Latest / Reformed Thinking / Your Lovingkindness Reaches to the Heavens (Psalm 36) | Charles Spurgeon

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Your Lovingkindness Reaches to the Heavens (Psalm 36) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. Glad to be here.
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In this deep tive, we're going to be working through Psalm 36
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and specifically the devotional literature around it, leaning
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heavily on Charles Spurgeon's classic The Treasury of David A.
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Fantastic source. It is, and our mission really
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is, to unpack the powerful contrast that this Psalm just
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lays right out for you. On one side you have the
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deliberate, calculated wickedness of the ungodly.
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And on the other, the immense overwhelming attributes and the
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secure provision of Jehovah. Right.
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It gives us such a clear look at what Scripture teaches about the
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nature of sin and maybe more importantly, the certainty of
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God's covenant keeping. You know what's so fascinating
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is how the Psalm is structured. It's almost jarring.
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It moves us so quickly from this really deep tailed, sobering
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portrait of the rebellious heart.
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A very dark place A. Very dark place.
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And then boom, you're right into this ecstatic contemplation of
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God's glory. It's designated the Song of
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Happy Service, which is perfect for those who see it as an honor
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to be called Jehovah's Servant. And it sets them in such sharp
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contrast with that atheistic root of rebellion.
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That structure is everything. It's a diagnosis followed
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immediately by the cure. The Psalm basically says here,
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look at the blackness of man's heart.
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Now look at the blinding whiteness of God's character.
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And the shift is so sudden it just forces you to grapple with
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the scale of grace. The whole argument is right
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there in the layout. 4 verses to diagnose the wicked, 5 to
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celebrate God's infinite glory, and then the last three focus on
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the believers prayer and the vision of victory.
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Exactly, and to really appreciate the light you have to
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1st understand the darkness. We have to start where the
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psalmist starts, with that diagnosis of the wicked heart.
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So Part 1, the portrait of what our sources called practical
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atheism, The sinner's Interstate.
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The first movement of the Psalm just gets right to it.
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It diagnosis the spiritual root of all transgression.
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It doesn't bother with the surface symptoms.
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No, it establishes this principle right away.
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Unholiness, the outward act you can see, is just clear,
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observable evidence of ungodliness, which is the inner
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spiritual state. It goes straight to the core.
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It's forensic really. OK, so let's start with verse
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one, the voice of transgression and the absence of fear.
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The problem is laid out as the transgression of the wicked, and
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the commentators are clear this isn't just a mistake.
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It's daring, wanton sin, a deliberate breaking of law and
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justice. But what I find so unsettling is
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how David describes how this works.
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He says the transgression itself is personified.
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It's speaking. It saith within my heart that
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there is No Fear of God before His eyes.
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The psalmist looks at this persistent high handed sin and
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he hears the sin itself making a statement.
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So the wicked man's actions become this undeniable outer
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index of an inner radical evil. Precisely So.
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David is witnessing this continuous presumptuous behavior
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from the ungodly, and it drives him to one very sobering
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conclusion, which is that regardless of any religious talk
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or, you know, societal lip service, they might pay to God,
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they have no real religion at all.
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There's no awe. There's no reverence.
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And that brings us right to this critical theological idea,
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practical atheism. This person, they may not be a
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theoretical atheist. They're not standing on a street
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corner shouting there is no God. No, not at all.
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But by the way they live, by their complete disregard for
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God's commands and His holy presence, they demonstrate a
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total functional denial of Him. They live as if he doesn't
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exist, or maybe worse, as if he exists but just doesn't care.
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They are, in practice, atheists. And when you think about it from
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a covenant perspective, the logic is just devastatingly
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simple. How so?
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Well, you genuinely believe in the omnipresence of God if you
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believe He is everywhere, and if you genuinely fear Him, how
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could you possibly dare to break His laws right in His presence?
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You couldn't. Spurgeon has a memorable analogy
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for this. He talks about a desperate
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traitor who rebels not in some faraway province, but in the
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monarchs own halls. Right in the throne.
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Room. Exactly.
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The ACT itself, the deliberate, conscious law breaking while
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standing before the King, is the loudest possible declaration of
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contempt for the sovereign. It's an act of profound
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spiritual insolence. And that insolence, that lack of
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the fear of God, that's the prerequisite for all crime.
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WS Plummer, who's cited in the sources.
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He notes that when the fear of God is gone, the Sinner is
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prepared for literally any crime you can imagine.
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And Plummer takes it a step further.
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He defines this lack of piety as signaling a total want of right
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affections. What does he mean by right
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affections? In this theological view, it's
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about the inclinations and desires of the heart being
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rightly oriented toward God. So a love for His Holiness,
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submission to his will, delighting in his law.
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OK, when those affections are totally absent, the heart is
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just unconstrained. It's the very essence of human
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depravity. It makes perfect sense.
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If your soul's compass is broken and you have no reverence for
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the Divine Navigator, then the ship is ready to sail into any
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storm, no matter how wicked or self-destructive.
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And the trajectory is clear. Those eyes that have No Fear of
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God before them now will, without a remedy, have the
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terrors of eternal judgment before them forever.
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That's where the practically atheistic heart is headed.
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And this functional denial of God then leads to the second
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destructive mechanism. Right.
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The absence of divine fear creates a kind of moral vacuum,
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and that vacuum is immediately filled by self deception.
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He flattereth himself in his own eyes.
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Verse 2. The wicked person actively
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quiets his own conscience. He smooths over his own conduct,
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right? He invents justifications.
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He tells himself he's a fine fellow, or maybe, in modern
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terms, a free thinker who's not bound by old superstitions.
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That's smoothing over is an act of deliberate self adulation.
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The wicked man is trying to deceive his own internal
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judgement. It's a mechanism where you make
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little of God, and as a result you make much of yourself.
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Since there's no holy awe before God, He puts himself, his own
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wisdom, his own goodness before his own eyes in this sort of
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unholy admiration. It's self administered poison.
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It's amazing how actively the mind works to deny reality.
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The sources describe it as someone polishing the rails that
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are leading them straight to eternal ruin, and they find the
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process comfortable because they've convinced themselves
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they're just on a scenic route. And the self congratulation,
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this internal delusion, it only lasts until his iniquity be
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found to be hateful. Meaning the rod is hidden, but
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only for a time. Exposure always comes, maybe
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through earthly consequences, but certainly by the hand of
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death and judgement. That's the finding out when the
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whole House of Cards propped up by self deceit just collapses
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and he's exposed to shame, contempt and the unveiled truth
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of God's holy scrutiny. And as one of the commentators,
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David Jameson, observed, this whole process of self flattery,
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this need to quiet the conscience, it plainly proves
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the sinner's practical atheism. Because.
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Because if you were constantly reflecting on an ever present
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all seeing God scrutinizing your every thought and action, well
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that would make self flattery extremely difficult if not
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impossible. Belief in a holy God is like
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light, it reveals sin. The wicked preferred darkness,
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so they have to actively hide the sin from themselves first.
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To really get how subtle this delusion is, we should probably
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walk through Jonathan Edwards's list of specific self
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flatteries. He itemized 7 distinct ways the
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unconverted heart tries to pacify itself, and they are
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incredibly relevant today. You really are.
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Let's do it. OK, the first one, Edwards
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points out, is this sort of secret hope that there's no
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afterlife at all. Right.
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They might not declare it publicly, but the practical hope
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is that when they die, that's it, the trouble ends.
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This allows them to sin now without feeling the weight of
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eternal consequence. It's a pure denial of covenant
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reality. The second flattery is about
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presumption presuming on time. The person just assumes death is
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a long way off. It's a faraway event, so you
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know they figure they'll have plenty of time to reform later.
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The great Deceiver, the lie of I'll do it tomorrow.
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They see the need for change, but they don't feel the urgency
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of now. They think salvation can be
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scheduled for more convenient season.
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The third is relying on mere morality, an orderly life.
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This person looks at their outward behavior and says, look,
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I'm a good person, I'm honest, I work hard.
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They. Assume their ethical behavior is
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enough to merit God's approval. They completely bypass the need
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for a radical Christ centered conversion and regeneration.
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This is a huge stumbling block for outwardly respectable
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people. 4th Edwards talked about how external religious
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advantages can become a trap. Meaning things like going to a
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good church or growing up in a Christian home.
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Exactly. People assume that because the
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gospel is preached clearly where they live, or because they're
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surrounded by genuinely religious people, that salvation
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will somehow just rub off on them, or at least be easier.
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They confuse the means of grace with actual internal conversion.
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The 5th is the person who rests on their good intentions for the
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future. This is a classic.
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This person says I know what I'm doing now is wrong, but I plan
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to get serious later. A few more months of this and
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then I'll reform. The intention to change, which
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cost them nothing in the present, acts like a false
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spiritual credit in their mind. The sixth point is, I think,
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very subtle. It addresses those who flatter
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themselves that they've done a great deal for their own
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salvation. They talk about all their
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striving, their prayers, their struggles against sin, their
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religious duties. But Edward sees a flaw here.
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Their striving isn't a genuine, humble seeking of God
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independence. It's an attempt to perform
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through their own strength, what is actually the work of God.
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So they're trying to work up repentance or love for God on
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their own. Exactly.
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They're mistaking their own natural exertion for the
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supernatural gift of conversion. They're trying to climb that
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towering Andes of God's justice by themselves.
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And the last one, number seven, perhaps the most dangerous.
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The belief that they are already converted, they're resting
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securely and a false hope that they already have.
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Saving faith so they stop examining the fruit in their
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life. Like the Church of Laid a key, I
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am rich and have need of nothing.
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And all the while they're wretched, miserable, poor, blind
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and naked. They've convinced themselves the
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work is finished when it hasn't even begun that.
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List really shows how relentlessly active the
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unregenerate mind is in building these screens to avoid the clear
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holy presence of God. It is a constant act of internal
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evasion. It is, and once the heart is
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sufficiently anesthetized by this self flattery, the
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transgression inevitably moves from the inside to the outside.
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From inner monologue to outward intentional action, the first
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stop is corrupt speech. In verse 3.
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The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
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And this is more than just a slip of the tongue.
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The words themselves are described as actual falseness,
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moral evil. The throat of the wicked man is
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called an open sepulchre elsewhere, and here you just see
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the foulness of the inner nature being expelled.
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Iniquity and deceit are presented as a partnership.
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If straightforward oppression doesn't work, then trickery and
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evil speeches will get the job done.
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And. Following that corrupt speech is
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the definitive act of abandonment.
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He hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
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It shows a degeneration. Godless men forsake whatever
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limited good they might have once known, while those who fear
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God go from strength to strength.
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The godless apostatize. They give up even the limited
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reverence they once had. One of the commentators, Timothy
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Caruso, he called this a wicked repentance, A dreadful reversal
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where a person undoes the good they used to do or the truths
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they used to hold. It's a turning of the will
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against the light they once possessed.
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And the ultimate chilling proof of this practical atheism is in
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the final verse of this section. It's about premeditated evil.
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He deviseth mischief upon his bed.
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Right. His place of rest, which should
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be for prayerful reflection, becomes a place for plotting, a
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hotbed for poisonous weeds. This proves his godlessness to a
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demonstration. He pushes God completely out of
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his thoughts and instead entertains the devil as a bed
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fellow, scheming all night how he can sin most effectively the
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next day. And this leads to the subtle
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path. He setteth himself in a way that
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is not good. The sin isn't impulsive anymore.
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It's deliberate. It's resolved.
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Joseph Carroll made a great point on this.
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To wait to sin is to sin resolvedly.
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The wicked man chooses an evil way and settles himself in it,
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resolving not to leave it. He persistently pursues the
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mischief he planned on his bed and.
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This is all made possible by one final spiritual condition.
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He abhoreth not evil. He doesn't hate wrong because
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it's wrong, like a true servant of God must.
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No, he defends it. He rejoices in it.
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He practices it. He's accustomed to his heart, to
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love filthiness in his imagination and in his deeds.
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That really is a complete spiritual photograph of a
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graceless man, isn't it? The smug conscience, the
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licentious speech, the deliberate turning from wisdom,
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the settled preference for sin. And it all stems from a heart
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that functions as if there is no God.
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The portrait is bleak. And it is precisely the
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blackness of that portrait that makes the next section so
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necessary and so breathtaking. Absolutely.
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In a truly seismic shift, the psalmist does a complete 180 He
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pivots from the calculated baseness of the wicked heart to
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the expansive, boundless majesty of God.
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And that contrast is not an accident.
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It's designed to shatter your complacency and inspire genuine
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awe. David uses 4 powerful cosmic
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similes, the heavens, the clouds, the great mountains and
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the great deep End, to describe God's perfections.
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It's a deliberate shift from the small dark plots of man to the
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vast, luminous reality of the Creator.
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It reminds you that when wickedness seems to be expanding
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on earth, all genuine goodness and righteousness have actually
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just cleaved securely to God. What men lack in measure, in
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firmness and scope, God possesses infinitely.
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Let's look at the first two attributes.
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They're compared to the expanse above us, immediately sitting
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this cosmic scale. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
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heavens. This means God's mercy is like
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the ethereal blue sky. It encompasses the whole earth,
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it rises high above the mists of our sin, and it surrounds even
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the highest peaks of human provocation.
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That imagery is it's so restorative.
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It's just the clear sky of God's mercy is always above us, just
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calmly smiling over the chaos and smoke of this rebellious
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world. And crucially, it's vastness is
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totally unaltered by our rebellion.
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The theological point is that the scope of this attribute is
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measured by the sheer scale of the cosmos.
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Our sources say that only when you can measure the heavens can
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you hope to define or bound the mercy of the Lord.
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It is infinite. And for us as servants of
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Jehovah, that Medullus mercy is most clearly seen and understood
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in the salvation brought through Jesus Christ.
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It reaches higher than the heaven of heavens to secure our
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pardon. This boundless mercy then leads
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right into the second attribute. Faithfulness by faithfulness
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reacheth unto the clouds. God's truth, His reliability, is
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just far above all human comprehension or consistency.
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He never fails, He never falters, He never forfeits His
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word. He's perfectly true to Himself
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and to His covenant. The analogy of clouds is so
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fitting spiritually. Our afflictions are often like
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clouds, right? They cover our vision.
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They obscure the sun of God's face.
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But even when we're under the cloud, the promise holds.
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We are still in the region of God's truthfulness which
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surrounds the clouds themselves. God adheres exactly to every
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word of threat, every promise, every prophecy, every covenant.
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He is not a man that He should lie.
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Then we move from the aerial sphere down to the geological.
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The next attribute is solidity itself.
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Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.
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These are the mountains of God. Men didn't plant them, and men
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certainly can't move them. Righteousness here means
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absolute moral perfection, firm, unmoved, lofty, sublime.
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It speaks to the utter inflexibility of God's justice.
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It's never compromised or affected by circumstances.
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He is always righteous in everything He does.
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No one can bribe or compel the judge of all the earth to
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pervert judgement. This creates A startling reality
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for the unholy person. Right across the path of anyone
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dreaming of getting into heaven on their own terms stand the
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towering Andes of divine righteousness.
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It's a moral barrier that no unregenerate Sinner, no matter
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how much they flatter themselves, can ever climb or
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get around. Justice demands a perfect
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account. And that brings us to attention
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point. If God's justice is so firm, so
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mountainous and inflexible, how can his mercy, which is so wide,
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possibly get through that wall for a Sinner?
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That is the central question of the gospel, isn't it?
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It is for the believer this attribute inspires the highest
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awe, precisely when we behold the Son of God slain on the
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cross, the ultimate victim, offered to vindicate the justice
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of the inflexible lawgiver. So His righteousness, instead of
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just being a barrier, becomes the very basis for our
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redemption because justice was fully satisfied in Christ.
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The Mountain of Justice didn't move.
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Instead, a path was built through it by the sacrificial
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work of the Savior. The final comparison in this
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section brings us to the great deep, the immense ocean that
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judgments are a great deep. God's dealings, His Providence's
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They are not meant to be fathomed or fully understood by
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every skeptic who demands A rational reason for every
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difficulty. The Lord does not submit His
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reasons to our finite foolish consideration.
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His ways are vast, often incomprehensible, yet terrible
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and irresistible, just like the ocean.
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William Greenhill offered a beautiful analysis here.
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He said men's sins are a deep and Satan's ways are a depth.
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But God's judgments, his ways in the wheels of Providence, they
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are the greatest deep of all, utterly unsearchable.
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But, and this is a key distinction, the Great Deep,
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despite its mystery, is not chaotic or malevolent.
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It's governed. Exactly.
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Greenhill explain why we should see the Great Deep as something
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beneficial and ordered, not just terrifying. 1st it's often
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unfathomable. It's foundation, it's springs,
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they're unknown to us. God's reasons are beyond our
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inquiry. Second, he noted that despite
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its depth, there is safe sailing in the great deeps.
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While coastal waters can hide dangerous rocks far out in the
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immense ocean, ships don't strike hidden hazards in the
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true depths. Spiritually, that suggests that
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even when God's ways seem mysterious, our dependence on
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His character, His faithfulness and mercy, provides security.
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3rd And this is wonderful, the deep conceals great treasure,
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not just literal pearls, but the spiritual treasures hidden in
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God's secret councils and Providence.
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Difficulties, when you understand them later, often
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reveal priceless truths about His love and wisdom. 4th The
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deep works great good. The ocean, which can be seen as
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this barren wilderness, is actually one of the greatest
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blessings to the world. It regulates weather, sustains
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life in the same way God's unsearchable judgments always
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work great good, even if we can't see it now.
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And 5th Greenhill adds a truly comforting image over this
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profound depth. The Covenant rainbow casts its
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arch of comfort. The rainbow is God's sign of
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stability and promise. It assures us that even in the
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midst of the deepest, most confusing provinces, the Lord is
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faithful. He will not abandon His
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covenant. And the section closes by
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returning to the vast ongoing reach of God's sustaining power,
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O Lord, thou preserve this man and beast.
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This speaks to the unceasing outflow of divine power that
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just sustains existence. All creatures rational and
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irrational, from the beasts of the field to the birds of the
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air, even the infinite armies of insects.
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They all owe their continued life, moment by moment, to God's
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power and will. This really gives you an awesome
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Vista of God's ongoing sovereignty.
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After looking at the self absorbed wickedness of the
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ungodly, whose thoughts are limited to their own plotting,
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you're called to behold a God whose attributes are measured by
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the cosmos and who personally sustains every single living
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thing. The contrast is meant to debate
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the practical atheist who sees no trace of such a God and feels
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no awe of him. Having defined the problem of
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man's rebellion and then magnified God's perfection, the
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psalmist pivots again. Now he turns to the practical
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experience of the believer. The question isn't who is God
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anymore, it's how does the faithful person, the servant of
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Jehovah, relate to this glorious, all sustaining God?
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The starting point for the believer is just contemplating
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the excellence of God's loving kindness.
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David couldn't even quantify it. He just called it excellent and
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precious. He valued it more than any
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earthly gem or King's regalia. It's a spiritual concept so
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brilliant that it makes the world's treasures look like
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worthless pebbles. And because of this loving
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kindness, the logical consequence is immediate trust.
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Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow
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of thy wings. This figure of shelter is so
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comforting. It's all through scripture.
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It pictures the Lord overshadowing and guarding his
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people like a hen protecting her vulnerable brood.
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It speaks to the utter helplessness of the believer.
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Apart from God, we, the small and weak, run under that blessed
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shelter and find rest. But I wonder, if God is so vast,
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measured by the heavens and mountains, how can he be near
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enough to be like a mothering hen?
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That speaks entirely to the condescension of God's covenant
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love. He is infinitely distant in
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majesty, yet He is intimately near in relationship.
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David Clarkson helps clarify the Gospel application of this
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figure. He does.
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The helpless Sinner, pursued by the wrath of the broken law and
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God's judgment, sees Christ spreading his wings and inviting
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them to shelter. They obey, they run to Christ,
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and they find rest safe under the Lord's wing.
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It's the best of reasons, God's excellent loving kindness
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leading to the best course of action, trusting obedience.
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It's also worth noting the figure might relate to the wings
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of the Cherubim over the Mercy seat covering the Ark of the
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Covenant. Right.
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This suggests that the shelter is found only in the place where
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justice and mercy meet. At the place of atonement.
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To cower down under the wings of God is described as sweet
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security. The enemy is far too strong for
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us, but we have No Fear because we're nestled under the Lord's
22:05
protective wing. It is a refuge exclusively for
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the weak and the pursued. And those who take shelter under
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God's wings aren't just kept safe, They are richly satisfied.
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They are received into God's house.
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Which can be understood as the visible assembly of the Saints
22:19
or even the believers dwelling place seen as a room in God's
22:22
great House of Providence. They share in the fatness of thy
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house. This refers to the richest
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spiritual food, the nourishment provided by the gospel itself, a
22:32
soul contenting store supplied continually to those who live by
22:35
faith in the assembly of Saints. Believers find the most
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sumptuous dainties of the gospel in worship, food that completely
22:42
fills and sustains the soul. They are fed on the very best of
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God's provision. And that satisfaction is
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followed by overwhelming joy. Thou shalt make them drink of
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the river of thy pleasures. As they eat the fruits of Eden,
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they also drink from the river of Paradise.
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The ceaseless stream of God's everlasting love brings constant
23:00
comfort and a kind of spiritual inebriation.
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The point about making them drink is profound.
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It emphasizes the active, irresistible nature of divine
23:10
love and grace. The Lord not only brings us to
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this river, but He compels us to drink, ensuring our spiritual
23:16
thirst is quenched. We are passive recipients of
23:19
this life and pleasure. This happiness is described as
23:22
the anti past of heaven, a forecast of the eternal feast.
23:27
It lets purified spirits experience a joy that is shared
23:29
with the Lord Himself. It fulfills the promise that my
23:33
joy may be in you, that your joy may be full.
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We get a share in the very joy of God's love for His Son.
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And this next verse is so simple, and it's poetry, but it
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carries incredible theological weight.
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So with thee is the fountain of life.
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This is the assertion of God's self existence and sovereignty.
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He is an independent, self-sufficient spring from
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which all creature life, especially spiritual life,
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proceeds, is sustained and is brought to perfection.
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This concept of the self-sufficient spring of life
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is rightly seen as the kernel of much of the Apostle John's
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teaching in his Gospel. It affirms that while life
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exists in the creature, the unending source of it remains
24:08
only in the Creator. Our spiritual life comes
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entirely from the Spirit who quickens.
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As Paul says, our life is hid with Christ in God.
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That phrase, hid with Christ in God, has such assurance.
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It implies safety, a mystical union with Christ, and an
24:24
invisibility to the world. Our true spiritual standing
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isn't exposed to the whims of men.
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It's sheltered by God himself. And flowing from this fountain
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of life is light. In thy light shall we see light.
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Life existing in the dark is just misery and confusion.
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The Lord alone is the source of all light, natural, intellectual
24:44
and spiritual, and He alone can make life bright.
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In terms of spiritual knowledge, the very knowledge of God
24:50
illuminates everything else. We know this instinctively in
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the natural world. You don't see the sun by the
24:54
light of a candle. You see the sun by its own
24:57
brilliant radiance, and then you see everything else by that same
24:59
luster. And spiritually.
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Spiritually, you never see Jesus by the light of your own self
25:03
generated wisdom, but you see yourself, your sinfulness, your
25:07
depravity, only in the light of Jesus Christ.
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And this reinforces a key aspect of Reformed epistemology.
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We have to recognize that no inward intelligence or natural
25:17
capacity leads us to receive the Spirit's light.
25:20
The Holy Ghost must purely, and only by His own illumination,
25:24
light up the dark recesses of our hearts ungodliness.
25:28
It's useless to look to human learning for salvific truth,
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because 1 Ray from the throne of God is infinitely better than
25:35
all the splendor of created wisdom.
25:37
Thomas Adams beautifully categorized the different types
25:40
of light a person might encounter.
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He said the light of nature is like a mere spark, easily put
25:45
out. The light of the gospel in the
25:46
Word is a lamp to guide our feet.
25:48
OK, The light of grace, regeneration in the heart is
25:51
like a star, a constant presence for the light of glory in
25:55
heaven. That's the sun itself, full,
25:57
perfect and consuming. That distinction is critical.
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Andrew Fuller clarified that the light we see, meaning true
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saving knowledge of God, is only attained through the medium of
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His light, which is divine revelation.
26:08
The Word of God is the grand and exclusive medium for attaining
26:12
true knowledge of God and ourselves.
26:14
We are worn strongly in the sources not to rely on the
26:16
opinions of even great and good men.
26:19
They see things partially through a glass, darkly.
26:22
If we receive truth based on their human wisdom alone.
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Our faith stands in the wisdom of men, not in the power of God.
26:30
So the only knowledge or faith that will withstand trial is
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that which has God's revealed Word as its ground.
26:37
Faith that gets both light and life from God will neither die
26:40
nor darken. And that brings us to the final
26:43
section of the Psalm. It naturally turns back to the
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practical necessity of perseverance and prayer for the
26:48
believer. And it ends with the rock solid
26:50
certainty of God's future action against the wicked that were
26:53
detailed at the beginning. The psalmist addresses his
26:56
petition specifically to those who know thee, indicating
26:58
genuine experiential faith, and who are upright in heart,
27:02
indicating sincere obedience. The true recognizable mark of a
27:06
godly person is that working conjunction of faith in God with
27:10
a sincere and consistent study of obedience to His Law.
27:13
And the petition is humble but all-encompassing.
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O continue thy loving kindness and thy righteousness to the
27:20
upright in heart. He's asking for a simple
27:23
continuance of past mercy and favor.
27:25
Lord, just extend this grace to all the days of those whom you
27:28
have taught to know your love. This is such an encouraging
27:31
theological principle, the principle of addition or
27:34
progress in grace. When God starts showing mercy,
27:37
he doesn't stop or run out. He proceeds and extends the line
27:41
of mercy, giving grace upon grace, mercy after mercy.
27:44
William Greenhill used several vivid analogies for this.
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He compared it to drawing wine from a vessel which gives you
27:50
not just One Cup but many cups over time.
27:52
Or a mother who draws out her breasts of consolation for her
27:55
child, not just once, but repeatedly, as the child has
27:57
need. God, when He begins to show
28:00
kindness, will unfailingly draw out His mercy and bestow mercy
28:04
after mercy upon His people. And what a vital lesson this
28:07
holds for us as covenant believers.
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Even though the continuance of mercy and the final preservation
28:12
of the Saints are absolutely guarantees in the Covenant of
28:14
Grace, we are still required to pray for it.
28:16
For this good thing will the Lord be inquired of.
28:20
Our prayers are not how we earn the promise, but they are the
28:22
God ordained way of expressing our dependence on the promise.
28:26
The heart of the believer asks for exactly what the heart of
28:29
his God is perfectly prepared to grant.
28:32
The general prayer then narrows down into a specific personal
28:35
petition. Let not the foot of pride come
28:37
against me. The psalmist prays against the
28:39
violence and insolence of scoffers who are trying to
28:42
trample or overthrow the godly. Pride is rightly identified as
28:46
the devil's sin, and good men have constant reason to be
28:48
afraid of proud men. The serpent seed will never
28:51
cease to bite the heel of the godly.
28:53
The core concern is that the proud enemy would trample the
28:56
Saints under foot. The psalmist also prays against
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the hand of the wicked, representing their malice and
29:01
violent attempts to remove him. Suffer me not to be driven
29:04
about. As a fugitive, he sees violence
29:07
from both hand and foot, striving to overthrow his
29:09
security. Yet the very act of the prayer
29:11
is laced with this profound assurance.
29:14
The reliance is entirely on Jehovah and his covenant
29:17
promises. The certainty is that while
29:20
Jehovah is on our side, no foot will crush us and no malicious
29:23
hand will ultimately prevail. He's already singing a song of
29:27
triumph in anticipation of their defeat.
29:29
The Psalm then concludes not with uncertainty or doubt, but
29:32
with a settled, faithful vision of total victory.
29:36
There are the workers of iniquity fallen.
29:38
Faith sees this victory not as a future possibility, but as a
29:42
present reality in the Divine Council.
29:45
It's as if the psalmist is pointing directly to the
29:47
defeated foes scattered on the plane before him.
29:50
And this finality is absolutely crucial for the believers
29:52
comfort. They are cast down and shall not
29:55
be able to rise. This overthrow of the ungodly,
29:58
of all evil powers, and of the fundamental principles of
30:00
darkness that we saw in the opening verses, it's described
30:04
as final, total and irretrievable.
30:06
They are not merely stumbled, they're thrown down violently,
30:09
never to recover their posture of rebellion.
30:11
The work in a spiritual sense, is already done.
30:14
Jesus has already cast down the foes of His people, and the time
30:17
is hastening when God will fully defend the right and give to
30:20
evil such a comprehensive fall as shall forever crush the hopes
30:23
of hell. And at the same time, those who
30:26
trust in the Lord will eternally praise Him and rejoice in his
30:29
holy name, dwelling secure under his wings.
30:32
Which concludes this intense contrast, moving from the
30:35
internal darkness of the heart, rooted in practical atheism, to
30:39
the brilliant, boundless attributes of God, and finally
30:42
to the external total defeat of all who practice rebellion.
30:46
A. Powerful arc.
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OK, let's unpack this. We have moved from the internal
30:50
darkness of the wicked heart, that elaborate sevenfold self
30:54
flattery rooted in practical atheism, to the sheer brilliance
30:57
of a God whose attributes are measured by the heavens and the
30:59
great mountains. We saw that our only security is
31:02
not in our strength, but literally to cower down under
31:05
the wings of His loving kindness.
31:07
Find a true shelter at the mercy seat.
31:09
So what does this all mean for us as servants of the Lord?
31:13
We see that the spiritual life is entirely and exclusively
31:16
dependent. Life and light flow from God as
31:19
their self-sufficient source, the independent fountain.
31:22
And the saving knowledge of God and the uprightness of heart are
31:24
inextricably linked. It demonstrates the proper
31:27
posture of the Christian life, which is 1 of continual
31:30
dependence and obedience. Absolutely.
31:32
Here's where it gets really interesting.
31:33
For me, though, the Wicked band's ultimate condemnation
31:36
comes not from a momentary lapse, but from the deliberate,
31:39
resolved act of setting himself in a way that is not good,
31:43
having planned it on his bed. Right, the intentionality of it.
31:46
So, given that the faithful, having run to Christ, are
31:49
promised a continuance of grace, mercy after mercy, what does the
31:54
active daily selection and perseverance in the good way say
31:58
about the nature of saving faith versus that initial passive act
32:02
of running under the shadow of God's wings?
32:04
If faith guarantees continuance, why is the daily choice so
32:08
necessary for the upright in heart?