Psalm 5

Psalm 5

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
² Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
³ My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

⁴ For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
⁵ The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
⁶ You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

⁷ But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.

⁹ For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction;
Their throat is an open tomb;
They flatter with their tongue.
¹⁰ Pronounce them guilty, O God!
Let them fall by their own counsels;
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
For they have rebelled against You.

¹¹ But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
¹² For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

My voice You shall hear in the morning

Yesterday, our psalm was about going to bed, now it’s time to wake up. First, it highlights our need to call on Him all of the time. At least in my life, I have a tendency to want to call on God whenever I find myself in trouble, but we are supposed to be calling on Him even before we find ourselves in any situation, good or bad. Second, morning is the first part of the day, and we should turn to God first. It’s a small distinction from the first point, but I think it’s important. I like to try to solve my own problems. We live in a culture where everyone feels the need to be self-reliant. Now, I love Emerson and think we should be above conformity, but at some point, we have to realize that believing we can do everything without God is the same as denying His power in our lives.

Make Your way straight before my face

Without God’s guidance in our lives, we wander all over the place, fight uphill battles, and probably trip over some potholes. But, if we turn to God, he gets out his steamroller and makes it the road straight for us. I’m not saying that we won’t face adversity, but when we do, God is our crossing guard. He won’t let us be run over by it. And when we are tripped up, like AAA, he fixes our flat tires and gives us a tow.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth

I noticed that the whole psalm concentrates on the power of the mouth.  First, he praises God with his voice, now we see that the sinful use their mouths for evil. It highlights the importance of our words. We need to guard our speech because through it we can bring destruction or blessings on ourselves.

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them

Once we start using our voices to call upon God, we will be able to shout for joy. At night, God gave us peace, in the morning, we can have joy.