Psalm 36 – “Steadfast Love for Transgressors”
This is part of our summer Psalms series in 2009, where we are preaching through some of Pastor Duane’s favorites Psalms. This week is an exegetical sermon on Psalm 36 titled Steadfast Love for Transgressors. This sermon looks at how transgression works itself out in the heart, God’s steadfast love for transgressors, and how to pray against transgression. This sermon was originally preached July 12th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
July 12th, 2009
Psalm 36 – “Steadfast Love for Transgressors”
I. The Workings of Transgression (v1-4)
II. The Salvation from Transgression (v5-10)
III. The Prayer against Transgression (v11-12)
Introduction
Good morning. Good to see everyone. Love you guys…overwhelmed this week at the joy of being your pastor, I love being a pastor…preaching, teaching, discipling, community group, weddings, UFC. I think I have the best job in the world. For those who are new, welcome, we’re really glad you’re here to enjoy our God along with us this morning.
Well this morning we’re in Psalm 36, in our tour through some of the Psalms this summer. There’s Bible’s at the back, so if you need one you can grab it. I’m going to jump right and go ahead and read the text right away. So here we go (read text and pray).
LORD God thank you for your book, the Bible, thank you particularly for the Psalms which speak both with such raw honesty and sound theology. May we learn and grow much today as we spend time taking in its words. In the name of your Son Jesus we pray, Amen.
To begin with, most of you should see in your Bible a little inscription before this Psalm actually starts. The inscription reads: “To the choirmaster. Of David. The Servant of the Lord.” This is telling us two things. One that this Psalm was written as a song to be sung by God’s people when they got together for worship…it is for the choirmaster to use. The other thing it tells us is that it was written by David, whose life we know quite a bit about through other books of the Bible.
The title of this Psalm is literally, “An Oracle of Transgression.” In Hebrew, the first few words of a piece of writing is the title…so if we were to do that with our English translation, it would be “Transgression Speaks” and then the Psalm would begin with, “To the wicked deep in his heart…there is no fear of God before his eyes.”
Kind of weird, I know. I can’t imagine that a song titled, “An Oracle of Transgression” would be too popular of a song to sing. The choirmaster was probably like, “gee, thanks David…yeah, I’ll be sure to use this one…I’m sure it’ll be a big hit.” 
What we see is that there are really three parts to this Psalm. There’s the first section where he describes the way transgression works in one’s heart and life, the there’s the second section which describes a continual, committed, steadfast love of God for transgression, and then in the last little section, we hear a prayer in response to God after looking at these two hearts and actions towards transgression, the heart and action of man and the heart and action of God.
I. The Workings of Transgression
The word transgression itself simply means crossing over a line…in Hebrew, it’s Pasha, a trespass or revolt. But the description here in the first four verses goes so much further beyond just saying transgression is something bad because it breaks a rule. It really gets into how transgression works in the human person, how it comes about.
I think deep down we all know that being a Christian is not just about doing all the right things like some heaven checklist, even though it’s really easy to treat it like that…went to church – check, read my Bible – check, tried to help a person out – check. The first part of the Psalm really digs in and dives deep into the psychology of sin, how it works itself out in the heart and in the mind…how a certain attitude toward God leads to certain actions against him.
So let’s look at it. First it begins with saying that all sin, all transgression is a heart issue…if you transgress, that makes you wicked, and that wickedness comes from “deep in (one’s) heart.” What’s that mean? I think it means that deep in the core of our being there is a motive issue, both a passion and a thinking which rebels and seeks something other than God.
I say this because of the next line, look at it, “there is no fear of God before his eyes.” So the contrast would be, if one does not have wickedness deep in his heart, then there would be a great fear of God before his eyes. It’s exactly what we were learning last week when we looked at Psalm 27 when it said, “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” When you are fearing God above all else there is no one and nothing else to be afraid of, and your heart is not led astray from him…because he is your primary focus and concern.
This doesn’t tell us much at this point about the workings of transgression, just that it is a heart issue and that it’s a heart that transgresses or crosses God, it goes against him, it rebels against him, thinking God is not one to be afraid of. It’s saying there is an underneath the surface issue, a sin beneath the sin really, a heart problem between us and God.
Let’s see how David works this out for us. He says, “he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.” This is huge and so helpful. Instead of having looking to God one looks at themselves and thinks they are sufficient and comes up with a whole way of thinking to support their way of living…self-flattery.
It’s one of the biggest and most popular things I run across in talking to people here in San Diego…eveyone is their own philosopher. Everyone is coming up with their own theories on life and truth and think that such a thing is okay. It’s the cry of the postmodern mindset. That I am so unique as an individual that I need and can create or pick and choose my own truth or my own God and that this is a right that cannot be judged or as this Psalm says, “hated.”
Friday was John Calvin’s 500th birthday. For those of you who know who he is, he was a great preacher, pastor, family man, and church planter. He is in an elite group of proabably about five men who impacted the face and expansion of Christianity in history more than anyone else. He wrote a ton of good stuff. He writes with a humility and a vision of God that is so raw, and honest, and insightful…I’m floored by it everytime I read it.
Perhaps his greatest work is this book called, “The Institutes of Christian Religion.” Big book. Listen to how he describes how men flatter themselves. “Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves, as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence they do not coceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised…the dream and figmant of their own heart.”
Wow. I don’t know if you can say it better or more clear than that. With sights set on ourself we conceive of a world and a God by exploring our own curiosity and speculation…and the result is what we have devised on our own, the dream and figmant of our heart.
That ought to make us ask the question, who is our God? How do we see the life and this world? Are you looking through a lens that you have created by your own attempt to philosophize and make sense of things? Have we created our own God in our minds, one that suits us? Romans 12:3 calls this thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought. And it is because God is not at the forefront, at the front and center. We are not working from the top down…from him to us, but from the bottom up, thinking we could.
You will always find this principle at work in your life and in the lives of those around you. Listen, it’s an important one. “The one who makes little of God makes much of himself.” Let me say that again, “The one who makes little of God makes much of himself.” Big God equals little you. Little God equals big you.
That principle has an effect on us. David describes three different steps here. This attitude against God begins to lead to action…first in our words, “the words of his mouth are trouble and deceit.” And then in our actions, “he has ceased to act wisely and do good.”
It is so easy to flatter oneself into thinking that we’re really not that bad off, yeah, maybe we mess up sometimes, but we do some good too. It is so easy for us to think of ourselves as generally morally good people. But Jonathan Edwards reminds us this isn’t so. He says our transgression is a far “more dreadful thing then imagined.”
This is the universal view of the Bible. Jesus himself said this is how things work. In Matthew 15, Jesus says, “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
If we think we are going to be able to act wisely and do good and not be connected to the source of good, God himself, we are massively deceived. An attitude and a heart whose eyes do not fear God and instead creates their own life and morality will make one increasingly unwise, self-centered and unable to do any good whatsoever.
It just gets worse and worse. Which is what David describes. In verse 4 he says, you eventually end up laying on your bed imagining new ways of sinning and enjoying it. What has happened at that point is a person has just let go and given in. There is this inner conclusion and decsion and commitment to a certain path and way of life and it sets in. You know it is evil but you do not reject it and you become hardened and set yourself in that way.
Does that sound familiar for some of you? Maybe you know you’ve just let yourself go and today is a wake up call for you? Or maybe this brings back memories in the past when you’ve let yourself go and since then God has graciously brought you to see that he is the most important thing of all.
I know when I read that here in this Psalm…”He plots trouble while on his bed; He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil.” When I read that I know that is exactly how sin has worked itself out in my heart in the past. I can think of specific times, laying on my bed and plotting trouble for myself…all the while knowing it was not good. Can you think of times like that?
Now here is the thing. I’ve approached this Psalm in a very intentional way…because I believe it is truly what David is trying to teach us…I’ve approached it in a way, where when David talks about transgression like he has here, I’ve approached it as though he is talking about himself, and talking about all of us. I have not approached it in the way where he is looking at transgressors, the wicked, from the outside…saying oh man, they sure suck, I’m so glad I’m not like them.
I don’t think that is what he is doing. Not only because of the title of the Psalm, and because the next section is not a vote of self confidence but rather the opposite, God’s love which is undeserved (I mean the next section doesn’t even make sense unless you see yourself as a transgressor)…those are all good reasons for looing at these words in the way I have…but the biggest one of all is this: it’s too personal.
David talks about transgression’s work in the heart and in the life in a way where he sounds like he knows all too well about it. I don’t know if he could talk about transgression this way unless he had experienced it.
I can’t help but think maybe he had in mind when he fell into sin by sleeping with another woman who was not his wife and then had her husband killed. That happened. David was not a good dude. He very well could have that experience in mind. He’s obviously writing this later in life, after he is king and has a choirmaster, and now God has led him to write this Psalm so that others might learn from what he experienced in his life.
If you don’t know the story, it kind of goes like this. David is out in the evening hanging out on top of the roof of his palace. He’s looking out over the city and down across the way he sees into the window of a house and inside the house he sees a naked woman named Bathsheba taking a bath. She’s hot. So he ends up having some of his servants go and get her and bring her to his house and then they have sex… she ends up getting pregnant. And so David comes up with a plan to have his chief commander in the army put her husband on the frontlines and at certain point have his fellow soliders back away from him so that he gets overtaken and killed.
That’s the story in brief. God ended up using one of his prophets to rebuke and correct David about it. David gets pretty torn up over it, repents, recovers…and God has grace for him. The thing is…I just can’t imagine that David wouldn’t have thought of that situation as he was penning these words here in Psalm 36.
He flattered himself in his own eyes thinking his iniquity of adultery and murder would not be found out and that he could get away with it. But God knew. Told one of his prophets about it and had him go to David and confront him about it. David had done a pretty good job up to that point as a King and lover of God…but then he ceased to act wisely and do good.
I wonder if he was laying on his bed thinking of naked Bathsheba, and that’s when he plotted to have his servants come bring her to him? Or if he was laying on his bed after that when he came up with the plot of how to kill her husband to have Bathsheba to himself and to cover up what he had done? I wonder at which point he set himself in a way that is not good and just let himself give in and not reject what he knew was evil?
It’s a pretty dark picture huh? One I think we know all too well. It’s almost just too personal. Just too much to take.
II. The Salvation from Transgression (v5-10)
It’s at this point in the Psalm when David completely switches gears. The Psalm turns to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and begins to talk about the great love of God. It’s a distinct shift and turn in the whole tone. We go from the dark depravity of man to the light of God’s love and grace. And it’s amazing…it’s one of the most amazing descriptions of God and his love in the whole Bible. It’s this second main section which makes this Psalm one of my favorites.
Let’s look at it here in verses 5-10 and talk about “The Salvation from Transgression.” First off he says, God’s “steadfast love” reaches to the heavens. Our English Bibles have “steadfast love” because our English word “love” is just pretty vague and pathetic. The Hebrew behind it is one word, chesed, which is this constant, loyal, persistant, everlasting, unfailing kindness.
So when the Psalm says God’s chesed extends to the heavens it’s grasping at trying to say that it doesn’t run out. Ancient Jews didn’t have space shuttles. They didn’t know how far off they were the expanse of the sky went when they looked out, but they did know that the heavens were the farthest thing away.
We know a little more. The United States Department of Energy says that the farthest star from earth is about 10 billion light years away. One light year is this many miles: a 6 with 12 zeroes after it. That’s just one. So take that one light year, 6 with 12 zeroes and multiply it times a billion. And that is how far the heavens extend. If you were traveling at about 186,000 miles a second, it would take you about 322 billion years to get there.
Hold that length out in your arms in a straight line, 322 billion years, a kabillion miles…and God says this is how much I love you. That’s how committed I am to loving you. My love is steadfast. The heavens are the farthest thing up there is and God’s consistent and continual love extends that far.
His faithfulness stretches to the clouds. Faithfulness is what keeps God’s love constant. It doesn’t change and doesn’t stop. The idea here with both love and faithfulness is you take something which is far away and say this is the greatest distance I can think of, and that is how great and unfailing, unfaltering, and unforefeiting God’s faithfulness is.
Verse 6, says God’s righteousness is like the moutnains of God. I love this one. Some of you have never been up into the mountains. Just a few weeks ago Amy and I were in Colorado and we hiked way up to these waterfalls in the middle of the Colorado Rockies. Massive, massive mountains. They are just huge. At one point we were hiking and you can see the water running at the bottom and then you look up and the dark, jagged, sharp mountain just cuts straight up way up into the sky…something like 11,000 feet.
I turned to Amy and said…You know when God created the world with just a word and he made these moutains I bet it didn’t happen in a second and all quiet like. I’m sure it was like God spoke and then this thundering sound kchchchchcchchch. Just astounding.
But here’s David’s point with the mountains. Mountains have thunder storms regularly…lighting, wind, rain. Maybe sometimes tornadoes. But no matter how strong the wind is. No matter how hard it rains. No matter how much lighting strikes. …None of it can shake a mountain. The strongest winds of the planet cannot cause the great Alps of France to move an inch.
And that is what God’s righteousness is like. It is immovable. There is nothing and no one that can cause God to sin and do unrightly. He is perfect and holy in every regard. His moral consistency is flawless. He is utterly righteous. Righteousness like a mountain.
The next line says that God’s “judgments are like the great deep.” With steadfast love and faithfulness we went up. Now with judgments we go down. The deepest body of water in the world is the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. It is 35,840 feet deep and could easily submerge the largest mountain on the planet. The ocean is deep.
His judgment is an extension of his righteousness. It means that he is not only perfect in all that he is and does but that his evaluation of others is always perfect. God does not false judge us or misunderstand us. He understands the depth of human heart. He is wiser than the deepest ocean and can see right into our souls.
Which is probably why the next line says, “man and beast you save, O Lord.” David’s amazed that God continues to preserve the world. Save here doesn’t mean spiritual salvation but God’s preservation of life, by creating an inhabitable world and sustaining it rather than wiping it out.
In verse 7, David returns to God’s chesed love, his steadfast love and says it’s like a jewel. That’s what that word precious means, jewel. God’s love is brilliant and the most valuable thing in the universe. Like a perfectly cut diamond it sparkles and shines and draws attention to itself as extremely precious.
Jewels are the most sought after thing in the world. I know. The most expensive thing I have ever bought besides a car is a diamond. This little tiny piece of rock costs thousands of dollars. God’s love is a precious jewel, worth more than all the money of man.
David then seems to expound on why he believes God’s love is so precious and he uses four more analogies. He says it’s precious because because it is refuge as under the shadow of his wings, it is a great feast of food and drink, it’s a fountain that gives life, and it is light which enables us to see.
First the refuge. Have any of you seen an eagle up close? They have a couple of eagle’s over here at the San Diego zoo. I take Adina on a date once a week and half the time she wants to go there. Eagle’s average a wingspan of 7-9 feet. That creates quite a shadow.
The picture here in Psalm 36 is probably of the young baby eagles who sit in the nest, where the eagle sits over top of them protecting them with the shadow of its wings. Eagle’s nest’s are about 18 feet deep and about 9 feet wide. A great refuge for young eagle’s. God’s love is like that. It is a safe and secure place for the children of mankind to rest.
Next, God’s love is like a feast. Food and drink, “the abudance of God’s house.” Some of the best things in life are meals. That’s why whenever we celebrate something significant what do we do? We eat and drink.
Greg and Carrie got married the other day. And what did we do afterward, we ate and drank out of the abudance of Carrie’s dad’s house. J God’s love is a feast, we celebrate and there is an abundant supply in his house.
Then David says, God’s love is the a fountain of life. I’m going to use Calvin again here. Calvin was a big fan of the Psalms…he said it was his meditation in the Psalms with enabled him not to wander. I wanted to give Calvin some props today, he one of my favorites and think it is fitting that we’re thankful to God for him just like we’re thankful to God for food and drink.
Calvin says this, “(God’s) blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain…our mind cannot conceive of God, without rendering some worship to him, it will not however be sufficient simply to hold that he is the only being whom all ought to worship and adore, unless we are also persuaded that he is the fountain of all goodness, and that we must seek everything in him and in none but him.” Whew that’s good. God is the the fountain of life.
Then in the last comparison David says, “in your light we see light.” It is this little play on words…I’ll explain it for you. If you take a candle and you light it and take it outside and hold it up to the sun, it does not help you see the sun better. So David’s point is this. It is God who enables us to see, not any other thing. Without him we do not see and are blind. But in him we receive light and are able to see.
Isn’t this just an amazing Psalm? I truly think it is one of the most beautiful, poetic, and theologically rich descriptions of God in the whole Bible.
Now it’s really in verse 10, that David breaks out into prayer…but verses 5-10 really all fit together because they are all about God’s steadfast love. Here’s how he erupts into prayer. Let’s read it. Verse 10, “Oh continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright of heart.”
Okay, so I don’t think David is appealing to his own moral goodness in this verse just because he mentions “the upright of heart.” In fact none of these descriptions of God’s steadfast love really even make any sense or are really that fantastic if they are deserved, like man earned God’s love for being good. No, it’s the opposite really. It’s almost like, David and us included are astounded that God would have such love because we know we’re not worthy of it. It’s too much. It’s too good.
I think this is simply what David is saying here when he mentions the “upright heart.” It’s those who know God. Notice that phrase, “to those who know you.” So how do you know if you know God. Here’s a test.
When we were going through these descriptions of God’s steadfast love and how amazing God is…did you in your heart rejoice? Did you think wow! God really is amazing. Did you start to drift into prayer in your seat, thanking God and adoring him?
If you did, then that a pretty good indicator that you may know him. If you didn’t you can come to know lovingly today and we’ll talk about that in a minute. But for those who do know him it works like this, when we experience God’s love, we want more. Oh, let it continue God. Continue your steadfast love please God. Thy lovingkindness is better than life itself. I want more of you God. More of you in my life. I think that is the cry of the believer’s heart.
III. The Prayer against Transgression (v11-12)
Okay, last and final point for this morning, “The Prayer against Transgression.” Let’s re-read verse 11-12, “Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen, they are thrust down, unable to rise.”
Alright, this is the “Oracle of Transgression.” He’s just expounded on two ways. The way and workings of trangression in man and the way and workings of God toward transgression. Now he pulls it together for a conclusion. One commentator said David stands here on the ground between wickedness and grace.
He recognizes his plight, potential and proneness to transgression and so he prays to God for deliverance. We began saying that the way of trangression begins with flattery, one thinking they know better and don’t need God and here we return to that idea. Flattery gets called arrogance and is imagined as a foot that comes upon me or a hand which drives me away.
The foot of arrogance coming upon someone is a military analogy. It’s the picture of two men in hand to hand combat and one dude is taken down and the guy who beat him jams his foot into the guys throat. That’s how flattery and arrogance work they just take you down.
We had a bunch of dudes over and watched UFC at my house last night. In the main even Brock Lesner just dominated his opponent. He didn’t put his foot to the other guy’s throat but he put his head in a head lock on the ground and just pummeled his face until the ref stopped the fight because the dude got knocked out.
David looks at that and says that is what the way of transgression is like. Coming up with your own philosophy on life…doing whatever you want…hooking up with Bathsheba…not having a fear of God in your eyes, not loving and knowing God’s love. You get taken down.
And if you don’t repent and turn to God you will become ultimately and finally set in your ways as an evildoer and you will lie fallen, thrust down and unable to rise. God and his love will be cast off from you forevermore. So David prays against that and begs God to work in his life so that he is not given over to that.
Conclusion
Here’s my conclusion to this sermon. The question this Psalm begs is how can God have love for transgressors and what is David hoping for? I mean the dark part of this Psalm is dark and the bright part of this Psalm is bright. They are oceans apart from each other.
How can David go to being such a heinous trangressor and yet God has steadfast love toward him? What is David praying for?
I think this is it…David knew he could not save himself. Notice all the stuff about God’s steadfast love was about God and his person and his work, not how good David was at not transgressing. David knew that his only hope was for God to provide and to work in his life and so that’s what he asked for.
So I think what is going on is David is praying for and trusting God to provide somehow someway. He didn’t know exactly how. In some of his other Psalms he prays specifically for a messiah. What David did know God had steadfast love and trusted that God would make a way.
And that is what God did. God sent his son Jesus into the world, to live a life of free of transgression. Jesus kept a fear of God all the days of his life, always acting speaking truth, always acting wisely, never plotting trouble, and always rejecting evil.
Then Jesus allowed the foot of the arrogance of man be put to his throat. He gave up his life on the cross so that transgression might be dealt with. Jesus died a death for the sins of human beings so that God might extend his steadfast love and still be a just God who doesn’t just let adulterers and murderers get off the hook. God punishes the sin in his own son so that we might not remain fallen, thrust down and unable to rise.
This is the gospel my friends. It is Jesus. He is the answer to David’s prayer. I’m constantly trying to teach us that Jesus is what the whole Bible is about. Everyone in the Old Testament is looking forward to and needing him and everyone in the New Testament and beyond is looking backward to him. Jesus is the peak of the Bible and the peak of history.
Jesus is the savior of transgressors so that they might know God’s steadfast love. I said earlier that if you didn’t know God and his love like the way David did that you could today. This is how, put your faith in Jesus. Embrace his person and work on the cross for your trangression. And you will be given new life and you will rise.
Maybe there’s others of you where you know and love God but like verse 4 describes you’ve just kind of let yourself go in a way that isn’t good and you need the grace and the love of God in your life. Know today that Jesus is for you. Jesus died once and for all for sin and is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.
Maybe some of you know you’ve just been proud and arrogant, and the hand of the wicked, ungodly people have been influencing you and driving you away and you just need to repent today and turn to Christ. Know that he loves you and cares for you.
All of us need Jesus today. Without him the love of God will remain a far off distant reality. In him the love of God comes close and we find refuge in the shadow of the cross.
I want to conclude this morning’s message with a prayer from Ephesians three. If you’d all pray with me.
God I bow my knees before you Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, I pray that according to the riches of your glory that you may grant us to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Jesus Christ might dwell in our hearts throgh that – that we would be rooted and grounded in love, that we may have strength to comprehend together what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge and that we would be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).
As we come to your table Lord, we thank you for your steadfast love which reaches to the heavens. We are thankful for your faithfullness that stretches to the clouds. We are thankful for your righteousness which is like mighty mountains. We thank you for your judgments which are true as the deepest ocean. Your steadfast love O Lord is precious, we take refuge in the shadow of your wings. We feast on the provision of your son Jesus in the bread and the wine, his life and death for us. You are the fountain of life and in your light we see light. Lord continue to pour out your steadfast love on us…we want to know you and love you.
Be pleased with us and minister to your people head pastor Jesus as we come to your table. Be pleased with our financial offerings we give and continue to enable us to spread the goodness of your gospel in this city. We love you and in the great name of your son Jesus I pray, Amen.
