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December 27, 2020
Marshall Posey (North Campus) | Psalms 5:1-12
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.—Psalm 5:1–12
Outline
Introduction
Conclusion
Introduction
I have overheard many people that I interact with say, “I just want to get 2020 behind me.” What they are saying is, “If time can pass, then I hope that it will be better than this.” It is wishful thinking. There is no promise, but their hope is that this next year is better. The question that has been on my mind and on my heart is this: “How do we, at the end of perhaps one of the most challenging years of our lifetime, not waste what God has given us?” So I ask this question: How do hardships, relational distance, division—these things that cause us to lament—actually provide a unique opportunity for us to see that our main need is different than what we think and/or feel?
Psalm 5 is a psalm of lament. One that moves through real feelings of isolation from God and people, of being unheard, of division with those we once thought to be on our side, and of wondering why wickedness is rampant—but also one that in those feelings moves us through poetic language from personal lament to worship to praise.
I believe that Psalm 5 provides a stark and much-needed contrast from the wisdom of our day. Psalm 5 gives words for where many of us find ourselves today. And it provides a pathway in lament which has us look at justice, righteousness, ourselves, and God. I want to acknowledge the pain of our day. Many of you are hurting. Perhaps some of you spent Christmas alone. Some of you have enemies, real enemies that are after you. And many of you have pain that you don’t want. Many of you are fearful of getting sick or of a loved one getting sick—and dying. Many are not able to worship with us in person because of the risks that may come. And in that, what is not needed is wishful thinking. That if time just passes, all will be well. You and I need something that is solid. Something we can stand on in true hope.
Psalm 5 being a song, some of you may have noticed the heading “To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.” This psalm has a poetic flow and also a specific movement in lament. It was one that David prayed for a purpose, as led by the Spirit of God. In it we have two major sections that both culminate in David praying about the reason for his hope in God.
My outline (for those of you taking notes) is simply a three-step flow:
Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.—Psalm 5:1–2
This is real. The psalmist is asking God to hear his prayer. Something seems unjust. What is clear in this section is that the psalmist, like us, cannot make the situation better. He cannot make the enemies go away. This is not a quick fix. The prayer is specific to God. Do you pray to God? In your lament, is your crying to God? Too often I find that we are quick to bring our crying and hurts to others. It’s as if our goal is to be heard and affirmed by other people. So we go to our like-minded friends, family members, Facebook pages, Instagram, Twitter, and our own self-pity, and we defend our position. None of these things are necessarily bad, but if they are keeping you from coming in humble contrite prayer to God, then they are a stumbling block. Why?
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.—Hebrews 12:14
They are not leading you in holiness. Bethlehem, are you bringing your prayers of lament to God?
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.—Psalm 5:3
This is in the morning. If you went to Psalm 4 you would see that that prayer is in the evening. This shows us that we are to bring our prayers before God both evening and morning. The ESV uses the phrase “I prepare a sacrifice for you.” What the Hebrew text says is “I prepare,” but it leaves the object blank. The ESV added the object “sacrifice,” the NASB adds “prayer,” and the NIV adds “requests.” What is being said is that the person praying is putting something before God, putting something in order, or arranging something. Based on the context here—a focus on prayer—I believe that David is laying out, putting in order, and arranging his prayers and requests before God.
First, in this lament there is active praying, preparing, bringing, and laying out our prayers before God, as the one who alone works all things for his pleasure. And second, there is a humble laying of one’s prayers and requests before God and then watching. Watching to see how God will work. Are you praying to God and then watching with spiritual eyes for how God is working?
There is a song I heard that had a simple phrase: “God change,” implying, “change what is happening, or change me.”
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.—Psalm 5:4–6
The psalmist is using language—poetic language—to describe God. In this he is affirming what he knows about God from Scripture. The psalmist knows the Scripture and affirms, by way of reminder, who God is ...
Some of you may remember or notice from our study through Habakkuk that Habakkuk quoted Psalm 5:5 when he voiced his second complaint in Habakkuk 1:13. Habakkuk sees the wicked and they seem to be thriving and the righteous are hurting. And he says, “How can this be?” Do you remember God’s answer to his complaint?
“It [judgement on the wicked] will surely come; it will not delay. ... ‘The righteous shall live by his faith.’”—Habakkuk 2:3–4
We call judgement on the wicked “justice.” Habakkuk reminds us that it will come. And if God is just and brings about ultimate justice, he must judge all sinners, all wickedness. God hates wickedness, evil, boasting, evildoers, liars, and bloodthirsty and deceitful people. I almost missed this in my study. I moved too quickly to God bringing justice against others. In my quick movement of knowing an ultimate answer, I missed the truth of who I am. I am the wicked. How about you? I will pick two. Who here has not boasted in themselves or lied?
These three verses are designed to lay us low. Justice is coming; it will be here before we know it.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.—Psalm 5:7
This is the path of the prayer. I have called it “the hope of God’s justice.” David, through the abundance of God’s steadfast love, will enter the house of God. He will bow down. Lay himself down toward God’s holy temple in fear of God.
This is the opposite of the wicked in verse 4. David is dwelling with God; the wicked may not dwell. David has entered the house of God; the boastful cannot stand before God in verse 5. David is bowing down toward the temple of God in fear of God and is not destroyed like the liars in verse 6.
The response of those who “through the abundance [outpouring] of God’s steadfast love” see his perfect holiness in the words of Isaiah 6.
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”—Isaiah 6:5–7
So, too, each person, when they come before God, should say in worship, “You are the one who was merciful to me, was slow to anger, loved me first, and gave me the amazing gift of Jesus. Thank you for bringing me to repentance and faith. Each day, by your steadfast love and faithfulness, you have kept me from going back to my wickedness. And even when I do sin, 1 John 2:1–2 tells me, ‘But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’” So we can say, “Because you touched me, my guilt has been taken away and my sin has been atoned for and I am in your presence.”
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.—Psalm 5:8
Remember that something hard is going on here. A deep struggle, a real enemy. The psalmist feels surrounded on all sides. It seems that there is no escape—thus the tears and groaning. The psalmist does not know where to go; he does not know the path. Many of you have been here. You have lived this. From there the prayer of the psalmist is simply stunning. “Lead me. I am not leading you. I am not leading myself. God, lead me.”
The psalmist is not out fighting his own battle. He is prostrate before God, bowing down in worship and crying out, “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, because of what I am facing. God, lead me in what I need most. Your righteousness.” Do you see that your greatest need in all the troubles of life is the righteousness of God? Do you see your greatest need in trials, hurt, lament, the year 2020, and the year 2021 is to be led in his righteousness? Righteousness is “the state of doing what is required according to a standard.” This is an acknowledgement: “What I need most is not to be right, but to be led in your righteousness.”
Simply put, “Oh God, I do not know what to do. This really hurts and the pain does not stop. Where else could I go? Lead me to do what is right according to your standard on the path you have given me.”
Bethlehem, is this the plea of your heart? Or do you just want to get through and have people be like you. Oh, what we miss if we do not seek to be led in God’s righteousness each and every day. Is your greatest desire for yourself, and for those around you, to be led in the righteousness of God? Pray for it. Seek it.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.—James 4:7–8
Submit yourself to God. Actively seek and plead with God for his righteousness to be given and acted upon in your life, specifically in times of need. Oh, how sweet the aroma of a dear saint whose lone desire before God is to be led by the Lord in his righteousness in the face of opposition.
How strong the testimony is of one who walks before God in righteousness in times of lament. People see it and say, “I want that.”
As a younger man I watched three men. I saw how, when they were devastated by life’s troubles, what came out was grace. You pricked them and love for Jesus and Christ’s righteousness was all that was on display. And I looked and said, “I want that.”
What is the righteousness that God requires? What is the main path on which God wants us to go?
“The righteous shall live by their faith.”—Habakkuk 2:4
God wants us to live lives marked by faith in him.
For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.—Psalm 5:9–10
These enemies are filled with lies and deceit. What comes out of them is deadly. Again, the psalmist knows the truth of God as revealed in the Scripture, so he knows they have rebelled against God.
The first part of verse 10 says, “Make them bear their guilt, O God.” The psalmist knows the word of God. He knows that there will be judgement for evil.
The verse continues, “Let them fall by their own counsels.” Let their own counsel bring them to failure. And why? Look at the end of verse 10. “For they have rebelled against God.”
I mentioned that this psalm ends with change from an individual psalm to a community lament.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.—Psalm 5:11
Do you see that taking refuge is an act of faith? It is trusting in the promises of God. Trusting that God’s grace is sufficient, if an act of faith. There is a refuge. A shelter, a strong fortress in which there is rejoicing. A refuge is a place of rest. A place where one is protected not by one’s own strength, but by the strength that the refuge provides. A storm may be raging all around but, in a refuge, one is resting.
Let them ever sing for joy
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.—Psalm 5:11
Those who are in the refuge are singing for joy. They are safe in the refuge. The refuge is protecting them like a shield. Have you noticed that in seasons of struggle and lament we stop singing? One of my daughters told me that when I was walking through a tough season I did not sing. There is power in singing praises to God. Use Psalms as your praise book. Sing for joy. Come to the refuge and sing. What happens in your heart when you see that you are safe in a refuge? You rejoice, you sing, you exult. You are hopeful. Do you know how everything will turn out with every detail? No, but you have hope. You are certain of the outcome, which is expressed by faith enabling certain happiness in God. In this refuge there is rejoicing, singing, and exulting for joy. What starts as a cry of prayer to be heard ends in worshiping before the throne of God.
For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.—Psalm 5:12
There are those who are righteous. There is a refuge, where God’s blessing of ultimate protection is seen for the righteous. He covers them with his favor, as with a shield. Enemies are all about, but in the shield of his rest is protection. Jesus said,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.—John 10:27–28
For those who have responded with faith in Christ, there is righteousness. For those who by faith are living before God, there is hope. You are in his hand and no one can snatch you out.
How do we apply Psalm 5?
Turn to Romans 3. It is the section of the New Testament where Psalm 5, specifically verse 9, is quoted in Romans 3:13. We will start at verse 10.
If you are reading your Bible and you are not sure how to apply it, look for how other sections of Scripture apply it. I think the way it is applied here will help us not to miss what God has for us.
As it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”—Romans 3:10–26
How can one come before a holy God as we read in Psalm 5:7? It says,
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in fear of you.—Psalm 5:7
We just read in Romans 3:18 that no one fears God. The next verse makes it clear it is not by being good enough. It is not by perfectly obeying the law—Romans 3:20 tells us that ...
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
What is shocking for us is that we miss who we are in the psalm. Romans 3 reminds us that we were the ones who were not righteous.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.—Romans 3:21–22
God’s righteousness, in Psalm 5:8 is received by faith in Jesus for all who believe in him.
In your lament, in your seeing things as they ought not be, do you see your sin? Are you seeing perhaps for the first time that your life has not been a life of righteousness? In fact, you realize that you have not met the standard of God. Let me plead with you to look at the steadfast love of Jesus. Jesus, whose virgin birth we celebrated on Friday. He grew up. He called people to see that the kingdom of God has come. He lived a perfect life before God and man. And he prayed to God that if it would be possible, that the cup of God’s righteous wrath would. Yet not as he willed, but as God willed. Jesus, in obedience to the Father, went to the cross. And on that cross, he took the righteous wrath of God on himself. He who was wholly righteous became the unrighteous. He looked out at sinful humanity around him and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He died. Was buried. And on the third day rose from the dead in new life. He is alive. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is at work in your trials.
He alone gives his righteousness to those who repent of their sins and trust in him. The psalmist says,
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in fear of you.—Psalm 5:7
You and I can draw near to a just and righteous God only through the abundance of God’s steadfast love. God’s steadfast love is found in Jesus. Cry out to him. Pray to him. Lay your life down as a sacrifice and watch how he works. The psalmist says,
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.—Psalm 5:8
We are brought to God through Jesus. So too a person is led in Jesus’ righteousness by taking refuge in Jesus by faith. Who is your refuge? If it is not God, it will fail you. Time passing does not work.
There is a place that leads to rejoicing. There is a place where songs of joy rise. There is a place where hope is certain. There is a place of exultation. It is at the feet of Jesus, worshiping.
Conclusion
In my opening prayer, I prayed for two key things. First, that God would call people to treasure Christ, and second, that God would make and strengthen disciples. A disciple is a follower of Jesus.
Treasure Christ. Let your hurt, injustice, sin, and unrighteousness bring you to Jesus. Turn to him, repent to him, trust in him. Have faith in him. Hope in him. When others mock you, treasure him. In him are treasures that never end.
Make disciples of Jesus. When Jesus called the disciples, he said, “Come and follow me.” And they followed him. What if your hurt and your pain led you each and every day to prayerfully consider, “How do I live, walk, and respond in righteousness?” Don’t waste your lament, your pain, and your hurt.
I read a book about a man named Tom. Tom was working hard, aiming to do great work for the Kingdom. It seemed that he had alignment and agreement with those who would influence the final vote in the area where he served. They seemed to be for him, and he saw the dream God had given him looking like it would become a reality. Then suddenly the main person who was over the area where he served seemed to turn against him. He spoke harsh words about Tom and withdrew his support and encouraged others to do the same. Several years later, Tom’s son went to Bible college. In one of his classes, he heard about what had happened in the area he grew up and heard his father’s name. What he heard seemed odd to him, as he had never heard anything but positive words toward those that, he was learning, were against his father. He went home and asked his dad if what he heard was true. His dad said it was. When he asked why his parents never said anything to him about this, his dad said, “Your mom and I decided that we never wanted to say anything that would cause you to think negatively about someone else, so we resolved to only speak what was positive.” In this, Tom showed that Christ was his treasure. He personally trusted that Christ’s righteousness was enough, and he wanted that same righteousness for his own children.
The only thing that matters—which is what Psalm 5 points to—is the righteousness of Christ. It was the psalmist’s treasure. It was Tom’s treasure. Is it your treasure? I pray that today, if you have not already done so, you would make Christ your treasure.
Exult in him. Be happy in him. If you are going to be known for one thing, and if we as the church are doing to be known by one thing, let it be that we treasure the righteousness of Christ. It is what we need most. Both in lament and in seasons of rest. Resolve in this year that, in all things, you would live to display that he is sufficient. Hope in Jesus; have faith in Jesus. He alone is the cornerstone of eternal hope.