“The metaphysics of mercy” by Patrick Henry Reardon
“Here, the characteristics of the lawless man are contrasted, not with those of a just man, but with the boundless divine mercy (Hebrew hesed, Greek eleos):
“Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens.… How precious is Your mercy, O God.… Oh, continue Your mercy to those who know You.” (Psalm 36:5, 7, 10)
This is not a psalm about human morality, but about the metaphysics of mercy.
The qualities of divine mercy in this psalm are indicated by the various words with which it is set in parallel—faithfulness, righteousness, judgments:
“Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep.” (Psalm 36:6)
Gazing out on the vast expanse of sky, mountains and sea, the psalmist contemplates the omnidimensional mercy of God: “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17–19).
When we pray this psalm, therefore, we do not need to go outside of our own souls to discover the identity of the “lawless man,” before whose eyes “there is no fear of God.”
That lawlessness is a deep dimension of ourselves that is recalcitrant to God’s infinite mercy and the righteousness of His judgments.
This lawless man lives in his own little world, its chief characteristic being that it is so terribly, so pitifully little.
The sole cure for this rebellion in our hearts is the divine gift of mercy. Only God can heal our blindness:
“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)
Traditionally this psalm has been assigned for Matins, as the dawn breaks on Monday mornings.
Knowing that all is His gift, we ask only the maintenance of God’s mercy:
‘Oh, continue Your mercy to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.’ (Psalm 36:10)“
–Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2000), 70. Reardon is commenting on Psalm 36.
