ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Psalms 36.9

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

7. How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; And thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

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

  1. Oh continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee, And thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 11. Let not the foot of pride come against me, And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. (Psalms 36:7-11, ASV)
WEB

7. How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.

9. For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.

  1. Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11. Don’t let the foot of pride come against me. Don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away. (Psalms 36:7-11, WEB)
KJV

7. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. excellent: Heb. precious 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. abundantly: Heb. watered

9. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

  1. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. continue: Heb. draw out at length 11. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. (Psalms 36:7-11, KJV)
YLT

7. How precious [is] Thy kindness, O God, And the sons of men In the shadow of Thy wings do trust. 8. They are filled from the fatness of Thy house, And the stream of Thy delights Thou dost cause them to drink.

9. For with Thee [is] a fountain of life, In Thy light we see light.

  1. Draw out Thy kindness to those knowing Thee, And Thy righteousness to the upright of heart. 11. Let not a foot of pride meet me, And a hand of the wicked let not move me. (Psalms 36:7-11, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: the psalmist; the superscription assigns the psalm to David
  • Audience: Israel gathered in worship; the Psalter is the congregation's book
  • Location: the sanctuary and its liturgy, rather than a narrative setting
  • Time period: the monarchy or later; individual psalms are difficult to date and the Psalter was compiled over centuries

Theological reading

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

Two metaphors of dependence, compressed. God is not described as having life and light but as being their source, so that the creature's possession of either is derivative.

The second clause is the more striking. Seeing requires light, and the psalm says the light by which we see is itself God's, which makes knowledge as dependent as existence. The verse has therefore been a standard text in the illumination tradition, where the mind's capacity to know is grounded in participation rather than in its own resources.

The psalm's structure sets this against its opening, a portrait of the wicked man who has no fear of God before his eyes and who flatters himself in his own sight. Self-generated light and borrowed light are the psalm's alternatives.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.