Psalm 5

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.

2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

The first two lines are a chiasm in Hebrew. David makes a series of petitions, imagining that God is leaning in to listen to his words and to consider his groaning. He’s asking God to pay attention to the sound of his cry. Three petitions: “give ear, consider, give attention”. I realize that when I pray I don’t ask for God’s attention, I just assume I’ve got it and start talking to him. I’ll throw out a few titles and then launch into my requests. Yet this calling for God’s attention seems to be a common theme in David’s prayers. Perhaps I should not presume upon God and instead use a little more reverence in my petitions. It’s not that David doubts that God is listening for he says,”in the morning you hear my voice, in the morning I bring my requests before you”. The textual question has to do with the one occurrence of the word in verse three that is translated either “prepare a sacrifice” or direct my prayer. The word “and watch” is not in the Hebrew. This is clearly a morning prayer (as three is a morning prayer and four is an evening prayer, completing this little chiasm). This is a group of three prayers, similar in length and content, although this one is a bit longer, perhaps signifying a conclusion of the three. This suggests by way of application the importance of consistency. The first example of prayer we have is morning, evening, and morning again (also makes us think of creation and beginnings). Is that the rhythm of my life when it comes to the practice of prayer? Or is it more random, sort of “whenever the need arises”?  Ask for God’s ear and then fill it with your petitions. It seems to be what he desires, and it will do you some good. 

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;  you hate all evildoers.

6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

YHWH is holy. He doesn’t take pleasure in wickedness (as every person has at some point), and evil can’t be in his presence. The boastful, arrogant person won’t be able to stand before God, who hates all evildoers. The gods of the ancient world were not characterized by this kind of moral purity. They acted in selfish ways and thus were projections of the humans who created them. How is it possible that David, Moses and others created the concept of a holy God, one who is perfect in moral purity, with a clear standard of good and evil? As we’ve seen in modern history, when one rejects God, the vacuum is filled by whatever the individual wants to do. We’re not going to make up gods that demand anything of us. That is the Jesus of today embraced by progressives -- a nice guy who doesn’t demand anything of us morally, other than that we work for a more just society. Jesus the social justice warrior -- this is the god that our modern culture has created. The moral perfection that he required is redefined to suit our definition of morality. These three verses are parallel and offer a powerful statement of the moral nature of God. He is holy. Wicked, evildoers, liars, bloodthirsty, and deceitful -- this is humanity, and God cannot abide with them because he is wholly other, completely unlike them. What are we to do? Know that God will judge and we live in a moral universe. We have freedom to choose our actions but not our consequences. (cf. Psalm 1:5 in relation to 5:5). Murder and lying are in the same category of things hated by God -- one destoys a person, the other destroys trust in a person. Guard your life against moral corruption, and cherish the grace appears in verse 7. 

7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Considering that YHWH can’t abide with the wicked, the fact that he lets us into his house is astounding. As David acknowledges, it is only because of the abundance of his steadfast love. David will bow down toward his holy temple in reverence. David is not a priest so this begs the question, did he truly enter God’s house or is this figurative? I’ve read that David set up a second tabernacle wherein he and the people worshiped, but I need to verify this. If so, this text makes a lot of sense. David entered God’s house (the tabernacle where God was worshiped by the people) and bowed down toward his holy temple (where the ark of the covenant resided). David had beheld the ark as it came up to Jerusalem, but that seems to be the closest he ever god to it. It is a wonderful picture for us today of God’s grace that the creator of the universe would dwell among us and allow us to figuratively enter his house. Jesus has made a way through the torn veil of his flesh to approach the throne of grace with boldness. Are you living in his house? Are you dwelling in his presence, living in continual awareness of the reality of God? Is your life at peace because of this? Is your faith stronger? Are you reverently submitting your life to Him as a response to his good grace? David makes these two promises in his morning prayer and they seem to be at the heart of his prayer. Petition is certainly a part of prayer, but so is an acknowledgment of the presence of God. 

8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

Worship and prayer (verse 7) lead to holy living. The psalmist asks for YHWH’s leadership in his life that he might live in the righteousness of God. A good and upright life even before his enemies, even when it is most difficult to maintain one’s integrity, this is what flows out of worship. The psalmist asks for a straight path before him. Enemies do complicate things quite a bit, and the psalmist wants to see the way forward clearly. The enemies are human beings, and they are complicated. People do wrong things for lots of reasons and before judging it’s a good idea to walk a mile in their shoes. Because of upbringing and life experiences, each person has different struggles and they’ve made different choices that are a reflection of their thinking. David is about to transition into description of his enemies. Apparently, they are the subject of his morning prayers, the reason for his complaining and groaning. I can’t think of human enemies who are troubling me today, but there are other temptations that are always lurking. I pray with the psalmist, lead me in your righteousness, make your way straight before me. 

9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.

David describes the state of his enemies in contrast to his own. While he worships and bows down in reverence to God and orients his life toward the ways of God, his enemies are characterized by a lack of honesty. Every word they say is a lie, and their deepest parts are about destruction. An open grave is an unclean place, and this describes their throat -- unclean things come from within them, the product of their soul. They flatter with their tongue meaning that they are two-faced, saying nice things to your face while stabbing you in the back. David prays a curse on them, entrusting their judgment to God. He prays for justice, that they may receive the consequences of their actions, that their own decisions would lead to their fall. He prays that God would cast them out (in contrast to the psalmist himself who enters God’s house and bows down), because they have rebelled against Him. In short, it is a Romans 1 prayer: Lord, give them what they want, even when they want nothing of you. This prayer sounds harsh, but it certainly acknowledges free will and justice. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Earlier this week ISIS terrorist leader al-Baghdadi was killed by US special forces (actually he blew himself and three of his children up with a suicide bomb, promptly sending him to his reward). This is a man who was responsible for beheadings of Christians, brutal torturous deaths of many, and the repeated rape and torture of an American reporter among many other things. I can’t help but think of this verse and the satisfaction that is felt when justice is done. Just contemplating the repeated rape of this woman, makes me wish that this piece of human feces had suffered more. That is up to God in his infinite wisdom to determine. Suffice it to say, al-Baghdadi is not being pleasured by 72 virgins right now. That may sound harsh, but the man made free choices that he must have known were wrong but he must have felt that the ends justified the means. It’s the same way I felt about bin Laden. When I thought of his bullet-ridden body, I felt no remorse or pity for him because I juxtaposed those with images with the images of planes crashing into buildings, people jumping from the towers, and untold levels of human suffering and grief in the aftermath of 9/11. “Make them bear their guilt, O God.” 

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

In contrast to the self-destructive end of those who resist God, those who run to him and take refuge in him are truly happy. They should always be singing for joy. The psalmist asks YHWH to spread his protection over them so that those who love Him may exult in Him. YHWH blesses the righteous person and covers him with favor as with a shield. There are several echoes of earlier psalms here. Psalm 1:1,6 - the blessing on the righteous, their being watched over and known by YHWH. Psalm 2:12 - blessed are all who take refuge in him. Psalm 3:3 - you O LORD are a shield about me. Having walked through the valleys of pain and betrayal, David returns to true north and locks onto these truths that he proclaimed before. He expresses his confidence in the goodness of God and declares his trust in His protection. Those who take refuge in God are a singing people. They should always be singing for joy. We should sing every day. I should do this in my classes, on my way to and from school, with my family around the dinner table. Taking refuge in God suggests rest and trust, hiding in him as one might in a cave or citadel. Rest your soul today and place your trust in him. He can cover you in every way. Even though the psalmist probably had physical safety in mind, there is more here. Find your rest in Him.