Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 36. This is a lament that reflects on the wicked who oppose the faithful, and on the steadfast love of the Lord; it concludes with a prayer that God in his steadfast love will protect his people from the attacks of the wicked.

36:1-4 The Wicked Act without Fear of God. This stanza describes the wicked person, who has no fear of God before his eyes and who pursues evil courses, as one who particularly schemes to bring trouble to others (esp. to the godly). "Wicked" here, as generally in the Psalms, does not describe faithful people who have moral flaws; it describes those given over to doing evil (even if they are nominally within the covenant people), as these verses make clear. Paul uses v. 1b in Rom. 3:18 as part of his charge that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin.