Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 36

The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart ... —The literal rendering of the present Hebrew text is, An utterance of sin to the wicked within my heart. The common phrase rendered in our version, “Thus saith Jehovah,” is here imitated, “Thus says sin.” “To the wicked” cannot, as some explain, mean “concerning the wicked.” The only possible meaning of the text as it stands is therefore, “Thus says sin to (me) the wicked man in my heart.” But there can be no question that the psalmist wrote “in his heart,” since all the ancient versions, with the exception of the Chaldee Paraphrase, followed this reading, and some manuscripts still show it.

This gives us a very fine sense. Sin is personified as the evil counselor or prompter sitting in the heart of the wicked to suggest evil thoughts: Sin in the wicked man’s heart is his oracle. Conscience is on the wrong side.

There is no fear ... —This is not the suggestion of sin just mentioned, but an explanation of the condition into which the wicked man has sunk. Impiety and irreverence have so corrupted his nature, that sin has become his oracle.

For he flattereth ... —Literally, For he (or, it) makes smooth for himself in his own eyes to discover his iniquity, to hate. This is a very difficult sentence. We must look for the key to interpreting these words in the balance of the two phrases, “before his eyes” and “in his own eyes,” and we must consider the two verses together. In fact, they form an example of introverted parallelism. (See the General Introduction.)

Sin is the wicked man’s oracle in his heart;
No fear of God is before his eyes;
He makes everything smooth for himself in his own eyes.
As for the discovery of his guilt, that is his hate;

Or,

The discovery of his guilt is the only thing he hates.

This reading interprets the two infinitives as subject and complement, with the linking verb (copula) understood. It would be strange if Hebrew, which, more than any other language, uses the infinitive in various ways, offered no example of such a use. (For matsa aven in the sense of the discovery of guilt, compare Genesis 44:16; Hosea 12:8, and so on.)

From the secret promptings of sin, the description of the ungodly passes on to its outcomes in words and deeds. It is a dreadful picture of the wickedness of a man abandoning himself without check or remorse to the inspiration of his own evil heart. He goes from bad to worse. In a great English tragedy, the murderer, though he has determined to wade further in blood, yet prays against the horror of nightly temptations:

“Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose.”

But this man “deviseth mischief upon his bed.”

While even the worst criminals shudder at their own deeds, whispering to their “deaf pillows” the agonies that creep over them with darkness and silence, this ungodly man of the Hebrew poet’s picture is instead occupied with scheming fresh villainies.

Even then, he abhorreth not evil (or, better, rejecteth not); instead, he catches at every fresh suggestion and shapes it to his end.

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in ... —Better,

Jehovah, to the heavens reaches Your grace,
Your faithfulness to the sky.

i.e., there are no narrower bounds of divine mercy and truth.

Great mountains. —See margin, and compare Psalms 80:10, cedars of God. So too, the rain is called “God’s brook.” The epithet not only implies greatness and dignity, but also has reference to God as Creator.

A great deep. —The reference, as usual, with the words deep, depth, is to the great abyss of waters, of which the seas were regarded as the surface.

The twofold comparison in this verse recalls Wordsworth’s lines—
“Two voices are there: one is of the sea,
One of the mountains—each a mighty voice.”

But while to the modern poet the voice is Liberty, to the ancient Hebrew it is Righteousness. The majesty of the hills has often suggested the supremacy of right over wrong—

“You have a voice, great mountain, to repeal
Large codes of fraud and woe.”

The calm of the infinite sea has often soothed agitated souls. Hebrew poetry connected both immediately with God. The uplifted strength of the hills became an emblem of His eternal truth; the depth and expanse of the infinite sea, of His outspread goodness and inexhaustible justice.