Psalm 36: The Fountain of Life

"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… The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit… He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good."

"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." Heaven, clouds, mountains, the deep: God's character fills the whole cosmos.

"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. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light."

"O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee… Let not the foot of pride come against me… There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise."

The "oracle" of sin

36:1 opens with ne'um pesha', "an oracle of transgression." Ne'um is the word prophets use in "says the LORD" (ne'um YHWH). Here sin itself speaks with prophetic authority inside the wicked. The image is bold and the Hebrew difficult.

River of delights

"The river of thy pleasures" is nahal 'adanekha: 'adanekha shares its root with Eden. The temple is pictured as a garden of God with a river (compare Ezekiel 47; Genesis 2:10).

The heading

Hebrew: "To the chief musician, of the servant of the LORD, of David" (also Psalm 18). The Vulgate has "Servo Domini ipsi David," where in Psalm 18 it has "Puero Domini," two Latin words for the Hebrew 'eved, "servant." Lamnatseah, "to the chief musician" (or "for the director"), heads 55 psalms and appears again in Habakkuk 3:19; its meaning is uncertain. The Greek understood it as eis to telos, "to the end" (the library's Vulgate: "In finem").

"My heart" or "his heart"

36:1 Hebrew reads "within my heart" (libbi). The Greek and the library's Vulgate read "within himself" (Vulgate "Dixit injustus ut delinquat in semetipso"; Giguet "en lui-même"), as do the Syriac and some Hebrew manuscripts (libbo). Many modern versions adopt "his heart."

"In thy light"

36:9 has been read in Jewish and Christian thought of illumination by God; Christian writers connected it with the Nicene phrase "Light from Light," though the Creed does not quote it. The Columbia University motto "In lumine tuo videbimus lumen" is taken from the Vulgate of this verse.