The Gap

Psalm 36 is a curious psalm. Here it is:

Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil.

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.

Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart!
Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,
nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the evildoers lie fallen;
they are thrust down, unable to rise.

It's almost like two different psalms were pasted together. 

The first part is a reflection on human evil, wickedness, and depravity. We live in a world of mass shootings, virulent racism, sex trafficking, war crimes, abuse. It's a grim picture, a world where the fear of God has no effect on people. 

The psalm then takes an abrupt pivot, turning away from humanity to gaze upon God. Gorgeous lines about the faithful love of God follow, including the mystical and transcendent line "In your light do we see light."

The themes come together at the end, but I'm mostly struck today by the jarring switch between Verse 4 ("He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.") and Verse 5 ("Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.").

The point of the psalm, obviously, is to make a contrast. A view of humanity put side by side with a view of God, making clear the vast gap between them.

A person could read this contrast in a lot of different ways. I think a knee-jerk reaction from liberals, progressives and humanists would be negative: "Here's religion, again, making people feel bad about themselves! Here's religion getting down, again, on a blessed and beloved humanity!"

But I just can't get past the hypocrisy of such a reaction. Liberals, progressives and humanists tend to be a pretty angry group, and all of that anger is directed at human beings. The source of that anger is some vision of what life could be, should be, or ought to be. There's some beautiful world we'd like to achieve, but it keeps getting undermined by human corruption, greed, and wickedness. 

My point is that we're all living in the gap between Verse 4 and Verse 5. Atheists live in that gap, and so do theists. That gap is where your moral outrage comes from.