Psalm 5

Today's scripture is Psalm 5. Go here to read it in your preferred version.

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.
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.

  
You can see here that, like so many other times, David is calling upon God for a reason. When we reach out to God we can be sure that He will "give ear" to us, "consider" us, and "hearken" unto us. The beautiful thing here is his prayer to "my King". Let me try to call our president. Or even an individual in Congress. Or even someone in local government! Would I have any luck just calling their direct line and having them want to talk to me? I doubt it. Yet David is confident in reaching the King of Kings! He has been answered by this King before which gives him confidence in God.

He proclaims that he is going to direct his prayers to God in the morning. David is going to look up and humble himself completely before God as he prays, which is something I personally don't do enough. God is not pleased with the wickedness that is going on. David knows that God hates sin and He hates it when people are purposely working to that end. Eventually these people will be in God's sight and not even stand... they will be bowing down to Him just like everyone else.

Isaiah 43:25 - "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."

Ultimately the wicked person who is bloodthirsty, deceitful and false will be destroyed.

But David has no fear of this. This verse (7) makes me envision David walking down the streets of heaven, tears on his face, arms raised, saying phrases of worship all the way to God's holy throne. Absolutely beautiful scripture and something Christians can all look forward to.

David knows if God wasn't such a merciful God he'd not have that opportunity. And I definitely feel that same way! David probably thought it was hard even just to see straight sometimes because of all he was dealing with. He begs for God to lead him and show him plainly what path God has laid out to him. Help me, God, to ignore all the other voices, opinions, and ideas. You show me what to do.

David knows that humans will try to redirect him. Make him doubt. They are empty on the inside and it makes them feel better to drag people down with them. They're flatterers and deceivers. David says, destroy them God. Let them fall flat on their faces. Let them reap the consequences of their behavior. But those who have trusted in God - we'll rejoice. We'll shout for joy. We're joyful and we love to hear His name. We know He is our defender. He blesses us. He shows us favor. He is a shield to us.

Comments? Questions?