English · KJV

Psalm 36:9

“The Immensity of God's Attributes”Psalm 36:5–9
King James Version
For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
For with thee is the fountain H4726 of life H2416: in thy light H216 shall we see H7200 light H216.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light shall we see light.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
For with thee is the well of life, and in thy light shall we see light.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
For with Thee is a fountain of life, In Thy light we see light.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
7 Hebrew words
  1. כִּיkiforH3588PrtParticle Conditional
  2. עִמְּךָ'I·me·kha[is] with youH5973Prep ¦ 2msPrepositionעִמְּ[is] withךָyou
  3. מְקוֹרme·Kora fountain ofH4726N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Construct
  4. חַיִּיםchai·YimlifeH2416N-mpNoun Plural Masculine Absolute
  5. בְּאוֹרְךָbe·'or·khain your lightH216Prep-b ¦ N-fsc ¦ 2msNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixבְּinאוֹרְlightךָyour
  6. נִרְאֶהnir·'ehwe seeH7200V-Qal-Imperf-1cpVerb Qal Imperfect 1st Plural common gender
  7. אוֹר'orlightH216N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absolute
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

Translation
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In the KJVVerse 14,448 of 31,102 · 46.5%

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This verse

All life flows from God as water flows from a spring, and only in his light can we see truly.

“For with thee is the fountain of life:”

The reason for all of verses 5 to 8. Life flows from God as water flows from a spring, and it is found with him.

“in thy light shall we see light.”

The first light is God’s own truth and holiness, and the second is the understanding he gives. In his presence we see things as they really are.

God’s Boundless Love and the Fountain of Life

Psalm 36:5–9

Summary

Psalm 36 opens with the wicked man, who has no fear of God and is deceived by his own heart (Psalm 36:1–4). Then David turns from him to the LORD, and these five verses are his praise. God’s mercy is as high as the heavens and his faithfulness reaches the clouds. His righteousness stands like the great mountains, his judgments are as deep as the sea, and he keeps both man and beast alive. Because his lovingkindness is so precious, people take refuge under the shadow of his wings, where he feeds them from his house and gives them drink from his river. All of it comes from him, for with him is the fountain of life, and in his light we see light.

From the wicked man to the LORD

The first four verses of the psalm look closely at a man who has stopped fearing God. His own transgression speaks to his heart, he flatters and deceives himself, and he plans evil and turns away from good. Verse 5 turns from him to God at once, and each picture makes the other sharper. Human evil is small, self-serving and destructive, and set beside it the goodness of God has no measure at all.

The psalm is David’s, and the occasion on which he wrote it is unknown. After these verses of praise it closes with a prayer that God would continue his lovingkindness and righteousness (Psalm 36:10–12), and that prayer rests on everything verses 5 to 9 have said about who God is.

Mercy as high as the heavens

“Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” The word for mercy is cheçed, the same word the KJV translates “lovingkindness” in verse 7. It is often rendered “steadfast love” or “covenant loyalty”. It is God’s committed, loyal love, the love that holds fast to his covenant people and seeks their good when they have done nothing to deserve it, and it shows itself in acts of deliverance, preservation and grace. Faithfulness is ʼĕmûwnâh, a word for firmness, reliability and truth, from the same root as “Amen”. Said of God, it means that he keeps his promises and always acts as he has said he will.

The name David calls on is Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, God’s own personal and covenant name. It is linked to the verb “to be” and speaks of him as the eternal, self-existent One. These boundless qualities belong to the one true and living God who makes himself known to his people.

Why the heavens and the clouds?

People ask why David reaches for the heavens and the clouds when he could simply call God’s mercy great. In Israel the heavens were God’s high dwelling, far above human reach, and clouds were often a sign of his presence. He led Israel by a pillar of cloud (Exodus 13:21) and came to Moses in a thick cloud at Sinai (Exodus 19:9). So David takes the highest things he can see and uses them to measure what has no measure. God’s mercy is as wide and high as the sky, and it comes down to us from God himself, freely given and unearned.

The two lines say one truth twice in two pictures, as Hebrew poetry often does, and they set love and faithfulness side by side as things that belong together in God. Another psalm uses the same measure: “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him” (Psalm 103:11).

Because these are true of God himself, they hold when people fail. Human love can falter and human promises can break, while God’s love and truth stay as they are. Jeremiah could say even in Jerusalem’s ruin, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23). Paul says the same of our own wavering: “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).

Righteousness like the mountains, judgments like the deep

Righteousness, tsᵉdâqâh, is rightness, justice and virtue. In God it is his moral perfection, his holding true to his own holy character and to his covenant promises. David compares it to “the great mountains”, which in Hebrew reads literally “mountains of God”, a way of saying the very greatest mountains. Mountains stay where they are, they are vast, they give firm footing, and they can be seen from far away, and God’s righteousness is all of these. Mountains were also places where God showed himself, above all at Sinai (Exodus 19). Moses sang of God in the same terms: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Another psalm says, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (Psalm 89:14).

Judgments, mishpâṭ, are verdicts and sentences, and more widely God’s decrees, his laws, and the way he governs the world. They are “a great deep”, tehom rabbah in Hebrew, the vast and mysterious depths of the ocean. The same word for the deep is used of the waters of creation, when “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). Here it is God’s judgments that are deep, and the picture is of wisdom and order too deep to sound.

Why are God’s judgments called a great deep?

Like the depths of the sea, God’s judgments are vast, they reach everywhere, and much of their working is hidden from our sight. They are always just and right, even when their reasons are hidden from us. God says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9), and Paul, at the end of his own long thought about God’s ways, breaks into praise: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).

This is humbling, and it is also a rest. When we meet suffering or hard things we can’t explain, we are set free from having to understand everything, and we can trust a wisdom that is always right.

The LORD keeps man and beast alive

The verse ends by turning from who God is to what he does: “O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.” The verb is yâshaʻ, usually translated “save” or “deliver”. Strong’s traces it to a root meaning to be open, wide or free, and so to be safe, and in the form used here it means to keep safe and keep alive. God is the Sustainer of every living thing, people and animals alike, and his hand is on every creature.

Scripture says this often. The LORD’s questions to Job in Job 38 speak of his rule over and care for the world he made, and Jesus says of the birds, “they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matthew 6:26). The God whose righteousness stands like the mountains also looks after the humblest creature.

Caring for what God preserves

God’s care for man and beast shows that his creation is valuable to him. People made in his image and given dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28) are called to care for it as he does, managing, protecting and cultivating the land and treating animals with compassion. That care is part of our worship and obedience to the Creator.

Shelter under the shadow of his wings

“How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!” The word “excellent” is yâqâr, which means precious, costly or rare. God’s cheçed, the same loyal love as in verse 5, is the most precious thing David knows, and he can only exclaim at it.

The word “therefore” ties the verse together. Because God’s love is so precious and so dependable, “the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” The children of men are humanity in general, and trust is the fitting answer from anyone who sees how good God is. Trust here is a deliberate act of entrusting oneself to God’s character and care.

The picture is made of two words. Tsêl means shadow or shade, and figuratively shelter and protection, as shade protects from the heat. Kânâph is the edge or extremity of something, and so a wing. To be under the shadow of God’s wings is to be close to him and covered by him.

What do the wings picture?

The first picture is a mother bird spreading her wings over her young to shield them from danger and bad weather. Moses used it of God’s care for Israel: “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings” (Deuteronomy 32:11). The second is the wings of the cherubim that covered the ark in the tabernacle and temple: “the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings” (Exodus 25:20). There God’s holy presence dwelt among his people. Both pictures speak of safety, tender care and nearness to God.

Other psalms pray and promise in the same words: “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings” (Psalm 17:8), and “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust” (Psalm 91:4). Boaz blessed Ruth by the God of Israel, “under whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2:12). Jesus took the picture for himself when he wept over Jerusalem: “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (Matthew 23:37).

A feast in God’s house and a river of his pleasures

“They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house.” The people satisfied here are those who have put their trust under God’s wings in verse 7, the opposite of the wicked man of verses 1 to 4. The word for fatness, deshen, is literally the fat of the sacrifices, even the fatty ashes, and so it came to mean richness and abundance. The fat was the choicest part, so the fatness of God’s house is the best of everything he has to give, enough to fill a person to the full.

The house, bayith, is a dwelling, and to an Israelite “thy house” would bring to mind the sanctuary and later the temple in Jerusalem, the place of God’s presence, worship and sacrifice. Its fatness is the blessing of being with God, and David speaks of it in the language of a meal. Another psalm says the same: “thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:5). Israel already knew God as a provider, from the wilderness to his promise of “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8).

“And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” God himself gives the drink. The word for pleasures, ʻêden, means pleasure, delight or delicacy, and it is closely related to the name of Eden, the garden of God. In a dry land a river was life itself, so a river of God’s pleasures pictures a joy that keeps flowing and never runs dry, the pure delight that comes from God’s own being. David says elsewhere, “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11).

The picture reaches all the way to the end of the Bible, where John is shown “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1). What God’s people enjoy with him now is a foretaste of that delight. Jesus offers the same water today: “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14).

With thee is the fountain of life

Verse 9 opens with “For”, and gives the reason behind everything before it. The refuge, the feast and the river all come from God because life itself comes from him. The fountain is mâqôwr, a spring, source or well, water that keeps flowing from its source. Life is chay, living, life. God is the origin and sustainer of all life, and true life in every sense, from breath to eternal life, flows from him. “With thee” puts that life in his presence. Paul told the Athenians the same: “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

A spring was precious in a dry land because it gave a steady supply of living water. God made the same comparison through Jeremiah when he charged his people with leaving him: “they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Life sought anywhere else is a broken cistern.

In thy light shall we see light

The word light, ʼôwr, means illumination, and it can also picture happiness. It comes twice in this line, and each has its own meaning. The first is God’s own light, his truth, holiness and wisdom. The second is the light we are given, the understanding and insight to see things as they are. The verb “see”, râʼâh, covers ordinary sight and also understanding and knowing by experience. So the line says that we come to understand truly by being in God’s presence and lit by his truth.

God was the first to speak light into a dark world: “Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). He still gives light, chiefly through his Word and his Spirit. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). Isaiah promised Zion that God’s light would rise on his people and that nations would come to it: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee” (Isaiah 60:1–3). Without that light we stay in the dark about the things of God, as Paul says: “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Seeing light is God’s gift, and it is the answer to the darkness of the wicked man at the start of the psalm.

Christ, in whom this mercy and light came to us

Everything these verses praise in God has come near to us in Jesus Christ. God’s cheçed took flesh in him: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, … full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The cross shows that mercy reaching down to the depths of human sin, where “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) died for us, for “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Christ is God’s faithfulness too, “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14), for “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). His resurrection and ascension show that God’s faithfulness reaches beyond death, and he does not change: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).

The righteousness that stands like the mountains is given to believers in him, for Christ “of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). The judgments that are a great deep are in his hands, for “the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). The LORD who preserves man and beast does it through him: “by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17), and he is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). He keeps his sheep for ever: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

The house and its feast are found in him as well, for “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9), and through him believers are built together into “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19–22). He is the bread of the feast: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger” (John 6:35), and “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He is the river and the fountain: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38).

And he is the light in which we see light. John writes, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4), joining the fountain of life and the light of verse 9 in one person. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Through him God has “called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Living near the fountain

These verses were written beside a clear picture of human sin, and they still sit beside it. When people around you, or your own heart, prove unreliable, God’s mercy is still in the heavens and his faithfulness still reaches the clouds. You can lift your eyes from the failures of others and your own, and fix your hope on a God whose love and truth have no limit.

His righteousness is a firm place to stand when the world is unjust, and his judgments, deep as they are, are always right. When you can’t see the reason for what is happening, you can rest in a wisdom deeper than the sea. The same God keeps you alive day by day, along with every creature he has made, and his care for creation is a pattern for ours.

The way into all of this is the trust of verse 7: coming under his wings in Christ and staying there. Those who do are fed from his house and given drink from his river. Where you look for satisfaction matters, because life and joy flow from one spring. Seek him in prayer, in his Word and among his people, and in his light you will see light.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 36:5–12. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 8 verses
Passage under commentPsalm 36:5–12
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

David, having looked round with grief upon the wickedness of the wicked, here looks up with comfort upon the goodness of God, a subject as delightful as the former was distasteful and very proper to be set in the balance against it. Observe,

I.His meditations upon the grace of God.

He sees the world polluted, himself endangered, and God dishonoured, by the transgressions of the wicked; but, of a sudden, he turns his eye, and heart, and speech, to God "However it be, yet thou art good." He here acknowledges,

1.The transcendent perfections of the divine nature. Among men we have often reason to complain, There is no truth nor mercy, (Hosea 4:1), no judgment nor justice, Isaiah 5:7. But all these may be found in God without the least alloy. Whatever is missing, or amiss, in the world, we are sure there is nothing missing, nothing amiss, in him that governs it.

(1.)He is a God of inexhaustible goodness: Thy mercy, O Lord! is in the heavens. If men shut up the bowels of their compassion, yet with God, at the throne of his grace, we shall find mercy. When men are devising mischief against us God's thoughts concerning us, if we cleave closely to him, are thoughts of good. On earth we meet with little content and a great deal of disquiet and disappointment; but in the heavens, where the mercy of God reigns in perfection and to eternity, there is all satisfaction; there therefore, if we would be easy, let us have our conversation, and there let us long to be. How bad soever the world is, let us never think the worse of God nor of his government; but, from the abundance of wickedness that is among men, let us take occasion, instead of reflecting upon God's purity, as if he countenanced sin, to admire his patience, that he bears so much with those that so impudently provoke him, nay, and causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them. If God's mercy were not in the heavens (that is, infinitely above the mercies of any creature), he would, long ere this, have drowned the world again. See Isaiah 55:8, Isaiah 55:9; Hosea 11:9.

(2.)He is a God of inviolable truth: Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Though God suffers wicked people to do a great deal of mischief, yet he is and will be faithful to his threatenings against sin, and there will come a day when he will reckon with them; he is faithful also to his covenant with his people, which cannot be broken, nor one jot or tittle of the promises of it defeated by all the malice of earth and hell. This is matter of great comfort to all good people, that, though men are false, God is faithful; men speak vanity, but the words of the Lord are pure words. God's faithfulness reaches so high that it does not change with the weather, as men's does, for it reaches to the skies (so it should be read, as some think), above the clouds, and all the changes of the lower region.

(3.)He is a God of incontestable justice and equity: Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, so immovable and inflexible itself and so conspicuous and evident to all the world; for no truth is more certain nor more plain than this, That the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and that he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures. Even when clouds and darkness are round about him, yet judgment and justice are the habitation of his throne, Psalm 97:2.

(4.)He is a God of unsearchable wisdom and design: "Thy judgments are a great deep, not to be fathomed with the line and plummet of any finite understanding." As his power is sovereign, which he owes not any account of to us, so his method is singular and mysterious, which cannot be accounted for by us: His way is in the sea and his path in the great waters. We know that he does all wisely and well; but what he does we know not now; it will be time enough to know hereafter.

2.The extensive care and beneficence of the divine Providence: "Thou preservest man and beast, not only protectest them from mischief, but suppliest them with that which is needful for the support of life." The beasts, though not capable of knowing and praising God, are yet graciously provided for; their eyes wait on him, and he gives them their meat in due season. Let us not wonder that God gives food to bad men, for he feeds the brute-creatures; and let us not fear but that he will provide well for good men; he that feeds the young lions will not starve his own children.

3.The peculiar favour of God to the saints. Observe,

(1.)Their character, Psalm 36:7. They are such as are allured by the excellency of God's loving-kindness to put their trust under the shadow of his wings.

[1.]God's loving-kindness is precious to them. They relish it; they taste a transcendent sweetness in it; they admire God's beauty and benignity above any thing in this world, nothing so amiable, so desirable. Those know not God that do not admire his loving-kindness; and those know not themselves that do not earnestly covet it.

[2.]They therefore repose an entire confidence in him. They have recourse to him, put themselves under his protection, and then think themselves safe and find themselves easy, as the chickens under the wings of the hen, Matthew 23:37. It was the character of proselytes that they came to trust under the wings of the God of Israel (Ruth 2:12); and what more proper to gather proselytes than the excellency of his loving-kindness? What more powerful to engage our complacency to him and on him? Those that are thus drawn by love will cleave to him.

(2.)Their privilege. Happy, thrice happy, the people whose God is the Lord, for in him they have, or may have, or shall have, a complete happiness.

[1.]Their desires shall be answered, (Psalm 36:8): They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, their wants supplied; their cravings gratified, and their capacities filled. In God all-sufficient they shall have enough, all that which an enlightened enlarged soul can desire or receive. The gains of the world and the delights of sense will surfeit, but never satisfy, Isaiah 55:2. But the communications of divine favour and grace will satisfy, but never surfeit. A gracious soul, though still desiring more of God, never desires more than God. The gifts of Providence so far satisfy them that they are content with such things as they have. I have all, and abound, Philippians 4:18. The benefit of holy ordinances is the fatness of God's house, sweet to a sanctified soul and strengthening to the spiritual and divine life. With this they are abundantly satisfied; they desire nothing more in this world than to live a life of communion with God and to have the comfort of the promises. But the full, the abundant satisfaction is reserved for the future state, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Every vessel will be full there.

[2.]Their joys shall be constant: Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. First, There are pleasures that are truly divine. "They are thy pleasures, not only which come from thee as the giver of them, but which terminate in thee as the matter and centre of them." Being purely spiritual, they are of the same nature with those of the glorious inhabitants of the upper world, and bear some analogy even to the delights of the Eternal Mind. Secondly, There is a river of these pleasures, always full, always fresh, always flowing. There is enough for all, enough for each; see Psalm 46:4. The pleasures of sense are putrid puddle-water; those of faith are pure and pleasant, clear as crystal, Revelation 22:1. Thirdly, God has not only provided this river of pleasures for his people, but he makes them to drink of it, works in them a gracious appetite to these pleasures, and by his Spirit fills their souls with joy and peace in believing. In heaven they shall be for ever drinking of those pleasures that are at God's right hand, satiated with a fulness of joy, Psalm 16:11.

[3.]Life and light shall be their everlasting bliss and portion, Psalm 36:9. Having God himself for their felicity, First, In him they have a fountain of life, from which those rivers of pleasure flow, Psalm 36:8. The God of nature is the fountain of natural life. In him we live, and move, and have our being. The God of grace is the fountain of spiritual life. All the strength and comfort of a sanctified soul, all its gracious principles, powers, and performances, are from God. He is the spring and author of all its sensations of divine things, and all its motions towards them: he quickens whom he will; and whosoever will may come, and take from him of the waters of life freely. He is the fountain of eternal life. The happiness of glorified saints consists in the vision and fruition of him, and in the immediate communications of his love, without interruption or fear of cessation. Secondly, In him they have light in perfection, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, all included in this light: In thy light we shall see light, that is, 1. "In the knowledge of thee in grace, and the vision of thee in glory, we shall have that which will abundantly suit and satisfy our understandings." That divine light which shines in the scripture, and especially in the face of Christ, the light of the world, has all truth in it. When we come to see God face to face, within the veil, we shall see light in perfection, we shall know enough then, 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2. 2. "In communion with thee now; by the communications of thy grace to us and the return of our devout affections to thee, and in the fruition of thee shortly in heaven, we shall have a complete felicity and satisfaction. In thy favour we have all the good we can desire." This is a dark world; we see little comfort in it; but in the heavenly light there is true light, and no false light, light that is lasting and never wastes. In this world we see God, and enjoy him by creatures and means; but in heaven God himself shall be with us (Revelation 21:3) and we shall see and enjoy him immediately.

II.We have here David's prayers, intercessions, and holy triumphs, grounded upon these meditations.

1.He intercedes for all saints, begging that they may always experience the benefit and comfort of God's favour and grace, Psalm 36:10.

(1.)The persons he prays for are those that know God, that are acquainted with him, acknowledge him, and avouch him for theirs - the upright in heart, that are sincere in their profession of religion, and faithful both to God and man. Those that are not upright with God do not know him as they should.

(2.)The blessing he begs for them is God's loving-kindness (that is, the tokens of his favour towards them) and his righteousness (that is, the workings of his grace in them); or his loving-kindness and righteousness are his goodness according to promise; they are mercy and truth.

(3.)The manner in which he desires this blessing may be conveyed: O continue it, draw it out, as the mother draws out her breasts to the child, and then the child draws out the milk from the breasts. Let it be drawn out to a length equal to the line of eternity itself. The happiness of the saints in heaven will be in perfection, and yet in continual progression (as some thing); for the fountain there will be always full and the streams always flowing. In these is continuance, Isaiah 64:5.

2.He prays for himself, that he might be preserved in his integrity and comfort (Psalm 36:11): "Let not the foot of pride come against me, to trip up my heels, or trample upon me; and let not the hand of the wicked, which is stretched out against me, prevail to remove me, either from my purity and integrity, by any temptation, or from my peace and comfort, by any trouble." Let not those who fight against God triumph over those who desire to cleave to him. Those that have experienced the pleasure of communion with God cannot but desire that nothing may ever remove them from him.

3.He rejoices in hope of the downfall of all his enemies in due time (Psalm 36:12): "There, where they thought to gain the point against me, they have themselves fallen, been taken in that snare which they laid for me." There, in the other world (so some), where the saints stand in the judgment, and have a place in God's house, the workers of iniquity are cast in the judgment, are cast down into hell, into the bottomless pit, out of which they shall assuredly never be able to rise from under the insupportable weight of God's wrath and curse. It is true we are not to rejoice when any particular enemy of ours falls; but the final overthrow of all the workers of iniquity will be the everlasting triumph of glorified saints.

Historical interpretation

Four Centuries of Reception

14 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

14 quotes · AD 253–649
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval
300400500600

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1:1.1
What other light of God can we speak of, in which a person sees light, except God’s spiritual power, which when it lightens a person causes him either to see clearly the truth of all things or to know God, who is called the truth? Such then is the meaning of the saying, “In your light shall we see light”; that is, in your word and your wisdom, which is your Son, in him shall we see you, the Father.
d. AD 373Athanasius of Alexandriaas quoted by Theodoret of Cyrus, AD 466Post-NiceneSourceECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 1:7
The bishops [at the Council of Nicea], having detected the Arians’ deceitfulness in this matter, collected from Scripture those passages that say of Christ that he is the glory, the fountain, the stream and the express image of the person; and they quoted the following words: “In your light we shall see light”; and likewise, “I and the Father are one.” They, then, with still greater clearness, briefly declared that the Son is of one substance [homoousios] with the Father; for this, indeed, is the signification of the passages that have been quoted.
d. AD 390Gregory of NazianzusPost-NiceneSourceON THE HOLY SPIRIT, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 5(31).3
And now we have both seen and proclaim concisely and simply the doctrine of God the Trinity, comprehending out of light [the Father], light [the Son], in light [the Spirit].
d. AD 397Ambrose of MilanPost-NiceneSourceCommentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms
(Verses 9, 10.) Therefore, He fittingly substitutes: 'For with you is the fountain of life: and in your light we shall see light.' Extend your mercy to those who know you, and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart. Indeed, after the remembrance of heavenly benefits, gratitude is rightly ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as the life-giving fountain of eternity, descended to earth to water the dryness of our hearts. The same is the brightness of the glory of God the Father, and the image of his substance; and therefore in his true light, which enlightens every man that comes into this world, we shall see, he says, the Father; because God is light. It is also rightly said: In your light we shall see light; according to that: He who sees me, sees also my Father (John 14:9). Therefore, with you, O Source of life, we shall see the Father present. For just as you, being the Word of God, were with the Father in the beginning: so the Father is always with you, who are in him. For indeed in Him is present that which is. But the coming of the Lord and Savior was prophesied, who, when He was about to come into the world, said: 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30); that is, we are one light, just as we are one name. Through the unity of light and name, we are both one; indeed, the Trinity is one in the unity of substance, but with the distinction of each person. The Trinity signifies the distinction of persons, the unity signifies the power. It can also be said of the Father: 'For with you is the fountain of life,' that is, in you from whom life proceeded, there was the Word, and He always was, because He was with you. All things were made through him, and in him was life, and he has shown himself to us, so that the hearts of men may be illuminated with the knowledge of your majesty.

Therefore, extend your mercy to those who know you. The prerogative is claimed so that those who have the merit of your knowledge may deserve mercy. Finally, we see the pursuit of knowledge supported even among the lowest of people, as the Lord says: I will remember Rahab and Babylon among those who know me (Psalm 86:4); that is, I will remember that prostitute Rahab and that state of confusion among those who know me, or among themselves; because that prostitute acknowledged me, whom the people did not acknowledge. Among those, therefore, who wrote to me, Rahab will be remembered, so that she may obtain a worthy reward of faith. Hence, in the Gospel we hear this saying: 'The prostitutes and the tax collectors will precede you into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 21:31). But because we are weak in carrying out [good works], although devoted to believing [in God], may you, extend your mercy to those who believe in you, so that our deeds may correspond to both devotion and faith; and may the weakness of this body not abandon the zeal of our mind, but rather may we glory in the very temptations and weaknesses in which the Apostle gloried, saying: 'I will most gladly glory in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me' (1 Cor. 12:9).
d. AD 399Evagrius PonticusPost-NiceneSourceNOTES ON THE PSALMS 35[36].10
Since the fount is life and life is Christ, the fount is Christ.… By meditating on what is made we will see Christ, and in understanding Christ, we will see God.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceBRIEF COMMENTARY ON PSALM 36
The Light of the Father is Christ. In Christ we will see the light of the Holy Spirit in the light of the Father.
d. AD 428Theodore of MopsuestiaPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON PSALMS 36:10A, B
You flood us with life, abundantly supplying us with it from the great number and variety of what is given us by you for sustenance and life.… Without light we can see nothing that exists, for when we are deprived of light and plunged into darkness, we have no recognition of what is at hand; whereas when light is available, we see and discern by recognition. So for discerning other things we need light, whereas light itself requires nothing else any longer for our being able to see; instead, with the aid of light itself we succeed in seeing everything through light and discern everything, including even light itself.… His meaning was to present the utter generosity and abundance of God’s gift—thus his mention of these two things in particular: the light (he made clear that from it he provided us both with existence itself and with sustenance) and enjoyment of the light, through which he conveyed the pleasure of life.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceSERMON 217:1
Christ … is man and God. He prays as man and gives what he prays for as God. Now what you have to grasp is that he assigns everything to the Father for the simple reason that the Father is not from him, but he is from the Father. He gives everything to the fount from which he is derived. But he too is the fount born of the Father; he is himself the “fountain of life.” So the Father as fount begot the fountain; fountain indeed begot fountain; but begetting fountain and begotten fountain are one fountain. Just as God begetting and God begotten, namely, the Son born of the Father, are one God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father; the Father is not from the Son, the Son is from the Father; but still Father and Son are one thing … because of their inseparable divinity.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceExposition on Psalm 36
With what fountain then will you be overflowed, and whence runs such a torrent of His Pleasure? "For with You," says he, "is the fountain of Life." What is the fountain of Life, but Christ? He came to you in the flesh, that He might bedew your thirsty lips: He will satisfy you trusting, who bedewed you thirsting. "For with You is the fountain of Life; in Your Light shall we see light" [Psalm 36:9]. Here a fountain is one thing, light another: there not so. For that which is the Fountain, the same is also Light: and whatever you will you call It, for It is not what you call It: for you can not find a fit name: for It remains not in one name. If you should say, that It is Light only, it would be said to you, Then without cause am I told to hunger and thirst, for who is there that eats light? It is said to me plainly, directly, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." [Matthew 5:6, 8] If It is Light, my eyes must I prepare. Prepare also lips; for That which is Light is also a Fountain: a Fountain, because It satisfies the thirsty: Light, because It enlightens the blind. Here sometimes, light is in one place, a fountain in another. For sometimes fountains run even in darkness; and sometimes in the desert you suffer the sun, findest no fountain: here then can these two be separated: there you shall not be wearied, for there is a Fountain; there you shall not be darkened, for there is Light.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTractates on John 19
Let it rise to Him, and be enlightened by Him. "Come near," saith he, "to Him." And what shall we have? "And be enlightened." If, therefore, by "coming to" ye are enlightened, and by "departing from" ye become darkened, your light was not in yourselves, but in your God. Come to Him that ye may rise again: if ye depart from Him, ye shall die. If by coming to Him ye live, and by departing from Him ye die, your life was not in yourselves. For the same is your life which is your light. "Because with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light we shall see light."
d. AD 458Theodoret of CyrusPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 36:6
Here he clearly reveals to us the mystery of the holy Trinity: he called the Only-begotten Word of God a “fountain of life.” This is the name, too, remember, God personally gave himself through the prophet Jeremiah: “They have forsaken me, a fountain of living water, taken their leave and dug for themselves cracked cisterns incapable of holding water.” So he says this fountain is in the presence of the Father, according to the following Gospel teaching: “I in the Father and the Father in me.” “In your light we shall see light”: Illumined by the all-holy Spirit we shall perceive the rays of your Only-begotten; Scripture says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit,” and “God revealed to us through his Spirit.” We have consequently come to a precise knowledge of the three persons in the one divinity through the inspired words.
d. AD 542Caesarius of ArlesPost-NiceneSourceSERMON 170:3
It is a good fountain that cools us after the heat of this life and with its flood tempers the aridity of our heart.
d. AD 585CassiodorusPost-NiceneSourceEXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 36:10
In human usage, light and fountains are quite distinct, or rather, in opposition to one another, since a fountain snuffs out the light of flames. But with God, these two images find a unity even though whatever you might say about him is both true and also ultimately inadequate. We say that God is Light, because “he enlightens every person who comes into the world”; he is a Fountain, because he satisfies the hungry and empty.… This verse properly says about the Savior, “in your light we will see light”; namely, the light of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, since through the Son’s preaching the entire Trinity was revealed to us.
d. AD 649Sahdona the SyrianEarly MedievalSourceBOOK OF PERFECTION 2:50-51
Without the light of the Scriptures we are unable to see God, who is Light, or his justice, which is filled with light. The effort involved in reading the Scriptures is thus greatly beneficial to us, all the more so since it causes us to become illumined in prayer. For anyone whose soul, after having labored in reading and been purified by spiritual meditation, is fervent with love for God will pray in a luminous manner when he turns to prayer.… His mind has labored in mediating on divine providence and so is filled with joy. In his soul he carries the model for virtue that he has received from training through the agency of the Spirit; he has depicted before his eyes, as though in a picture, the lovely beauty of the saints’ way of life: wrapped up in reading about these things, he will exult over them and become fervent in spirit, so that the words of his Office and the incense of his prayer become illumined and pure, seeking that they flow out from the pure spring of his heart.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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