In the opening verses of this psalm, King David set forth the claims of the wicked - "the utterance of transgression to the wicked." Two main claims were raised there: First, "there is no dread of God before his eyes" - what is there to fear at all? He sees in reality neither punishment for the wicked nor reward for the righteous, and consequently there is no dread of God before his eyes. And second, "to find his iniquity to hate it" - what reason is there to distance oneself from sins and hate them? Where do we see that sin is a negative thing? From here onward, King David confronts these two claims, addressing first the assertion that there is no fear of God, since seemingly there is neither punishment nor reward.
יְהֹוָה בְּהַשָּׁמַיִם חַסְדֶּךָ, אֱמוּנָתְךָ עַד שְׁחָקִים׃ - Hashem, Your kindness is in the heavens; Your faithfulness extends to the skies.
Rashi explains according to the straightforward meaning: on account of these wicked people, You remove Your kindness from the lower realms and raise Your faithfulness up to the skies. You place Your kindness in the heavens, up above, distancing it from us.
Here the Malbim enters into a profound analysis, and it is worthwhile to pay close attention to follow it through. The providence of the Holy One, blessed be He, branches into two streams, two distinct modes of governance. There is natural governance - the standard, fixed order: summer and winter, autumn and spring, day and night, rain and drought. All of these operate according to the laws of nature, without deviating from its framework, generally through the influence of the heavenly spheres and constellations - yet all remain within the bounds of nature.
From the perspective of human perception, natural governance - which is emunah - is fixed in the shamayim, and miraculous governance - which is chesed - is established in the shechakim. Nature constantly follows its fixed patterns and does not change on its own; and when Hashem wills, He acts to bring about changes and directs events through miraculous intervention. It emerges, therefore, that a miracle is not part of the standard course of the celestial spheres and stars, but rather the opposite - an interruption and suspension of them. When the Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to perform a miracle, He as it were pauses nature and brings down a higher governance from a loftier realm, from shechakim.
According to this view, reward and punishment are not natural phenomena, but miraculous ones. The conduct of the sun, the moon, and the rain does not depend at all on good or bad deeds - that is nature. This is what those who lack faith hold: there is a cloud; whether you do good or not, it will rain or it will not rain. The natural order is fixed and depends on celestial bodies. Miraculous providence - yes, that depends on deeds: you are either worthy of a miracle or not. But the natural order seemingly operates constantly without regard to your deeds or your righteousness.
Consequently, in order to enact reward and punishment, the Holy One, blessed be He, would have to employ a miraculous order - splitting the Red Sea as a reward, and closing the sea over the Egyptians as a punishment. But as long as nature operates according to its pattern, great wicked people might commit sins and prosper, while righteous people perform mitzvos and endure torture and suffering, since there is no link between nature and the deeds of mankind. This is what leads the wicked person to say, "there is no fear of God before his eyes": you do not see divine governance, everything is nature. This is what underlies the claim, "Where have you seen Hashem?" - It rained; I can explain that with sophisticated natural explanations. There is a solar eclipse; I will explain that through nature as well, and I have no need to delve into God, reward, and punishment. According to this view, one cannot conceive of "kindness in the heavens" or "faithfulness in the skies" at all: kindness would be only in the higher skies, and faithfulness - the routine, fixed operation of nature - would be only in the lower heavens, down here.
The Malbim explains: The Torah teaches us the exact opposite. Man, through all his actions, influences nature - not just miraculous intervention, but everyday nature itself. Daily nature is reward and punishment for your deeds. "If you follow My statutes... then I will give your rains in their season." Is that a miraculous providence? That is nature: nature will behave properly and abundantly. "And if you reject My statutes" - nature will malfunction, the skies will be like copper and rain will not fall. Nature itself is not detached from human deeds, nor does it operate by blind routine; rather, it is influenced by human deeds directly, one to one: positive deeds cause nature to bestow good, and if not, the reverse. And this is not a miracle, nor is it a deviation from the natural order; rather, this is what nature is.
This is the meaning of "Hashem, Your kindness is in the heavens": Your kindness, which is essentially reward and punishment, is not only up in the skies above, in supernatural providence, but within the heavens, within the natural order. And the same applies to faithfulness: the natural order, where Hashem is faithful to make the sun shine and the rain fall - do not mistakenly think that it is connected only down here. "Your faithfulness reaches to the skies" - it extends even to the realm of the skies, from where supernatural providence flows, and all the foundations of the natural order are aligned with that higher realm. Do not draw false distinctions and claim that the lower providence does not depend on human actions while only miracles do - the exact opposite is true.
The Malbim adds further: Do not think that miraculous providence, which corresponds to deeds, is incidental - as though Hashem momentarily changed the laws of nature. Know that this is another nature that Hashem embedded in creation. As the Chazon Ish defined it: What is nature? The more continuous will of the Creator of the universe. And there are wills that occur periodically - that is a miracle. It follows, therefore, that a miracle is not an aberration from the natural order; a miracle is nature.
And proof of this: Chazal say that the Holy One, blessed be He, created several things on Friday at twilight - the mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, and so forth. You might see this as a miracle, meaning something brand new that departed from the course of nature; but they tell you: No, everything was preordained from the beginning. A miracle, too, is not an impromptu wish; rather, when you are in a specific state, by nature you are due a miracle. For miracles, too, the Holy One, blessed be He, established rules just like for nature: when a miracle is performed and when it is not. There is a certain nature to miracles, a fixed and orderly pattern to perform miracles for those who fear Him according to their deeds. And that is "Your faithfulness reaches to the skies" - even the conduct of the skies, which represents the realm of miracles, is an aspect of faithfulness, a consistent order, and not a momentary impulse in which the Creator supposedly deviated from nature.
צִדְקָתְךָ כְּהַרְרֵי אֵל, מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ תְּהוֹם רַבָּה, אָדָם וּבְהֵמָה תוֹשִׁיעַ יְהֹוָה׃ - Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast You save, Hashem.
Let us first explain the plain meaning. What are "harrei El" (mountains of God)? Are there mountains belonging to God and mountains that do not belong to God? Here, the Radak teaches a principle - he was not the first to state it, and many cite it, but it is worthwhile to know: when the text wishes to describe something as immense and mighty, it links it to the greatest and most immense entity in the world - and who is greater and mightier than all? The Holy One, blessed be He. When Scripture wants to say there was a terrifying dread, it says "charedas Elokim" (a dread of God); a tremendous flame - "shalhevetyah" (a flame of the Lord); mighty mountains - "harrei El"; deep darkness - "maphelyah", as it were, darkness of Hashem; towering cedars - "the boughs of the cedars of God" ("arzei El").
Based on this principle, the Vilna Gaon wonderfully explains the verse, "For a hanged body is a curse of God" (Devarim 21:23), just as we saw in Parashat Ki Tetzei. Chazal offer many explanations, but the Gra explains: a curse (kelalah) means disgrace and humiliation. The Torah commands, "You shall not let his corpse remain overnight on the tree," for leaving the deceased's body hanging overnight entails a "curse of God" - an immense disgrace. Just as harrei El means mighty mountains and cherdat Elokim means a terrible dread, so too kilelat Elokim means an extreme disgrace. That is to say, it is an immense disgrace to leave the deceased, the image of man, hanging upon the tree.
Notice that regarding righteousness, David said, "like the mighty mountains of God" - attaching God's Name to the greatness of His righteousness. But regarding judgments, he did not say "a deep of God," but rather "a great deep." Why did he not attach the Holy One's Name here as well, as in the phrase "a flame of God" (shalhevet-Yah)? The answer is that here the verse speaks of judgments, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not attach His Name to evil. As it is said, "And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night" (Bereishit 1:5) - it does not say, "and the darkness God called Night," because Hashem does not attach His Name to evil. Hashem attaches His Name to light, to the dimension of bounty; but regarding the aspect of evil, He does not mention His Name. Therefore, regarding the magnitude of righteousness it says, "like the mighty mountains of God," whereas regarding retribution and punishment it says, "a great deep."
This continues what we saw earlier. "Hashem, Your loving-kindness is in the heavens" - His loving-kindness extends over everything, over both the good and the wicked. But when the Holy One, blessed be He, magnifies His righteousness, there is a distinction: "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains" - You perform righteousness specifically for the good, those who resemble the towering mountains. In contrast, retribution will ultimately reach the wicked: "Your judgments are like the great deep" - You magnify the judgment upon the wicked and bring upon them a judgment that plunges them into a vast, unfathomable deep. Just as the great abyss is "vast," so too righteousness is like mighty mountains - harrei El.
And why is the good compared specifically to mountains? The Radak explains: usually, when people wanted to flee from an enemy, they would flee to the mountains. The same applies with respect to the Holy One, blessed be He: "my rock and my fortress" - a fortress to which I flee; "You established strength for my mountain" - I had strength and refuge upon the mountain. The mountain serves as a defense, and therefore this good cannot be stolen from the righteous - it is like mighty mountains. Evil, on the other hand, is compared to a great deep, a place into which one sinks and from which one cannot escape; this tells us that the calamity of the wicked is a place of ruin with no way out, akin to the expressions: "for the waters have reached up to my soul," "I have sunk into the muddy depths," "I have come into deep waters." On the one hand, a person ascends a fortified mountain where no one can harm him - that is righteousness; and on the other hand, the pursued person sinks into a great deep from which he cannot escape.
David concludes by saying: "Man and beast You save, Hashem." Even though You, Master of the Universe, distinguish in Your providence in this world between the good and the wicked, watching over the good for benefit and over the wicked for harm, each according to his deeds - sometimes the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows good upon the wicked as well. Why is this, given that he denies Hashem, may He be blessed? Regarding this, the verse says: "Man and beast You save, Hashem" - Hashem saves man, and He also saves beast; that is, the wicked or the foolish person who is a beast in human form, being like a beast in comparison to the complete and upright person. Therefore, if you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not punish the wicked and they do not encounter a great deep, know that sometimes Hashem saves both man and beast: both the worthy and decent person, and beasts that possess no merits, or a person who acts like a beast - they, too, experience salvation.
Ibn Ezra explains that the meaning is that Hashem judges everyone - in his words, every sentient creature: anyone who possesses sensation is judged by Hashem, as it is written: "and from the hand of every beast I will require it" (Bereishit 9:5).
Chazal further expound: Who are "man and beast"? People who are shrewd in understanding like Adam HaRishon, yet make themselves like a beast in their humility. This is an expression of praise, unlike the previous explanation of people who are like beasts due to their folly and evil deeds, but rather a beast of humility: one who feels no personal offense when insulted or humiliated, a humble and modest person. These are the people whom Hashem saves, and they are the ones who merit salvation.
In Arachin (8b), Chazal expound: Were it not that Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, who could endure Your judgments, which are like the great deep? The righteousness of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward us is vast and immense, and without it, how could anyone endure "Your judgments are like the great deep"? For the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting in judgment down to the finest hairsbreadth. It was even said of Avraham Avinu that had the Holy One, blessed be He, entered into strict judgment with him, he could not have endured it. Rather, the Holy One's righteousness is like the mighty mountains, and through it we are able to endure judgments that are like the great deep, for Hashem judges us with loving-kindness, mercy, and righteousness - and through this we are granted enduring existence.
And in Chullin 63a, the Gemara relates: Whenever Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri saw a cormorant (sholach), he would say, "Your judgments are like the great deep," and whenever he saw an ant, he would say, "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains." When he saw the cormorant - that bird that dives into the water, snatches a fish, and in that instant ends the fish's life - he would say, "Your judgments are like the great deep": in just such a way, the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees a judgment in a single moment. On the other hand, when he saw an ant - a creature so small and frail, which nevertheless lives, thrives, and even gathers provisions in the summer - he would say: This can only be because Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains. Here we behold the righteousness and lovingkindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward His creations.
They tell of a wealthy magnate who was a complete am ha'aretz (ignorant of Torah) and believed that with his wealth he could buy the entire world. He entered the synagogue and hinted to the gabbai to arrange a prime seat for him, intimating that it would be made worth his while. The gabbai caught on quickly and placed him at the eastern wall, right next to the rabbi. It was the Minchah prayer of Shabbat, and that wealthy man wanted to display his erudition. Just then, the congregation recited, "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your judgments are like the great deep," as we recite during Shabbat Minchah. The magnate turned to the rabbi and asked, "What is the meaning of 'man and beast You save, Hashem'? Who placed a man next to a beast here? Who seated a human being next to an animal?" The rabbi replied, "Do not ask me; ask that of the gabbai."
There is a magnificent insight here: "Your righteousness" - one who holds himself to be "righteousness," who believes he is perfectly righteous, and not merely righteous, but "like the mighty mountains," whose virtues tower in the celestial heights, haughty and arrogant like towering peaks - concerning him it is said, "Your judgments are like the great deep": his judgment and the heavenly accusations against him cause him to plunge into the great abyss. But "man and beast" - a person who regards himself as no better than a beast, who asks, "Who am I, and what am I?", viewing himself as coarse as an animal, who does not think highly of himself and makes no claim to righteousness - him "You save, Hashem."
Gentlemen, we all desire a favorable judgment for a good, successful, and blessed year. How does one attain this? Quite the opposite: through the humility of "man and beast" - when a person genuinely recognizes how lowly he is. If one proceeds along the path of "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains," imagining himself to be a tzaddik, then the judgment is exacting and severe - "Your judgments are like the great deep."