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It is easy to let life drift without noticing what has taken center stage in our hearts and minds. Psalm 36 offers a striking and honest look at what happens when God is pushed out of focus, and what it looks like to bring Him back to the center of our lives.

What Does It Mean to Have "No Fear of God Before Your Eyes"?

Psalm 36 opens with a sobering observation about the wicked. The very first verse sets the tone: "I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes." - Psalm 36:1 New International Version (NIV)

The word translated "fear" here is not the common Hebrew word for fear. It carries the weight of dread, a deep, gut-level awareness that God sees, God knows, and God acts. When that dread is absent, something dangerous begins to happen in a person's heart.

Keeping something "before one's eyes" in the biblical sense is not just about physical attention. It describes the ideas and expectations that shape the decisions we make. When we push the dread of God out of sight, we begin to expect that God will do nothing. And that expectation changes everything.

How Does Rebellion Against God Start?

Rebellion rarely sounds like outright defiance. More often, it sounds like rationalization. When we stop expecting God to act, we begin to convince ourselves that we can manage our own wrong choices and avoid their consequences.

Psalm 36:2 describes this as flattering ourselves: "In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin." - Psalm 36:2 New International Version (NIV)

Sin is deceitful. If it were obviously and painfully wrong in every moment, we would not choose it as readily as we do. We choose it because we can rationalize it. We tell ourselves it is fine, that we do not really need to examine our hearts or change our attitude about what we have done.

This is the inner sound of rebellion. Not loud defiance, but quiet self-flattery.

Where Does Unchecked Rebellion Lead?

Psalm 36 traces the path of someone who has no dread of God before their eyes, and it is a sobering progression.

- Their words become self-serving rather than honest or connecting.
- They become unreliable. Others cannot trust what they say.
- Their imagination, meant to be used for good, turns toward plotting wrong.
- Even at night, lying in bed, their thoughts drift toward how to do more harm.
- They accept habits that reinforce unfaithfulness to God and care less about the harm done to others.

Verses 3 and 4 describe it plainly: "The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or to do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong." - Psalm 36:3-4 New International Version (NIV)

When rebellion goes unchecked, people begin loving things and using people, which is the exact opposite of what God calls us to. Whoever is listening to the flattery of their own rebellion becomes dangerous to those around them.

What Does God's Character Look Like in Contrast?

After those first four verses, Psalm 36 makes a dramatic shift. The psalmist turns his gaze from the path of the wicked to the character of God, and the contrast is breathtaking.

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals." - Psalm 36:5-6 New International Version (NIV)

God's love and faithfulness are described in the grandest possible terms, as vast as the sky, as high as the mountains, as deep as the ocean. And yet this same God acts in the particulars of individual lives. His greatness does not make Him distant. It makes Him the most reliable presence in the universe.

Why Can We Expect God to Act in Our Lives Today?

One of the most important truths in Psalm 36 is this: we must expect God to act in this world, not just believe that He acted once upon a time.

God is described as a fountain that overflows by nature. He does not need to protect Himself or hedge in His goodness. He rescues people and animals alike because His love is limitless, and a limitless supply does not diminish its value when real human beings are saved by it.

"How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." - Psalm 36:7-9 New International Version (NIV)

God's tendency is to overflow. Some of us tend toward skepticism, caution, or doubt. God's tendency is always to give, to rescue, to nourish. His behavior is consistent, always.

How Should Psalm 36 Shape the Way We Pray?

The final verses of Psalm 36 offer a model for prayer that is both simple and profound. The psalmist takes what he knows to be true about God and asks God to apply it to His lived experience.

"Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart." - Psalm 36:10 New International Version (NIV)

This is the pattern. Because God is huge, faithful, loving, and consistent, we can ask Him to act that way in our particular circumstances. We can say, "God, I know what You have done. I know what You have promised. Now do it here, in my life, today."

Good theology should not stay in our heads. It should move into our prayers and then into our daily experience. Refocusing on God does not cause us to care less about this world. It causes us to pray that God would act now, the way we know He is.

What Does It Look Like to Refocus on God?

Refocusing on God means bringing Him back before our eyes, back into the center of our decision-making, our imagination, and our daily expectations. It means replacing the flattery of self-justification with humility and honest prayer.

It means expecting God to act, not just in the grand sweep of history, but in the ordinary moments of a Monday morning or a sleepless night. It means praying with the confidence that the God whose love reaches to the heavens also hears the specific cry of one person in one moment.

When we refocus on God, praying becomes the way we engage life rather than a last resort when things fall apart.

Life Application

This week, pay attention to the inner dialogue of your heart. When you face a temptation or a difficult decision, notice whether you are rationalizing or whether you are bringing God back before your eyes.

Take one specific area of your life where you have been flattering yourself, where you have been telling yourself it is fine and that God is not really paying attention, and bring it honestly before Him in prayer. Use the pattern from Psalm 36:10. Tell God what you know to be true about Him, and then ask Him to make it real in that specific situation.

Ask yourself these questions as you reflect this week:

  1. Is there an area of my life where I have been expecting God to do nothing, and using that expectation to justify my choices?
  2. Am I loving things and using people in any of my relationships right now?
  3. What would it look like for me to genuinely expect God to act in my life this week, not just believe that He acted in the past?
  4. When I lay my head on the pillow tonight, what is my mind drifting toward, and does it reflect a heart that has God before its eyes?

Refocusing on God is not a one-time event. It is a daily, sometimes hourly, return to the truth that He is faithful, He is present, and He acts. In His light, we see light.