PSALM 5
DAVID’S MORNING PRAYER
At the very end of Psalm 4, David ended his day with this thought: He said, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). And then as he awakes the next morning, we overhear David’s prayer in Psalm 5, which is where we are going to be today. We know this is a morning prayer based on v 3. It tells us. David begins his day as he ended it, by talking to God.
We have no idea when David penned this psalm. There are a lot of conjectures. It could have been any time during his 33-year reign as king of Israel in Jerusalem. David mentions nothing specific in this prayer by which we can pinpoint the historical timeframe. But we DO know that David, as he prays, has something weighing heavy on his heart. And it has something to do with his enemies. David views his enemies as also being God’s enemies. David was the king of Israel. He was a good king, a successful king by any measure. But David had many enemies. David and Israel’s foreign adversaries included the mighty Philistines, the Ammonites, the Syrians, the Moabites, the Edomites and the Amalekites. Just like today, Israel back then was surrounded on three sides by its enemies and on one side by the Mediterranean Sea. But even within the borders of Israel, David had some enemies who challenged his authority and made his life difficult. This included men such as Absalom, Sheba, Shimei and later even his own commander Joab turned against him. So, when David speaks of his enemies here in Psalm 5, he could have had any one of them in mind.
What I want us to focus on as we go through David’s prayer is WHEN he prays (which I just touched on), HOW David prays and WHAT he prays for. David’s focus is not so much on his circumstance. Rather, it is on his great God. So, with that introduction, let’s jump right into Psalm 5.
The title says, “To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.”
This psalm, like many of the psalms, was originally set to music. This particular psalm was intended to be played on the flute. The King James Version says, “upon Nehiloth.” That was a woodwind instrument similar to a flute. It probably looked a lot like what I have pictured up here (a rudimentary set of wood pipes of various lengths connected together) – flute-like. Again, the choirmaster was probably Asaph, the worship leader in the tabernacle during David’s time. But the words of the psalm are a prayer and so they are addressed to the LORD, Yahweh.
READ Psalm 5:1
David wants God to listen to him. He has something important to tell God. At least it is important to David. “Give ear to my words, O LORD.” You get the strong sense that whatever situation David is going through at this time, it is really bothering him. He says “consider my groaning.” David is troubled with a load of care, so he is taking it to the Lord in prayer. That is a good thing to do, right?
READ Psalm 5:2-3
There is a high level of intensity in David’s prayer. He says, “Give attention to the sound of my cry.” In v 3 the Hebrew is complicated, so depending on what translation you have it is going to say it differently. It says it several different ways in English. The ESV (English Standard Version) here says, “I prepare a sacrifice for You and watch” (the end of v 3). The King James Version says, “I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” The New American Standard says, “I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” The idea here is that David is going to methodically lay out his petitions to God. He is going to “order” his prayer. And then he is going to watch and see what God will do. So, what I really want you to see here is that with David there is a hopeful expectation on his part that God will act in response to his prayer. Do you pray that way? That when you pray there is a hopeful expectation that God is going to hear you and do something? He is going to act. You do not know what He is going to do, but He is going to do something. The New Testament word for this is faith. David believes God WILL hear him and will act.
In these first few verses we see that David awakes in the morning. He has concerns just like we do. He is king so you figure his concerns at the time were pretty big. He immediately – apparently even before he eats breakfast – takes those concerns to the Lord. He begins his day talking to God. That is what I want you to see.
[Class comments included the acknowledgement that starting one’s day out with prayer is a good idea. Our day tends to go better if we do that. Another person pushed back against David’s tone as he began this prayer – like David is “commanding” God. He said that David could have stated it differently. My response to this was that David was just being honest with God. His plea comes out of a sense of urgency and desperation.]
READ Psalm 5:4-6
So, even though David has a lot on his mind, he doesn’t jump right into his petition. Instead, the first thing he does is reflect on the righteous character of God. Six times in these three verses David recognizes that God hates sin and people that practice wickedness. He states one of the characteristics of God, that God “abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” He hates sin.
We need to establish something right off the bat. David is the writer of this psalm and he was a good king, right? We are told in scripture that he was a man after God’s own heart. But was David perfect? No. Was he a sinner? Yes, absolutely. So then, if everything David said about God in v 4-6 is true, and they are, then what does David, as a sinner, need to do before he makes his petition before a holy God? He needs to get his heart right with God. If you have sin in your own life and you are wanting something from God, you need to confess that sin and repent. So, that is what David needs to do. He needs to deal with sin in his own life humbly and honestly. That is the subject of the next verse.
READ Psalm 5:7
Now that is humility, isn’t it? David, a sinner, enters into the presence of a holy God based on “the abundance of [God’s] steadfast love.” And the best word to describe this kind of love is lovingkindness. The Hebrew word is Hesed. We do not approach God based on our own worthiness or merit. We have none. We can only approach God based on HIS love for us. We do not deserve it, but He loves us anyway. The New Testament word for this is grace.
“Your house” refers to the tabernacle. You all know that the tabernacle during David’s time was where they worshipped. When David took Jerusalem and made that his capital, they erected a permanent tabernacle there in Jerusalem. Now, David wanted to build God a temple, but God said, “No. It is going to be your son, Solomon, who builds the temple.” So, at this time there is no temple in Jerusalem.
“Your holy temple” is something different. This is not talking about the tabernacle because he talked about that in the first part of the verse. The Hebrew word that is used here for temple has a broad meaning. It can be translated as temple or palace or a large house, a dwelling place for a king. So, I believe that David here is referring to God’s holy dwelling place, which is in heaven. This verse establishes HOW we are to approach a holy God in prayer or in worship… We bow down. We reverence Him. Recognizing God for who He is. He is the God of the universe! And we humble ourselves as we enter into His holy presence.
We are almost halfway through this psalm and David has not even made his petition yet. Well, now he does. He makes his first request of God and it comes in v 8.
READ Psalm 5:8
David’s first request is surprising in a way. David asks that God lead him in the way of God’s righteousness. That is a good thing to ask for, isn’t it? In the 23rd Psalm (we are all familiar with that psalm) David says, “[The LORD] leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). But there is a motivation behind David wanting to pursue God’s righteousness. It is “because of my enemies.” I find that interesting. David rejects THEIR evil ways. He does not want to follow in THEIR path. He knows that THEIR way ultimately will lead to destruction. So, David is asking for God’s guidance and direction in his life. “Make Your ways straight before me.” David’s desire is to follow God’s will. That is referred to in the Bible as “the straight way;” as opposed to meandering and drifting through life, doing things his own way and making a mess of things. David has learned his lesson the hard way. We know about his life and some of the mistakes that he made. He does not want to go down that path again.
I love listening to David’s prayers in the psalms. He just has this beautiful way with words. David is really an interesting study. Here is a man who was an “alpha” male, a warrior. And yet he had this tender heart. And so, I just love listening to his words. But I thought about something profound as I was reading these verses. And it is this: As New Testament believers we have a clear advantage over David and all of those great Old Testament saints, don’t we? We have an advantage. We see the righteousness of God exemplified in the Person of Jesus Christ. We have the Gospels to show us how He lived the life that we should be living, right? And so, He is our example. We have an advantage in that we can see the example of Christ on the pages of scripture. Second Corinthians 5:21, Paul says this: “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin [speaking of Jesus], so that in Him [in Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.” We might become the righteousness of God – something David is praying for, right? We sinners, saved by grace, redeemed, possess the righteousness of Jesus. That is a pretty deep thought. So, when you or I approach God, we do so on the basis of HIS righteousness not our own. David is praying for something that we have in Christ.
READ Psalm 5:9-10
David prays for God to destroy the wicked, who are, yes, David’s enemies, but also the enemies of God – “they have rebelled against You.” Notice that all of the actions of the wicked that David describes in v 9 have to do with the words they say. “No truth in their mouth.” “Their throat is an open grave.” “They flatter with their tongue.” As part of his indictment of mankind in Romans Chapter 3, Paul quotes v 9 here. So, basically David prays for God’s justice to be rendered against his enemies. But David leaves the judgment of these evil men (who are David’s enemies and God’s enemies) in God’s righteous hands. So, while David may be a bit troubled by his enemies in this moment, he trusts God, his righteous King, to intervene and work things out.
[One class member commented that v 10 is not how we should pray for our enemies. We should pray for their redemption, not for them to be “cast out.” My response is that this is an example of an imprecatory psalm. The use of imprecatory psalms has stirred some debate in Christian circles – should we pray prayers of destruction and judgment upon our enemies? If we do pray for our enemies we need to pray for their redemption. However, if they will not repent, then we pray for God’s judgment on them. We do not take matters into our own hands. Let God deal with them in His righteous indignation or in His mercy, depending on where their heart is.]
So, let’s see how David ends his prayer.
READ Psalm 5:11-12
David here is asking for the Lord’s protection, both for him and for the righteous, God’s people, in general. This certainly would be spiritual protection because we know that we are in a spiritual battle against Satan every day. As Paul says in Ephesians, we are to “Put on the whole armor of God…” (Ephesians 6:11). So, it certainly could be applied to a spiritual warfare here. But I also think that this could be a prayer for physical protection or even emotional protection. As you read about David’s life, he had real enemies who wanted to do him real physical harm. So, it could be that as well.
David the great warrior king uses an analogy from the battlefield (something he was very familiar with) to describe God’s protection. The fiery darts and arrows of the enemy are flying all around us, but God covers us with a “shield.” The end result of a life lived by faith and trust is eloquently stated in v 11 – “that those who love Your name may exult in You. The idea here is to jump for joy! That is literally what “exult” means. If you ever hear that word “exult” it means “jumping for joy.” That is what you need to picture. And that is what David is talking about – a joyful celebration of God’s goodness to us despite the present circumstances.
So, how is it that we Christians can be optimistic even when things all around us are falling apart? You look at the news. You hear about little girls at a camp being swept away in flood waters. You hear about terrorism killing innocent people. All these terrible stories that you hear in the news everyday is so depressing, isn’t it? School shootings and innocent people dying. And then even in your own lives there are things that happen that just seem to be unfair and sometimes tragic. So, how can we as Christians, as followers of Jesus, be so optimistic (even in the midst of all these terrible circumstances around us)? Because we serve a God who causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him. Romans 8:28, right?
It isn’t that we are living in some fantasy world – “Well, it is all going to be great. It is all going to work out.” We just have this oversimplified way of looking at things – “Oh, it is all going to be fine.” It is not that at all. This is why we can be so optimistic. I really looked for the best example I could find (to explain this) and I found the following article. It is by a Christian judge (Craig Belford). He and his wife live in the Chicago area. They are telling the story of how he and his wife adopted this little girl. Over eight months they grew to love this little girl. But then the birth mother changed her mind (you know how the law is) and the little girl was taken away from them. It left them devastated and asking “why?” You can understand this. It would have been just a heart-wrenching event in their life. He concludes his article and I wanted to close this lesson by sharing it with you. This is a Christian judge and this is what he said. With this we will wrap this lesson up...
“[God never promises] that we will not suffer; on the contrary, Scripture assures us that we will. The promise is that God will meet us in that suffering and that, from it, He will bring about something beautiful.
And really, how could we [believers in Jesus] ever doubt this? Because isn’t that exactly what we see, on full glorious display, when we look at the Cross? As Jesus hung there – condemned and scourged by mockers; stripped and beaten and spat upon; pierced, bleeding, and nailed to a Roman cross – what else was there to believe than that all hope was lost, that evil had triumphed, and that God had fled the scene?
Yet we now know that, in that very moment, God was not only working. He was upending history. He was disarming Satan, conquering death, and reconciling all things to Himself. And He was doing this, not by preventing the evil that put His Son on the Cross, but by appropriating and redeeming the evil that put His Son on the Cross.
What they meant for evil, God meant for good.
And the promise of Romans 8:28 is that He can and will do the same for each of us, who love Him and are called according to His purpose. This is the God we worship.”
And that is what I believe David knew and what he expresses so beautifully in Psalm 5.