1 {To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the servant of Jehovah; of David.} The transgression of the wicked uttereth within my heart, There is no fear of God before his eyes.
{To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said,} I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to shew to his bondmen what must shortly take place; and he signified [it], sending by his angel, to his bondman John,
Jude, bondman of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the called ones beloved in God [the] Father and preserved in Jesus Christ:
They profess to know God, but in works deny [him], being abominable, and disobedient, and found worthless as to every good work.
Paul, bondman of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ according to [the] faith of God's elect, and knowledge of [the] truth which [is] according to piety;
Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. For from the fruit the tree is known. Offspring of vipers! how can ye speak good things, being wicked? For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
By their fruits ye shall know them. Do [men] gather a bunch of grapes from thorns, or from thistles figs? So every good tree produces good fruits, but the worthless tree produces bad fruits. A good tree cannot produce bad fruits, nor a worthless tree produce good fruits. Every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. By their fruits then surely ye shall know them.
By loving-kindness and truth iniquity is atoned for; and by the fear of Jehovah [men] depart from evil.
The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate.
Hallelujah! Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
{A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.} Lord, *thou* hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
And Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah.
And Abraham said, Because I said, Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will kill me for my wife's sake.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 36
Commentary on Psalms 36 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 36
It is uncertain when, and upon what occasion, David penned this psalm, probably when he was struck at either by Saul or by Absalom; for in it he complains of the malice of his enemies against him, but triumphs in the goodness of God to him. We are here led to consider, and it will do us good to consider seriously,
If, in singing this psalm, our hearts be duly affected with the hatred of sin and satisfaction in God's lovingkindness, we sing it with grace and understanding.
To the chief Musician. A psalm of David the servant of the Lord.
Psa 36:1-4
David, in the title of this psalm, is styled the servant of the Lord; why in this, and not in any other, except in Ps. 18 (title), no reason can be given; but so he was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but as a king, as a prophet, as one employed in serving the interests of God's kingdom among men more immediately and more eminently than any other in his day. He glories in it, Ps. 116:16. It is no disparagement, but an honour, to the greatest of men, to be the servants of the great God; it is the highest preferment a man is capable of in this world.
David, in these verses, describes the wickedness of the wicked; whether he means his persecutors in particular, or all notorious gross sinners in general, is not certain. But we have here sin in its causes and sin in its colours, in its root and in its branches.
Some think that David, in all this, particularly means Saul, who had cast off the fear of God and left off all goodness, who pretended kindness to him when he gave him his daughter to wife, but at the same time was devising mischief against him. But we are under no necessity of limiting ourselves so in the exposition of it; there are too many among us to whom the description agrees, which is to be greatly lamented.
Psa 36:5-12
David, having looked round with grief upon the wickedness of the wicked, here looks up with comfort upon the goodness of God, a subject as delightful as the former was distasteful and very proper to be set in the balance against it. Observe,