Psalm 36: Self-Flattering to your depths

Just bow your heads in prayer.

Father, I've made my voice all croaky from leading singing,

and so I ask that you help my throat to be fine for the rest of the service.

Father, a small prayer, but we know that you care about even the small things in our lives.

Father, far more importantly,

you have written a text of the Bible that

we turn our eyes and our ears and our mind away from.

At best, we think it applies to others and not to ourselves.

And so, Lord, we ask that you would do a gentle but wonderful work of mercy and grace in our lives

and bring this word deep into our hearts,

that we might know the full warning and the full promise,

the depths of both in our lives,

claiming, heeding the warnings,

believing the promises,

and growing in liberty and freedom as we live to bring you glory.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Amen.

So, true story.

I once, once was invited to give the commencement address for the graduating class,

the graduating ceremony at a small Christian university.

And so I was thinking about what to say,

and they think I could say whatever I wanted.

And I don't know, like me being me, a bit angular, I guess,

I chose the Acts 17,

which is the story, the part of Acts 17 where Paul goes to Athens.

And the message I gave them was that there's only one place in the Bible where it talks about the city or the area being completely and utterly full of idols.

And the one place in the Bible where it says that there are many, many, many idols is the functional equivalent of the modern university or college.

And then I went on to talk about idolatry, and I've never been invited back to give a commencement address.

Probably what they were hoping I would talk about would be something like the normal commencement addresses,

probably at Christian universities, but definitely if you go to the University of Ottawa or Carleton or Queens or some other university,

McGill, you go to a high school or junior high, and usually when there's a commencement address,

they say that you need to know yourself.

You need to be true to yourself.

You need to, only you can do you.

You need to follow your dreams, follow your desires, that you need to go and change the world,

that you've now been equipped to do great things and good things,

and you should pursue that, and you should go for that, and you should do that.

And that is probably what they were hoping that I was going to say to the Christian university students

who are graduating and their family and the current students and the professors,

and I neglected to do that.

But if I had done that, I would probably, maybe I would have gotten invited back.

The thing that I should not have done if I was to give a talk like that was to actually use Psalm 36 as my text,

because Psalm 36 says that all of that advice is rubbish.

And not only rubbish, it's actually quite dangerous.

So let's look at it.

Psalm 36.

And it's, in fact, not what we'd like to hear, but it's what we need to hear, because it's true.

So Psalm 36, what does it say?

It begins like this.

Remember I said the normal commencement address would be, you know, look deep within,

you know, figure out your desires, pursue your desires, be you, all of these types of things.

And Psalm 36, verse 1 begins,

Psalms 36:1

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.

There is no fear of God before his eyes.

Now, if you're interested afterwards, you can talk to me.

There's some translation issues with chapter, you know, one, Psalm 36, verse 1.

Psalms 36:1

One of the things that the original languages do sometimes is they have bad grammar.

It's almost as if the writers were looking down the ages and wanted to speak like Yoda occasionally,

in Yoda-like sentences.

And modern translators don't know what to do with stuff like that, so they try to smooth it all out

and make it good English.

And that's sort of what's going on there, which is why the NIV and others have, you know,

slightly different translations.

There's a Yoda-like moment at the beginning.

But if you're looking at your own Bibles, you'll see the little note.

And, in fact, the better translation is that this is a psalm of David.

It's meant to be sung, believe it or not.

Well, and it's not only meant to be sung, but he describes himself as a servant of the Lord.

And it actually should say, transgression speaks to the wicked deep in my heart.

So he's not talking about other people.

He's talking about himself.

And he's just described himself as a servant of the Lord.

Transgression speaks to me deep in my heart.

And the word for transgression is a word that's not just sort of stepping over a boundary you shouldn't step over.

But it's a word that implies, it's like a military term, and it implies rebellion.

It implies revolution against lawful authority.

I guess it's sort of what Trudeau thought was happening with the bouncy castles on Parliament Hill

and brought in the equivalent of the War Measures Act.

But, you know, that this was something rebellious against lawful authority.

And that's what he's saying.

Actually, you know, Claire, I was going to do this after the second verse.

Could you put up the first point, please?

That would be very helpful if you did now.

What the text is saying is that transgression, this rebellion,

speaks to you and to me all the way down to your depths.

Transgression.

That right down to your depths.

Transgression.

Most of the time it's just whispering.

George, did God really say?

That's not really wrong.

George, it would be way better if you did this.

I mean, sometimes, as we all know, with transgression, it shouts at us, grabs us by the collar, and makes us come.

But it's always speaking to us.

The deeper we go, it's still there.

And then it has this really weird line.

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.

There is no fear of God before his eyes.

And, you know, if you were to ask most Canadians what would their criteria be for God to exist

and for him, she, or it, or they to be worshipped,

I think the average Canadian would say that you should never fear them.

That's like a criteria for the average Canadian to define their God.

And actually, the text here is even worse in the original language than it is in English.

The word, we've been reading a book on the fear of God,

and that's not the Hebrew word which is used here.

Actually, more literally, it says the dread of God.

There is no dread of God before his eyes.

Now, I'm not going to talk about that right now,

but I am going to talk about it in a couple of verses,

and hopefully I don't forget.

If I do forget, make sure you talk to me afterwards.

But this is how the psalm describes you and me as human beings.

It describes us.

In fact, it gets even worse.

Look at verse 2.

So, you know, verse 1 is,

transgression speaks to the wicked deep in my heart.

There is no fear of God before my eyes,

for his eyes.

For he, and this is where the Hebrew gets word,

because he uses my in that first thing, doing the Yodism,

and then he goes back to his.

That's why they have trouble translating it.

Verse 2,

For he flatters himself in his own eyes.

That his iniquity.

Iniquity means here, evil that you do that troubles others.

That's what iniquity means.

Evil that you do that troubles others.

That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

And obviously, others know that you're doing evil, but that you flatter yourself so that when you're doing troublesome things to others that are wrong,

you don't see that you're doing that.

You flatter yourself that you're doing something different.

Yes, it was good that I shared that slander.

It's going to be very helpful to people if I share that slander.

It's very good that I tore a strip off of that person at the office in front of other people,

because now everybody will learn,

and it was a really important, helpful piece of feedback,

which is only going to make them perform.

We find ways to flatter ourselves to not actually realize what we're doing.

In fact, if you could put up the second point,

what the psalm is saying,

to your depths,

you are defined by self-flattery.

To your depths,

to my depths,

in and of myself,

I am defined

by self-flattery.

Now, the Bible has a lot more to talk about

about our inner life than this,

and there's balancing texts,

but even for many of us who deal with despair about ourselves,

part of our despair is that at certain times,

it's impossible for us to flatter ourselves

as much as we've been flattering ourselves,

and our inability to flatter ourselves in this situation

can lead us to a moment of crushing despair.

But most of the advice that we get about how to deal with it

is ways to appeal to us to be able to flatter ourselves out of the issue.

Now, most of you are probably thinking,

this all seems a little bit extreme,

and I'm going to give you an example

about why on one level we know this is true,

but we don't want to acknowledge that we believe it's true.

In fact, I'm going to give you an example in a moment

that Hollywood knows that this is true.

Tinseltown.

But it both knows it's true

and actually models verse 2

in a very, very subtle

and a way that we can easily drink down,

and so we understand this about human beings,

but we do it in such a way

that fills us with self-flattering pride.

But before I do that,

let's look at verse 3 and 4,

and then we'll go back.

Look at verse 3.

It goes like this.

It continues.

The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit.

In other words, they're not true.

They deceive.

He has ceased to act wisely or prudently and do good.

He plots trouble while on his bed.

He sets himself in a way that is not good.

He does not reject evil.

And those last three little lines,

which all sort of connect with each other

in the Hebrew poetry,

is that even while we're on our bed,

before we go to sleep,

or in the morning when we wake up,

we think about ways that we can get even

or we can make that deal

or we can talk in such and such a way

that we're going to get what we want

or get out of trouble or whatever.

And then the second one,

he sets himself in a way that is not good.

It's that there's times that we just,

we're not going to move.

We're not going to change.

You know, on one hand,

others might say what you're doing isn't right.

It's not helpful.

It's wrong.

But we set ourselves in that way.

We're not going to budge.

We're going to be persistent in it.

And then the final one is that we don't reject evil,

either when we're plotting or thinking about

or scheming about what we're going to say

to get what we want or to get out of trouble

or to gaslight people

or to do some other type of thing like that.

But we don't want to,

we sort of don't want to reject anything

that actually might be wrong.

Now, as I said,

many of us probably think that this is too extreme.

But here's a couple of things to consider.

First of all,

every single one of us, if we're honest,

knows somebody who this has described.

That often what we describe now,

it's a common problem,

is flaming narcissists.

And probably every single one of us

knows somebody that's a narcissist.

And they're causing trouble in their own life

and they don't seem to see it.

And one of the things about people like this,

like these narcissists,

is if they were to hear a text like this

without me talking about it,

or maybe I'd just say a couple of very simple things about it,

they'd say,

oh yeah, I know somebody that that describes.

You know, one of the funny things

about the narcissist who thinks it describes another person

is that they don't think it describes themselves.

But what if others,

what if you were to,

after church,

you were to discover,

or, you know,

after you've left your coworkers or whatever,

if you were to discover

that your coworkers were talking about you

and say,

you know,

there's a lot of ways that describes,

you know,

Bob,

there's a lot of ways that describes Sue,

there's a lot of ways that describes George,

you know,

he won't bend,

he won't change,

even though it's wrong.

And he seems completely blind about it

and he sees it in others,

but doesn't see it in himself.

Like,

what about that if that's a possibility?

If we all know people

that to some degree

this describes them,

is it in fact possible to our horror

that there are people in the world

who think that this text describes you and me?

Wow.

One moment.

You don't want to think that.

Why?

Because we flatter ourselves.

But here's how Hollywood shows

that we are,

that this text is true.

there's lots of examples.

I'll just give one.

But you see,

one of the things that we'll say,

well,

George,

that might be true.

You know,

that there's a type of superficial thing

that we do that's sort of wrong.

And it's superficial,

but,

you know,

deep down,

like one of the things that,

I don't know if Jordan Peterson still says this,

I don't follow Jordan Peterson really closely

or anything like that.

But,

I mean,

one of the things that he talks about all the time

is the divine spark,

which implies that there's very,

very deep down at the very center of us,

there's some type of divine spark,

which is good.

And it's a very,

very common,

in other words,

what Psalm 36 says

goes against what Jordan Peterson says.

It's a weakness in his thinking.

And,

but maybe he's changed.

I don't know.

Maybe that's from a couple of years ago.

But,

you know,

many people will say,

well,

George,

you know,

you know,

but maybe at the superficial level,

you know,

we say things to hurt people,

but deep down,

deep down,

deep down,

we're not like that.

But think of disaster movies,

or like movies where,

like the world is about to end in some way.

On my holidays,

one of the things I did at the beginning of my holidays

was re-watched the Brad Pitt film,

World War Zed.

Nothing like zombie invasions to get the,

to say you're on holidays.

And in lots of ways,

I really liked the movie.

By the way,

if you're curious,

the book is a hundred times better.

But,

you know,

it's a fun movie.

But,

but what are movies like that show?

What are movies like,

you know,

the aliens have invaded,

the virus is spreading,

the zombies are invading,

the world as we know it is about to come to end.

It always features two things.

And one of the things it features is this,

that when it comes down to your self-preservation,

and all the external things are gone,

we reveal ourselves as we really are.

And what we really are is looting,

violent,

raping,

transgressive people.

Take away the veneer,

take away the worry that if I was to fully act on that,

I'd be fired from my job,

and people wouldn't like me,

and my wife would divorce me,

and my kids wouldn't want to have anything to do with me.

Take away all of those external things

that sort of keep me under some type of control,

and deep down,

every one of those zombie virus,

alien invading movies,

Hollywood is saying,

we will just become these violent people.

Grasping.

And one of the reasons those movies are popular

is because we say yes.

That is what people are really like.

Good grief.

They're saying transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.

There is no dread of God before their eyes,

and they flatter themselves in their own eyes

that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated,

and their words are trouble and decease.

They've ceased to act wisely and do good.

They plot trouble on their bed,

set themselves in a way that is not good,

and they do not reject evil,

and they say that's actually true.

It's what World War Z says.

But then it flatters ourselves,

because why do we watch movies like that?

We watch movies like that

because inwardly we think,

I'm not those bad people.

I'm Brad Pitt.

I'm the noble one protecting my family

who's going to save the world.

What have we just done?

You see, that's what Hollywood does.

It says this is what human beings are like,

but then it provides a means by which we say

that's what all the other human beings in the world are like.

But I'm Brad Pitt.

In other words, I'm saying,

what's going to happen to all of you,

the zombie thing,

you're all going to turn into those types of people,

but not me.

I'm Brad Pitt.

And you're thinking to yourself,

George, that's completely ridiculous.

I'm Brad Pitt.

You're going to be one of the guys out there

doing all those terrible things.

And we're all thinking that.

And in an odd way,

movies like World War Z

show that we actually believe that this is true

and that we actually act on it.

In fact, if you just think about it at work,

if you think about it,

the other co-workers and stuff like that

or your neighbors,

and you think,

really?

You think you'd be the one who'd be Brad Pitt?

No way.

You'd be one of the first people out there

doing all the bad things

and hoarding things.

Now,

if the sermon

and the psalm

just ended right there,

I say,

go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

It's just a pretty depressing type of thing.

But the psalm

does something which is very different.

And what we expect now

from our culture

and our hearts

is we expect now

the psalm,

if it's going to continue

to do certain types of things.

We expect

that now it's going to extol

the virtue of mindfulness

or yoga techniques

or it's going to talk about

how you should go to mass

every Sunday

or how you should

homeschool your kids

or how you should listen

to a show

on Christian radio

on a Sunday afternoon

that will tell you

the four types of steps

that you need to do

to have success

or it's going to talk about

how beside your mirror

you need to have a Bible verse

that says,

you know,

I can do all things

through him

who strengthens me.

I love the Bible,

Babylon B meme

that says

I can do all things

through a Bible verse

taken out of context.

But that's,

those things sell

lots of books

and make lots of money

and that's what we expect to do.

But the psalm

does something

completely and utterly

unexpected.

well,

let's look.

Verse 5.

So verses 1 to 4,

it's been this

sobering reflection

that transgression

speaks to you

and me

all the way down

to your depths

and it speaks

to my depths

and that to my depths

I am defined

by self-flattery.

and then that the psalm

goes like crazy.

Verse 5.

Your steadfast love,

O Lord,

extends to the heavens.

Your faithfulness

to the clouds.

Your righteousness

is like the mountains of God,

the greatest mountains.

Your judgments

are like the great deep.

Man and beast

you save,

O Lord.

Completely different direction

from what we're expecting.

You know,

all of a sudden

it says

your steadfast love

and steadfast love

means

it means that God's love

is steadfast.

It means it's unfailing

and

it means that it's pure

and it's also

a type of love.

that word

it's a type of love

that's relational love

that includes human beings.

It's a love

that's described

that's of God's very nature

that he extends

to

the human beings

described in verses 1 to 4

and that he will make

a covenant with them.

and this steadfast love

extends to the heavens.

In other words,

as far as you can go,

as high as you can go,

you will never go so high

that what characterizes

the triune God

is steadfast love.

It doesn't matter

how high you go into God.

It doesn't matter

how further in

and higher up

you go into him.

At every moment

that you go higher up

and higher up,

all you see

is the steadfast love

of the triune God.

And then it says

your faithfulness

and the word faithfulness,

that faithfulness

is a good word,

but in Hebrew

it also has this

aspect of dependability,

of solid ground.

It would be as if

you know,

in February

and March

in Ottawa,

it's hard to believe,

but we'll have

a big snowfall

and then after

the snowfall

it'll get warm

and they haven't

plowed the sidewalks yet

and so everything

is sludge.

You know that

when you're trying

to walk through

that snow

that's like this,

it's just all sludge.

And then finally

you get off of that

onto something solid,

something you can step on

and stand on

and walk

and you just like,

you feel like

you have an energy boost

because you can step

on something

which is solid,

dependable,

and that's what

the word faithfulness

means about God.

That the triune God

is,

this is what

characterizes him

and once again

it doesn't matter

how high you go

that you'll always

meet this about God.

And then verse 6,

your righteousness

is like the mountains

of God.

In other words,

the hugest mountains.

It's like being

in Vancouver

or in Canmore,

Alberta

and the mountains

are just there

and they're obvious

and they're huge

and they're majestic

and they're awe-inspiring

and they're immovable

and you can't ignore them

and they're hard

and unbending

and if you crash into them

it's just going to hurt you

not the mountain.

You try to,

you know,

you can say

you're a Chuck Norris

type of joke

but Chuck Norris

runs into the Rockies

it's him who's going to get hurt

not the Rockies.

Like that's just the way it is

and that's what God's righteousness

is,

goodness,

his justice,

that's what it's like.

It's this reality

which is just so hard

and solid

and judgments

is not only the fact

that God makes decisions

out of his steadfast love

and faithfulness

and his goodness

and his mercy

and he makes judgments.

It's the word there,

judgments,

in the Hebrew is

I know there's at least

one lawyer in the room,

maybe there's at least

two lawyers in the room

and that's when

the judge has made a decision

and it's written down

and it implies both

everything from the fact

that they make decisions

and that it's like the Bible.

It's been written

and we can read it

and we can know it

and then the way

that we know

that all of these things

are true

is that God saves us.

If you read the New Testament,

if you read John's Gospel

in particular,

it's very, very clear

that the way God

is most perfectly known

and understood

is when you see Jesus

dying on the cross.

that's when you know

most perfectly

and completely

that he's good.

If you could put up

the third point,

that would be very helpful.

The triune God

is real and true

and he is love,

goodness,

justice,

and mercy.

And in a sense,

you cannot think

about God enough.

The real God.

And then the fourth,

if you could put up

the fourth point,

you need to be saved

down to your depths

and he can

and will save you.

I have here

the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,

which is basically unchanged

from 1552.

1552.

And we're a church

of the English Reformation.

And in a communion service,

these are after you've confessed

your sins,

these are the four words,

the four scripture sentences.

It's called the comfortable words.

that was part of

to be the weekly life

of Christians.

1552.

Here are the four words.

Hear what comfortable words

our Savior Christ

saith unto all

that truly

turn to him.

Come unto me

all that travail

and are heavy laden

and I will refresh you.

In other words,

for those of us

laboring

under the ways

that verses

one to four

of this psalm

bend us out of shape

and beat us up,

he quotes a word

of Jesus saying,

I know

that is what

who you are.

Come to me

and I will give you rest.

Listen to the second word.

God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son

to the end

that all that believe in him

should not perish

but have everlasting life.

Hear also

what St. Paul says.

This is a true saying

and worthy of all men

and women

to be received

that Christ Jesus

came into the world

to save

sinners.

And finally,

hear also

what St. John says.

If any man

or any woman

sins,

we have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ

the righteous

and he

is the propitiation

for our sins.

And propitiation

means

that act

of God

that takes away

his anger

at sin.

You need to be saved

down to your depths.

He can and will save you.

Now,

we're going to wrap up

in a couple of minutes

by looking at the other

verses quite quickly

but I want to go back

to that earlier thing.

I said to you

the very first verse

was transgression

speaks to the wicked

deep in their heart.

There is no dread

of God

before their eyes.

And

this is

profoundly

anti-Canadian

Canadians

would say

this is

completely

and utterly

wrong-headed.

So,

well,

here's the thing.

My wife

just stepped out

for a moment.

We have some

grandkids visiting.

Probably have to go

to the bathroom.

If I was to tell you

while she's out

of the room,

you know,

my wife and I

have been married

for over 40 years

and she's never

been mad at me.

I can't even say it

without laughing.

Like,

how many of you

would,

let's say I could

do it with a,

like,

like,

like a straight face,

like Matt Walsh

interviewing people

in what is a woman

and I can't believe

he wouldn't laugh

actually.

And,

and,

you know,

my,

my wife,

she's never been

mad at me

in 40 years.

You'd just say,

George,

you're lying,

you know,

or if it turned out

it was true,

you'd think,

what's the secret

to how you gaslight her

so that she never

actually,

she gets talked

out of her anger

all of the time.

And,

and,

you know,

one of the problems

that people have

is they,

especially,

I mean,

I know,

I know they're,

they're single people

in the room.

Part of the problem

that we,

when you're single

you have is that

when you think

of your girlfriend

or your,

if you're a guy

and you're thinking

of your future girlfriend

or your future wife

is it's very easy

to have an imaginary,

like an image

of what they're going

to be like,

which is imaginary.

And one of the differences

between an imaginary girlfriend

and a real girlfriend

is imaginary girlfriends

never get upset with you.

Just like the difference

between an imaginary wife

and a real wife

is that the imaginary wife

never actually gets mad at you.

And not only

do they never get mad at you,

it's not that they've,

they're right to be mad at you

as well,

which is the other thing,

right?

You might think of them

being mad at you

but then you win them over

but you're really good guy

and good heart.

But in real world

you do things

and they have every right.

In fact,

if my wife was to tell you

some of the things

I'd done

and she got mad,

you'd go,

you go girl,

like you're right

to be mad at George

if he did something like that.

And so it's a bit

of a shocking thing

but if,

if,

if the real God,

his steadfast love

extends to the heavens,

his faithfulness

to the clouds,

his righteousness

is like the mountains

of God,

his judgments

are like the great deep.

And if that's true,

you and I

do things

that means

there's going to be

consequences

and we should dread them.

I don't recommend

watching Peaky Blinders

but I just finished

the sixth season

and there's a scene

towards the end

where one character

says to the main,

the main guy

after he's killed somebody

that,

he says,

I'm going to,

there's some swear words

in it

which I won't say

but basically

he says to them,

I can see how other people

are going to go to heaven

but you,

I think you're royally

and you can finish

the sentence

and we should dread

the consequences

of our action

if God is real.

See,

the fact of the matter

is that the average

Canadian,

what they long for

is an imaginary God

not a real God

because just like

a real

wife or girlfriend

will get mad at you

because you will do

things which are wrong

and they will be right

to be mad at you

if there is a God

who's at all described

by justice and goodness

and mercy,

you are doing

and have done things

that mean that

you will have consequences

and you should dread that

and what describes

the average Canadian

is that if I was

a stand-up comic

and I got up

and began,

you know,

lately I've been,

you know,

worried about how God's

going to treat me

for some of the things

I do

and everybody would laugh

because it's ridiculous

to even think like that

and they'd know

they'd go on

and make fun of,

you know,

whatever the priests

or the Bible

or whatever types of things

and that's what Canadians

are like.

We don't have anything

that makes us think

that this is wrong.

You know,

one of the things

which is so brilliant

about this text,

remember the first four verses

are so hard on us

but so accurate

that there's,

transgression speaks to me

down to my depths

all the way down

and that self-flattery

is true of human beings

all the way down

and then we have this God

who really does exist

and no matter how deep you go,

he's the same

and no matter how high you go

or broad you go,

he is the same

and he's real

and he's like that fixed stuff,

not like,

not like the sludge

and the slippery stuff

but the stuff you step on

that's solid

and you're glad

you're stepping on

something solid

and one of the things

that this text does

is you see that

we human beings

left to ourselves,

we look in

and we're consumed

with ourselves

and it's as if

the psalm is saying

there's a,

not only is,

are you not the only person

in the universe,

there's a person

in the universe

that you need

to take account of

and he's big

and you know,

the life of trying to,

of justice

and of goodness

and of mercy

and of beauty

and of truth,

it's big,

there's this big world

out there

which is real

and the sun shines,

well,

and look at the other things

it's going to describe,

verses seven to nine,

this is after you've been saved,

how precious

is your steadfast love,

O Lord,

precious means

of great value,

it's as,

you know,

if,

it's just of,

you know,

great incomparable worth,

your steadfast love

to me,

O God,

is precious,

the children of humanity

take refuge

in the shadow

of your wings,

it's just this image,

remember verses one to four

are all there

but it's as if

to know that God,

once God saves you

to realize that

his longing for you

is that not only

do you need sanctuary

from others,

you need sanctuary

from yourself

and there's this image

of being covered

by his wing

and pressed up

against his side

and you can,

you get his warmth

and you can feel

his heartbeat

and you can hear

his breath

and the children

of mankind

take refuge

in the shadow

of your wings,

they feast

on the abundance

of your house

and you give them

drink from the river

of your delights

and a more accurate

way of translating

and delights

is pleasure

that you give them

drink from the river

of your pleasure

for with you

is the fountain

of life

in your light

do we see

light.

If you could put up

the next points

that would be helpful,

Claire,

you need to feed

and drink

from his hand

in his presence.

Yeah,

I'll end up,

you know,

and then the next

thing is,

you know,

you need to feed

and drink

from his hand

in his presence.

It's,

sure,

that's,

there'll be ways

that I'll flatter

myself and all

of that,

but you see,

here's the thing

about it.

I need to be

nourished.

I need to,

I need to know

his delights.

I need to be

fed by him

and to drink

and have him

provide me

drink.

And yes,

there'll be ways

I flatter myself

and all of those

types of things,

but,

you know,

it's not about,

it's not about me.

It's about the

greatness of God

and his love

and compassion

for me.

And,

and,

and he's,

he's,

all those other

things,

you know,

he saved me

from them

and it's to receive

this nourishment

in this,

at his hands

that I,

I need.

So I can,

in fact,

even if I twist

it for my own

flattery,

but it's still

good that's done

and it's still

truth which is said

and it's still

love that's shown

and forgiveness

that is practiced

and hope

that is restored

and justice

which is done

and beauty

which is

performed

and spoken

and appreciated.

And if you could

put up the final

point,

the final three

verses end

with a prayer,

David conscious

of the fact

that on one

hand,

verses one

to four

describe him,

on the other

hand,

verses five

to nine

are true

and God

is who he

is and he

saved me

and in his

saving of me

he calls me

and beckons me

to eat of him

and to drink

at his hand

and eat at his

hand.

And so the

final point

is this prayer,

Lord help me

remember who I

am.

who you

are

and pray

with trusting

confidence.

Lord help me

remember who

I am,

who you

are

and I guess

I could add

what you've

done for me

and are doing

for me.

Help me to

remember that

and to pray

with trusting

confidence.

Listen to how

it ends.

It ends with a

prayer.

Verses 10

to 12

Oh continue

your steadfast

love to

those who

know you

and your

righteousness

to the

upright of

heart.

He's saying

just continue

Father to

send that

to me.

I desperately

need,

given how

true verses

1 to 4

are,

I need your

steadfast love

and your

righteousness

to continue

to come to

me.

You see,

at the end

of the day,

it's only

if it's as

verses 5 to

9 become

more real

to our

heart,

that we

have a

place to

stand to

consider

verses 1

to 4

in our

lives.

It's only

as verses

5 to 9

become more

real to

our heart

and our

imagination

and our

affections

that we

can have

the courage

to see

how verses

1 to 4

are true

in our

lives.

So he

begins by

praying,

verse 10,

continue your

steadfast love,

continue that,

have it come,

Lord, I

need it,

have your

steadfast love

to those who

know your

righteousness

to the

upright of

heart.

Then he

says,

let not

the foot

of arrogance

come upon

me.

In other

words,

don't let

arrogance,

the image

is of

somebody who's

conquered another

person and you

have their

foot on their

net.

He said,

don't let

me be defeated

by arrogance

or the

arrogant.

And then it

says,

nor the

hand of the

wicked drive

me away.

Don't let

me be so

completely and

utterly consumed

by my

culture that I

turn my

back on you,

that I think

that I want

to turn my

back on

following you

and trusting

you.

Don't let

that happen.

And then the

very final

verse is

in the

original

language.

It's a

prophetic perfect.

It's a

way of

expressing the

future as

being so

certain that

you can use

the past

tense.

And that's

what it is in

the original

language.

The last

verse,

it's something

so certain

about the

future that

you can use

the past

tense.

There the

evildoers

lie fallen.

they are

thrust down,

unable to

rise.

They begin

by describing

the wicked

as saying,

we have

nothing to

dread.

Judgment

of God.

Good

punchline in

a comedy

routine.

But the

psalm ends

with this

prophetic

insight of

the future

which is so

certain the

past tense

can be

used.

But the

point of

this is

not,

the point

of this

is to

have us

say,

Lord,

I want

to 5

to 9,

5 to 10,

5 to 11,

Lord,

have mercy

on me.

Have mercy

on me and

may that be

the story of

my life and

help me to

grow in that.

And that's

what God

wants.

That's why

the scripture

has been

revealed.

I invite you

to stand.

And close

with prayer.

Let's pray.

Father,

it's a

sobering

truth to

be told

how

transgression

is

something that

speaks to

us,

even to

our very

depths.

And that

self-flattery

is something

which we

do,

even to

our very

depths.

And Father,

we give

you thanks

and praise

for your

kindness that

you both

warn us

of our

situation.

But then,

rather than

just warning

us and

leading us

to destruction,

in your

mercy,

you reveal

who you

are and

you act

to save

us.

And you

let us

know that

your heart

for us,

even though

one to four

is all true

of us,

that your

heart for

us is

that we

would come

to you

and we

would allow

ourselves

to be

saved by

you,

that we

might enter

into a

covenant of

love with

you,

that you

would be

our

Father in

heaven who

is sovereign

over all

the earth,

but you

are still

our Father

who loves

us and

cares for

us and

who will

feed us

and give

us drink,

that we

might know

the liberty

of knowing

you,

both beginning

now in

this world

and until

the very

end of

the end

of the

end when

you bring

in the

new heaven

and the

new earth.

And so

Father,

fan into

flame within

us these

deep

longings.

Help us

Father to

have Psalm

36 rule

in our

hearts.

And we

ask this in

the name of

Jesus,

your Son

and our

Savior.

Amen.