Psalm 36: Your Love and Justice, O Lord, Fill the Earth
Psalm 36
Your Love and Justice, O Lord, Fill the Earth
5. Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
The psalmist loudly praises the Lord's loving kindness. He is someone who has experienced God's protection by taking refuge in his sanctuary. Amid fear of persecution, exhaustion, and hunger, he has experienced the Lord's merciful salvation.
The psalmist says that God's love extends to the heavens and his faithfulness to the skies. He declares that the whole world is full of the Lord's loving kindness. Moreover, he compares the Lord's righteousness to mountains and his judgments to the sea.
The psalmist understands that while God is loving, he also judges with justice. He prays for God to continue his love to those who know him and his righteousness to the upright in heart. He also asks that the wicked fall and be unable to rise.
Knowing the Lord means understanding his will and living righteously, honestly, and with goodness. Can those who only call on the Lord's name without following his will truly claim to know him?
There are people all over the world yearning for the Lord's loving kindness: parents grieving the loss of children, children crying out for lost parents, people who have lost their livelihoods and fallen into despair, those suffering in pain after losing parts of their bodies in an instant... These are the current victims of war. They are people who don't understand why there must be war or why they have become its victims. They are people who have no desire to gain anything through war.
They are now longing for the Lord's loving kindness and justice. We fervently hope that the Lord's love and justice will be poured out not only in heaven but also on this earth, and that their groans will turn into songs of praise.
Lord God, make us not just those who call on your name, but those who live according to your will. Pour out your loving kindness, which fills the heavens and skies, upon those crying out in pain. Holy Spirit, guide us in truth. Amen.