Thy righteousness is like the high mountains; thy judgments are a great deep thou, Jehovah, preservest man and beast.
Psalm 36 sets two portraits side by side: man with no fear of God, and God Himself. Verse 6 sits in the middle of the second portrait. It holds three pictures: mountains, a great deep, and God's care for every living thing.
The Place of the Verse in the Psalm
One writer sets out how the psalm is built:
The first four verses of the psalm describe man. Verses 5 to 9 set God before us. Verse 10 prays for the continued display of all that God is. Verses 11 and 12 pray for the removal of what man is. We only have to understand what man is and what God is to heartily agree with the prayers of the Psalmist.
Righteousness Like the Mountains
The ESV calls them "the mountains of God." An older translation read "the great mountains," and put "the mountains of God" in its margin. One writer explains what that name adds:
"Your righteousness is like the great mountains." The margin reads, "the mountains of God (El)." That title means "The Mighty God." The word great does not refer to the mountains but to God. This statement reaches down to earth, and it involves the Son of God moving through this world in the moral elevation the mountains picture. Five times in Matthew's gospel we read of the Lord being on a mountain. Does this not assure us that, as He moved here as a man, His pathway through this world was one of moral elevation? This righteousness, seen in Him while He was here, showed itself in every step of His pathway.
Mountains stand unmoved. How can righteousness that firm go together with mercy?
Here is the absolute stability of His character, which does not compromise righteousness in the slightest degree. Who else could show pure mercy and perfect righteousness at the same time? But God proves His mercy and righteousness beautifully in the marvellous sacrifice of His own Son. There righteousness judged sin without any lessening of the judgment, so that He might show mercy to all who believe in this wonderful Saviour.
Judgments Like the Great Deep
The second picture turns from what towers to what lies deep:
The unchanging principle of God's government in faithful love, His dealing in righteousness, is as firm and towering in strength as the mountains. His ways of judging and dealing are as deep but as mighty as the great deep. We cannot work out beforehand how or why. But He is working above the power of evil, and beyond the reach of small man, so that He can bring about His purposes of blessing through the malice of men.
Commentators differ on the reach of this phrase. Another reading takes the deep as the place Christ entered:
But if the righteousness of God was to reach us in blessing, another step was necessary… So we read of "a great deep." That is the place Christ went, in order to bring men into righteousness before God. The result of that stoop has secured preservation for man and beast. We know from Romans 8 that both man and the whole groaning creation will yet share in this recovery in the world to come.
Man and Beast You Save
Some read the last line as a promise that God will save every soul. One writer answers:
The reference is not to Christ's work, but to God's faithful care of His creatures, His children especially, in providence day by day. Where is the sense in reading the salvation of men's souls into the terms of the verse? Where is the agreement with other scriptures, which declare that God saves only those who believe?… Nothing here mentions Christ's death, even as a purchase, still less as redemption. It is a living God as Saviour in present labours and trials; and this goodness of His is real toward every child of man, especially toward believers.
Israel's law showed that same care. Every seventh year the farmers left the land unworked:
The land was to keep a Sabbath to the Lord that year… The farmer would still have full provision for his own needs and those of his household. But the cattle and the wild animals are God's creatures too. The Creator would care for them no less than for man, His intelligent creature… What the poor left, the animals of the field were to eat. The Lord preserves man and beast.
Faith's Answer to Malice
The opening verses describe an enemy with no fear of God. Here is how faith answers him:
Faced with this great trial the God-fearing man does not take the smallest step to injure his enemy, or call down vengeance on him. He finds comfort in turning to the Lord, and counting on His mercy and faithfulness.
Summary
- Height — "the mountains of God" carries God's own name. The word "great" belongs to Him, not to the mountains.
- Firmness — His righteousness never bends. At the cross it meets His mercy, and neither gives way.
- Depth — we cannot work out His judgments in advance. He works above the power of evil and beyond the reach of man.
- Breadth — "man and beast" points to God's daily care for His creatures, not to the salvation of every soul. That care is real toward all, and above all toward believers. Creation itself will yet share in the recovery.
- Rest — the man under attack does not strike back. He turns to the God whose righteousness towers and whose judgments run deep.