Ps. 36.10 (the question of endurance)

“Prolong your lovingkindness / to those / who know you – and your righteousness / to the upright of heart.” There is only one idea I want to pursue in this reflection: where the endurance of the wicked and the righteous comes from. In verse 1 we saw that the wicked ‘owned’ transgression; he nurtured it and it dwelt in the ‘midst of his heart’. We saw how these images of ‘ownership and heart’ revealed the continuous state of the wicked. It constituted the source of his being. Furthermore, we saw how the wicked is ‘sealed off’ within himself; there is no ‘fear of god before his eyes; he flatters himself too much in his own eyes to find his iniquity and hate it.” He is his own barrier to the world around him and, importantly, to himself. He begins and ends within himself. Finally, as we saw, the wicked is entirely, and only, a monologue. For the righteous, everything is reversed. And working in reverse order: these verses are a prayer. Importantly, the psalmist has been entirely and only focused on Yhwh in this hymn. The only time the psalmist himself appears is in the following verse where he appeals to Yhwh to protect him from the wicked. Likewise, whereas the wicked drew from himself for his strength, the psalmist finds it only in the covenantal bond with Yhwh. The terms themselves are purely relational (lovingkindness, righteousness) and they, and they alone, are what provide protection and assurance. This is the complete opposite of being ‘sealed off’ like the wicked. Indeed, this is transparency to Yhwh. And not simply that, the righteous understands that Yhwh’s act toward him is one that cannot be possessed at one point it time. Rather, one must petition that it be ‘prolonged’. For the wicked, stasis is achieved precisely in the fact that transgression can be owned and coddled in the heart. Yhwh’s benevolence toward man is never something that could be subject to man’s ownership. As a relationship, it is something must adhere to the relational bonds of dialogue and prayer. If there is anything ‘owned’ by the righteous it is this covenantal bond he possesses with Yhwh.