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PSALM 36

To him that presides over the music, a Psalm of David, the servant of jehovah.

1. The saying of transgression to the wicked: in the midst of his heart, there is no fear of god before his eyes.
2. For he flatters himself in his own eyes: to find out his iniquity is hateful to him.
3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he ceases to understand to do good.
4. He devises iniquity upon his bed; he persists in a way not good; he abhors not evil.
5. O jehovah, your mercy is in the heavens, your truth is even to the skies.
6. Your justice is as the mountains of god; your judgements are a great deep; you, O jehovah, preserve man and beast.
7. How precious is your mercy, O god! and the sons of man shall put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
8. They shall be filled with the fatness of your house, and you shall make them drink of the stream of your delights.
9. For with you is the fountain of life; by your light we see light.
10. O continue your mercy to them that know you, and your justice 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. Then shall the workers of iniquity fall; they shall be thrust down, and shall not be able to rise.

Verse 1. The saying of transgression to the wicked: in the midst of his heart there is no fear of god before his eyes. In the midst here signifies in the whole because in the inmost; for such as the inmost is, such is the whole, for from the inmost all other things are produced and derived, as the body from its soul; the inmost of every thing is also what is called soul; as for example, the inmost of man is his will and thence his understanding, and such as the will is and thence the understanding, such is the whole man; the inmost of man is also his love and thence his faith, and such as his love is and thence his faith, such is the whole. That the whole man is such as his middle or internal, is also understood by the lord's Words in Matthew, "The light of the body is the eye; if the eye be good, the whole body is lucid, if the eye be evil, the whole body is full of darkness," Matt 6:22, 23; where by the eye is signified the understanding of man, see AE 37 and 52, which, if good, that is, if grounded in truths derived from good, in such case affects the quality of the whole man, which is signified by the whole body in such case being lucid; but on the other hand if the understanding be grounded in the falses of evil, the whole man in such case acquires a similar quality, which is signified by the whole body in such case being darkened. AE 313.

Verses 5, 6. Your justice is as the mountains of god, your judgements are a great deep. Both mercy and justice have relation to love; and truth and judgements have relation to faith. That justice has relation to good, and judgement to truth, may be manifest from the signification of justice and from the signification of judgement: justice and judgement are frequently mentioned together in the Word; but what they signify in the internal sense, is not yet known: in a proximate sense, justice is predicated of what is just, and judgement of what is right; just is, when any thing is judged from a principle of good, and this according to conscience; but right is, when any thing is judged from a principle of law, consequently also according to conscience, because law is in this case the rule of judgement: but in the internal sense, justice is what is derived from good, and judgement what is derived from truth; good is all that appertains to love and charity; truth is all that which appertains to faith grounded in charity; truth derives all its essence from good, and is called truth grounded in good, as faith is grounded in charity, consequently also judgement is grounded in justice. That justice and judgement have this signification, is evident from the various passages in the Word where they are mentioned together. AC 2235.

Mercy signifies the divine good of the Divine Love, and Truth the divine true, and since the divine true is the light of heaven, it is therefore said, your truth is even to the aethers; by aethers therefore in the plural is signified Divine light even to the highest heaven, that is, in the highest degree. Similar things are signified by aethers, Psalm 77:17; Psalm 78:23, 24. AE 541.

In many passages of the word mention is made of judgements, of precepts, and of statutes, and by judgements are there signified civil law, by precepts laws of spiritual life, and by statutes laws of worship. AE 946.

Verse 6. You preserve man and beast, O jehovah. By man and beast is signified interior affection which is spiritual, from which is derived intelligence, and exterior affection which is natural, from which is derived the science corresponding to intelligence. AE 650.

Verse 8. They shall be filled with the fatness of your house, and you shall make them drink of the stream of your delights. By the fatness of your house with which they are filled, is signified the good of love and its properties, house denotes those things which are of the mind, by the stream of delights which you give them to drink, is signified intelligence and the happiness thence derived. AE 1159.

Verse 9. For with you is the fountain of Huts, by your light we shall see light. With you is the fountain of lives, signifies that with the lord and from him is Divine Truth; inasmuch as this is signified by the fountain of lives, therefore also it is said, by your light we see light; by the lord's light is signified Divine Truth. AE 483.

The light, which is life from the lord in heaven, is there called the Divine Truth, since it is lucid in the minds of those who are there, and thence is lucid before their eyes; hence it is, that light in the Word signifies the Divine Truth, and thence intelligence and wisdom; and that the lord Himself is called light. The reason why the lord is the source of all life is because he is the sun of the angelic heaven, and the light of that sun is the Divine Truth, and the heat of that sun is the Divine Good, each is life; hence is the origin of all life in heaven and in the world. AE 186.

Verse 1. The saying of transgression to the wicked, etc. In the received English version of the Psalms a different construction is put on these Words, for in those versions it is supposed that transgression speaks to some other person, and not to the wicked man himself, but in the original Hebrew it is expressly said that transgression speaks to the wicked, for the Words are literally as it is here expressed, "The saying of transgression to the wicked." Besides, the words which immediately follow, in the midst of his heart, are an additional proof that the saying of transgression was addressed to the wicked, in order to convince him that his whole man was wicked, and that thus, whatever appearances might be presented to the contrary in his external man, there was in reality no fear of god before his eyes.