Psalms chapter 5
Psalms chapter 5 says, “To
the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A psalm of David.
Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of
my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will
I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God that
hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish
shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing:
the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 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. Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine
enemies; make thy way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in
their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open
sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue. 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. 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. For thou, LORD, wilt
bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass them about as with a shield.”
In Psalm chapter 5 King David begins by asking God
to consider his meditation. The gist of Psalms chapter 5 is that king David is
saying he understands that God hates evil and that God loves those who desire
to do what is right and to trust in God. What do you meditate upon? Some people
spend their time thinking about how they can get rich or how they can get even
to those that they desire revenge on. Some people spend their time thinking
about how they can influence others in a bad way. Someone people simply spend
their time thinking about the normal cares of life from health to food to
shelter to family without ever seeking God’s involvement. It’s obvious, based
on this Psalm, that King David’s primary concern, his chief meditation, was
whether or not he would do what is right. What do you meditate upon? Hopefully,
your primary meditation is something similar. God does consider, God does know what people think about.
Psalm 5:2 says, “Hearken
unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.”
To Whom do you pray? Prayer is simply
talking but it also carries with it the idea of submission and reliance upon.
That is why salvation through faith in Christ is always a prayer, “Jesus save
me from my sins!” To whom do you pray, who do you talk to? Some people talk to themselves,
some people talk to idols of stone and wood, some people talk to everyone in
the world except the most important person, their King and their God.
It’s important to notice that David said, “King
and God.” Both are connected. A king is a person with absolute authority and
God is a person with infinite everything. Like it or not there is only one God
and He is also your King, Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:10-11 says, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” To whom do you pray? Hopefully, Jesus. Psalms
5:3 says, “My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will
look up.” How do you begin your mornings? With a cup
of coffee? With a drink of alcohol? Perhaps you
begin your morning by reading the newspaper or by turning on the radio. What is
the very first thing you do when you arise in the morning? King David began his
morning by praying to Jesus.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus must have often
done in His life on this earth when he first arose each morning? Mark 1:35, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day,
he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Psalms
5:4-5 says, “For thou art not a God that hath
pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall
not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all the workers
of iniquity.” An important reason to begin your day in prayer to Jesus
and with the motivation of trying to do what is right is because God hates
those that do evil. Have you ever been hated by someone? Imagine being hated by
the all powerful eternal God. It may seem contradictory that the Bible says God
is love, and yet here it says God hates the workers of iniquity. Stick your
head in a fiery furnace and you will know what it feels like to be hated by
good. It’s not good. Fortunately we can be spared the Holy hatred of God
because of Jesus. First Thessalonians 1:10 says, “And
to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Thank God that this life and
its opportunities are based on the grace of God and the mercy of God through
Christ because God hates the workers of iniquity. We are all workers of
iniquity without Jesus. So begin your morning with prayer and with the
motivation of trying to do what is right.
One very important word to notice in verse 4 is
the word pleasure. “For thou art
not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.” Pleasure itself is not a
bad thing, God created pleasure. God Himself has pleasures in things. The world
emphasizes pleasure in the wrong things and in a distorted way. There is
pleasure. There are rivers of pleasure to be found in God. Do not reject Jesus
because of the things you will have to sacrifice or because of the pleasure
that you will have to give up or that God may take from you anyway. Remember
God is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, but as Revelation 4:11 says,
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honour and power: for thou hast created all
things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” This world is filled with pleasures. But there is much
more pleasure with God and it is eternal. Consider these verses, Second
Thessalonians 1:11, “Wherefore also we pray
always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work
of faith with power:” Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Second Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Psalms 5:6 says, “Thou
shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will
abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” There are 3 words here to describe
the characteristics of wicked people of the which God
says he will destroy and abhor: Leasing, bloody, and deceitful. Leasing carries
with it the idea of monetary gain. The word itself means dishonest or lies.
Most people that lie are doing so thinking they will gain out of it somehow.
Sometimes people lie to hide their sins and sometimes people lie to attempt to
gain dishonestly from others materially, to get what they want. Of course any
lie is going to hurt someone somewhere and cause damage to some life somewhere.
A lie is opposite of the truth and there is nothing more important than the
truth. There are those who seek after leasing to the point even of causing
great destruction in the lives of others. God says He is going to destroy such
people. Think of all the people in the world who have plotted and schemed
against coworkers or employees or neighbors or family concerning inheritances.
Too bad they didn’t wake up in the morning and call upon the name of Jesus.
The next words are used in association with each other:
bloody and deceitful. Bloody is a work used in connection with the killing and
the shedding of blood. There certainly is a lot of
murder that goes in the world. If we counted up from the beginning of human
history to the end of time all those who are murdered it will number in the
millions perhaps even billions. Of course the word “deceitful”
is also connected with the word “bloody”
because it basically is the same thing but in a more indirect and subtle type
of way. People who deceive, who mislead who plot and trap others, in a way
murder those peoples’ lives and cause them ruin or loss of opportunity. To lead
someone astray from the truth is akin to murder because of the obvious negative
results that come when you turn away from righteousness to sinful things.
Second Peter 2:1-2
says, “But there were false prophets also among the
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the
Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many
shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom
the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” Many shall follow their
pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evil spoken of. To be deceitful is to be bloody. Those who are of
course the most guilty are those who consciously and
willfully, as wolves in sheep’s clothing, seek to misguide people from the way
of the truth which is following Jesus and His teachings. An excellent example
of this is
There is one thing
that will keep a person who seeks after Jesus in a relationship with Him
no matter how much they fail and no matter how much the evil of the world assails them, and that is the multitude of
God’s forgiveness and mercy. The more you come
to know, understand, and appreciate the mercy of God, the more you will want to
be in the presence of God. It’s important to understand how much God’s mercy is
involved in our lives. Titus 3:5-6 says, “Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he
shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;”
Usually Christians understand how much God’s mercy is involved in salvation but
don’t stop there. God’s mercy is just as multitudinous, just as abundantly shed,
and just as needed in every other detail of life. We need God’s mercy if we are
to have any hope of waking up in the morning and seeking after Him.
King David said he
would fear in the multitude of God’s mercy. Mercy and fear don’t sound like
words that go together, do they? But everyone fears something. You will either
fear God or other things and other people. To fear God means to have respect
and reverence, and more importantly it means to not be stiff necked against His
will. It means you do not ignore the fact that God judges sin. The more we see
the multitude of God’s mercies, the more we will fear Him. This is a healthy
kind of fear.
King David also
prayed that God would lead him in God’s righteousness because of his enemies.
We need God to guide us and one reason that we do is because we have enemies.
Your biggest enemy is the devil. First Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour:” The more you serve God the more the forces of evil
will come after you, because one of the greatest interests of the devil is to
stop the spread of the truth. If you are one of the few in this world who is a part of the spreading of the Word of God
and the Gospel of Christ it may indeed be the devil himself that attacks you.
Of course another enemy is yourself. Because you have your own self will and sinful nature.
Romans 7:23 says, “But I see another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members.”
And there is still a
third enemy and that is other people who are opposed to Jesus. Because of these
3 enemies you need God to guide you. This is why King David prayed, “Make thy way straight before my face.” A path that
is straight is easier to follow than one that curves and winds. A path that is
straight is easier to keep on and not stray from. Only God can make your path
such and all it takes is to pray to Him and He will show you the way. He will
teach you the right decisions to make day by day and most importantly He will
give you the multitude of mercies that you will need. It is no wonder that King
David said he would worship in fear.
Psalms 5:9-10 says, “For there is no faithfulness in their mouths; their
inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter
with their tongue. Destroy thou them O God; let them fall by their own
councils; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have
rebelled against thee.” David prayed for God to guide him in
righteousness from his enemies. Regarding these enemies, these verses describe
what such people are like. They are people that have rebelled against God. God
is the one with the power and the supreme authority. Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for
thy pleasure they are and were created.” Creation and man are for God’s
pleasure, not the other way around.
Another
characteristic to notice about these verses is that they flatter with their
tongue. It is important what you say. The evil people of the world will in
their speech sound nice and fair but inwardly they are raving wolves. Beware of
your enemies. They will seek to flatter you, to lull you, to entice you, to
lure you away from the straight path which God would have you follow. Do not
fear. God will destroy them. He is going to let them find destruction in the
consequences which are a result of their own council. To rebel against God can
only result in failure and destruction, because mercy is found only in
multitude and abundance with Christ. Make sure you pray as King David did in
Psalms 5:8a, “Lead me, O Lord, in thy
righteousness, because of mine enemies.”
Psalms 5:11-12 says,
“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. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour
wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” God defends those that trust in
him. Maybe you don’t have a lawyer and maybe you don’t have an army of soldiers;
that’s ok. God defends those that trust in Him.
Romans 8:31 says, “If God be
for us who can be against us?”
One way you can tell a person’s attitude towards
someone is how they speak about that person. It is easy to tell who loves the
name of God. A name is something that surmises a person’s character. It
represents who they are in a word. No wonder we can love the name of God. Often
when we think of a person’s name we immediately think of the best or worst
qualities of that person. God has no bad qualities. God is Holy. How marvelous
is his name. Just to think about His name and to love his name has a marvelous
effect on people, a powerful effect. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him
a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.” His name is above every name, it is the name Jesus. Psalms says, those
that love His name will find joy.
The last verse in Psalms 5 says, “For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” The
concept of a shield is used a lot in the Bible. God first used it when he said
to Abraham in Genesis 15:1, “After these things
the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am
thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” What
does it mean to have favor as a shield? An excellent example of this would be
the life of Joseph. Acts 7:9-10 says, “And the
patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, And
delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour
and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over
Egypt and all his house.” Remember the righteous are those that have
trusted in Jesus and rely upon Him for righteousness. Such people God will
compass about with favor as with a shield. Some people believe in luck, good
luck and back luck, but the truth is there is the favor of God that is better
than being lucky. The favor of God is a shield and a sure thing for the
righteous. Favor falls on anything that the righteous do. That is why those who
trust in God are always successful. But remember success is not measured by the
world’s standards. Some people fear failure. Some people fear opposition. The
righteous find favor as a shield. Of course, the greatest favor you can have is
favor at the final judgment. And this comes only through the blood of Jesus
Christ.
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Copyright; 2011 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved