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Reading Psalms 36 and 37, praying for deliverance from the ways of the wicked, and that we would not envy them and follow in their ways. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The wicked man is not consciously trying to do wicked. He thinks that everything that he is doing is right. But it is only God who makes us right. And those who love truth love God when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the Psalms as we do our Old Testament study on Thursday. And today looking at Psalms 36 and 37. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'll begin by reading through Psalm 36.
To the choir master of David, the servant of the Lord, 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. O 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. Now there's a particular section of this psalm that's fairly popular.
In fact, it was written into a very popular contemporary Christian worship song sung by Third Day and that's the section where it says, your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Some of you may know what song I'm talking about and may have even heard the melody in your head as I was reading that. Now while that song is very popular, it's indeed one of my favorites as well. We've sung it in our church.
I do like that song. But it's interesting that that's the part of the song that we focus on and we don't think so much about what's being said at the beginning or the end of this psalm. It starts and ends kind of the same way, talking about the wicked.
We focus on the part singing to the Lord, but even the start of this psalm is being said to the Lord. It's describing the wicked, talking about the wicked, that I may not fall in league with them as David says toward the end of Psalm 36.
So starting again here in verse one, transgression speaks to the wicked. That's an interesting way to start. And that's the first line of this psalm. The next line is down from that one. So it's transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.
In other words, the wicked man does not think of what he's doing as being wrong. Any inclination or idea that he has of his wrongness is way, way, way deep down in there. There's still a small voice that's speaking to him.
His conscience is still trying to reach out and help him understand that he's doing unrighteous and not righteous. That part of a man's soul that still bears a resemblance of the holy creator who made him.
But in his sinfulness, he's suppressed that. It's way deep down in there. So he's not even listening to that little echo that's somewhere in the recesses of his mind, informing him that what he is doing is wrong.
Every single person knows that there is a right and there is a wrong. I've talked about this before. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I mentioned this. Even the moral relativist, the person who says there's no such thing as truth.
Even he knows there's a truth because he just asserted truth. His statement has to be true in order for him to formulate that into a worldview, which is a worldview that completely collapses in on itself.
But nevertheless, he does know that there is truth and he depends on there being truth in order to believe anything that he believes. But the the conflict of what it is that he believes, that's what it is that he's suppressed.
And as it says in Romans 1 18, they suppress the truth with their unrighteousness. Any sort of tension that there would be with a faulty worldview versus the truth. He suppressed that tension so he doesn't have to entertain it.
And everything that he thinks is right, all that's in his consciousness, everything that he is aware of or what he pays attention to are the thoughts that he entertains. All of these things he believes to be right.
Nothing that he does, he thinks is wrong. Now, even an atheist every once in a while is going to stumble into something where he's going to be convinced that he wronged or hurt someone else and maybe even apologize.
Even an atheist is capable of doing that. And I'm using atheist as the extreme. But generally, everyone believes that they are right in their own eyes. That said twice in the book of Proverbs. And it said here as well in verse two, for he flatters himself in his own eyes.
Right before that, the end of verse one, there is no fear of God before his eyes. He flatters himself in his own eyes. He does not seek after God. He does not know God. There is no fear of God. So without any fear of God, he exalts himself.
He flatters himself. He thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. In John chapter three, Jesus said that those who love the light will come into the light.
So it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been carried out by God. But those who hate the light will flee to the darkness. So that way in coming into the light, it won't be revealed the evil that they have done or the evil that they are doing.
So here this describes such a wicked man at the start of Psalm 36 as well. He loves darkness, runs to the cover of darkness so that his iniquity cannot be found out. And therefore hated. He loves his sin.
He doesn't want to hate his sin. He doesn't even want to get rid of it. He wants to keep doing the thing that in his flesh he loves to do. He doesn't want to hate it. And he certainly doesn't want the judge of all who sits enthroned over the universe to recognize his sin and hate it, even though the Lord does search all the hearts of men.
Verse three, the words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good. Now when we're talking about the wicked man doing good, we're talking about doing good in according to God's standard, good in God's eyes.
In the wicked man's eyes, everything that he does is good. He thinks he's doing good. Again, he suppressed any sense of his consciousness or conscience. I'm sorry. The con-science, the conscience convincing him that something that he's doing is wrong.
He suppressed that, doesn't want to listen to it. So he believes that everything that he is doing is right. Sometimes we have this idea that people who do evil know that they're doing evil and they're just choosing to do the evil thing when they know what's right, but they don't want to do right.
They want to do evil. Look, evil people think that they do right. They think what they're doing is right. It's actually very rare to find the person who knows the right thing to do, but instead wants to do the evil thing.
Like they're deliberately lying to you. Oh, I know the truth, but I'm deliberately lying to you. No, they've somehow justified that what they're saying is good. There's a reason why I'm not telling you the truth as, as though they think they're doing you a favor.
If I told you the truth, well, it might harm you somehow, or maybe harm would come upon them. So I'm going to withhold the truth from you because it's better for everybody. This is the case also with false teachers that come into the church.
It's not that they're all charlatans. Some of them may be. Some of them know that what they're saying is lies, but they're doing it anyway because it benefits them with either fame or fortune or both.
Okay. So that's why they do it. There may be some charlatans in there, but generally false teachers believe what they're telling you is the truth. It's not that they know the truth, but they're choosing to lie.
They think that what they're saying is true. Consider this quote from Martin Lloyd Jones. This is in his, uh, in his book going through the sermon on the Mount. He says the following, the heretics were never dishonest men.
They were mistaken men. They should not be thought of as men who were deliberately setting out to go wrong and to teach something that is wrong. They have been some of the most sincere men that the church has ever known.
What was the matter with them? Their trouble was this. They evolved a theory and they were rather pleased with it. Then they went back with this theory to the Bible and they seemed to find it everywhere.
You apply this also to the wicked man who does the same. They fashion a certain worldview, which they believe to be right and everywhere they look, they see exactly according to that worldview. They're not trying to be liars and deceivers, but a lie is not a lie simply because the intention of that person's heart is to lie.
A lie is anything that is contrary to the truth and a person who does not love truth instead loves lies. Whether or not that's their intention is to love lies. In John 18, 37, Jesus said to Pilate, as we went through this, just what was it last week, two weeks ago?
Jesus said, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Whoever loves truth will listen to Christ. So let's come back to Psalm 36 here and keep going. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good.
He does not reject evil, plots trouble while on his bed. So even while he is asleep, his mind hasn't ceased to do evil because he's conditioned himself to the lie rather than to the truth. And then that's when we get to the praising part of the Psalm in the middle, verses five and six.
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds, your righteousness is like the mountains of God, the mighty mountains. As it says in the song, your judgments are like the great deep, man and beast.
You save, O Lord. Now why this turn in the Psalm? Why have we gone this particular direction? We're talking about wicked and evil men, and then suddenly we're praising God. Well, it's because God is the one who saves, of course, as it states there in verse six.
This is also meant to be a contrast between the wicked man and righteous God. Consider all of the words that are being used to describe man in his wickedness in the first four verses, and then we get to verses five and six, and God is described as true and righteous and pure.
Your steadfast love extends to the heavens. It has no end. Your faithfulness to the clouds, your righteousness, your judgments, you save, O Lord, all of the goodness of God set against the wickedness of man, so that we would turn to the Lord and live.
Man is not going to save us. You cannot save yourself, but it is God who is righteous and good. We turn to him. He lifts us up. His judgments, so unfathomable, they go down to the deeps, farther down in the ocean that we could even go and explore, but the Lord is good to everyone who turns to him.
Verse seven, how precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. The children of wicked men. Remember that Jesus said that in order to enter the kingdom of God, you must become like children, meaning that we depend on our heavenly father for everything, just as a child can't do anything apart from the provision of their parents, so we should come to understand we can do nothing apart from the provision of our father who is in heaven, and so the children of wicked man become the children of God in taking refuge in the shadow of his wings.
Verse eight, they feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. Our good God giving us all good things for with you is the fountain of life in your light do we see.
So once again, Jesus talking in John three about those who love light will come to the light, whereas those who hate the light will scramble back into the darkness so their evil deeds will not be exposed.
But here those who love the light come into the presence of the Lord and it is by the light of God that we look and see everything. The wicked man has devised evil in his heart. He no longer sees the truth.
He's not even looking for good. So everything according to his worldview is going to be according to that evil heart. Whereas we who have been transformed in God, we have been saved and follow in his righteousness.
It's by his light. Now that we see we are no longer stumbling in darkness, but we are walking in the light of God. Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright in heart, the righteousness of God.
He gives to those who love him. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. So now we have these two things intersecting. We have wicked man. We have righteous God.
We have righteous man who has received the righteousness of God, which he gives to those who love him. And now you have righteous man intersecting with wicked man. When we get to verses 10 and 11, let not the foot of arrogance come upon me.
Let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. Ultimately, the wicked are going to come to ruin and God will judge him. But the righteous, he will uphold with his saving power.
Now considering what we just read in Psalm 36, in light of that, let's look at Psalm 37 and I'll read straight through it. Psalm 37, starting in verse one, fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices.
Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil, for the evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more.
Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him.
But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever.
They are not put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine, they have abundance. But the wicked will perish. The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures. They vanish, like smoke they vanish away.
The wicked borrows, but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gives. For those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.
Turn away from evil and do good. So shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice. He will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever. But the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. You will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree.
But he passed away, and behold, he was no more. Though I sought him, he could not be found. Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed.
The future of the wicked shall be cut off. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.
Let us conclude with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the joy that is expressed in your Psalms over the righteousness that you give and the salvation that is granted to those who turn to you.
And so may we, along with the psalmist here, always desire to do good, those things which are pleasing to the Lord. Let us be aware of sin and wickedness so we will not go near it, but repent before God and be made new.
You uphold us with your righteous hand. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand The Text.