36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky; 1
your faithfulness to the clouds. 2
36:6 Your justice is like the highest mountains, 3
your fairness like the deepest sea;
you preserve 4 mankind and the animal kingdom. 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).
3 tn Heb “mountains of God.” The divine name אֵל (’el, “God”) is here used in an idiomatic manner to indicate the superlative.
4 tn Or “deliver.”
5 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.