- (For the music leader by David, the LORD's servant.) Sinners don't respect God; sin is all they think about.
- They like themselves too much to hate their own sins or even to see them.
- They tell deceitful lies, and they don't have the sense to live right.
- Those people stay awake, thinking up mischief, and they follow the wrong road, refusing to turn from sin.
- Your love is faithful, LORD, and even the clouds in the sky can depend on you.
- Your decisions are always fair. They are firm like mountains, deep like the sea, and all people and animals are under your care.
- Your love is a treasure, and everyone finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.
- You give your guests a feast in your house, and you serve a tasty drink that flows like a river.
- The life-giving fountain belongs to you, and your light gives light to each of us.
- Our LORD, keep showing love to everyone who knows you, and use your power to save all whose thoughts please you.
- Don't let those proud and merciless people kick me around or chase me away.
- Look at those wicked people! They are knocked down, never to get up again.
Those who live apart from God David refers to as "the wicked." This is because apart from God their thoughts and actions turn to wickedness. They have no sense of a power greater than themselves so they have no fear or "dread of God before their eyes." (36:1) Instead, they think of themselves more than they should, flattering themselves too much. They put themselves in the place of God, attributing to themselves what they should attribute to God. Thus they have no concept of sin or of evil and therefore do not "reject evil." (36:4) The result is that they become "malicious and deceptive" and stop "acting wisely and doing good." (36:3) Such a person spends his time making "malicious plans" rather than plans for good.
By contrast is the person who has come to recognize God's faithful love and discovered it to be "so valuable" they "take refuge in the shadow of (God's) wings." (36:7) In so doing, "They are filled from the abundance of (God's) house," and He let's "them drink from (His) refreshing stream." (36:8) As they dwell in God's light, they see light. Here is a great contrast between those apart from God and those who take refuge in the Lord. Those who dwell in the Lord are drawn increasingly to His light and those apart are drawn increasingly toward darkness.
David prays that God will not "let the foot of the arrogant come near me or the hand of the wicked drive me away." When those who seek after the things of God separate themselves from those who seek other things, they are thought to hold themselves above those from which they separate themselves. While this may be true in some cases, this is not the purpose of such action. To be with those who separate themselves from God also takes the one who desires refuge in God away from God, a choice that threatens to suck him into the same lifestyle as those who have chosen to live apart from God. But what is such a life compared to the life with God in which they are "filled from the abundance" of God's house and they drink from God's refreshing stream? It is a poor trade.
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