They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
This verse comes straight after the picture of people taking refuge under God's wings. Shelter now becomes a meal. The God who protects also feeds and gives drink. Older translations render it "the fatness of your house" and "the river of your pleasures," and commentators ask what that house supplies and where the river comes from.
Shelter is not where this psalm stops. What guarded the trusting soul now becomes what he lives on.
The goodness which has sheltered and protected him becomes his portion. Such is the blessed effect of being entirely cast on God and driven away from man. Brought under the shadow of God's wings, they enjoy the fatness of His dwelling place... There are joys and pleasures that belong to God's house, yes, to God Himself. This is characteristic of the joy of the saints, and can only be when we are made partakers of the divine nature.
Both words are pictures. The second one holds a surprise in the Hebrew.
God's house is the place where He dwells, and fatness signifies fullness of supply. There must of course be an infinite supply of all that is good in the dwelling place of God. From there flows what the Psalmist calls "the river of Your pleasures." The word for pleasures is really Eden, only it is in the plural — "The river of Your Edens." The Eden of Genesis 2:8 had a river, but outside it parted and became four heads. It was one Eden with many rivers. The psalm speaks of many Edens with one river.
In the offerings, the fat was always God's own share. That is what makes this verse so striking.
In the details of the offerings we learn that the fat was always for God; it was His portion of that which speaks of Christ. So we are brought to enjoy the Father's pleasure in His well-beloved Son. Surely this is the place where desire is satisfied. He who is the "bread of God" is also the "bread of life." He is food for God and food for His people... Bread sustains and water satisfies. In the house of God we have both: full support and full satisfaction.
This promise is not for everybody. It is for the people of the previous verse, who took refuge under His wings. That limit says nothing mean about God.
He is not, as Satan insinuated in Genesis 3, a God who withholds from His creatures what is for their good and blessing, who wants to hold them back. On the contrary, He wants to fill them full out of His own fullness, so that they will be "abundantly satisfied." But only those who put their trust in Him receive this full satisfaction. Those who do not trust Him would not want it.
One writer traces the river back to what God settled before time began.
Does not this picture speak of the eternal purposes of God, settled before the foundation of the world? No evil of man, and no failure of the saints, can touch them. In every age, despite all the power of the enemy and the evil of men, God is carrying out His pleasure to have a people for His own glory, by Christ Jesus... This river of God's pleasure flows from eternity to eternity, and our souls are given to drink of its blessedness as we pass through time.
Earlier the psalm has human malice in view. Inside God's house that malice drops out of sight.
In God's house, man, and his malice, are forgotten, and everything speaks of God and His glory... For the Christian the Father's house is where Christ has gone. No shadow of death will ever fall on that home. Nothing that defiles can enter it, and love and holiness fill the scene.
Commentators also read the promise forward. One writer applies it to Israel, who left the land and still look to be satisfied in God's house.
Had the nation only valued its blessing, it would never have left its land... Psalm 36 had announced that the righteous would be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's house... They are not looking now for a taste of goodness, a slight sense of what God could give. They look to be fully satisfied, as Jeremiah so beautifully put it.
- Trust first. Verse 7 puts people under His wings; verse 8 fills them. The shelter comes first, and only those who take it want what follows.
- Fatness means fullness. God's house is where He lives, and there can be no shortage of anything good there.
- God's own portion. The fat belonged to God in the offerings — so the food He shares is His own delight in His Son.
- One river, many Edens. Eden had one garden and four rivers. Here many Edens feed one river, and it runs from eternity to eternity.
- Malice forgotten. Man and his malice have no place inside the house. There, everything speaks of God.
For with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light.
The psalm has just described God's house, its rich food, and a river of His delights. Now it gives the reason under all that plenty: life has a fountain and light has a source, and both are with God.
Up to this line the psalm has described what God is for His people in trouble. Here it turns.
Up to this point it has spoken rather of what God is for us, seen as shelter, protection and comfort — in a word, a resource. But it has brought us into the rich plenty of His house and the rivers of His pleasures. Now it speaks of what God is in His own being as blessing. What is in us is here seen in Him as its source. "With You is," says the psalm; "it shall be in him," says the Lord, of the Christian.
So what is this life?
With Him is the fountain of life — a phrase of great weight, though never fully revealed until Christ came. Life is a living connection with the source of blessing, or at least a living enjoyment of His favour.
The word "fountain" points to a place. Life has only one such place.
This fountain is with God and nowhere else. That holds for life in its lower forms in the natural world around us, and for life in its higher forms in the world of spirit.
That word matters most to someone who is empty and thirsty.
God can fill the hungry soul. "With You is the fountain of life." The cistern may be empty and cannot fill us. But the fountain is filling. The fullness of God is an infinite fullness. It knows neither bounds nor bottom.
The exact title is rare, and it ties this psalm to two other books.
The Bible speaks of the Fountain of Life only four times, although a fountain of life is often mentioned. One of them is here in Psalm 36:9. Twice in Jeremiah we have this beautiful title (Jer. 2:13 and Jer. 17:13). The fourth comes in Revelation 21:6.
The psalmist could say where the fountain was. He could not yet say that it had appeared.
The life spoken of is life of the highest character. The apostle John goes on to say, "The life was made manifest." Life, as we know it in creation, may take many forms. But only one life deserves the name THE life. That is "the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us." The Fountain of life truly was with God. Since the Psalmist's day it has all come into full view in the Son, who became man.
The second half of the verse follows the same pattern. God does not just hold light. He sends it out.
God shines out, as well as being a source. He has life in Himself, but with Him is the fountain of it. He is light, but He shines forth, He gives light. So with Christ: in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And even we — Christ is our life, and we are light in the Lord. In the middle of darkness and trial, this is the confidence: the Lord in grace was a source of life, and in His light they would see light.
Light adds nothing to a thing. It shows the thing as it is. What it shows can hurt before it helps.
Light shows everything just as it is. It may be painful to have our illusions stripped away and to discover our wretched condition. Still, what it uncovers is of infinite and unspeakable value to us, because the true light lets me see not only what I am, but what God is.
The fountain stays with God, but it is not sealed off. Three gifts arrive together.
The fountain of life is with God, but He has not held it back; it is flowing toward us all. It is life in the power of the Holy Spirit, "living water" as our Lord called it. Both life and light are available to us in the power of the Spirit of God. Added to this is "lovingkindness." Who but the Son could have made life, light and love available to us? — He who came down from heaven to do the will of Him who sent Him.
- Source. The fountain is with God. We never own life on our own, and the psalm names the one place to draw it from.
- Supply. A cistern can run dry; a fountain keeps filling, so the fullness offered here has no floor and no edge.
- Shown. The psalmist knew where the fountain was. John announces that the life with the Father has appeared in the Son.
- Sight. God does not only hold light, He sheds it — and in it we see two things at once, what we are and what He is.
- Stream. The fountain is not held back but flowing toward us, carrying life, light and love in the power of the Spirit.