In Contrast To What Transgression Offers YHWH Offers Compassion, F Faithfulness, Righteousness, Justice, and The Preservation of Life (Psalms 36:5-6).
‘Your lovingkindness, O YHWH, is in the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
Your judgments are a great deep,
O YHWH, you preserve man and beast.'
In contrast with the five aspects of the hearts of those who follow iniquity are the five attributes of the heart of YHWH. Notice that the contrast with sinfulness is not in terms of the goodness of the righteous, but of the goodness of their God. It is He Who lifts up the righteous and makes the righteous what they are. They are like that because He has personally ‘blessed' them (Matthew 5:3-9; Philippians 2:13). Thus to Him must be the glory.
The Five Attributes of YHWH.
· His compassion and covenant love are so vast that they are ‘in the Heavens', stretched out in a huge expanse which goes beyond the range of human sight.
· His faithfulness is so substantial that it reaches up to the skies (and here the sky is not the limit).
· His righteousness is as huge as ‘the mountains of God', the very highest of the mountains.
· His judgments are as deep as the ocean, a depth not yet plumbed by man.
· He is the preserver of all life, whether that of man or beast. He is the source and giver of life.
So God's love and faithfulness (compare Psalms 57:10; Psalms 103:11), His righteousness and justice (compare Psalms 9:8; Psalms 33:5; Psalms 37:6; Psalms 72:2), and His life-giving and life-preserving qualities, are so vast that they are beyond man's ability to fully comprehend. They are wider than the heavens, higher than the stars, greater than the mountains, deeper than the sea. We can compare here Ephesians 3:18-19, speaking of the work of the Spirit within which makes known to us the love of God and of Christ, and makes it a part of us. ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God'.