Text -- Psalms 36:4-12 (NET)

36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed; he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; he does not reject what is evil. 36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky; your faithfulness to the clouds. 36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, your fairness like the deepest sea; you preserve mankind and the animal kingdom. 36:7 How precious is your loyal love, O God! The human race finds shelter under your wings. 36:8 They are filled with food from your house, and you allow them to drink from the river of your delicacies. 36:9 For you are the one who gives and sustains life. 36:10 Extend your loyal love to your faithful followers, and vindicate the morally upright! 36:11 Do not let arrogant men overtake me, or let evil men make me homeless! 36:12 I can see the evildoers! They have fallen! They have been knocked down and are unable to get up!

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 36:4

¹ tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.

² tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.

NET Notes: Psa 36:5

¹ tn Heb “[is] in the heavens.”

² sn The Lord’s loyal love/faithfulness is almost limitless. He is loyal and faithful to his creation and blesses mankind and the animal kingdom with physical life and sustenance (vv. 6-9).

NET Notes: Psa 36:6

¹ tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.

² tn Or “deliver.”

³ sn God’s justice/fairness is firm and reliable like the highest mountains and as abundant as the water in the deepest sea. The psalmist uses a legal metaphor to describe God’s preservation of his creation. Like a just judge who vindicates the innocent, God protects his creation from destructive forces.

NET Notes: Psa 36:7

¹ tn Or “valuable.”

² tn Heb “and the sons of man in the shadow of your wings find shelter.” The preservation of physical life is in view, as the next verse makes clear.

NET Notes: Psa 36:9

¹ tn Heb “for with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light.” Water (note “fountain”) and light are here metaphors for life.

NET Notes: Psa 36:10

¹ tn Heb “draw out to full length.”

² tn Heb “to those who know you.” The Hebrew verb יָדַע (yada’, “know”) is used here of those who “know” the Lord in the sense that they recognize his royal authority and obey his will (see Jer 22:16).

³ tn Heb “and your justice to.” The verb “extend” is understood by ellipsis in the second line (see the previous line).

⁴ tn Heb “the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

NET Notes: Psa 36:11

¹ tn Heb “let not a foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the evil ones cause me to wander as a fugitive.”

NET Notes: Psa 36:12

¹ tn Heb “there the workers of wickedness have fallen.” The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) is used here for dramatic effect, as the psalmist envisions the evildoers lying fallen at a spot that is vivid in his imagination (BDB 1027 s.v.).

² tn The psalmist uses perfect verbal forms in v. 12 to describe the demise of the wicked as if it has already taken place.