Psalm 35 (36)
The evil of the sinner; the goodness of the Lord
"The man who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life for his guide" (Jn 8, 12).
Sin speaks to the sinner
in the depths of his heart.
There is no fear of God
before his eyes.
He so flatters himself in his mind
that he knows not his guilt.
In his mouth are mischief and deceit
All wisdom is gone.
He plots the defeat of goodness
as he lies on his bed.
He has set his foot on evil ways,
he clings to what is evil.
Your love, Lord, reaches to heaven;
your truth to the skies.
Your justice is like God's mountain,
your judgments like the deep.
To both man and beast you give protection.
O Lord, how precious is your love.
My God, the sons of men
find refuge in the shelter of your wings.
They feast on the riches of your house;
they drink from the stream of your delight.
In you is the source of life
and in your light we see light.
Keep on loving those who know you,
doing justice for upright hearts.
Let the foot of the proud not crush me
nor the hand of the wicked cast me out.
See how the evil-doers fall!
Flung down, they shall never arise.
Catechesis by Pope St John Paul II on Psalm 35 (36)
General Audience, Wednesday 22 August 2001 - also in French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish
Lauds, Wednesday, Week 1: The sinner's malice, the Lord's goodness
"1. There are two fundamental attitudes that every man can adopt every time that a new day of work and human relations begins: we can choose good or give way to evil. Psalm 35, which we have just heard, draws up the two opposing views. On the one hand, there is the person who plots iniquity on the "bed" he is about to rise from; on the other hand, instead, is the upright person who seeks the light of God, "source of all life" (see v. 10). The abyss of the goodness of God, a living fountain that quenches our thirst and a light that enlightens our hearts, is opposed to the abyss of malice of the wicked person.
There are two types of men described in the prayer of the Psalm just recited, which the Liturgy of the Hours prescribes for Lauds of Wednesday of the First Week.
2. The first portrait presented by the Psalmist is that of the sinner (cf. vv. 2-5). As the original Hebrew says, "transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart" for in his heart there is "the oracle of sin" (v. 2). This expression is forceful. It makes us think that a Satanic word, as opposed to a divine word, resounds in the heart and words of the wicked.
Evil seems to be innate to him, to the point that it flows out in word and deed (cf. vv. 3-4). He spends his days choosing "evil ways", from early morning when he is still "on his bed" (v. 5), until evening when he is ready to fall asleep. The sinner's constant choice derives from an option that involves his whole life and generates death.
3. However the Psalmist tends completely toward the other portrait in which he desires to be reflected: that of the man who seeks the face of God (cf. vv. 6-13). He raises a true and proper chant to divine love (cf. vv. 6-11), which he follows in the end, with a humble prayer to be delivered from the dark fascination of evil and to be enlightened forever with the light of grace.
The prayer articulates a true and proper litany of terms, which express in images the God of love: grace, faithfulness, justice, judgement, salvation, protective shadow, abundance, delight, and life. In particular, it underlines four of the divine traits; they are expressed with Hebrew terms which have a more intense value than can be appreciated in the terms we use in modern languages.
4. There is above all the term, hésed, "grace", which is at once faithfulness, love, loyalty and tenderness. It is one of the basic ways to express the covenant between the Lord and his people. It is important to note that it can be found 127 times in the Psalter, more than half of all the times it occurs in the rest of the Old Testament. Then there is the term 'emunáh, coming from the root of amen, the word of faith, and meaning stability, security, unconditional fidelity. Sedeqáh follows, "justice", which has a salvific meaning: it is the holy and provident attitude of God, who through his interventions in history, frees the faithful from evil and from injustice. Last of all, we find mishpát, the "judgement" with which God governs his creatures, caring for the poor and the oppressed and humbling the arrogant and the overbearing.
Four theological terms, which the person who prays repeats in his profession of faith, while he steps out on the paths of the world, with the certainty of having with him a loving, faithful, just and saving God.
5. To the various titles with which we exalt God, the Psalmist adds two powerful images. On the one hand, the abundance of food: it makes us think above all of the sacred banquet, which was celebrated in the temple of Zion with the flesh of sacrificial victims. There are also the images of the fountain and the torrent, whose waters quench not just the parched throat, but also the soul (cf. vv. 9-10; Ps 41,2-3; 62,2-6). The Lord refreshes and satisfies the person who prays, making him share in his fullness of immortal life.
The symbol of light provides another image: "in your light we see the light" (v. 10). It is a brightness that radiates almost as "a cascade" and is a sign of God's unveiling his glory to the faithful. This is what happened to Moses on Sinai (cf. Ex 34,29-30) and it takes place for the Christian to the degree that "with unveiled face reflecting the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed in the same likeness" (II Cor 3,18).
In the language of the Psalms, "to see the light of the face of God" means concretely to meet the Lord in the temple, whenever the liturgical prayer is celebrated and the word of God is proclaimed. The Christian also shares the same experience when he celebrates the praise of the Lord at the beginning of the day, before he goes out to face the challenges of daily life that are not always straightforward."