PSALM 36 OUTLINE
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 continues 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.
WICKED MAN AND RIGHTEOUS GOD
I. The Character of the wicked man (1-4)
II. The Character of the righteous God (5-12)
PSALM 36
UNDER HIS WINGS
The title in your Bible will say ‘to the chief musician, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord.’ There’s only one other Psalm that carries that title, or that form of title and that’s Psalm 18. We can date Psalm 18 very easily that’s when David had finish the outlaw years, Saul was dead, David is sitting comfortably now in the position of leadership, he has the throne, he has the power of God, he has the glory of Israel all set before him in Psalm 18. But here in Psalm 36 we don’t know. We just can’t really date it. I really personally feel that it’s just before the outlaw year ends. Many folks want to connect 36 and 18 together but the Holy Spirit doesn’t do that in the canonized version here. I really think this is just before Saul died, just before David gets the release to take over Israel. Let’s look at this Psalm very briefly today. He starts off and he says, “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” If you remember we studied back in Psalm 4 the three words for sin. Sin, that’s personal sin, sin against self, original sin that every person is involved in. Transgression is sin directly against God, breaking of the law and the commandments against God. Yes all sin is against God but when its used in transgression that is the sin of knowing exactly what the law says and saying ‘I don’t care I’m going to do what I want to do rather than what the Bible says and what the Bible teaches.’ That’s sin against God. Then iniquity is sin against your fellow man, against somebody else; yes that’s a sin against God as well. But the words are used to let us know and let us see the connotation of the word or the sin and who it’s directly aimed at. So here he says ‘the transgression of the wicked’, the sin of the wicked is they are knowing what God’s word says and they don’t care. Boy does that not fit America today? We’ve got folks that’ll say ‘oh yes I know what the Bible says, but, oh yes I know what the Bible says, but, oh yes I know what the Bible says, but. That’s billy goat religion. You’ll butt your way right into hell. You know what the Bible says, you better be about the business of doing what the Bible says. He says, “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” Boy verse 1 of Psalm 36 is a picture of the United States of America of the world today all around us. Paul wrote in Romans 3:18, ‘There is no fear of God in the eyes of the people.’ Paul was talking about the religious leaders, about the religious people of his day. David is talking about those that are in charge, those that are in leadership position of his day. And I think if you’ll look at those two statements where there’s no fear of God in the eyes of the people, one in Psalm 36 and one in Romans 3:18, you can break it down and say both of those is a picture of us today. Neither the religious leaders neither the politicians, the leaders of this country care about what God says. They don’t care about what’s right. You’ve got religious leaders that are wanting to turn their back on what God’s word says. They’re teaching against the virgin birth and deity of Jesus Christ. Any preacher that’ll tell you that Jesus Christ was not born of the blessed virgin, any preacher that tries to do away with the virgin birth is doing away with the deity. The deity of Jesus means the Godliness of Jesus. They’re saying that Jesus was a good man but he was not a God man. And any preacher that does that has never met Jesus Christ they’re unsaved. You say preacher ‘you’re judging.’ No I’m not judging them, the Bible says in Matthew 7, by their fruits ye shall know them. He says a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. He says you’ve got wolves that come in in sheep’s clothing. And all they want to do is come in and bring destruction. They want to have their way, they want to do their thing, and that’s exactly what’s going on here in David’s words of Psalm 36.
Verse 2 says “For he fattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.” Boy, he’s just describing the 90’s all over again. What’d he say “he fattereth himself in his own eyes.” Man is exalting himself. We’ve got to the place today where we want to call evil good and good evil. We’ve come to the place where we no longer want to look at what’s right and what’s wrong. You’ve come to the place today where you’ve got men that’s got doctors degrees behind their name and they’re trying to tell people ‘why we’re experts and we know how to raise children, we know that you can’t whit a child, we know that you can’t correct a child.’ Look at what’s happened in the society of America, in the land of America since we have turned to the way of the experts. When we left the word of God out, we’ve put the word of God out of the way and we’ve turned to what Dr. Write-a-book up here says or Dr. Doesn’t-care-about-children says. We’ve turned the leaders, the so-called educated folks, the so-called smart folk of the world to find the answers to the problems of man and all we are finding is more problems that the so-called educated folks and so-called smart people, so-called leaders of the land today is leading into more, and more, and more corruption. Listen you can’t legislate and bring legislation into the understanding of making man a better individual. The only thing that going to change the wicked heart of an individual is a personal experience with Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches very plainly that every thought of the heart of man is evil continuously. My friend when you try to bring philosophy into the understanding, or bring the understanding of man’s problems in through philosophy leaving the word of God out of it you’re leaving the very one that made man out of it and you’re not going find any solutions. All you are going to find is more problems. And David said that he flattereth himself in his own eyes. Man you’ve got guys standing up and they’ve got a doctors degree behind their name about a certain thing, and intelligent, sure no doubt about that. I had a fellow that used to live next door to me when I lived up in Ohio one time. He had a doctor’s degree behind his name; he was a doctor of engineering. And man he was brilliant. He worked for General Electric. I mean he was a brilliant individual. But one day he had a flat tire and he was standing there looking at the bumper jack. And he could not figure out how to put the bumper jack in to change the tire. Brilliant? Yeah he was brilliant but he had no common sense about the real things of life. I don’t think a person ought to be allowed to drive a car if they can’t change a flat tire. I know a lot of ladies say ‘I can’t change a flat tire.’ I believe most ladies could if they had enough sense and they got out and got stranded, they could do it. This guy was at home and couldn’t not figure out how to work the jack to change the tire. So he was drawing him a machine that he was going to build out of the things there in his garage to raise the car up in order to change the tire. And I walked over and said ‘look here, here’s all you got to do.’ Set the jack up for him, loosened the lugs, raised the car up, took the tire off, put the other tire on. He stood there and said ‘that’s amazing.’ Here was a man that had two children, a doctor’s degree and had never changed a tire. He had no common sense about it. Knew what he was doing, knew his engineer understanding, but he did not have any common sense. He didn’t know what the real world was all about. My friend that’s exactly where we are today, man has flattered himself to think that he’s so smart and so wise in what he’s doing and look at what’s happened to America. The wise folk have taken over; the families of America are destroyed. We no longer have the happy home. Two out of every three marriages end in divorce, homosexuality is running ramped, drug use running ramped, alcoholism running ramped, man running here, there, yonder, looking for something and finding nothing but more emptiness, more loneliness and more hurtfulness. Why. Because man has said in his heart ‘there is no God.’ He’s exalted himself and built himself up. Look at this verse 2 ‘until his iniquity’ what is iniquity, sin against others, ‘until his sin against others be found to he hateful.’ He comes to the place where he exalts himself, ‘hooray for me and my four and no more,’ he doesn’t look at the needs of others, he doesn’t care of the needs of others, all he’s concerned about is himself. You know one of the great problems of America today? One of the great problems we face in this nation is greed. Greed, that’s the cooperate problem, that’s the reason you’re seeing the gasoline prices go up right now. They just said they’re going to cut production of oil, so what happens, the gasoline companies raise the price of gas and they raised the price of the same gasoline they had in their tanks when they were selling it for 79 cents. What’s going on? Greed, summer time is coming, warm weather, people are going to be traveling, they’re going to be taking vacations and you’ve got your cooperate people sitting up there saying ‘well you know the little peons down there, they will pay more because they’re going to be driving more so let’s raise the price of gas so we can make more money’. Greed. That’s exactly what’s going on. That’s what’s killing and destroying this nation. The iniquity, the sin towards others becomes hurtful. And that’s exactly what’s going on all around our nation.
Look at verse 3, “The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.” What is wisdom? The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And what did he say up here in verse 1 “there is no fear of God before his eyes.” Man has left off what real wisdom is. Oh there’s one thing to have knowledge, we’ve got a lot of folks that’s got a lot of knowledge, the computers has come in how and the internet and knowledge is running ramped, it’s doubling itself almost every week now. It’s just picking up more and more and more. And mankind is just going forward with it but the truth of the matter is that the iniquity is just becoming deceit. They are deceiving themselves. Why? Because he’s left off, he’s left off the idea of wisdom; he’s left to be wise, he’s left off the idea of doing good. He’s left off the idea of trying to reach out and help other people. The idea in the world is not trying to help others. If you really want to look whenever George went through Central America, tons and tons of food sat in warehouses that the government was supposed to distribute out and it went to waste. And much of it is still sitting there. And really the only people that are being helped are those that the church people are getting and working through. Why? Because somebody wants to take credit, somebody wants to get credit here; somebody wants to get it there. They’re not a bit concerned about those poor people out there that’s suffering and hurting. They forgot what it is to do good. “He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.” If that doesn’t depict what’s gone on in America, and in the last few months in our government. Where’s the outcry of the leader of this great nation, supposed to be a godly nation, a Christian nation, and you’ve got a leader that’s sitting up there committing adultery. Now it comes out and says that he’s raped a woman. Where’s the outcry? Where’s the men of God that’s standing in the pulpits and proclaiming ‘oh well preacher we can’t say much we’ll make the democrats mad.’ Listen if you’re more concerned about being a democrat or being a republication that you are about being a Christian you better check and see who your savior is. Bless God you can’t forget the good and the righteousness of God because of the politics of your heart and your life. And when you do that you’re allowing the iniquity, the sin against others, to reach out. Where’s the outcry of the immorality and the garbage and the filth that’s come on. Where’s the men of God that’s standing up and crying out against the sin. Oh my friends listen America is hurting today, because their men of God, the churches are not abhorring evil. One party of democrats or republicans or independents, might say ‘oh well we can’t say anything about that’ and the preachers say ‘oh well all right.’ We won’t say nothing, we won’t cry out again. Whenever a preacher cry out what happens? The people of that particular party of that particular backer or that particular individual starts to undermine and undercut and talk about and run down and try to destroy the man of God that trying to stand and hold up the banner of righteousness, and hold up the banner of goodness. I want you to hear what David said, “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.” Now listen, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God: therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Who is it that put their trust in those that are under the shadow of the wings of Jesus? What is the shadow of the wings of God? The shadow of the wings of God is the words of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Man was a sinner. Because of what happened in the Garden of Eden all of us have sinned and got away from God. Jesus Christ came and bore our sin to Calvary. Acts 20:28 says that God bought the church with his own blood. God died at Calvary. They took him and put him in a tomb, buried him, three days later he got up. He rose victoriously over sin, death, hell, and the grave. There is the shadow of the wings of God, those that have understood the sin of their life. Those that have understood that they are sinners and they come to God and they say ‘God I know I’ve sinner, I’m sorry that I’ve sinned, come into my heart and save my soul.’ And they trust in Jesus Christ. What happens? The righteousness of God enters their heart, their mouth changes, and their language changes. Their desires change, now they want to do good, they want to reach out and touch folks for the good. And those that say they know Jesus Christ and love Jesus Christ and you don’t see any change for the good, they’re not out there trying to reach out and help men, they haven’t met the Jesus of this book. They’ve met the Jesus of America, which is ‘let’s do everything that we can to try to help ourselves. Let’s see if we can exalt ourselves and get a little more for ourselves. It’s not reaching out and touching those that are in sin and on their way to a devil’s hell. My friend listen to me. The only way that you can get under the shadow of the wings of God is to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is, you’re a sinner. And the only way you can get rid of your sin and turn from your sin is to trust Jesus Christ and I want you to do that right now. You say, preacher, how do you do that? Number one, admit that you’re a sinner. You tell Jesus Christ you’re sorry and you invite Jesus Christ to come into your heart. That means you repent, you turn from those sins. The things that you used to love you now hate, the things you used to hate you now love. You start to serve God, you start to do good, you start to proclaim what’s right. You start to stand for what’s right, you start to let the light shine in instead of trying to head for darkness and let the darkness cover everything. You try to let the light shine in and you try to exalt the light and lift the lamp high and lift the light high so that everyone can see the light. If you’ll do that Jesus Christ will come into your heart. I pray that you’ll ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart today and bring you under the shadow of the wings of God Almighty. Accept the gospel of Jesus Christ; he loved you enough to die. Would you love him enough to live for him? Oh my friend, all you’ve got to do is to ask him to come in and he’ll do it.