Psalm 5

Facing a Distorted World

For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David.

1 Listen to my words, Lord,

consider my lament.

2 Hear my cry for help,

my King and my God,

for to you I pray.

3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;

in the morning I lay my requests before you

and wait expectantly.

4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;

with you, evil people are not welcome.

5 The arrogant cannot stand

in your presence.

You hate all who do wrong;

6 you destroy those who tell lies.

The bloodthirsty and deceitful

you, Lord, detest.

7 But I, by your great love,

can come into your house;

in reverence I bow down

towards your holy temple.

8 Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness

because of my enemies –

make your way straight before me.

9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;

their heart is filled with malice.

Their throat is an open grave;

with their tongues they tell lies.

10 Declare them guilty, O God!

Let their intrigues be their downfall.

Banish them for their many sins,

for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;

let them ever sing for joy.

Spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

12 Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;

you surround them with your favour as with a shield.

If Psalms 3&4 were for the night, this one is for the morning (v3). It is the prayer and song of one who is considering the day ahead, particularly how to live in a world distracted and distorted by the Deceiver (vv6&9).

But first, notice the audacity of the opening to this Psalm. “Listen”. “Consider”. “Hear”. David is calling on God to heed his words, to give attention to his cries.

There’s a boldness to his prayer. A courage totally appropriate to the Christian.

This is what Jesus commended in his parable about the woman who hounded the unrighteous judge to give her justice. And so we are invited to plead with the Righteous Judge, who is also our Heavenly Father (Luke 18.1-8). The King is not just showing his prayers to us in this Psalm but summoning us to join him, however weak and broken we are, in his confident supplication to God. The fuel for our courage and persistence in prayer is the knowledge of the righteousness and love of God.

The reality into which David composed this Psalm is a group of people distorting reality through their lies. It’s a not dissimilar situation to Psalms 3&4. David is on the sharp end of a propaganda machine against him. And he is strong and striking in his depiction of his adversaries. “Their throat is an open grave”. He is implying that their lies lead people to death. For that is what deceit does. It twists the truth. It tears us away from reality. This is what the Deceiver does, with his ploys and plots, seeking to lead us away from the source of life (Ephesians 6.11; Proverbs 7.22-27).

The lies of David’s enemies have caused him enormous distress and damage. Yet his confidence is that the God he seeks earnestly in prayer is just and true. Those who would seek to distort the truth of God will not be able to dwell in the presence of God. You might have heard it said that God cannot be in the presence of sin. It might be more accurate that sin cannot abide to be in the vicinity of God’s unbridled holiness (Isaiah 6.5). So the King prays for sin to be purged and unrepentant sinners to be cast out of God’s sight.

Yet while deceit and corruption cannot abide in the presence of God, we can. And that is solely due to the great love of God. Praise the Lord! The Apostle Paul actually quotes v9 in Romans 3.13. He says this applies to all of us on earth if we aren’t in Christ. But here in v7, we see the molten hot core of the gospel. The abundant and boundless love of God. We are drawn into the presence of God, the fount of life and joy, solely and wholly by the love of God in Christ (Romans 5.8). The hope of David here is fulfilled through his descendant, Jesus the true and everlasting King, whose death opened the way to life for all who believe in him.

And so the King invites his people, you and I, to rejoice, sing for joy and exult in God (v11-12), because in Christ, he has shielded and delivered us from the lies of the Evil One, blessing us with the crown of his great grace.

Glory be to the Father, who is the refuge of love for his people.

Glory be to the Son, who is the living truth of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

Glory be to the Spirit, who draws us into the beauty and security of the presence of the Triune God.