Some of you have been reading, studying, and reciting Psalm 36:8-9 for years, but you could not and did not interpret these verses in this way. The only way we could interpret these verses in this way is by the governing vision—the Triune God is working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and life supply, to saturate their entire being with the Divine Trinity, that is, with the Father as the fountain, the Son as the fatness, and the Spirit as the river. This is the vision that governs and directs you to interpret any portion of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, or any book of the Bible must be interpreted by such a governing vision. Without such a vision, you may present a good message based upon Psalm 36:8-9, yet it will be so shallow, touching nothing of the Divine Trinity. Even if you were to go to Strong’s Concordance and discover that the fatness refers to the fatty ashes of the sacrifices, without such a vision you would never think that this refers to Christ. You must have the governing principle. Then when you see the word sacrifices, you would be so clear that this refers to the second of the Divine Trinity, Christ. Then it would also be easy for you to understand the river of God’s pleasures. Without such a vision, it is not so easy to understand what this river is. Romans 14:17 refers back to this river when it tells us that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The joy in the Holy Spirit is the river of pleasures, or we could say the river of pleasures is the Spirit of joy. We must realize that the Bible was written under this governing principle. When we pick up this key, we can open up every part of the Bible. This principle helps us to interpret the fountain of life and “in Your light we see light” (Psa. 36:9). This principle helps us to see in John that life is in Him and that this life is the light of men (1:4). God is life and God is light. Therefore, He Himself is the fountain of both life and light.
Every book of the Bible confirms your understanding of this Scripture passage because the entire Bible was written according to the principle of the Triune God wrought into His redeemed people as their enjoyment, their drink, and their fountain of life and light. The application of this principle in interpreting any portion of the New Testament is endless. Then your message, using any portion, will be greatly enriched. It will be full of the fatness, full of the flowing of the river of pleasures, and full of the fountain of life and of light. Your message and your ministry will be different. There will be an intrinsic principle within and governing whatever you speak, teach, and preach. This is my burden. Merely to read the lines of a Life-study to pick up some points and titles for our message does not work. You have not been constituted with such a principle, and this principle has not become a vision to you. You may have the eyes to read the Bible and the mind to understand it, but you do not have the key to open it. You need the key.
I would like to give some illustrations showing how to discern the interpretation of the Bible by such a key. Psalm 1:1-2 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (KJV). The person described here is quite wonderful. He stays away from anything evil, musing in the law of the Lord day and night. What, however, is the difference between this psalmist and the one in Psalm 36? The one in Psalm 1 is a working one, a behaving one, an acting one. This one is not an enjoying one. The psalmist in Psalm 36, though, was not musing in the law. He was not practicing not walking in the council of the ungodly, not standing in the way of sinners, and not sitting in the seat of the scornful. He was not in the law, but he was in the house enjoying the fatness, the river of pleasures, and the fountain of life and light. Verse 3 of Psalm 1 continues, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water” (KJV). To drink the river of God’s pleasures is one thing and to be planted by the side of the river is another thing. Psalm 36 is according to the Divine Trinity in God’s economy, and Psalm 1 is according to religious ethics, according to the natural concept of religion. This is why we interpreted Psalm 1 for years, not on the positive side but on the negative side. Verses 4 and 5 of this Psalm say, “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (KJV). These verses are altogether religiously ethical and natural.