Psalm 36

A David Psalm

^1-4 The God-rebel tunes in to sedition— all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth,
dishwater dirty.
Can’t remember when he
did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed,
he fathers another evil plot.
When he’s loose on the streets,
nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn’t care who gets burned.
^5-6 God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
^7-9 How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.
^10-12 Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.

There has been so much violence in our world.

OK- I know- there has ALWAYS been violence- but

what with the wars and the riots and the senseless

murders and mayhem that have been in our own

neighborhoods… in our face… it seems to have

escalated of late.

David wrote this of his times.

When he’s loose on the streets,
nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn’t care who gets burned.

And if it was true then- well it is, if anything,

truer NOW!

Then we look at verses 6-10 and what comfort

there is in turning our vision from the rebels- the

God haters- and looking towards God, Himself.

I love the descriptions he offers of God’s love, loyalty,

purpose and verdicts: meteoric- astronomic-titanic and

oceanic.  Ginormous! 

And yet, so lovingly concerned with us, that not a man, not

even a mouse slips through the cracks of His attention.

And then after praising the Lord for His wonderful love,

David returns to his own problems; THE BULLIES!

And isn’t that the way we all are?

I am.  I want my problems to be remembered and taken

care of- and I’m so glad that I’m not alone in my

selfish concern.  I don’t know that God will cause my

enemies to go sprawling in the mud.

After all-

I’m supposed to pray for them .

But it is nice to know that I’m not the only one who

sometimes wishes they would get their own back.

Do you know what I mean?