*This sermon was preached at Gethsemane Baptist Church during Lord’s Day worship on July 16, 2023.
Introduction:
One of the most important questions you can ever ask in this life is this: How do I get to God? You just heard the Psalmist cry out to God and say, “Give ear to my words, O Lord,” but the question is, Why? Why should God listen to you? What gains you an audience with the Lord of heaven and earth? What justifies you bringing your worries to him? Your cares and burdens to him? Your fears and doubts to him? How do you get to God?
Well, that’s actually a question this Psalm answers. If you’re a Christian, this is immensely encouraging, even though this Psalm is a bit dark. But even if you’re a non-Christian, this Psalm affords incredible hope, even though it says dark things about your soul. Either way, God has something for all of us here in Psalm 5 this morning.
We can understand David’s prayer in two points: The Basis of David’s Prayer and the Content of David’s Prayer.
I. The Basis of David’s Prayer
We see the Basis of David’s Prayer in vv. 1-7, and it’s made up of three parts: The first part is the Nearness of God. Look at vv. 1-3:
He doesn’t just say “O King” and “O God,” but he says, “my King and my God.” David’s not just praying to a random, unknown deity, but he’s praying to the God of the universe who has made himself David’s God and King. That’s why he can say, “Consider my groaning.” That word groaning has the idea of frustrated sighing. He doesn’t know quite what to say, he doesn’t know quite how to put what he’s feeling in his soul into words, and so he’s basically saying, “Listen to what I’m trying so desperately to say, but can’t seem to put into words!” Friends, is it not a comfort to you that God is so near that he knows you so well and what you’re trying to pray?
Secondly, we see the basis of David’s prayer not only being the Nearness of God, but also the Holiness of God, which we see in vv. 4-6:
In a way, David’s narrowing the focus of the basis of his prayer. By confessing the holiness of God, he’s almost stating that he doesn’t deserve to have his prayer heard. This is the same David who prayed in Psalm 51, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” David’s a sinner, just like every other son and daughter of Adam. Even still, he says, “Give ear to my prayer on the basis of who you have made yourself to be to me (God and King), and who you remain to be even though you are the God and King of sinners like me.”
Which leads us to the third part of the basis of David’s prayer: The Love of God, which we see in v. 7.
David says, I have no access to you except by your amazing grace. I will pray and I know my prayer will be heard by my God and my King not because I loved you, but because you first loved me. And now, somehow the God who does not delight in wickedness, with whom evil cannot dwell, will hear a sinner whose prayers have been cleansed by the love of God.
Friends, notice what David does after he prays in v. 3: “… in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” Or as the NET translates it: “… in the morning I will present my case to you and then wait expectantly for an answer.” How are you at praying to God and waiting expectantly for an answer?
Do you pray and then think to yourself, “Eh, he’s never going to get back with me on that.” Or maybe you’ve quit praying for it altogether because he still hasn’t answered you. But that’s not what David models for us here, is it? He lays out his case before the Lord, he lays it all out before God – every detail – and then says, “Okay, there it is; I will wait on you because I know you’ve heard my cry. I trust your wisdom.”
I wonder if impatience keeps some of us from praying. We just don’t want to wait.
I wonder if pride keeps others of us from praying. V. 5: “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.” Why would you come to God if you’re so sufficient? Why would anybody who boasts in their riches to ask God for his daily provision? Why would anybody trusting in their intellect ask God for wisdom? Why would anybody who boasts in their might ask God for the strength to live another day for his glory? I wonder if pride keeps us from praying.
I wonder if a wrong understanding of God’s love keeps others from praying. How many of us after having grievously sinned against God feel like we can’t come to him because we’ve grievously sinned against him? As if our coming to him was based on our not grievously sinning against him! As if our qualification to come to him in prayer was our sinlessness, and our sins now disqualify us, and now we feel like we can’t come to him. Do you know what that’s called? Self-righteousness! What creeps in our prayers, what creeps into the basis of our prayers, is our performance. And so no wonder we don’t pray! No wonder we feel haunted in our prayers because we’re coming to him on the basis of our performance, and not his unconditional love offered to us through his Son!
Beloved, the basis of our coming to him in prayer is the same as our justification. I’ll say it this way: We pray through the abundance of his steadfast love, because we are justified by his steadfast love. How have we been justified by his love? I John 4:9-10 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest to us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
So back to Psalm 5:7, how can we ever come to God on the basis of anything but his love for us? How can we ever hope to have our prayers heard on the basis of our ability to not sin, our willingness to not sin, or our record of not sinning? He does not delight in wickedness, evil will not enter his house, and he hates evildoers and abhors the bloodthirsty! By his love, the love that sent the Son to the cross, and only on the basis of that love can you come to God in prayer.
Well, that’s the basis of prayer. Let’s look secondly at the content.
II. The Content of David’s Prayer
In vv. 8-12 we see three requests that make up the content of David’s prayer: Guidance, justice, and joy. Let’s look at each one briefly.
In v. 8 we plainly see David asking for guidance when he says, “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.” David’s asking for the kind of guidance that leads him away from the moral filth his enemies are known for in v. 9: They’re liars, their words are destructive, their words lead to the grave, and they’re sneaky. So, he says in v. 8, guide me and make your way straight (or, plain) before me!
And while he’s on the subject of his enemies, he prays for justice, which is the second request of his prayer. Look at vv. 9-10.
Now this sounds incredibly harsh, and it is. But this is a sin-hating God. And not only that, this is a sinner-hating God. I know it’s popular to say that God hates the sin and loves the sinner, and I agree with that. But you have to see that the rightness of David’s prayer for God to make the liars of v. 9 bear the guilt of v. 10 is based on the character of God in vv. 4-6. David doesn’t just hate his enemies, and wants God to destroy them because he hates them. David is praying that God be God! And God would not be God if he was not just. “Because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you!” It is right for David to pray this way. But is it right for us? Aren’t we told by our Lord, “Pray for your enemies?” Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you? Is it right for us to pray this as members of the New Covenant? Answer: Yes. It is always right to pray for what God says he will do. And he has said that he will punish the wicked. But he has also said that he saves the wicked. We pray for both. We pray that God would cause them to turn from their wicked ways, and we pray that God would make those who refuse to repent bear their guilt to the praise of his glorious justice.
I know this may be a tough pill to swallow for some of you, but if it’s in the Bible we have to believe it, even if we can’t understand it right away or work out all its implications or solve all our objections to it. If it’s in the Bible, we must accept it as God’s word, and trust him that in his time he’ll make it all plain to us. And we should pray to that end.
The third request David makes is Joy. Look at vv. 11-12.
What a contrast between the wicked of vv. 9-10 and the refugees of 11-12! Those who have taken refuge in Yahweh and he has spread his protection over them and covered them with favor as with a shield are full of joy. They love his name. They exult in him, which means they delight in him above all things.
Now that’s a beautiful way for this Psalm to end, isn’t it? It ends in a way that almost makes us think we don’t have to have solve the problem this Psalm raises for us. And that problem is this: There is not a single one of us in this room who is not wicked. There is not a single person who is not an evil doer. There has never been one person who has ever read Psalm 5 who did not commit an evil deed.
You see, the problem this Psalm raises for us is restated by Paul in Romans 3, which says: None 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.” And then Paul quotes Psalm 5: “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.” And when you realize that Paul uses Psalm 5 to talk about the totality of the human race in this way, immediately the question ought to come to your mind: How is it that the God, with whom evil may not dwell, can have any sinner enter his house? How can he bless the righteous when Paul says none is righteous; no, not one!?
Like this: I said that there has never been one person who has ever read Psalm 5 who did not commit an evil deed, but that’s not quite true, is it? Centuries after this Psalm was written, there was one who meditated on the law of the Lord and Psalm 5 who never committed a single evil deed. There was one who took refuge in the Lord his God, who loved the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and with all his strength. There was one who was supremely blessed precisely because he was righteous. Jesus Christ was the righteous one who never deserved to bear any guilt because he had none; never deserved to be cast out for his transgressions because he had none; never deserved to be punished as a wicked person because he never rebelled against the Lord. And yet he was nailed to a cross, treated as an enemy of God. Why?
Listen, don’t read Psalm 5 and think to yourself, “Oh my goodness, can you imagine being as wicked as the people in this Psalm?” If you do, then you’re boastful, which means you actually are the one described in this Psalm. “There is no truth in their mouth.” That’s you! “You hate all evildoers” – that’s you! You’re the sinner described in this Psalm. You’re the one with the guilt. You’re the one with transgressions deserving to be cast out. You’re the rebel! Until you see that, you’ll never grasp what I’m about to tell you, which is so incredibly lifegiving.
You deserved to be cast out, and yet Jesus was cast out for you. You deserved to bear your guilt on that cross, and yet what happened? Jesus was nailed there for you. Yet he was perfect, he was righteous. And you’re the one Paul described when he says, “There’s none righteous; no, not one!” Why? So that through the abundance of his steadfast love that held him to the cross, you might be welcomed into God’s house. He was cast out so that you might be brought in. He took your guilt on himself so that you could be declared innocent.
Theologically, here’s what that means, and we’re about to see this in symbol through the ordinance of baptism (Dan & Rosemary). If you’re in Christ Jesus, then when Jesus died, you and all your sins died with him. And when Jesus was buried in the tomb, you and all your sins were buried with him. And when Jesus rose from the dead, you were raised with him, but your sins were not! Your sins are still in the grave. Why? Because you’re a new creation. Old things are passed away, the new has come.
And now you can rest assured in the abundance of the steadfast love of God because in Christ, God has spread his protection over you, believer. By covering you with the righteousness of his own Son, he has covered you with favor as with a shield. In that glorious way, God blesses all those whom he declares righteous in the Son.
Let Christians ever sing for joy! I should say so!
Conclusion:
Non-Christian, don’t let what you hear in the sermon and see by means of baptism after this sermon escape you. You are being told incredible news today. If you were to die today and you were to stand before God, and he were to say to you, “Why should bring you into my presence, and why should I not cast you into outer darkness,” what would you say to him? What case would you make?
Would you say, “Oh, I haven’t been that bad, and I’ve really tried?” You’ve already heard from Psalm 5 that evil may not dwell with God, not even the evil that tried really hard not to be evil. Would you say, “Well, I prayed a prayer when I was kid; and if you pray the sinner’s prayer, and you walk the aisle, and you get baptized then you’re a Christian, right?” Wrong! Nobody ever got into heaven for praying a prayer or walking an aisle or getting baptized. God’s not going to bring anybody into his presence and not cast them into outer darkness because they prayed a prayer, because even that prayer is so tainted by sin and self-righteousness that it cannot save anybody.
“Why should I bring you to into my presence, and why should I not cast you into outer darkness?” The only thing that can answer for you before God one day is not the good you do, but the good someone else has done in your place. And that’s what the gospel is all about. God has sent his only Son to take the place of sinners on the cross. And he will save to the uttermost anyone who trusts in Christ and his righteousness. Trust in Christ to cleanse you from your sin, and you will be forgiven, justified, and welcomed into his house. That’s the promise to anyone who will believe.
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