Psalms 5:1

The Bible says in Psalms 5:1-3, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.[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.” In these verses David is talking about prayer, and he is thinking a lot about prayer. He refers to his “words,” his “meditation,” and his “voice.” Prayer is talking to God. David calls God “my King.” David was King of Israel, but David knew that he was under another King: the King of glory. Too bad that more rulers do not realize that. David also said that he prayed “in the morning.” It is best to start your day looking to God. You will need Him all day long, so make sure you are looking to Christ Jesus at the start of the day.

The Bible says in Psalms 5:4, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.” One of the most important things to think about God is that He is holy. That means He is separate from sin. That means He hates sin. That means He will punish sin: guaranteed. How blessed we are to have a Savior who took our sins upon Him and died in our place.

But it does not look good for those who do not have Jesus as their Savior. It says in Psalms 5:5-6, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.[6] Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” Those who do not know God are called “foolish,” “workers of iniquity,” “liars” (the word “leasing” means lying,) “bloody,” and “deceitful.” When you are bothered or troubled or hurt by the unbelievers of the world, do not forget the terrible destiny that they are headed for. They will not stand in God’s presence. God hates them from the standpoint of their sinful condition. God will “destroy them.” “The LORD will abhor” them.

The Bible says in Psalms 5:7, “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.” How does one go from being a wicked person to being a Christian? You come to the Lord on the basis of His mercy. King David knew that truth, and so does everyone who is a true believer in Jesus. This verse also mentions “fear.” One of the reasons to seek mercy from God is because the only other option is His wrath against sin. Mercy sounds like the better option. Mercy is when you do not receive what you deserve. If you have the right amount of fear so that you seek mercy, then you will be able to worship God in spirit and in truth. The word “worship” means “to bow down before.” Why do we bow before God? He is great and we are small. God is strong and we are weak. God is holy and we are sinful. God is wise and we are foolish. God knows all things and we know almost nothing. The last part of this verse mentions the “holy temple.” In the Old Testament the temple symbolized the presence of God. In the New Testament age we have Christ within us once we accept Him through belief in His person and His name.

The Bible says in Psalms 5:8, “Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.” David asked God to “lead” David. That is a wise prayer to pray. We definitely need God’s leading for several reasons. There are many dangers in the world such as the “enemies” that David mentioned, and we do not know the final consequence of any decision that we make. God knows. If we ask God to lead us, then we know that whatever comes our way is His will. We have the promise that God will lead us. It says in Psalms 23:3, “…he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” In verse 8 David said to God, “make thy way straight.” God’s way is always the straight and narrow way. It is straight and narrow because there are a lot of ideas and philosophies out there in the world that are contrary to God’s Word. Because God’s way is straight and narrow, it is easy to get off from it. That is one of the reasons that confession of sin daily is so important for a Christian. Confession of sin gets you back on the straight and narrow way. It says in First John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The Bible says in Psalms 5:9, “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.” In this verse there are four descriptions of ungodly people. Three of those things have to do with the words that come from the ungodly people. Their words are described as being unfaithful, an open sepulcher, and flattery. Their words are unfaithful: you cannot trust what they say. Their throat is an open sepulchre: their words are destructive instead of comforting or helpful. They use flattery: they say what they think people want to hear instead of what is the truth.

The Bible says in Psalms 5:10, “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.” The Spirit of God uses David to describe what the ungodly deserve and what will happen to them. In the future judgment they will be destroyed, and they will be cast out of heaven. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 8:11-12, “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.[12] But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

King David says an interesting phrase about the ungodly in verse 10: “let them fall by their own counsels.” The ungodly think they are so smart. They think they are fooling everyone, but in reality they are only deceiving themselves. The very ideas that they think makes them so smart will lead to their own destruction.

The Bible says in Psalms 5:11-12, “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.” Verse 11 is a verse that tells how to be happy. It uses the words “rejoice,” “shout for joy,” and “joyful.” There is a condition in order to have this joy: we must put our “trust” in Him. We trust in the Lord Jesus to make things work out according to His will. We trust in the Lord to make a good outcome from what seemed to us to be bad. We shout for you because God defends us. We will have enemies, but God promises to defend us, so let’s see what God decides to do. In verse 12 we are told that God will “bless,” “favor,” and “compass” believers “with a shield.” We have as it were, a magic shield around us. Nothing can harm us until God is done with us on this earth. It is great to be a Christian. There are so many benefits. Of course, the greatest benefit will be going to sleep some day, and waking up in heaven because of Jesus.

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