Chapter Thirty-Six

By the inscription of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (Vulgate) Bible, the psalm belongs to David. From the reference Ps 36:25, it can be seen that the psalm was written by David in his old age and represents instruction which he offers to every man as guidance in life. This instruction is based on his experience and observations. In the psalm’s indication of the swift destruction of the unrighteous man, who for a time triumphed (Ps 36:35-36) but unexpectedly soon perished, one can see a depiction of the fate of Absalom. And the entire content of the psalm does not contradict the given time of David’s flight from Jerusalem, when he had occasion to witness the swift rise of his enemies and the dejected state of those around him. In memory of this time, the psalm was written.

The psalm is alphabetical.

Do not be angry when you see the prosperity of the unrighteous, for it is not lasting, like grass (1–2). Rely on the Lord, and He will save you and reward you (3–6). All the wealth of the unrighteous and all their plots against the righteous will be destroyed by the Lord; the righteous shall be planted and supported by Him in time of their fall, they will inherit the earth, from which the Lord will destroy the unrighteous (7–24). The Lord loves righteousness and will not abandon the righteous. However quickly the power of the unrighteous may grow, the Lord will crush him (25–40).

Psalm 36:1. Do not be angry with evildoers, do not envy those who work iniquity, Psalm 36:2. For like grass they will soon be mown down and like the green herb they will wither. “Do not be angry”—do not be vexed, do not be disturbed at the sight of the prosperity of the unrighteous.

Psalm 36:3. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. “Dwell in the land and keep the truth”—strive during the course of your earthly life toward the pursuit and observance of truth, for in it lies the pledge of your well-being.

Psalm 36:4. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. “Delight yourself in the Lord”—find comfort in your activity and life not in external success, but in the harmony of its direction with the Lord’s guidance. Such conduct will deserve reward from God: He will fulfill “the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 36:5. Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will do it, Psalm 36:6. And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Whoever entrusts his life to God’s guidance, the Lord will reward for his righteousness and justice, bringing it into the light, that is, will reward.

Psalm 36:8. Cease from anger and abandon wrath; do not be angry, it only brings trouble, “Do not be angry to do evil”—do not be angry at the successes of the unrighteous to such a degree that you proceed to cause them harm.

Psalm 36:9. For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Psalm 36:10. Yet a little while and the wicked will be no more; you will look carefully at his place and he will not be there. Psalm 36:11. But the meek will inherit the land and will delight in abundant peace. “Those who wait for the Lord” is the same as “the meek” (Ps 36:11), for waiting on God is submission to His guidance, the yielding of one’s will to His direction. They “will inherit the land”—a paraphrase of all Deuteronomy, in which the possession of Palestine as the promised land, God appoints only for those who morally deserve reward from God, for the righteous.

Psalm 36:16. A little that a righteous man has is better than the abundance of many wicked; Psalm 36:17. For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. The expression in verse 16 is explained by the content of verse 17. Since the unrighteous perish, their strength (“arms”) is crushed by God, what they have acquired cannot be lasting, no matter in what quantity it has been gathered. On the other hand, the little that the righteous possess is not only not lost, but gradually increases, for the Lord “sustains” them.

Psalm 36:18. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will last forever: By “the inheritance of the blameless,” as can be judged from the context, is meant their material well-being. It “will last forever”—a reference to the durability of this good: it will pass from generation to generation, whereas with the wicked their goods are taken away in one generation.

Psalm 36:21. The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives, The unrighteous person’s treatment of people in general differs from the treatment of the righteous. The unrighteous is guided not by moral principles, but by material calculation. For him the meaning of life is the acquisition of external power and material good, so when he “borrows and does not repay,” he tries to delay or not make payment at all, for payment, in his understanding, harms his external good. The righteous, on the other hand, is guided by moral obligations to people and by love, and so shows mercy to his debtors (“shows mercy”) and gives to the needy from his abundance.

Psalm 36:25. I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned nor his descendants asking for bread: The necessity of following truth and living according to God’s law David justifies by his own observations: he is now old “and I have not seen the righteous abandoned,” that is, he does not know an example of when a righteous person was completely abandoned by the Lord, was rejected by Him, although he had to experience various afflictions in his life. The latter were only temporary, but never, according to David’s observation, decisive and final positions in the life of the righteous.

Psalm 36:27. Depart from evil and do good; and you will dwell forever: Psalm 36:28. For the Lord loves righteousness and does not abandon His saints; they are preserved forever; [and the children of the wicked shall be cut off] and the offspring of the wicked will be destroyed. “Dwell forever” depends on turning away from evil and doing good, for “the Lord loves righteousness and does not abandon His saints; they are preserved forever.” By “dwelling forever” here can be understood eternal life beyond the grave in the closeness and unity with God. David, like all the psalmists and generally the writers of the Old Testament, considered the death of the body to be an inevitable end of human existence on earth, so a literal understanding of the expression “dwell forever,” in the sense of eternal physical life on earth, cannot be admitted in this place. The Lord is eternal, He loves righteousness and does not abandon the righteous; when the latter dies on earth in body, he is still not abandoned by God, for the Lord stands close to his soul, that is, the righteous person after death exists in eternal closeness to God. This place of the psalm is one of the few in the Psalter that reveals the features of the righteous person’s existence after life.

Psalm 36:29. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. Here David again turns to the depiction of what was expressed earlier in verses 10–12 and 18.

Psalm 36:37. Mark the man of integrity and observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace; “Mark the man of integrity and observe the upright”—learn from observation of their conduct and fate how you should act. “The future of the upright is peace”—a general indication, either in the sense of well-being in earthly life (see verse 25) or in the afterlife (see verses 27–28).