Look at the Wicked? Look at God!
In our current day and age, it can be easy to look at all the disasters, wars, and rumors of war in our world and then to live in fear. It can be tempting to look at all the wicked people in this world who oppose God, to see how vigorously they fight against his good and right ways, and then to be disturbed and discouraged as a result. In Psalm 36, King David looks at the wicked people all around him. He recognizes them for who they are, and then he looks away from them and looks up to the LORD. David moves his focus from the wicked up to the LORD and to His faithful character and attributes, where he finds comfort and assurance. In light of what he knows of God’s gracious faithfulness, David then confidently lifts up his prayer to God.
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 their 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.
What do we see here in this passage of God’s Word, the Bible? We see a picture of what the wicked person looks like. We then see, by way of contrast, a picture of God and His goodness. Finally, we see, in light of this contrast between wicked people and the goodness of God, a prayer that David offers to God.
In the first four verses of this Psalm, we are given an anatomy of the wicked person– a detailed sketch of what defines the wicked. The Bible is clear that everyone is a sinner. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Outside of being born again by the Spirit of God, we all are prone by nature to hate God and our neighbor (Heidelberg Catechism Q. 5) Thus, we are liable to the just judgment of God. However, not everyone is counted among the wicked, as King David describes them in this Psalm. Everyone is a sinner in need of forgiveness and repentance, but not everyone is a Jezebel or an antichrist. Total depravity does not mean that we are all as depraved as we could be. With the wicked, there seems to be an extra, willful, and heartfelt dedication that they have toward their own wicked ways beyond that of the average sinner. They seek not only to build their own lives upon their own wicked ideas and actions, but they also seem driven to try to impose their wickedness on others.
Let’s look at the first four verses of Psalm 36 to see how David defines a wicked person: “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: there is no fear of God before their eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not abhor evil.”
King David, in speaking of “an oracle,” is giving us a special revelation which he had received from God. God had given David insight into what a wicked person looks like. The wicked like to confuse people with deception and lies. They like to tell us that good is evil, and evil is good (Isaiah 5:20). This passage helps us cut through all the confusion, and it nails down just what defines the wicked man and what sets him apart from the everyday run-of-the-mill sinner.
The first thing that defines a wicked person is this: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). They don’t take God seriously. They have no respect for Him. They have no fear of God’s judgments against sin and wickedness. They think that God does not see, nor does he care, nor can he do anything to stop them. In their own opinion, the wicked think they are free to do as they wish, with no consequences for their actions. By way of contrast, God’s word calls on us to fear the Lord. Proverbs 3:7 tells us, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil.”
The second hallmark of a wicked person is that he “flatters himself in his own eyes, When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates” (verse 2). When the sin and waywardness of the wicked person is called out and exposed, he flatters himself and deceives himself. He tells himself that he’s okay and that he’s right in doing what he’s doing. There is hatred in his heart, and what he hates is the righteousness of God that exposes his sin. By way of contrast, God’s word tells us to confess and forsake our sins. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8).
Verse 3 tells us the next two traits of a wicked person: “The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.” Not only does the wicked person flatter and deceive himself about his sinful, harmful ways, but he also deceives others around him. His words are not trustworthy, and they lead others around him astray. The wicked also abandon wisdom. They leave behind them the wisdom of Scripture and the instruction of generations past, and they strike out on new paths forged by their own imaginations. As a result, they abandon and forsake ways that have been proven to be good, right, and helpful. Claiming to be champions of enlightenment and freedom, they instead end up causing harm and evil to those around them.
Verse 4 rounds out this picture of what the wicked person looks like: “He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not abhor evil.” The wicked person does not rest. Even on his bed, he tries to invent new ways to overthrow good and imposes his own desires on those around him. He becomes committed to ways that are not good, and he does not find evil to be repulsive. Instead of embracing good and rejecting evil, he does the opposite. He fights against what is good and helpful, and he promotes things that end up being harmful to himself and others. Proverbs 4:16 tells us of the wicked, “For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.”
In a world full of wicked, evil people who oppose what is good and try to promote those things that bring harm on others, what is the person who believes in God to do? So often in our media, we look at the wicked. They are loud and outspoken, and sometimes they seem to set the tone for the world in which we live. We look at their deeds and we can be tempted to despair. Psalm 11:3 calls out, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” In Psalm 36, we are shown that when we see the wicked and look at their wicked ways, we are then to look up and look to God. Look at the wicked. Then look to God.
Verses 5 and 6 of David’s Psalm 36 suddenly switch our view from looking upon the wicked to looking up to God, and there is no comparison. “Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast.”
God’s mercy, God’s faithfulness, God’s righteousness, and God’s judgments are far out of reach of the wicked. The wicked cannot change them. God’s mercy toward His believing people is in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, nor are thieves able to break in and steal it from us. God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises extends far beyond where any wicked hand can reach. God’s righteousness, like the great mountains, stands firm, immovable, and unchangeable through the ages. No wicked one can ever hope to change God’s righteous standards or the judgments of His holy decrees. God’s judgments, like a great depth, are unfathomable.
Psalm 92:5-6 echoes this truth: “O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand.” And while the wicked can be a threat to the well-being of those around them, yet God himself actively works in his unending power and might to keep and preserve both man and beast. While the wicked may plot and scheme, yet Christ himself is “… upholding all things by the word of His power …” (Hebrews 1:3). The wicked are powerless in the face of Christ Jesus’ everlasting care for his own, and no “… created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39b).
Verses 7 through 9 lay out for us the benefits we find when we trust in God instead of looking to the wicked: “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are
abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light, we see light.”
While the wicked claim to have the new ideas, the new social causes, and the new political crusades that will supposedly save the planet and save all mankind, it is in God himself and in his ways that we find shelter, satisfaction, and life. God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness to all his promises are unlike the promises of the self-appointed saviors of our day, for they are precious, valuable, and worth holding on to. Because God is faithful to his promises throughout all eternity, we can find a secure and everlasting shelter under his wings. Political leaders, captains of industry, and social activists all promise us abundance, progress, and prosperity, but it is God himself who satisfies us with his overflowing abundance and joy. Through Christ, the Father gives to us what no mere man can give–the forgiveness of sins, a new heart, and the assurance of eternal life in his glorious Kingdom. God himself is the source of life, and God himself gives light to those who trust in him.
Verse 9 of our text tells us, “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light, we see light.” The Bible shows us where we can find both life and light. We find life and light, not in the philosophies and social movements of our day, but in God’s only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first chapter of the Gospel of John tells us of God the Son: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (Jn. 1:5).
If you and I are to find light and life in this dark and deadly world, we cannot look to the wicked, but we must look up to God. We must look up to God as he is revealed to us in his word, the Bible, and look to his faithful, eternal, unchanging character. We must trust the precious promises found in his word. And we must approach him by faith in the One whom he has sent into the world to give us light and life: the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, who took on human flesh, dwelt among us, and lived life as one of us, yet without sin. He lived a perfect, sinless life, earning heaven for those who believe in him. He died a perfect death on the cross as our substitute, paying the debt we owe to God because of our sins and rebellion against Him, and Jesus rose again on the third day to secure the justification of all those who believe in him.
God grants life and light to those who belong to him through faith in Christ Jesus. As a result, all who believe can approach the Father in prayer and be accepted through the blood and merits of Christ, our only Savior. David, in Psalm 36:10-12, ends this Psalm with a prayer: “Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the workers of iniquity have fallen; they have been cast down and are not able to rise.”
David prays that the wicked, in their wickedness, not be allowed to cause us to lose our inheritance or the goodness that God has promised and purchased for his people. He prays that God would continue to show his favor and bestow his righteousness upon those who know God through faith in him. There is also the acknowledgment at the end of the Psalm, in verse 12, that when God stands up for his believing people against the schemes of the wicked, there will be nothing the wicked will be able to do about it. We often feel helpless against the plans of those who seek to throw off God’s goodness. In the end, it is the wicked who are “cast down and are not able to rise” (verse12).
When things in this world are uncertain, and we are tempted to look at the wicked, as Christians, we are not to fear. Instead, we are to look up and trust in God. God, who made heaven and earth, will endure forever, while the wicked will be cast down and pass away. It is God’s eternal, unending love toward us who believe in Christ Jesus that preserves and protects us, both in this life and for all eternity in the life of the world to come.
Rev. Dave Irwin
Salem Reformed Church
Ashley, ND