Bible · Psalms

Psalms 5

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1Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.2Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.3My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.4For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.5The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.6Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.7But 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.8Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.9For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.10Destroy 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.11But 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.12For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

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Notes for this chapter

Historical Background

Psalm 5 is a morning prayer psalm, attributed to David and marked in its heading as a song to be accompanied by the Nehiloth, a Hebrew term most likely referring to flutes or wind instruments. The psalm was composed during a period of real personal danger for David, possibly during the rebellion of Absalom or during the years when Saul's court was filled with slanderers and conspirators who sought his ruin. This context is essential for reading the psalm with its full emotional weight. David was not praying from a position of comfort but from one of genuine vulnerability, surrounded by people whose words could not be trusted and whose intentions toward him were hostile. Into that situation he carried his burden not to a human court or a political ally, but directly to God in the earliest hours of the morning.

The opening verses establish the posture and rhythm of David's prayer life. He asks God to give ear not only to his words but to his meditation, the Hebrew word here being hagig, referring to a deep inward musing or sighing, the kind of prayer that goes beyond formed sentences into something more like groaning. Matthew Henry observed that true prayer involves both the outward expression and the inward movement of the soul, and David presents both to God. Then in verse three comes one of the most beautiful and instructive statements in the whole Psalter about the discipline of morning prayer.

David commits himself to directing his prayer in the morning and then looking up, which in the original carries the sense of watching expectantly, the way a sentinel watches for an answer on the horizon. Ellen White consistently encouraged this same morning discipline, writing that the morning hours should be given to communion with God before the noise of the world enters the soul. There is something deeply formative in this image of a man rising before the day has made its demands, laying his case before God, and then watching with confident expectation.

Core Teaching

Verses four through six form a sharp theological statement about the character of God and why that character actually grounds David's confidence in prayer. God takes no pleasure in wickedness. Evil cannot dwell with Him. The foolish, referring in Hebrew wisdom literature not to the intellectually simple but to the morally arrogant, cannot stand in His presence.

The workers of iniquity, the liars, the bloody and deceitful, are all described as objects of divine abhorrence. These are strong words, and commentators like Adam Clarke and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown have noted that David is making a point about the absolute moral consistency of God's nature. God cannot tolerate what contradicts His own being. This is not cruelty but holiness.

For David, surrounded by deceivers and men of blood, this is actually enormously comforting. The very fact that God hates falsehood means that the lies being spoken against David cannot ultimately prosper. The moral order of the universe is on the side of truth.

Verse seven introduces one of the great contrasts of the psalm. After cataloguing the character of his enemies, David quietly steps forward with the word “but” and describes his own approach to God. It is not through his own merit or personal worthiness that he comes into God's house, but through the multitude of God's mercy. The Hebrew word here is hesed, the covenant love of God, that great Old Testament word that encompasses faithfulness, lovingkindness, and loyal affection.

David comes not because he has earned access but because God's mercy has made a way. He worships toward the holy temple, and this phrase likely reflects the tent sanctuary where the ark of God rested, toward which faithful Israelites directed their prayers. The New Testament believer finds in Christ the fulfillment of everything the temple pointed toward, the true meeting place between a holy God and sinful humanity, and access granted not by personal deserving but by grace alone.

Commentary Insights

The prayer in verses eight through ten is honest and even searching in its candour. David asks to be led in righteousness because of his enemies, acknowledging that the pressure of opposition can cause a man to compromise, to respond in kind, or to take matters into his own hands. He asks God to make His way straight before him, and then he speaks plainly about why his enemies are dangerous, not because they are physically powerful, but because they are morally hollow. Their throat is called an open sepulchre, an image Paul later quotes directly in Romans chapter three when he builds his comprehensive argument that all humanity apart from God is corrupted by sin.

This connection across the Testaments is striking. What David observed in particular wicked men, Paul identified as the universal condition of fallen human nature. David's imprecatory prayer that his enemies fall by their own counsels reflects the biblical principle that sin carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction, and that divine justice does not always require direct intervention but often simply allows the schemes of the wicked to collapse under their own weight.

Reflection & Application

The psalm closes on a note of joyful confidence that lifts the whole prayer into the light. Those who trust in God are called to shout for joy, and the reason is not that their circumstances have changed but that God defends them. The Hebrew word for defends here suggests covering and sheltering, as a parent covers a child. The final verse is a declaration of blessing upon the righteous, with the image of favour surrounding them like a shield on every side.

Barnes' Notes points out that this is not a narrow, private promise but an expression of the general principle woven through all of Scripture, that God's disposition is always toward those who walk with Him in sincerity of heart.

Go deeper — references Classic commentaries on this chapter

Matthew Henry's Commentary Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Adam Clarke's Commentary Adam Clarke (1760–1832) Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871) Barnes' Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798–1870) EGW Writings Ellen G. White Blue Letter Bible Study tools and lexicon

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