John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens; Thy faithfulness [reacheth] unto the skies." — Psalms 36:5 (ASV)
Your mercy, O Lord, [is] in the heavens
Meaning either the general mercy of God the earth is full of, and extends to all creatures; to which it is owing that wicked men before described are not consumed; and which reaches "up to the heavens" F4, as the words are by some rendered, as their sins do; see (Psalms 57:10) ;
or the special mercy of God, and regards not the objects of it, creatures in heaven; for there are none there proper objects of mercy; but the seat of it, the heart of God, who is in heaven; or the repository of it, the covenant of grace, which is full of the sure mercies of David; and of mercy there was a most glaring instance, when the son of God was sent down from heaven, to obtain salvation for sinful men; or it may denote the original of it, the heaven, being, as Aben Ezra observes some Jewish interpreters say, the fountain of mercy, and the spring of truth; or the greatness and abundance of it, it being as high as heaven, yea, above it; see (Psalms 103:11) (108:4) ;
[and] your faithfulness [reaches] unto the clouds;
which lies in the execution of his purposes, whose counsels of old were faithfulness and truth; and in keeping his covenant and promises; he never changes his mind, nor forgets his word; he is a God of truth, and cannot lie; he knows the end from the beginning; no unforeseen event can turn up to hinder the performance of what he has purposed and promised, and he is able to perform; nor does ever any of the good things he has spoken of fail:
though his faithfulness sometimes seems to be not only to the clouds, but in them, and out of sight; providences seem to clash with promises, which make unbelief to say, does his promise fail for evermore? yet, though we believe not, he abides faithful, (Psalms 77:8) (2 Timothy 2:13) .