Psalms 36 - Introduction

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‘For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of YHWH.'

This Psalm might be called ‘the Ode to the Covenant Love of YHWH'. For after its initial grim beginning it expands into a threefold expression of YHWH's covenant love as it is revealed towards His own.

In it the Psalmist contrasts ‘the oracle of the transgression of the wicked' (Psalms 36:1), which reveals the whole truth about man's sinfulness spelled out in detail, with the truth of the covenant love of YHWH, the latter being emphasised in a threefold way. Thus he stresses first His attributes of love, faithfulness, righteousness and justness (Psalms 36:5); then His wonderful benefits provided to men (Psalms 36:7); and finally his own confidence that through YHWH's love he will be delivered from the kind of men described in the initial verses.

A number of Old Testament sections begin with ‘the oracle of so and so'. Here it is ‘the oracle of the transgression of the wicked'. Transgression ‘speaks' the oracle and gives warning to the Psalmist's heart. The normal use in the Hebrew forbids our taking it as meaning ‘concerning the transgression of the wicked'. Rather Transgression is seen as personified and as the proclaimer of the oracle.