore, we can. Because they cannot rise, we can stand. Because they are thrust down, we are held up. Our security is purchased by their destruction. This is the gospel logic of the cross. Christ was thrust down for our iniquities so that we, the ungodly, could be made upright in heart and stand in the congregation of the righteous. He took the fall, so that we might never be ultimately cast down. Because He has risen, and cannot fall again, we who are in Him are eternally secure.