Our Scripture reading this morning is Psalm 36, Psalm 36. Let us give careful attention to the reading of God's own Word, Psalm 36, to the choir master of David, the servant of the Lord. Transgression speaks to the wicked, deep in his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely 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. Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep. Man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. 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. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. So far the reading of God's Word. Last week we began our consideration of Psalm 36, And we looked at the first four verses of this rather remarkable psalm in which I suggested we have in perhaps the most concentrated, insightful way a reflection on what the life of the wicked is all about. And there's a kind of uniqueness to this psalm because it begins so abruptly, so almost shockingly, and in a way that really is not paralleled in another psalm that I can think of. And then after four verses of this profound reflection on the nature of wickedness in the world, there is a kind of about face, a complete turn to considering now not the character of the wicked, but the character of the Lord and the character of His people. And it's very clear that the psalmist intends to create a strong contrast between these two parts of the psalm, the characterization of the wicked and then the picture of our God and of His work for His own. It's very remarkable. And so last week we looked at the wicked, and a number of you were kind enough to say that you were eager to hear about the upright. And that's always a little intimidating to the preacher. If the first half went well, will the second half be as good? And I was thinking this week that when one looks at the history of literature, it's always easier to talk about the wicked side of things than the good side of things. Have you ever thought about that? If you've read Dante's Divine Comedy, somehow we all remember the inferno better than we remember the Paradiso, somehow it's easier for us fallen human beings to talk about hell than it is to talk about heaven. Or we think of John Milton's great poems, there's a lot more discussion of paradise lost than there ever is of paradise regained. So, let's at least try this morning to see the glories, the joys, the blessedness of who our God is in contrast to the sad state of the wicked, the sad state of the wicked who live in rebellion against God, who do not see God, who do not see themselves. And the psalmist then, having painted so vividly for us the blindness of the wicked, turns then to several pictures about the greatness of our God. And that transition is marked at the beginning of verse 5, even though the translators don't show you, by the word Lord. Having talked about the wicked, now the psalmist talks about the Lord. And he uses there the covenant name of God. He wants to think about God's covenant care for His people, even in the face of a world full of wicked rebels. And so he introduces that theme immediately at the beginning of verse 5. The Lord, that's the God we should think about. The wicked have no fear of God in general. And it's as if the psalmist wants to say, although the wicked don't have any fear of God in general, I want you to realize, I want you to know, I want you to remember. That's what this first picture is really about, remembering. I want you to remember that we don't serve a God in general. We serve the Lord. We serve the Lord who has a covenant name. We serve the Lord who gave His covenant to redeem a people. We serve a Lord who cares for His people in a personal way. That's the character of our God, a God who has a name. Now, you've heard often before that this is a bit of a problem in our English translations because the Jews over the centuries became so concerned about keeping God's name holy. Remember, there's a commandment that says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And some of the Jews became, really all the Jews, became so sensitized to this point that they said, well, the way never to violate that commandment is to never mention the name of the Lord. And so even when they read the Bible in Hebrew and came to the name of the Lord, instead of saying, we think the proper pronunciation of the Lord's name is Yahweh, instead of saying that holy name to avoid the possibility of breaking the commandment, they read the word Lord, Adonai, instead. And to remind the reader that they should do that when they began to put little markers for the vowels of Hebrew. This may be getting more detail than you all need. They actually took the vowels from the word Lord and wrote it above the sacred name to remind the reader. Don't say the name, say Lord. And that's really the source of our Jehovah. we've taken the consonants of the divine name and combined them with the vowels of the Hebrew word for Lord. But the point is, God wanted His people to know He had a personal name for them, for them to use in relationship to Him, because He wasn't just the God. He was that, of course. but He was their God, and He wanted them to know Him by name. He wanted to have a relationship with them. Most of the time when we meet somebody new, we want to know their name. I always ask and immediately forget. I had a professor in seminary who never could remember anybody's name, so he always said, oh, dear brother, so good to see you. Dear sister, so good to see you. And it sounded so warm and so personal. God wants us to think of Him as having a personal covenant-saving relationship with us. So, He tells us His name. And this is important for us because in a very profound sense, when we come to the New Testament, we're given a new name for God. And the name is Jesus. Jesus is the name for God that we use in the New Testament. And so when they called Him Lord Jesus, they were really testifying to that. That He is God come in the flesh. He is God come to save us. He is the God who comes to make us His people and to be close to us and to enfold us and to embrace us. And He wants us to know that. He wants us to have that confidence, and He wants us to know that as the great God, the great covenant God to save His people, there is a wideness and a greatness to His character for us. I said last week when we read about the wicked in the opening verses of this psalm, there's a feeling of crampedness, of narrowness, of darkness in the lives of these wicked. And it's like, it's as if David in the psalm then wants to remind us that our God is great and wide and loving with His arms outstretched to the world that He has made. There's nothing cramped and narrow and dark about Him. And so, David marshals all the elements of creation to get us thinking about the wideness and greatness of God. You notice that there, he talks about the steadfast love of the Lord extending to the heavens. And then the righteousness of God is like the mountains of God on earth. And then the judgments of God are like the great deep of the waters. see how the elements of creation are being marshaled? No matter how far up you look, there is God in His greatness and His goodness. And how far out and around in the world you look, there is God in His greatness and His goodness. And no matter how far down you look into the depths of the sea, there is God in His greatness and His goodness. We don't have to huddle in a little room on our beds at night plotting against this God, it would be vain because He's so great. That's what the psalmist wants us to see. This is the picture he wants us to remember about God. When we hear the voices of this world that say there is no God or say that God does not care, This psalm says to us, there is a God, and He's everywhere, and He cares, and you need to remember that. And then what is the first characteristic of this God that the psalmist highlights for us? He'll mention it twice more in this psalm. It's His steadfast love. That's His great covenant characteristic. Steadfast love is faithful love, is enduring love, is persevering love. And that's the love that God has for His people. It's the love that He has for us in Jesus Christ. I think every time we read the word LORD in capital letters in the Psalter, we can think to ourselves, that's Jesus. That's Jesus whose steadfast love has drawn us to Himself and keeps Him in the heart of God, keeps us in the heart of God. The steadfast love of God and the faithfulness of God. Be terrible if God loved us today and forgot us tomorrow. But that's not the character of our God. He's faithful. Those He loves today, He'll love tomorrow. Those He loves today He loved from all eternity, and will love to all eternity. He's faithful, He's reliable, He's dependable, and He's righteous. What that preeminently means here, I think, is He does things the right way. He does what's right. He's reliably right in what He does. That theme of righteousness comes up again in verse 10, O continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright at heart. This is a righteousness that says to us, our God will do things blessedly for His own. And He's a God of judgment. He acts. He acts in history. He will act at the end of history, and He will act against the wicked. Somehow, we live in a world where in many, many churches, there is an absolute contrast made between the love of God on the one hand and the judgment of God on the other. You have to have one kind of God or the other. You either have a loving God or you have a judging God. And the Scripture says we never make that choice. God is love. He reaches out love to His people. He reaches out a message of love to the whole world. But those who will not receive that message of love will face judgment. That's what the Bible says. And we have to have the wholeness of the Word of God if we're really to know God. That's what the Bible says to us here. This is the picture of the God we need to remember. He's a God who fills the world, and He's a God of loving kindness, and of faithfulness, of righteousness, of judgment, and He saves man and beast. Now, why does He save beasts? I've spoken at a few conferences in my life, and one of the questions, if there's a question and answer session, which is one of the reasons I've never been much in favor of questions, one of the questions that almost invariably comes up is, are there cats in heaven? And I remember being at one conference where I was speaking with Derek Thomas, a minister in South Carolina, and Derek, who's a lot bolder than I am, said, there are no cats in heaven. There are dogs, but there are no cats. Well, he revealed probably more about himself than he did about the teaching of Scripture in that comment, but if you are one who hopes there are dogs and cats in heaven, this is the verse for you, that He saves man and beast. But I think the real purpose of this verse is to say God's care is over all of us. He preserves all of us. He preserves us in our lives. God is not just a God of souls. He's a God of this world. And the beasts are precious to Him. That's why veterinarians are a good thing. God cares about all of our lives, the fullness of our lives. And saving in the Scripture doesn't always just mean saving our souls, but it means preserving our lives, protecting us, being with us, delivering us. What a beautiful picture this is of our God, of who He is, of what He does. And the tragedy is, isn't it, that we could see none of this. The wicked are blind to this reality. The wicked are blind that the Creator has created this world. And He has embedded in this world testimonies to Himself. And how sad to miss it. How sad not to remember it. And then He moves on to talk about rejoicing in God. If we remember who God is, then we should rejoice in what He's doing for us. And the picture here of what God is doing for us is a magnificent picture, beginning in verse 7. How precious is Your steadfast love, O God, that children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. Here is the precious, steadfast love of God again. valuable in the extreme, wide in its extent, so that all of mankind is called to it. You know, we could translate that differently. We could say the children of Adam take refuge in it. All human beings are called. All human beings are welcomed if they come to the steadfast love of the Lord who provides a refuge for his people under the shadow of his wings. Now, what psalm does that remind you of? If a psalm doesn't immediately come to mind, it's clear that we haven't been singing enough psalms. Always beating the same drum. It's Psalm 91, isn't it? Psalm 91 is a great celebration of the protection of God for His people under the shadow of His wings. No harm will come near you because He cares for you. Because He will be for you the refuge. He will protect you. He will hear you. He will answer you. And all of the plotting of the wicked will prove to be in vain, for God will preserve His people and maintain us. That's what we should rejoice in, the goodness of the Lord. And then He not only protects us, but He provides a feast for us. It's interesting how those themes of protecting and feasting are put together. We see that in Psalm 23. You prepare a table for me, where? In the presence of my enemies. The enemies may attack. The enemies may try to destroy. But the Lord laughs at them. their efforts are so vain that He establishes a table right in the presence of the enemies because their opposition to God and to His people and to His purpose is all in vain. He will provide for His people, and what He provides for His people is a wonderful feast. Look at verse 8, Psalm 36. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. What a wonderful promise that is. Where are we feasting? In the very house of God, in the very presence of God, in the intimate fellowship that we have with God. God is the host of this feast. He even lets us call Him by name. Now, for those of you who may be newcomers to this church, you will be surprised to learn that some of the older folks in this church are Dutch. You probably had no notion that that was true, but, you know, preachers illumine things. And one of the interesting things about the Dutch is that the older folks, at least, are very respectful of ministers. That's why ministers always like Dutch people so much. And one of the ways in which that respect manifests itself is that even though I've been in this church 40 years, there are a number of people who still call me Dr. Godfrey. And that's okay. That is my name. But it's interesting, when I answer the phone, some people will say, oh, Dr. Godfrey, is Mary Ellen there? Somehow they feel closer to Mary Ellen than they do to me. I think at this feast that God has provided, he's letting us call him by his first name. That's how intimate it is. That's how close he wants us to sense our privilege of being in his presence. And so he gives us a feast. Abundance. The worst lie the devil tells is that the Christian life is cramped and deprived and we're missing out on all sorts of things. No, we feast at a table of abundance in the presence of the Lord. Jesus said, didn't He, I've come to give you life. I've come to give you abundant life. And as we eat, we're given drink. Drink from the river of his delights. What a wonderful expression. The river of delights. Now, those of you who are native Californians have hardly ever seen a river. But if you see a river, a real river, it's a beautiful thing. Especially if it's flowing in a nice and calm and placid way. When I was a kid, we used to go up to the Russian River, which is about 50 miles north of San Francisco. And in the summer, it's a very lazy, small river. But quite delightful. Beautiful trees all around. Unless you're my wife who finds it claustrophobic. The trees come quite close. Beautiful river, but in a rainy winter, that river will rise 40 feet. It's hard to believe, hard to imagine it will rise 40 feet and flood everything around. That's not the kind of river, it's not a flooding river that the psalmist has in mind. It's a beautiful, tranquil, delightful river that brings to the people of God a fullness of what they need so that they may drink and be satisfied. It's not bare satisfaction. It's delight. It's joy. It's fullness of blessedness. It's the best that can be imagined. That's what the Lord has promised His people. And when we read these promises, these blessed promises, it's always good to pause and do just a little spiritual self-inventory. Is that my experience of God, that I find Him abundant for me? That I find in His presence a river of delights for me? You know, sometimes our souls can become a little cold in the presence of God. Sometimes our hearts can dry up a little in the presence of God. And when we read a psalm like this, and if the Lord is speaking to our hearts, we need to be renewed then in a sense of how great our God is and how good our God is to provide for us so abundantly in our Savior. I think John, in writing his gospel, had Psalm 36 very much in mind, especially when he wrote chapter 1. When we read here about verse 9, for with you is the fountain of life, and in your light do we see light, does that draw your mind to John chapter 1, where John wrote, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. I think John sees Jesus exactly in this verse. Jesus is the fountain of life. Jesus is the light in whom we see light. And this is all part of the blessedness and the provision and the great gift of God. That's why in part, I think, in the whole history of the church, Sunday has always been a feast day. Did you know that? In the whole history of the church, Christians were never supposed to fast on Sunday. Sunday is a feast day. And the Dutch Reformed, being kind of literalistic in their understanding of Scripture, often took that literally. And some of my great memories are of mashed potatoes and gravy and roast beef. I have blocked out the overcooked green beans. But Sunday should be a feast day for us, physical if possible, but spiritual certainly, that we would rejoice in the Lord. We would rest in the Lord. We would be satisfied in the Lord. And the great tragedy, of course, that the wicked do not experience any of this. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. How foolish to reject the Lord of life for dying of thirst. That's what this psalm calls us to remember. And if we're to remember God, and if we're to rejoice in God, we're also to rely on God. Verse 10 begins a prayer that closes the psalm. O Lord, continue your steadfast love to me. You who've displayed your steadfast love in the heavens, you who have fed me on steadfast love at your table, Now continue that steadfast love to protect me through my life. That's what God is being asked to do and what we can be sure He will do. To those who ask, He will give steadfast love. To those who ask, He will give Jesus as Savior. And we all need to ask. We all need to seek. We all need to be renewed in that steadfast love of the Lord. He will preserve us. He will take care of us. He will protect us from the wicked. The psalm ends on a very solemn note. There the evildoers lie fallen. They've tried to attack the upright. They've tried to destroy God and His people, and they've failed. There the evildoers lie fallen. They are thrust down, unable to rise. What a terrible, terrible judgment. What is the great promise of our Lord Jesus? That though we die, He will raise us up on the last day. That we will forever enjoy the abundance of his table and drink at the river of his delights. But there will be no resurrection to life for the wicked, this psalm says. They will lie fallen forever. Their foolishness will have consumed them. Their blindness will have filled them with hopelessness. You see, this is a joyful psalm, but a solemn psalm, because it speaks to each one of us. Where do we stand? Do we stand with David, the servant of the Lord, who has understood the ways of the Lord and believed the promises of the Lord, and though he was a sinner, embraced the Lord and His goodness? Or do we stand with the wicked, who will fall never to rise? May God grant that every one of us stands with David on the promises of God that are yes and amen in Jesus our Savior. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our God, how beautiful is the picture of the blessedness you out of your steadfast love have for your people. May we always treasure it, O Lord. May we always embrace it. May we always grow in it. May we know your life and your light. May we be satisfied at your table. May we drink from the river of your delights. How great you are, O Lord. How good to us. Be with us and guard us so that we may ever be kept in the faith. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.