Psalm 36:1-9
The Promise of Protection

Transgression speaks to the wicked
        deep in their hearts;
    there is no fear of God
        before their eyes.
For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
    that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit;
    they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
They plot mischief while on their beds;
    they are set on a way that is not good;
    they do not reject evil.

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
    your judgments are like the great deep;
    you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
    All people may 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 we see light.

New Revised Standard Version

David starts out this psalm with an indictment of the wicked who seem to surround us. David poetically describes how profoundly evil is rooted in some people, where all their waking minutes dwell on sinfulness and they pride themselves in escaping punishment for their wrong-doing.

But there is hope for the faithful living in a sinful world--we are not condemned to always be the victims of evil-doers. Our Lord is a God of righteousness, of justice, and of judgment. Our Lord has absolute dominion over all the good and the bad in creation: David referred to the holiest of places as he wrote of the heavens and the mountains, and to the most evil places as he wrote of the skies and clouds, where the demons were thought to live, and the ocean depths, which were thought to contain fearsome horrors. No evil we face, and no evil we can imagine, is more powerful than the goodness of our God!

Our Lord is more than powerful and righteous, for our Lord is also full of love. God is eager to protect us, to shelter us, and to bless us. David writes that we who know God are drawn to safety under God's wings, and Jesus repeated that metaphor in Luke 13:34 as he longed to draw Jerusalem to himself like a hen gathers her brood under her wings. God celebrates our relationship with a banquet of unimaginable proportions, with David describing a river of delights from which we can drink. In God is the spring or fountain of Life, and in God is the light by which we see. In the face of oppression, difficulties, and evil, God is providing us everything we need, and so much more than we need, because God's love for us is so great!

Grab up these promises from God, commit them to memory, and save them for the next time you face difficulties! I know of three different musical arrangements for verses five and six, so we can sing this passage in tough times if we remember the context of hope in which these verses are given to us. Otherwise, we fall trap to the sin of focusing on the evil instead of the Good, and we become so fixated on how cruel, unfair, or discouraging life can be instead of celebrating the Life God has given to us. It is practical, beneficial psychology to think positive thoughts--and it is holy and an act of true worship to ponder the divine reasons we have to be positive!