Psalm 36:5-10

Psalm 36:5-10

⁵Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, 

your faithfulness to the clouds. 

⁶Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, 

your judgments are like the great deep; 

you save humans and animals alike, O LORD. 

⁷How precious is your steadfast love, O God! 

All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 

⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house, 

and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 

⁹ For with you is the fountain of life; 

in your light we see light. 

¹⁰ O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, 

and your salvation to the upright of heart!

           

            Psalm 36:5-10 is part of a psalm difficult to classify. However, this portion of the psalm is a hymn. The worship setting of the covenant festival was the occasion of the psalm. It is a testimony to the intimate communion between God and persons, a testimony to the risk involved in faith. This psalm leads me to reflect upon the steadfast love of God and the way such love can transform our world and us.

We find words of prayerful praise that speak of the goodness and greatness of the Lord. It characterizes this greatness by saying the Lord and acts out of abundant steadfast love/hesed for the people of the Lord. In the early part of the 20^th century, Nelson Glueck and others stated that hesed is primarily the expression of God’s covenant-loyalty to his people. In correspondence with some ancient Near Eastern covenants, God had made covenant with Israel and thereby obligated himself to be loyal to them. Other scholars such as Katharine D. Sakenfeld have emphasized hesed as God freely and mercifully choosing to have a loving relationship with Israel, and to forgive them and deliver/help them. Yet, even in this understanding, when hesed appears in covenantal contexts, covenant-loyalty is part of how God shows lovingkindness. Significant hesed-passages include Deuteronomy 7:6-9; II Samuel 7:14-15; Psalms 23:6; 40:10-11; 51:1 ff.; 107 (passim); 145:6-10. In addition, we could direct attention to Hosea 6:6 (and Matthew 9:13; 12:7) and Micah 6:8 (hesed as kindness, mercy). Remember Psalm 136: “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (a refrain repeated 25 times!). God graciously and mercifully displays persistent, protective and caring loyal love for his people. Human beings are under the grace of God, a praise of the loving-kindness of God, and with the happiness of the person who partakes of the grace of God. The entire world is full of the grace of God. The world lives by the grace of God.

Human love often falters. Moreover, when love fails to persevere or to be steadfast, it has failed. Elizabeth Barrett Browning alludes to this danger when she writes in Sonnet 14 —

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Except for love’s sake only. Do not say,

“I love her for her smile — her look — her way

Of speaking gently, — for a trick of thought

That falls in well with mine …” —

For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may

Be changed, or change for thee — and love, so wrought,

May be unwrought so.

If God loves us, it most certainly will be steadfast, and it will be for “love’s sake only.” God loves us because love is what God is all about (I John 4:7-12). The love of God is a steadfast love.

First, this love beggars description. The psalmist struggles to explain how fabulous this hesed is, or what, in fact, it is.  ⁵Your steadfast love (hesed),[1] O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Steadfast love and faithfulness is a common pairing in the OT (e.g., Genesis 24:27; Exodus 34:6; Psalms 25:10; 40:10-11; 57:9-11; 86:14-17; Proverbs 3:3). “Faithfulness,” also translated fidelity, steadfastness and constancy, relates to the Hebrew word ’amen (pronounced ah-MAIN) — verily/truly. God is trustworthy and human beings can depend firmly and reliably upon the Lord. The Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness are all-embracing (Psalm 57:10). As often occurs in the Psalms, the psalmist extols the kindness and faithfulness of the Lord together. Thus, closely connected with the righteousness of God is divine faithfulness. In both we have to do with the identity and consistency of the eternal God in turning in love toward those whom God has made.[2]  ⁶Your righteousness (tsedaqah, saving justice) is like the mighty mountains, your judgments (mishpat, governance or rule) are like the great deep; you save (provide for as in Psalm 104) humans and animals alike, O LORD.  We do not know the specific nature of the relationship between God and the rest of creation, but this little statement suggests that, like humanity, God intends to save it. Second, this lovingkindness is “precious” (v. 7). Therefore, such love is of great value, we must not waste it, and we must treat it carefully and wisely. ⁷How precious is your steadfast love (hesed), O God!  Third, to live in the lovingkindness of God has huge benefits for us. All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings (Psalms 17:8; 57:1; 91:4; and Ruth 2:12). The passage has a missionary tendency, but focuses on the worship setting and the accompanying epiphany of Yahweh with the Ark at the Covenant Festival. When our world seems to collapse around us, there is one place of safety, and that is the knowledge that God’s love surrounds us. It gives us peace in the storm. We can also see that divine love has the benefit of making us stronger for the tests and trials of life.  ⁸ They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river (Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 22:1-5) of your delights (a word related to Eden). Experiencing that love and mercy of God is like feasting at a banquet and having our fill. Plenty to drink, too. We are refreshed when we feed and drink on an overabundance of God’s love. Such love has the benefit of illuminating our way as we navigate the uncharted and turbulent seas of life. ⁹ For with you is the fountain of life (Jeremiah 2:13; John 4:14, “Come though fount of every blessing … streams of mercy, never ceasing…”). In your light, we see light. There are abundant biblical uses of the imagery of light (often contrasted to darkness); e.g., Genesis 1:3-5; II Samuel 22:29; Psalm 139:11-12; Isaiah 9:2 (and Matthew 4:16); John 1:5-9; 8:12; 9:5); I John 1:5.Being in the house of the Lord gives great joy. True life is communion with God. Yes, knowingly living in the love of God has benefits. Finally, when we experience this love, we naturally pray that it will not lapse or fail. ¹⁰ O continue your steadfast love (hesed) to those who know you, and your salvation (tsedaqah) to the upright of heart! The prayer is for a continuation of the grace of God. The person can live only by the grace of God, so the prayer is that this grace would continue. These six verses of Psalm 36 are the expression of someone who cannot believe his good fortune. Naturally, he does not want this fountain of blessing to dry up. He prays that it will continue. He prays that nothing will come between him and God’s knowledge of him. He is concerned that his heart will continue to be upright. He wants to make sure that he does not screw up a good thing.

We may discover that the unrelenting and unfailing love of God transforms us. It changes us. We find that we, too, are beginning to love in a way that more closely mirrors God’s love. In the 2012 film, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the wizard Gandalf says,

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”[3]

Yes, we are to love, even when we see distasteful and unlovable things.

Love people even in their sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all of God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.[4]

Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ contains a scene in which Jesus and John the Baptist are arguing about their role in the world. John’s face is hard, his eyes ablaze.

Jesus asks, “Isn’t love enough?”

“No,” John answers, with passion born of anger. “The tree is rotten. God called me and gave me the ax, which I then placed at the roots of the tree. I did my duty. Now you do yours; take the ax and strike!”

Jesus quietly replies, “If I were fire, I would burn. If I were a woodcutter, I would strike; but I am a heart, and I love.[5]

To put yet another way:

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.” And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.[6]

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[1] Hesed is so rich in meaning that no one English word captures it. Some of its range of meanings in verses 5, 7 and 10 appear in such English versions as NRSV, NET, NIV, NLT, Tanakh, CEB, NAB, NJB, NASB, KJV, NKJV: love, steadfast love, loyal love, unfailing love; faithfulness, faithful care, faithful love; lovingkindness; and mercy. Even within a given version, hesed is sometimes translated by more than one word. The LXX (Septuagint) Greek translates hesed most often as eleoz (pronounced EH-leh-oss) — meaning kindness, mercy and compassion. In NT Greek, eleoz appears 26 times in the gospels and elsewhere. Hasid and hasidim are etymologically related to hesed. E.g., Psalm 145:17’s hasid (“kind”) and 145:10’s hasidim (“faithful”). Cf. the term “Hasidic Judaism.”

[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 436.

[3] —The wizard Gandalf, in Peter Jackson’s 2012 film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

[4] —Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (Macmillan, 1922), 339.

[5] —Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ (Simon and Schuster, 1960), 241-42.

[6] —Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Knopf, 1923), 13.