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September 5/6, 2015
Jason Meyer | 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
Introduction
I want to ask you today about your confidence. What are you confident about, or what do you put your confidence in? Confidence, of course, can be another word for trust. Here is a ditch. Many people put their trust in their circumstances. If circumstances are going well and look hopeful, they feel good about life and have a bounce in their step.
The opposite set of circumstances will create the opposite mood swing. If circumstances are challenging and look bleak, people feel weighted down, like they are wearing a big, heavy backpack full of bricks. They lose all sense of confidence. They just glumly put their head down and try to push through, hoping that their circumstances will turn back around.
There is another ditch on the other side of the road. Others put their confidence not in their circumstances but in themselves. Even if circumstances look challenging, they have self–confidence that they can overcome and get back up again or figure a way out.
Others lack self–confidence. In fact, they have self–doubt. Even if circumstances are going well, they have such low self–confidence that they are just waiting for the crash. They are confident that they are going to blow it.
There is only one sure, biblical way to keep it between the ditches. Psalm 5 will show you the more excellent way. There was a book entitled With Christ in the School of Prayer. This psalm could be entitled, “With David in the School of Prayer.” What is lesson number one in this school? Stay clear from confidence in self or confidence in circumstances. Keep your confidence in God’s character. Prayer puts confidence in God’s character.
The Psalm makes that point in many different ways. The text features five responses to the situation David faces. Each response also contains an underlying reason for confidently responding that way. In other words, the responses and the reasons for them are blended together in every point. The main reason we keep seeing is God’s goodness. David put confidence in God’s character, and it leads to five responses: let it out, be on the lookout, give me the way out, take my enemies out, and let’s shout out.
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.
David’s approach in these first two verses is really simple: “Hear my words, my groaning, my desperate cry, because to you do I pray—my King and my God.” He knows he can pray an unpolished way because he knows his God in a personal way. People who don’t know God well think that they need special code words or super-spiritual words for God in prayer. They certainly don’t think that they can just bring all of themselves and just come as they are. We think the way we approach God always has to fit a certain pattern, and that it has to have a certain pomp to it.
ACTS is a case in point: adore him for a while, and then confess, and then thank him, and then make supplication. Paul Miller says that this type of praying is helpful at times to give structure and order to your prayers, but it is not meant to be a robotic regimen that you follow all the time. You don’t talk to the most intimate people in your life that way. If you try to talk to your wife that way—to adore her and then confess to her and then thank her and then ask her for something—she will not feel honored. She will feel like it is a mechanical relationship. It is like having a relationship with a mechanical bull—you get on, and it follows a preprogrammed routine. Prayer is not a robotic routine; it is a real relationship. It is personal, not polished.
Prayer is an all-in, let it all hang out, whole-hearted experience. Don’t try to be fake—you are certainly not fooling God. Pour it all out. Pour out your unpolished words to God—the murmurings, the intense longings, fears, tears, crying. He wants all of it.
He is a Romans 8:26 kind of God. He helps us in our weakness because we don’t even know how to pray as we ought. Your prayers don’t have to be eloquent and saturated with lofty-sounding, sophisticated theological vocabulary. Deep, heart-wrenching groaning will do. This leads to the second point. After David lets it out, he is on the lookout.
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.
The first point asked God to hear. This second point builds on that. David knows that the Lord hears him—his speaking, groaning, and desperate crying out. Now David prepares his prayer. The ESV makes it a little confusing because it says, "I prepare a sacrifice for you" (v. 3). The problem is that the text does not say "sacrifice." The Hebrew text simply says, "I prepare," and it leaves the object blank.
The word prepare means to set out in order, arrange, or set in rows. It is used in Leviticus 1:7–8 to describe the priests arranging the wood on the altar fire and arranging the chunks of the sacrificial animal on the altar. Leviticus 24:8 uses this word to describe how the showbread was placed in two rows of six loaves each on the tabernacle table. So this verse could mean “prepare a sacrifice,” but I think it is much more likely that David is arranging his prayer or his requests. The whole surrounding context is talking about his praying. He sets his requests in order, and then he watches and waits for the Lord to answer. This is orderly and expectant.
We have seen David’s response of ordering his requests and watching with anticipation. Now we need to see why he can confidently watch and wait. He can wait because he knows his God. God is so perfectly good that he is also passionately against evil. God’s unparalleled, unstoppable goodness is bad news for the wicked in six ways.
These six things give a striking overall impression concerning the absolute separation that exists between God and sin. God doesn’t find sin attractive or entertaining in anyway. His relentless goodness makes sin totally repulsive to him. Evil never finds even temporary refuge or dwelling with God.
Evil may not dwell with you.—Psalm 5:4
The word dwell is a word that refers to a nomad passing through and living in a tent. It is a temporary visit. God cannot even stand a momentary brush with evil—not even dropping in for a quick visit. Any kind of coexistence between God and sin is impossible. It is oil and water. God and sin are absolutely incompatible.
God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.—1 John 1:5
Therefore, he hates and destroys and abhors “the proud” or “evildoers” or “liars” or the “bloodthirsty” (v. 5). It is hard to imagine stronger language. Is this an attractive picture of God or an embarrassing picture? Do you love the fact that God is so violently opposed to evil?
This text is a test as to whether or not we know and love God. The call over our lives as Christians is to be holy as God is holy. Is God’s goodness and purity attractive to us? If his holiness is attractive, sin will be repulsive. There is no neutrality here.
This picture of God needs to inform the way we interact with a culture that not only does what is evil in God’s sight—and calls it good—but also gives hearty approval to others who practice those things. I believe it challenges us to take another look at the music we listen to and the TV shows and movies we watch. What entertains you and captivates your attention? One commentator said it well: “Sin will desensitize you if it entertains you” (James Johnston, Psalms, Kindle loc. 1151). A sure sign that you are desensitized to sin is when you are entertained by sin.
But let us all pause until we can see very clearly why God’s character gave David such beaming confidence to pray the way that he prayed. Why does it matter if God is good and opposes all oppression? The answer is both simple and striking. David could ask God to put an end to oppression because God hates oppression. He could pray for deliverance from deceitful liars because he was so sure that God abhorred the deceitful.
Verse 7 introduces another reason why David could watch for God to act. He knew what God hated evil passionately, but he also knew God loved his people abundantly. Do you see that in verse 7?
David’s hope is not in his own holiness. His hope is in God’s abundant love (v. 7). David knows that he doesn’t deserve to come before God. His goodness has not earned him a place in God’s house. He is not seated at God’s table because of his moral performance.
But God’s love does not create a careless, flippant approach. God is an awesome God—you don’t come flippantly into God’s presence. God’s love compels David to come, but God’s holy and kingly majesty bids David to bow. David the king bows before the King of Kings. How can the people of God keep the fear of God and the love of God together?
Dale Ralph Davis recounts a story that Andrew Bonar told of a painter. The painter produced a stunning painting of a boy carrying a basket of grapes on his head. This painting was so true to life, so realistic, that when the painting was displayed in the Forum, the birds pecked the grapes, thinking they were real. His friends praised the painter, but he was displeased. He said, “I should have done a great deal more. I should have painted the boy so true to life that the birds would not have dared to come near!”
The painting had two key parts: the basket of grapes and the boy. Christian preaching must also portray two key aspects of God’s character in their purity: love and holiness. God’s abundant love compels us to come to him; his absolute holiness bids us to bow down before him.
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.
Back in Psalm 1, we used the image of meditating upon the Law of the Lord in the sense of repeating instructions because you desperately need them and want to keep them because you will be lost without them.
David knows that he cannot lean on his own understanding or trust his own moral compass. He needs God to lead him through. He needs a shepherd to guide him through the dangers lurking all around him. God’s word is like a lamp to his feet.
David has many reasons to pray with desperation. Psalm 1 also warned about the counsel of the wicked. David can’t trust the counsel of the wicked—they give false, slippery directions in order to trap him and destroy him. These verses are like a deadly slide—the first and last phrases testify to how slippery their words are, and the middle two phrases testify to how deadly their words are. The words of liars are like a Slip ‘N Slide that goes off a cliff into a open grave.
It is almost as if David faces a single enemy. The words for mouth, inmost self, throat, and tongue are all singular even though David’s enemies are many. The many voices are speaking in wicked unison and deadly intent.
Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
becayse of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
David now asks that God would take out his enemies. He wants them to bear their guilt, and he asks for poetic justice: let them fall in their own trap. You know the place where you see this happen most? The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Wile E. Coyote is always trying some new Acme trap that he lays out for the Road Runner, and it always ends up backfiring on himself. He rolls the big boulder down towards the Road Runner, but it misses and goes up the next hill and comes crashing down on top of him. People complain about how violent cartoons are—Looney Toons are violent, too! The cartoons are presented in a silly way, but these verses are serious justice. Perhaps the most poignant example in the Bible is when Haman is hanged on the gallows that he prepared for Mordecai in the book of Esther.
Psalms like this work muscles that we don’t normally exercise. We can learn from David’s prayer and the way his justice muscles are flexing here. He contrasts the abundance of God’s love with the abundance of his enemies’ wickedness (v. 10). The prayer to judge these enemies is a God-centered prayer.
They have rebelled against you.—Psalm 5:10.
An attack on God’s king (just like Psalm 2) was a rebellious attack on God.
We will spend more time on how Christians can pray these psalms that call for judgment on our enemies when we come to Psalm 7. For now, let me remind you of one simple point. You can pray these psalms of judgment only because they are prayers for God to act, not you to act. Every prayer to God has an implicit statement attached to it: “yet not my will but your will be done.”
We call upon God to use his perfect and holy wisdom. We could be praying for God to judge those who are causing bloodshed to Christians, like ISIS. It could be that God would bring death upon them and put a stop to their evil that way, but it could also be that God would put an end to their evil by saving some of them the way he saved Paul. God put a stop to Saul’s persecution by saving him and making him a preacher.
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.
David often speaks as a representative for God’s people. As the king goes, so the people go. God saves the king, and all the people can’t keep silent; they rejoice, sing for joy, and exult in God because of his protection and blessing and covering with favor like a shield. The Psalm shows that the King has saved the king for the joy of the people of God.
This Psalm is quoted in the New Testament in a way that may surprise you.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
"No one 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 3:9–18
Paul quotes these words as a culminating case for the fact that everyone without exception is under God’s condemnation as a sinner. Some people could have read those verses in Psalm 5 as a reference to those sinners out there. But Paul shows us that the many phrases in the psalm are like fingers pointing back at us. We are in trouble.
God’s unparalleled, unstoppable goodness is the greatest problem in the universe for sinners. Nothing is more terrifying. Let me personalize that threat. This is your biggest problem today. Not lack of money or lack of a job or lack of a boyfriend or girlfriend, but a lack of goodness. The wrath of God is revealed in this text against all of our crooked and unrighteous ways.
There is a day coming when the wrath of God and the justice of God will come together upon humanity at a place—this place is called hell. God’s justice and unparalleled, unstoppable goodness will forever be on display there. Hell says God cannot dwell with wickedness—not at all, not ever—and this is why the fires of hell are forever.
But the Bible is more than one large Psalm about justice on the wicked. God’s goodness is the both the worst news and the best news. Whether you have lived out a Romans 1 rebellion of irreligion, where life is found in breaking all the rules, or a Romans 2 rebellion of religion, where life is found in keeping all the rules, the Romans 3 redemption, where life is found in Jesus alone, is our only hope.
God’s unparalleled, unstoppable goodness fully appeared in the fullness of time. It is the hinge of history. It is available for you to see today. The wrath of God and the justice of God came crashing down together upon the Son of God. It is there at the cross that we see the love of God. Our sin was punished. Our debt was paid. Heaven opened. Our spot at God’s table in God’s house was purchased with precious blood.
Do you have eyes to see the glory and terrible beauty of the cross? Justice came like a freight train with a full head of steam, and God sent his Son to step in front of the freight train. The goodness of God in wrath and the goodness of God in grace collided together with one loud, hell-shattering, heaven-opening explosive shout saying, “There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Come see the goodness of God’s glorious grace!
Do you see the unparalleled, unrelenting goodness of God at the cross? I love the language of Titus 3:
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.—Titus 3:4–6
As we turn to communion, I have two questions for you. First, are you forgiven? Have you received and are you resting in the unsearchable riches of Christ? This is a meal for you. Eat and drink by faith and sing for joy as one who is forgiven and free.
Second, will you forgive others? Are you holding onto bitterness and an unforgiving spirit? C. S. Lewis said that unforgiveness is the poison that we drink in the hopes that someone else will die. May the blood set you free from the bondage of bitterness today. Having been forgiven billions by the blood of Christ, will you now choke your sister or brother in Christ over a few bucks?
Closing Song: “Psalm 62”
Sermon Discussion Questions
Main Point: Prayer puts confidence in God’s character. This psalm features five responses to the situation David faces. Each point contains the reason why David can confidently respond.
Outline
Discussion Questions
1.How can God’s goodness be both bad news (our greatest problem) and good news (our only hope)?
Application Questions
1. Do you have a pattern of prayer in your life that looks like Psalm 5? What parts of Psalm 5 do you see in your own prayer life? What parts of Psalm 5 are you missing?
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to be gripped by the unparalleled, unrelenting goodness of God. Pray that this Psalm would develop our “justice” muscles and our “rejoicing” muscles.