The psalm opens inside one man’s corrupted heart, tracing exactly how a person talks himself into evil — and then, with no transition warning the reader, leaps to a scale so vast that mercy is measured against the heavens themselves. Nothing about the pivot is explained. It simply happens.
A study in Psalm 36 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
The Transgression Of The Wicked
“The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.”
Psalm 36:1-2
David describes self-deception as a process, not a single choice — flattery repeated to oneself until the person genuinely cannot see their own sin clearly anymore, right up until it becomes undeniable even to them.
“He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.”
Psalm 36:4
“Abhorreth not evil” may be the most precise diagnosis in the whole passage — not necessarily active love of wrongdoing, but the quieter failure of no longer being repelled by it at all.
Thy Mercy, O LORD, Is In The Heavens
“Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.”
Psalm 36:5-6
Each attribute gets its own vast image — mercy as high as the sky, righteousness as solid as a mountain range, judgment as unfathomable as the deep sea. The final clause quietly widens the scope of God’s care past humanity alone, to animals as well.
How Excellent Is Thy Lovingkindness
“How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.”
Psalm 36:7-8
“Abundantly satisfied” and “river of thy pleasures” describe overflow, not mere sufficiency — a household so generous that its provision cannot be exhausted by the guests it welcomes.
“For with Thee is the fountain of life: In Thy light shall we see light.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 463
White places this verse inside a long chain of Scripture’s own testimony to God’s character, moving from this psalm directly into Psalm 119’s praise of God’s law — light itself, in her arrangement, becomes the natural bridge between beholding God’s beauty and delighting in His word.
Let Not The Foot Of Pride Come Against Me
“O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.”
Psalm 36:10-11
The psalm returns, briefly, to the wicked man described in its opening verses — not with fresh anger, but with a simple request that his “foot of pride” not be allowed to actually reach David.
“There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.”
Psalm 36:12
The psalm ends abruptly, almost mid-thought, on the wicked already fallen — the self-flattery that opened the poem, left unchecked long enough, arrives at exactly the collapse it was quietly building toward the whole time.
