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From the King James version of the Bible Psalm 36 reads as follows: 1: The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2: For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. 3: The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good. 4: He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil. 5: Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 6: Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. 7: How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8: They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 9: For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. 10: O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 11: Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 12: There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. This psalm is giving visual representations to the qualities the Lord is bringing forth and ultimately this great psalm tells me where I am. The view of someone in trouble is often that these problems are huge, a big deal, I'll never get rid of them and the situation is rather insurmountable. The context of the prayer with regards to these problems might be, that I might barely get this prayer through, that my prayer is too small for the size of the situation, especially if I am at the point of interceding for worldwide affairs when I am at the point of being just one individual. This idea obscures the greater truth in the psalm, that we operate in vast realms of prayer power as we go into the light were we see light and this is where we now are in the manner of prayer and prayer power. Then there is the New Testament and gospel vision of the rich man having trouble getting through the eye of a needle, because he is too attracted to his riches or outright consumed by them, making the maybe parallel idea of getting through on a prayer also like knitting a nearly impossible thread. The verse in this psalm which says, in his light we see light, gels with the overall picture of this psalm, in that this and awesome great light can be put on internally on just how gigantic the very qualities of the Lord are that are being immersed in and through with prayer, meditation and the spiritual relationship with the Lord. The righteousness is viewed as the surroundng and distant great mountains, ranges of mountains after mountains that unfold with majesty in size, scope and wonder. The judgments are likened to the great depths of the ocean, an area of the earth that is still in many ways as mysterious to us even with the advancing undertandings of science as the nearby planets in the outer solar system. In the context of this psalm, these judgments are a form of distributed wisdom disbursed towards the small and needy in proper accordance and judgment. The idea with this is that the Lord will give just the right graces. If someone needs rains for the farmland, it will be a proper amount of rain, not a tirade of rain that would also maybe ruin the crops. The relatively tiny crop will not survive onslaughts of rain. Mercy is likened in scope to all of the vast heavens that can only faintly be contemplated in their dimensions and largese and all we can see in the night sky such as the distant and still emerging light of the stars. The wicked in their actions mentioned in the earlier verses of this psalm do not get this connection. The vision of verse 7 is of a close care out of his loving-kindness that can be trusted in the realm of experience.. Love and kindness emanate care and also form a shadow of protective care also found in actual experience.. This is a personal experience as you must trust your own experience of God. Verse 8 speaks of an immersion of blessings, like a saturated or satiated experience, where the unfolding of gifts has strong level of fullness and flow to it and is likened to a river of pleasures, a river that may only just keep rising. This continues in the manner of unstoppable flow. We are called to continue to flow with this river of delights and drink of the wells of the goodness of the Lord. Hosea Chapter 12 verse 6 says, "Therefore return to your God, keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually." Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 25 says, "I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul." This correlates with the abundant satisfaction mentioned in this psalm. In the first Epistle of John, Chapter 1 verse 7 it says, " But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship on with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanest us from all sin." In the same Epistle chapter 2 verse 8 it says, "Again a new commandment I write unto you, because darkness is past, and the true light mow shineth." The loving kindness is imparted through the light. Knowledge is involved. Them that know thee indicate not a distant affair but an up front close and personal ongoing relationship with the Lord. This is to the upright in heart and those who are standing in the light of this relationship. What could compromise this, hinder this, intrude on this, is both internal and external. The foot of pride is an interior problem in terms of direction of thought, as this walk may take someone away from the ways of the Lord. The idea of foot indicates free wlll, you can bring your foot in many directions as you walk or run this way or that way. This can manifest as behavior which divides away attention from the ways of the Lord and the acknowledgement of them as paramount. These gifts and possessions are seen to be self generated only, rather than flowing from this abundance of the river of lights and conjoining with the gift of heavenly presence. Initial endowments are no longer seen as sovereign gifts out of continued grace and blessings of out the ongoing wells of goodness of the Lord for you or as it says the rivers of delights. . Then there is the hand of the wicked, which may try to reach in and upset disturb or interrupt this relationship of light and pull you into the darkness. For this and for those who are trying to do this to others in bringing them down into the drowning pool of perdition with them, they will be cast down or unable to rise or get back on track, contrasting to the rising rivers of goodness that will remain for those who abide in the ways of the Lord.. This is another level of wickedness in that is it one thing to be wicked for yourself but another thing to visit this on others who have been and are operating in the light of the Lord. For this they will be kept off track and outside of the blessings they may have otherwise ha, as the Lord will not fuel this. It would be a contradiction as more blessing would only further ennoble them towards works of perdition. A key to this psalm is to seek and meditate upon just how great some of the immeasurable qualities of the Lord are towards us, such as the right ways or righteousness, judgments of mercy and of wisdom, and the vastness of some of the tremendous images of nature can be helpful in understanding this, pondering this. Also ask for more light and wisdom towards the qualities and actions of the Lord, as it says in James Chapter one the Lord will pour in light and wisdom to those who lack it, but ask for it with a fixed and expectant heart that these gifts of wisdom and light will be given. There is the question who am I but there is also the big question where I am? You pick up an interesting book, and you start reading it in the middle and you start to wonder, who is the author and where is this book coming from so you go back to the beginning to better orient yourself to what you are reading and where you are as you read this,as you ask on what is this offer basing his platform.. You take a trip to a distant land, with different languages, history and culture and vastly different climates and terrain and it may take a bit to get oriented to where you are, even though this is just a vacation. The truth of where you are is in the great vision of this psalm as you seek to orient where you are in the greater realms.. I am where the image and truths of this psalm present me. I am within the mountains of the Lord and his righteous paths, within his mercy which is extending to and from the heavens, and by the very depths of the seas of his wise and judicious judgments. In the very beautiful Peter Gabriel song, " In your eyes." He finds his orientation and where he as he now sees the light is after being lost at the beginning of the song. He finds his way as he approaches into the light.
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