Do You Realize How Much You Need His Love? (Psalm 36)
GIST: Our natural hearts don’t take God seriously, and the results are devastating, yet He loves us incredibly, and we need Him to rescue us.
This morning we’re coming to Psalm 36. Though in my studying this week I found far fewer notes and sermons on this particular psalm of David, I have been very blessed by meditating on the straightforward and powerful truths presented here. Honestly, my goal is always to dive into each passage deeply and quickly with you every Sunday. That might be even more true this week. These truths aren’t complicated, but they’re so important and presented so clearly, I just want to lay them out today.
Basically, what we’re given is a picture of our natural hearts contrasted with God’s. The basic conclusion? Our hearts stink, but God’s love is amazing...and we can and need to experience it! Our driving question today, then, is: do you realize how much you need His love? Here’s our gist in response: Our natural hearts don’t take God seriously, and the results are devastating, yet He loves us incredibly, and we need Him to rescue us.
Let’s break that down. First→
I. OUR NATURAL HEARTS DON’T TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY...AND THE RESULTS ARE DEVASTATING (1-4)
This psalm has this little note about its author. “1 To the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the LORD.” This is only one of two psalms where David refers to himself directly as “the servant of the Lord”. We can speculate all day long about why. However, the fact that this psalm lays out so clearly the difference between our hearts and God’s gives us at least that insight into why David would choose to draw special attention away from himself and toward the One he’s serving.
Now this next line might have some different pronouns depending on your translation because the words used here can be taken a few different ways, but the heart behind this line is really important to see. “Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.” Your translation might say transgression speaks to my heart, as in David’s, which is very accurate because David considered himself among the naturally wicked. That condition is deep within his heart as well as ours, and it’s a condition that refuses to fear God.
I love how Tim Keller expresses this: “Fearing God (verse 1) is not mere belief in him. It is to be so filled with joyful awe before the magnificence of God that we tremble at the privilege of knowing, serving, and pleasing him. Sin shrugs at God. Its essence is failing to believe not that he exists but that he matters. This attitude is deadly.” (Tim Keller, The Songs of Jesus). It is. By nature, at the core of our being, we do not honor God as King. Instead, we reserve that position for ourselves.
Look at verse 2. “2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.” We don’t think our sin really matters. We won’t get caught. It won’t hurt anyone. It doesn’t deserve the wrath of God. These sins that are in direct opposition to His purpose, these sins that spit in the face of His love, these sins that break the law of His compassionate design—we treat like they’re just not that big of a deal. And that kind of heart will result in a corrupt character.
Look at verse 3, “3 The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good.” Words come from the overflow of your heart, so do actions. Unless our hearts turn to His grace, we’ll keep finding unwholesome and harmful words dripping from our lips, and unwise and painful actions plaguing our lives. It will be all-consuming, which is what verse 4 points to→
“4 He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.” That verse hit me because our beds should be places of rest, places of peace. But we all know that when our hearts are consumed by sin, night time is a dangerous time. Our physical weariness puts our guard down and leaves us vulnerable to spiritual attacks.
In the last few weeks, Jedidiah has really gotten into playing Minecraft. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s basically a problem-solving, survival game where you have to find materials to build shelters to keep you safe and food to keep you fed. He’s had me play with him several times, and it really is fun. What makes it extra difficult is time moves very quickly in the game, so every few minutes it’s night time. At night, crazy stuff happens. All kinds of monsters come out and want to destroy you and your shelter if possible. But, if you have a home with a door, you can stay safe. You can even sleep through the night all together if you want. However, if you leave your door open… it’s all over for you.
If we haven’t given our lives to Christ, we’re living without a shelter. We don’t have a place of safety. Night is coming, and our doors are wide open. We don’t take Him seriously, and it’s killing us. That’s the first thing we see here. The flipside of that coin is this: our hearts are naturally wicked→
II. YET HE LOVES US INCREDIBLY (5-9)
What we have next is some really powerful and beautiful imagery. Look at this. “5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.” His enduring love and faithfulness reach as high as we can see. They never end. They can never be exhausted. Remember, this is being expressed right after we’re told just how wicked we are. Though our natural hearts don’t take Him seriously, they do nothing to diminish the power of His love!
David keeps going. “6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;” Above us in every way. In stark contrast with the wickedness, or utter lack of righteousness, we possess. “6b Your judgments are like the great deep;” That is, like the depths of the oceans with all of its mysteries, even to 21st century exploration, His judgments and decisions are far beyond our comprehension. Yet, “6c man and beast You save, O LORD.” This isn’t speaking of spiritual salvation, as that doesn’t extend to beasts, but to God sustaining all life on earth by His power and grace. He’s above us both spiritually and intellectually...yet He cares for us anyway. In fact, He loves us!
Look at this next verse. It’s beautiful. “7 How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” How precious indeed is His love that extends to us and endures for us and provides us with the opportunity to be called His children. We, who were wicked rejectors of God, can come to Jesus who took on Hell in our place and trust that He will guard us in the shadow of His wings. This is the picture of a mother hen covering her young from the storm though it comes at a great cost to her personal body. That’s amazing grace.
If we experience this, then we won’t lie down in our own despair. Instead, we get this→ “8 They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights.” Feasting from the abundance of His house is this picture of having unhindered access to His goodness. My kids like to feast at my house, but with four kids my “abundance” quickly runs out. God’s never does. In fact, He calls us to drink from the rivers of His delight which made me think of what Jesus told the woman at the well. “13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."”(John 4:13-14)
Then, I really feel like this next verse here is key. “9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.” Jesus is the light of the world. Unless we have His light, we will only experience interpretations of darkness. Before electricity, we could see in this world because of the sun. Even at night, it’s reflection from the moon gave us enough light to make it by on. But if the sun was taken away, we wouldn’t have had any kind of light at all. Spiritually, we’re destitute. We’re stuck in darkness, but there is hope and there is life for those who come into His light! And He’s made that possible… because of His amazing love→
III. AND WE NEED HIM TO RESCUE US (10-12)
This psalm ends with a prayer to be kept in the love of God. “10 Oh, continue Your steadfast love to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright of heart!” We need His love. We need His righteousness. We don’t have any other! “11 Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.” He knows his weakness...and it’s ours, as well. “12 There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.” He knows where rejection of God ends. Broken and unable to rise because you’ve given your heart over to what will destroy you. Will you embrace your destruction in the face of His incredible love? Let’s hit some quick→
TAKEAWAYS
See your sin for what it is--devastating.
Take God seriously.
Consider His great love.
Come and experience His great love for you.
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