Evil abounds. When we look around at the world, it’s easy to ask, “Why is there so much suffering and injustice?”
But when we look a bit closer, we find a question hiding beneath the surface of the bad things that catch our initial attention: “Why is there so much goodness in the world?” The good, the true, and the beautiful abound far more than evil and suffering.
An honest survey of our own lives makes the question of evil is insignificant when held up against the question of good. Where does all this goodness come from? Why do we hate injustice so much? And why are we so deeply moved by beauty and so touched by acts of kindness?
There is so much more that is right with the world than is wrong with it. And yet we always see what is wrong before seeing what is right.
Although the vast majority of car trips get people to their destinations without harm, those safe trips are quickly eclipsed when we hear of an accident. Although the rest of my body may feel just fine, when I stub my toe, I can only think of it and not about the rest of me that’s doing great. Although my kid gets 37 out of 40 problems solved correctly on a math test, it’s the three he missed that bum him out.
Although goodness outweighs evil on life’s scale, our focus always seems to gravitate to what is wrong before what is right. And so, it’s no surprise that Psalm 36 starts with a heart weighed down by evil (vs. 1-4) before turning its attention to God (vs. 5-10) and then seeing the resolution of the two (vs. 11-12).
Psalm 36 begins with a truism: Sin is in the heart because fear of God is not in view.
Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes (Ps. 36:1).
Bruce Walk writes of the fear of the Lord in his commentary The Book of Proverbs (441-442):
“The fear of the Lord” is closely equivalent to what R. Otto labeled “the idea of the Holy.” Upon encountering the Holy One, one is filled with both fear and trust and gives expression to that awe by submitting to the ethics entailed in the purity of the Holy One. Wisdom consists in transcending the fallen human world and participating in the divine, the holy.
Fear of the Lord has to do with mindfulness of God — awareness of his presence, his person, his moral law, his demand for obedience, his love for his people, his faithfulness to his people, and his judgment of those who reject him and his way. Fear of the Lord is a different way of seeing the world and a different of living in the world because of it. That difference is holiness.
The word “holy” simply means “different,” but a difference determined by the fear of the Lord. Our God is holy, he is different from the other gods people bow before. Therefore, we are holy by being different from other people in ways that mirror our God’s difference/holiness. We can only be different/holy to the degree that we’re mindful of who God is and of our relationship with him.
To paraphrase Psalm 36, if we don’t view the world through God-lenses, we’ll have sin in our hearts. For how we see the world determines how we live in it.
And if our eyes aren’t on God, they’ll be on ourselves. And that self-focused life becomes a sin-embracing life.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated (Ps. 36:2).
If bad “eyes” lead to a bad heart, a bad heart leads to a bad mouth.
The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good (Ps. 36:3).
The downward spiral increases in velocity. This practical atheism — living as if God doesn’t exist even though worshiping as if he does — infects every corner of life, including thoughts in the night when we should be sleeping.
He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil (Ps. 36:4).
I see this less as being so evil that the godless searches out even more evil instead of sleeping. Rather, I see it as being empty of God and therefore having a vacant spot that sin seeps into.
Having considered those who don’t consider God, David turns his attention to God himself. Before we look at that though, a quick observation on the superscription before the psalm: “For the director of music. Of David, the servant of the LORD.”
The term ebed Yahweh (servant of the LORD) most famously appears in Isaiah 40-55 in a series of songs with messianic overtones in which Christians can’t fail to see Jesus (especially in the suffering servant of Is. 52:31-53:12). The term is the highest honor ever applied to a human being in the Hebrew Scriptures. It basically refers to someone who consistently lives the fear of the Lord, willingly setting aside self-interest for God’s interests. It’s someone who lives in covenant loyalty to God.
That observation is pertinent here because of what is said of God in the next verses. First, we see his love and faithfulness, the two main aspects of God’s covenant loyalty.
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds (Ps. 36:5).
Next, we see God’s righteousness and justice, the two main aspects of God’s dealings with humanity.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O LORD (Ps. 36:6).
These four divine aspects are reflected in creation. And so they reflect the creation itself. The Scriptures often refer to creation in three levels — heavens/skies, earth, seas/deeps — and all three echo aspects of God’s character and commitment to his creation.
Just as solid as the world and even more so, since he created it, God’s love is unfailing. We can count on it. We can build our lives on it. We can take shelter in it.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings (Ps. 36:7).
More than just protecting, God’s love feeds and blesses us with goodness. There is wealth here. Abundance. Delight.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights (Ps. 36:8).
Life pours out of God like water from a fountain. His is the source of all light. There is no life or light apart from God. But even though it all comes from him, it is ridiculously abundant. He’s profligate in his good generosity. And he offers his wealth of goodness and beauty and truth to all humanity, not restricting it to his special ones.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light (Ps. 36:9).
Even though it comes toward the end, this is the psalm’s center.
This is the answer to why there is so much good in the world: God. He is the source of beauty. He is a gushing spring of goodness. It wells up from him and pours out on the world and into each one of our lives.
And so the psalm winds down, beginning with a request that God continue to be loving and just. Theologically, it’s an unnecessary request. Of course, God will continue to do what he’s always done. But personally, it’s a very necessary request. For we get so overwhelmed by what’s wrong in the world we need reassurance that God will continue to pour his loving goodness.
Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart! (Ps. 36:10)
And having begun with the godless whose self-focused pride causes so much trouble for so many, David asks that they be restrained.
Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers lie fallen;
they are thrust down, unable to rise (Ps. 36:11-12).
This is the tension we live in: God’s goodness is preeminent and vast and yet we continue to struggle with the hurts caused by arrogant, selfish humanity. And so, we pray this tension. We lay the struggle before God. And in the process, we begin to see things as they really are. In his light, we see light. And one day, the darkness will go out and goodness will triumph forever.