Psalm 5

Psalm 5 (KJV)

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.

One special thing I like about this psalm is that it contrasts with the previous psalm in that while psalm 4 was an evening prayer, this psalm is a morning prayer. it's an example of how we should be meeting with God throughout all times of the day, and the fact that these two psalms highlight the evening and the morning show how important those times are--for us to both start our day off right with God, and to end them right with God also.

Reading Genesis, I've really noticed how God is so true to his word. Everything he says comes true--his covenants with Adam, Noah, and Abraham.. his plans to destroy the wicked.. I liked how we can really see God's sovereignty in how he graciously listened to Abraham's intercession for Sodom. Before, reading things similar to verses 5, 6, 9, and 10 wouldn't have made such an impact on me--of course God hates evil!--but now that I've read about God's dealing with sinful men in Genesis, the weight of these verses really hit me. Now I feel like I've seen firsthand God's hand at punishment, and it's reminded me of God's awesome power and his complete holiness--his righteousness does not allow him to let evil persist and get out of hand.

I like the contrast in the psalm between wicked nonbelievers and humble believers. In verse 7, David says he comes to worship God "in the multitude of thy mercy" and "in thy fear." This is such a good reminder of how almighty our God is, that we are just feeble ants compared to him--his mercy allows us to commune with Him, and by having such a fearful, respectful view of him demonstrates our understanding of His awesome power and goodness. *The last two verses of the psalm are also so encouraging. There are soo many times I fall into sad/bad moods over trivial worldly things, but this is just another reminder of how great our salvation is and how we should be rejoicing nonstop. The words "defendest" and "shield" suggest the spiritual warfare that we live in day to day, and just to be reminded of how God is on our side, making us strong, guarding and defending us, is so comforting. Just today I noticed Satan trying to distract me when I wanted to spend time with God--even simple things like making me start cleaning my room instead of reading my Bible. But God is much, much bigger and we have absolutely nothing to fear. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, God is so gracious!!!!

Love you all!

You know what's really cool? My pastor at my home church has been going through Genesis! His sermon notes are here!