Psalm 36: 1 – 12
The Fountain of Life or Youth
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD.
1 An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. 3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise and to do good. 4 He devises wickedness on his bed; He sets himself in a way that is not good; He does not abhor evil. 5 Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast. 7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. 8 They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. 10 Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 There the workers of iniquity have fallen; They have been cast down and are not able to rise.
In today’s study we are going to look at the Fountain of Life. You might be thinking right now, ‘Hey Tom I think you mean the fountain of youth.’. Well in a way today’s interest involves both.
Proverbs 16:22 says “Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.”
For centuries people diligently sought a fountain of youth, a spring that offered eternal life and vitality. Their thought was that they wanted this regeneration while desiring to live here on earth. Still today people look for lotions, powders and potions that promise youthfulness, optimum health and anti-aging. And yet the Bible offers something more substantial and lasting. God’s wisdom is a fountain of life that can make a person happy, healthy, and alive forever.
When we live by God’s Word, he washes away the deadly effects of sin. Titus 3:5-7 says that ‘He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.’
The hope of eternal life with Him gives us a joyful perspective on our present life. This fountain of life not only keeps and preserves us from all evil in this life but offers the promise of wholeness and health into eternity.
The fountain of youth is a fallacy, but the fountain of life is a reality, that is attainable for all who desire to put their trust in Jesus Christ. This fountain of life is a vivid image that gives us the impression of fresh, cool, life-giving water for all who are spiritually thirsty. Our Precious Lord Jesus Himself Is this fountain of life who can quench our thirst forever and offer us eternal life (John 4:14).
‘For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of YHWH.’
This Psalm might be called ‘the Ode to the Covenant Love of YHWH’. For after its initial grim beginning it expands into a threefold expression of YHWH’s covenant love as it is revealed towards His own.
In it the Psalmist contrasts ‘the oracle of the transgression of the wicked’ (verses 1-4), which reveals the whole truth about man’s sinfulness spelled out in detail, with the truth of the covenant love of YHWH, the latter being emphasized in a threefold way. Thus, he stresses first His attributes of love, faithfulness, righteousness and justness (verses 5-6); then His wonderful benefits provided to men (verses 7-9); and finally, his own confidence that through YHWH’s love he will be delivered from the kind of men described in the initial verses (verses 10 – 12).
1 An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. 3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise and to do good. 4 He devises wickedness on his bed; He sets himself in a way that is not good; He does not abhor evil.
In these first four verses ‘the Transgression (rebellion) of the wicked’ speaks like a prophet to the Psalmist’s heart concerning the wicked. It declares that there is no ‘fear’ of God before the eyes of the wicked. In other words, the wicked are not moved by YHWH’s covenant requirements, or the need to obey Him, or the fear of judgment, because they dismiss Him from their thoughts. They treat His desires lightly. The wicked man convinces himself that his iniquity will not be found out. He convinces himself that, even though God hates his iniquity, it will not receive its deserts, for he has no recognition of a living God who sees and knows all things.
The behavior of the wicked is then spelled out in detail;
1. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. They speak deviousness. And by his words he will be condemned.
2. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He has deliberately turned from goodness.
3. He devises iniquity on his bed. Even when resting he still plans further sinfulness. While the righteous meditate on their beds, and repent and bring God to their minds, the wicked simply plot sin and thus come under God’s Woe.
4. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He positively chooses the path that leads away from goodness. Not for him the Holy Way. He wants the way of self-choosing and pleasure.
5. He does not abhor evil. This marks him off from all others. He has no hatred of what is evil.
It is clear from this that he loves the evil and hates the good. He does not necessarily declare this openly, but it is what lies within his heart. He lives his life without God, and chases after sin.
5 Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
In contrast with the five aspects of the hearts of those who follow iniquity are the five attributes of the heart of YHWH. Notice that the contrast with sinfulness is not in terms of the goodness of the righteous, but of the goodness of their God. It is He Who lifts the righteous and makes the righteous what they are. They are like that because He has personally ‘blessed’ them. Thus, to Him must be the glory.
The Five Attributes of YHWH are:
1) His compassion and covenant love are so vast that they are ‘in the Heavens’, stretched out in a huge expanse which goes beyond the range of human sight.
2) His faithfulness is so substantial that it reaches up to the skies (and here the sky is not the limit).
3) His righteousness is as huge as ‘the mountains of God’, the very highest of the mountains.
4) His judgments are as deep as the ocean, a depth not yet plumbed by man.
5) He is the preserver of all life, whether that of man or beast. He is the source and giver of life.
So, God’s love and faithfulness, His righteousness and justice, and His life-giving and life-preserving qualities, are so vast that they are beyond man’s ability to fully comprehend. They are wider than the heavens, higher than the stars, greater than the mountains, deeper than the sea.
Ephesians 3.18-19 speaks of the work of the Spirit within which makes known to us the love of God and of Christ, and makes it a part of us. ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God’.
We now turn from what God is to what He offers. Please take notice the change from YHWH to God, even though the offering is still of His covenant love. His offer is universal, for it is to all ‘the children of men’.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. 8 They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.
Here is the alternative life of the people who respond to God instead of to ‘transgression’. Because of His precious covenant love revealed towards them they:
A) Take shelter under the shadow of His wings (. This is the privileged position to which Jesus calls His own. It was because they refused this that Jerusalem was destroyed (Matthew 23.37-38, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! “See! Your house is left to you desolate”).
B) Are abundantly satisfied with the luxurious provision of His house. They eat and drink at His table. Originally in mind is the sacrificial meal of which all YHWH’s guests partake before Him. Jesus expanded the idea to reflect the possibility of partaking of Him and enjoying the benefits that He offers (Matthew 22.2-4, “1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers”).
C) Drink of the river of His pleasures (Revelation 21.6, “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts”).‘Whoever will may drink of the water of life freely’.
D) Enjoy partaking of the fountain or spring of life. ‘He who drinks of the water that I will give him, will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling forth to eternal life’ (John 4.10-14, “10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
E) Find light in His light. In mind here is probably the light of the glory of God which filled the Tabernacle, and which was behind the veil which hid the Most Holy Place from the eyes of the priests. The Psalmist may also have had in mind the seven-branched lampstand in the Tabernacle/Temple which continually burned, and which pictured the glory hidden behind the veil. This last was a perpetual reminder of the glory of God as it had been revealed in the pillar of fire which had led His people out of Egypt, and of the further glory of YHWH which had been revealed on Mount Sinai. (Psalm 78.14, ‘In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.’ Thus, His light gave them the light of the assurance of His presence. This also ties in with Isaiah 60.1, ‘arise, shine, for your light is come, and the glory of YHWH is risen upon you.’)
Furthermore, it was from His light that His people obtained guidance, assurance and truth. ‘The entrance of Your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple’ (119.130). ‘Your word is a lamp to my way, and a light to my path’ (119.105). ‘He lightens the lampstand of His people and lightens their darkness’ (18.28). ‘They look to Him and are lightened, and their faces are thus not ashamed’ (34.5). ‘Oh, send out your light and your truth, let them lead me’ (43.3). In His light they see light.
YHWH is also elsewhere compared by David with the glorious light of the noonday sun. ‘He will be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds’ (2 Samuel 23.4). But to the Psalmist YHWH outshines the sun, and His light shines on His people, revealing truth and making them righteous too. ‘He will make your righteousness go forth as the light, and your just dealings as the noonday’ (37.6). That is why Jesus could say, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 5.16).
And we need not doubt that it includes the thought of the light of YHWH’s favor. The Psalmists regularly speak of ‘the light of His countenance’ as shining on His people as they enjoyed the favour of God.
For us the light shines even more clearly. Not for us the dim light of the Tabernacle lampstand, but the glorious light of Him Who is ‘the light of the world’, Who gives the light of life to His own (John 8.12, “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”). ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt among and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1.14), so that we see ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4.6). As He said, ‘I am come a light into the world, so that whoever believes in me may not continue on in darkness’ (John 12.46), ‘but will have the light of life’ (John 8.12).
Having emphasized the wonderful attributes of YHWH (5-7), and having considered the generous benefits that He abundantly gives to His own (8-9), the Psalmist now prays that nothing might drive him away from the covenant love of YHWH.
10 Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 There the workers of iniquity have fallen; They have been cast down and are not able to rise.
Finally, he prays that YHWH will reveal His covenant love and righteous deliverance towards himself and all who are truly upright. Note that it is assumed that those who truly know Him will be so. It is not possible to truly experience His compassion and righteous deliverance without it being so.
And he wants to be protected from the proud. He does not want their foot to come against him. Nor does he want the hand of the wicked to drive him away from YHWH’s presence, or from his livelihood. For he has confidence that these men who work iniquity will shortly fall. They will be thrust down and not be able to rise
