Psalms, chapter 5 comments

 

Psalm 5:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David.» 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. 4  For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. 5  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.

 

King David is pleading with God to hear and consider his prayers. This is evidence of David’s commitment to God in spite of David’s sin nature.

Researching any prophetic import of this passage made me think of the prayers of Daniel and those struggling through the Tribulation to come.

 

But personally this is a great prayer for us all. In time of trouble or in time of needing understanding and grappling with a problem in our minds. We can claim this easily.

 

Psalm 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. 8  Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face. 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. 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. 11  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.

 

Now, understand that David has not built the temple yet. That will be reserved for Solomon, his son. This is a metaphorical reference to the tabernacle, which David, as a layman, would not be permitted to serve in. So, he worships in the direction of the tabernacle at Shiloh or the temple which will be in Jerusalem.

Joshua 18:1  And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.

1Samuel 1:24  And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young.

A statement like verse 8, asking to be led in righteousness so that his enemies will have nothing bad to say about him and to make the Lord’s way clear for him seems to be obvious here. He laments the wickedness of his enemies.

We can see what happened in the civil war against him in verse 10. Read 2Samuel 15:12 through 2Samuel 17:23 to see how the counsel of Ahithophel against David was defeated.

Prophetically speaking, verse 8 has a similar but not the same statement of prophecy about John the Baptist in;

Isaiah 40:3 ¶  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Matthew 3:3  For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Psalm 5:9 is alluded to by Paul in a different context, pointing out how both Jew and Gentile are guilty of sin.

Romans 3:13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Psalm 5:11 is a conditional statement that states that putting one’s trust in God is a condition for His deliverance. This is not to say that God can’t deliver you regardless of your trust or in spite of your lack of faith. But, it clearly suggests that trusting in God is important to being delivered by Him from some evil.

Verse 12 shows David’s assurance that the righteous will be protected placing him squarely in his dispensation of the Law and the material, temporal blessings promised to the Israelites if they obeyed and trusted in God.

Now, prophetically we should move forward in time to see Christ entering the temple at Jerusalem as a twelve year old and engaging with the doctors of the Law.

Luke 2:46  And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

And with verse 8 we can go back to the earlier references to Isaiah 40:3 and Matthew 3:3.

Verse 9 is an apt depiction of the way the political/religious parties talked to Christ.

Matthew 22:16  And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.17  Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?18  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?19  Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

 

In chapter 22 of Matthew the Pharisees and the Sadducees also try to manipulate Jesus with their questions as you can see by reading the entire chapter.

 

Verse 10 reminds me of the meetings of the council regarding Christ and later regarding His apostles.

 

Matthew 26:3  Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4  And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

 

Also read Acts, chapter 4 regarding the questioning of Peter and John.

 

For verse 11 and 12 I think of the joy and rejoicing at the marriage supper of the Lamb when those who belong to Christ are in heaven with Him.

 

Revelation 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

 

In our personal lives, today, right now, we can see that while we may have many who speak against us as  Christians we believe we can rely on the Lord and trust in Him and that by doing the right thing we can lay claim to the promises of God for temporal salvation as God does honor the just and righteous as a matter of course although we know that being righteous and just does not guarantee that we will be free from suffering.