Psalm 36 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 36 (1928 BCP) is Dixit injustus in the Psalter of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It is appointed at Evening Prayer on the Sixth Day of the monthly cycle. The psalm first exposes evil's inward self-deception, then turns in wonder to the Lord's mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, and life-giving presence; it concludes with a prayer that pride and the wicked may not dislodge those who trust in God.[1]
The 1928 Prayer Book text
MY heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly, * that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flattereth himself in his own sight, * until his abominable sin be found out.
3 The words of his mouth are unrighteous and full of deceit: * he hath left off to behave himself wisely, and to do good.
4 He imagineth mischief upon his bed, and hath set himself in no good way; * neither doth he abhor any thing that is evil.
5 Thy mercy, O LORD, reacheth unto the heavens, * and thy faithfulness unto the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness standeth like the strong mountains: * thy judgments are like the great deep.
7 Thou, LORD, shalt save both man and beast: how excellent is thy mercy, O God! * and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house; * and thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures, as out of the river.
9 For with thee is the well of life; * and in thy light shall we see light.
10 O continue forth thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee, * and thy righteousness unto them that are true of heart.
11 O let not the foot of pride come against me; * and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down.
12 There are they fallen, all that work wickedness; * they are cast down, and shall not be able to stand.
From self-flattery to the fear of God
The first four verses do not treat wickedness as merely an external catalogue of offences. They describe a voice that displaces the fear of God, self-flattery that makes sin difficult to recognize, speech shaped by deceit, and a settled refusal to hate evil. The Prayer Book congregation therefore begins by hearing not a safe accusation against somebody else, but a warning about conscience and desire. Paul similarly says that sinful desire “deceived me” (Romans 7:11), while the psalm's first line is quoted in Romans 3:18 as part of the apostolic diagnosis of universal human sin.
Alexander MacLaren brings out the psalm's dramatic contrast:
The one refuge from the sad vision of evil here is in the faith that God is above it all, and that His name is Mercy. Nor can the blackness of the one picture be anywhere so plainly seen as when it is set in front of the brightness of the other.
MacLaren does not soften the moral diagnosis. His reading helps explain why verses 5–9 are not an unrelated hymn interrupting a complaint: the move from the dark inward “oracle” to heaven-high mercy is the psalm's act of faith.
Falsehood, abandonment of all attempts to do right, insensibility to the hallowing influences of nightly solitude, when men are wont to see their evil more clearly in the dark, like phosphorus streaks on the wall, obstinate planting the feet in ways not good, a silenced conscience which has no movement of aversion to evil—these are the fruits of that oracle of Transgression when it has its perfect work.
Mercy, justice, and God's house
The centre of Psalm 36 is an ascending praise: mercy reaches the heavens, faithfulness the clouds, righteousness stands like mountains, and judgments are like the great deep. The metaphors do not make God's judgments arbitrary; they confess that the Lord's justice is both secure and beyond a creature's full survey. The sequence then moves from creation's preservation of “man and beast” to the distinctive trust of “the children of men” under God's wings.
The next images are deliberately abundant: God's house supplies a feast, his pleasures a river, and he himself is the well of life and light. In the Daily Office, this is public prayer rather than a private technique for religious experience. It teaches the Church to receive life, sight, and satisfaction as gifts found in communion with God. Jesus' invitation, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37), and his declaration, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), make a fitting Christian hearing of the Psalm without dissolving its own praise of the Lord.
The psalm follows the refugees into their hiding-place, and shows how much more than bare shelter they find there. They are God's guests, and royally entertained as such.
Augustine's late-fourth-/early-fifth-century exposition receives verse 9 explicitly in relation to Christ. His Psalm 35 is Psalm 36 in the Hebrew/Prayer Book numbering, a difference caused by the Vulgate and Septuagint numbering.
What is the fountain of Life, but Christ? He came to you in the flesh, that He might bedew your thirsty lips: He will satisfy you trusting, who bedewed you thirsting.
This theological reading is a Christian confession, not a revision of the Psalm's literal words. It identifies the well and light praised in Israel's prayer with the incarnate Word, in harmony with John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
A prayer against pride
The psalm's final petition is sober. Those who know God ask for continuing loving-kindness and righteousness, but they also ask that the foot of pride not come against them. The danger is not only persecution from the ungodly; it is the temptation to imitate the self-exalting path that the Psalm has just described. Augustine makes that pastoral connection directly:
Because by pride had wounded us, humility makes us whole. God came humbly, that from such great wound of pride He might heal man.
The English wording in the nineteenth-century translation is awkward, but its theological point is clear: pride wounds, and Christ's humility heals. The final “they are cast down, and shall not be able to stand” therefore does not invite the worshipper to delight in another's collapse. It is a plea to be kept in God's mercy and truth rather than swept into evil's self-deception. Sixth-Day Evening Prayer makes that plea communal: a congregation confesses both the greatness of God's mercy and its continuing need for humility.
See Also
External Links
- 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalms 1–37
- Alexander MacLaren on Psalm 36
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 35
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 36, pp. 407–408, and the monthly Psalter table, Sixth Day Evening Prayer; text and appointment checked against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 36, verses 1–7, p. 407; verified against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, Psalm 36, verses 8–12, pp. 407–408; verified against Justus Anglican, The Book of Common Prayer, 1928: Psalms 1–37.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), p. 345, “Psalm XXXVI”; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), pp. 346–347, “Psalm XXXVI”; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Alexander MacLaren, Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. 1 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1892), p. 351, “Psalm XXXVI”; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 35, §13 (Psalm 36 in the Hebrew/Prayer Book numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 35, §15 (Psalm 36 in the Hebrew/Prayer Book numbering), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, trans. J. E. Tweed (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent transcription.