Psalm 5

12/21/2011 10:27:28 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 5: PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 5

            Message of the verses:  “¶  «For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David.» Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2  Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3  In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. 4  For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5  The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6  You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

    “7 ¶  But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. 8  O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. 9  There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. 10  Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You. 11  But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. 12  For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.”

            We Prepare to Meet the Lord (vv.1-3):  ““¶  «For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David.» Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning. 2  Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3  In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”

            We have already mentioned that David had a morning time with the Lord, and these three verses give us a bit of detail on how David would prepare to meet with the Lord during these morning devotionals.  The word uses as “groaning” in verse one can also mean meditations so we could say that as he spoke with the Lord he wanted the Lord to understand the things that he had been meditation on.  Verse two we see that David asks the Lord to hear his prayer, and in this case it was a prayer for help.  Now we see in verse three the word “order” used and this word speaks of how David would do his devotions and prayer time with the Lord.  The word can be used on how the sacrifices were arranged on the altar, or how a soldier presents himself to his commanding officer. 

            We Seek to Please the Lord (vv. 4-6):  “4  For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. 5  The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. 6  You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.” 

            We see in these verses that God hates evil, and He hates sin, for God has to hate sin since there is no wickedness or evil in Him, nor could there be, and justice is a part of His attributes.  We see people in these verses that we will see in verses 9-10, people who have no fear of doing wrong, no fear of the Lord.  I have mentioned that God hates sin, and some will ask about God hating sin and people who will not accept the provision that He has made for their salvation through Jesus Christ.  The Bible speaks of this in different places:  “Ro 9:13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.’”  This word for hated means to hate, and nothing less than that as some would say that the word means to “love less,” but this is not the case:  “3404. μισεω miseo mis-eh’-o; from a primary μισος misos (hatred); to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less:— hate(-ful).” 

            There are other verses that speak to this but I think this one is enough to understand that God can surely hate people who are sinners.  God hated sin so much that He made a provision for those who would accept it, that of Christ’s death on the cross.  Remember what Jesus said from the cross as He quoted Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”  Jesus was not only in agony over the physical pain that He was exercising, but He was in more agony of having to take the punishment for our sins in His body on the cross, He was more in agony because of the separation He had with His Father.  That is how much God hates sin, and also how much He loves us.  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “God’ hatred of evil isn’t emotional; it’s judicial, and expression of His holiness.  If we want to fellowship with God at His holy altar, then we need to feel that same anguish (anger plus love) as we see the evil in this fallen world.”

            We Submit to the Lord (vv. 7-12):  “When he wrote ‘But as for me,’ David contrasted himself with the wicked crowd that rebelled against the King.  David had come to pray, and he had three requests.” 

           

            He prayed for guidance (vv.7-8):  “    “7 ¶  But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. 8  O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.”

            David was not a member of the tribe of Levi, and he knew that he could not enter into the places that the priest entered in the tabernacle, but he was talking about coming into the presence of the Lord in his prayers and in his worship.  David had prepared to worship the Lord as we saw earlier, and not he was going to bring his requests to the Lord and that request would be for guidance.  James wrote, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  (James 1:5) 

            He prayed for justice (vv.9-10):   “9  There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. 10  Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.”

            I like what Dr. Wiersbe writes in his commentary on this section, “Anybody who resents this kind of praying can’t honestly pray, ‘Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:9-10).”  We also see a part of verse nine quoted by Paul in Romans 3:19.  In that passage Paul is writing about the evilness of unbelievers, for Paul was seeking to show that all mankind was made up of sinners and therefore the need for the Savior.

            I want to mention briefly here that when David was being hunted by Saul, David had chances to destroy him and he would not do it because David knew that Saul was the Lord’s anointed, appointed by the Lord to rule Israel and although he knew that God had promised him to become the next king, he also knew that God would take care of moving Saul out of the way when He desired.  Absalom did not see things like this and therefore he was trying to take over the kingdom on his own, and therefore was sinning against the Lord, as all sin is against the Lord.  David prayed that the Lord would take care of this and we read in this account in 2Samuel 18:8 that the trees killed more of Absalom’s men than David’s men did.  David’s prayer was answered.

            He prayed for God’s blessing (vv.11-12):  “11  But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. 12  For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.’”

            David was thankful for the answer to his prayers for the God of Israel had been glorified and His king had been vindicated.  God desires us to pray for things which will bring glory to His name, and as we grow close to the Lord the Holy Spirit will show us what to pray about, and He can show us through His Word and through the preaching of His Word. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes, “The outcome of our fellowship with the Lord should be joy in His character, His promises, and His gracious answers to prayer.  Even though some of his own people had turned against him, David prayed that God would bless and protect them!  This sounds like our Lord on the cross (Luke 23:34) and Stephen when he was stoned (Acts 7:60).”  David was a man of forgiveness and love for his people.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to focus on the preparation of doing devotions, which includes prayer.  I need work in preparation for prayer.  I do have a list of people that I pray for that is in my head, but as of yet not on a prayer list.  I do have a way of doing my devotions and that is the use of these Spiritual Diaries, but again the prayer time needs to be richer.

My Steps of Faith for today:

1.       Have a richer prayer life.

2.       Continue to learn contentment in my walk with the Lord.

12/21/2011 11:39:57 AM