PSALM 36
5. Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
6. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like the great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7. How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
8. They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house, and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures.
9. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light. Amp.
DEFINITIONS
Abundance – in KJV is Fatness -c) to satisfy; ashes of sacrifice.
This a Psalm of David. He begins by talking about his enemies. Then he writes all about the goodness of the Lord. It is as if he is relating what the wicked will miss. He is writing all about what he has learned about the Lord and His love and mercy.
His mercy, love and faithfulness cannot be measured. They are as high as the heavens and reach to the skies. He compares His righteousness to the mountains of God. We can see the mountains and how nothing can affect them. They are stable. But His judgments are as the deep. Sounds like a place you do not want to be.
He has tasted His love and says how precious it is. It causes man to take refuge under His wonderful shadow. Can you imagine seeing His shadow. If we stand in His shadow how close to Him are we?
I think verse 8 is the best. They (men) relish and feast on the abundance of Your house. In KJV it says, “the fatness of Your house.” Fatness is the ashes of our sacrifice and means satisfy. He is saying when we give to Him our life as a sacrifice, He is satisfied and causes us to be satisfied with the stream of His pleasure.
His pleasure would be something so far above all that we could ever ask or think. So much better than anything of this world. And He allows us the drink of His pleasure. And while we are in that Light we see Light. He is the Light of the world. We see Him. This is the place where we are changed.
There is nothing that satisfies our soul like Jesus. We are so completely overwhelmed by His beauty and love. Nothing can compare. So, David prays that it would continue, and He would keep him safe from pride and the wicked.
What a truly wonderful Psalm this is!