Psalm 5
1 ¶ << To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David >> Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
Nehiloth - wind instruments
This psalm was sent to what we might call the woodwind section of the temple choir.
2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Once again, the psalmist comes before the Lord in humble submission – as God's children, we are told to come boldly before the throne of God: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb 4:16, but not presumptuously. We can come to God only because of his grace toward us in Jesus Christ who we come through by faith: “ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Eph 2:8 and “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 It should humble our hearts when we realize that without the gift of grace through Jesus Christ, we would be completely lost. We do not deserve his grace; it is freely given to all who will come to him by faith. That faith is not self-generated – God has given faith to everyone to trust Jesus Christ as his Saviour: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Ro 12:3
We do not plead with God that he will hear us for he always hears his children; again, the psalmist is giving us an example of how we come before God, humbling ourselves and recognizing his greatness and lordship.
The beginning of each prayer should be a time of worship and becoming quiet before God, recognizing who he is as Jesus taught us, “And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” Lk 11:2 It is important to remember that God is not only a god and a king, nor is he only God of gods and King of kings, but he is our God and our King.
Cry unto God – a cry is from the heart; it is fervent, a strong expression of our thoughts and desires; God tells us in his Word, “ The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Jas 5:16a
We begin our day with prayer.
We make prayer part of our daily life.
We recognize who we pray to – we do not just speak into the wind hoping that God will hear us, but we direct our prayers to God, recognizing who we are praying to
we “look up,” waiting expectantly for an answer to our prayer.
4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Recognize the holiness of God – wickedness and evil are far from him.
Those who do not put their trust in God through Jesus Christ cannot stand in his holy presence or come before the throne of grace – those who have trusted Jesus CAN come into his presence because they are covered in the holiness of Jesus.
6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
Recognize the sovereignty of God – all who do not trust God will be removed from his presence forever.
7 ¶ But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
No matter what is going on in the world around us or the hearts of the people around us, we can and should come before God trusting him for everything – we should say with Joshua, who was surrounded by rebellious people and those who did not trust the Lord: “ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Jos 24:15
8 Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
Righteous prayer is in agreement with God – it is God's will to lead us in the way of righteousness as a witness to the fallen world.
God will keep us in his will step by step as we move through this life. We do not need to urgently seek his will – if we have put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we can be confident that as long as we are trusting him we are walking in his will. We can walk outside of his will, but only when we choose to exercise our own will rather than trusting God to lead us. As Christians, we can and do exercise our own will from time to time when we take our eyes off Jesus. This does not mean we have lost our salvation – eternal life is eternal! But it means it is time to come humbly to God and confess – that it – agree with God that we have strayed: “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1Jo 1:9
9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.
There is no truth in the hearts of anyone who does not trust God – every part of them is lost and wicked, every word that comes forth from them leads to death; the words they use may sound good and right, but they are false, meant for personal gain. All who do not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ are motivated only by selfishness.
10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
We need to recognize that all who refuse to trust God in this life, in spite of all his warnings and the free gift of life through his Son, Jesus Christ, must eventually be totally separated from God's children. Holiness requires complete separation from all that is opposed to God.
11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
Those who trust in God should rejoice! God has promised to look after us forever and has given us the right to be called the sons of God! “ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1Jo 3:1 – 3