Psalm 5
Lead Me in Your Righteousness
To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.
1Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
2Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
3O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
4For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
5The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
6You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
9For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
11But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
12For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover him with favor as with a shield
Story time: A while back, I was working a job where, despite all my best efforts to be friendly and loving, a fellow co-worker simply did not like me. When this person originally got hired I was so excited. I had been desiring other female co-workers (I worked in a predominately male organization) and was super excited to befriend this person, but things didn’t happen as I’d hoped. For her, it seemed like everything between us was a competition. She would go out of her way to undermine me, manipulate situations that involved me, and simply did not desire to be my friend. At the time, this situation really affected me. Seeing her would cause me anxiety and led me to be fearful about her showing up to situations I was in (which happened often since we worked at the same business). Have you ever felt this way?
Once again, David is someone who can relate to this. In this world we can expect to face hostility and opposition, even from fellow believers or perceived friends. And for most of us, this will lead us to fear and worry. But would it be possible to not let fear and worry overwhelm us when things like this arise?
In Psalm 5, David expresses his worry over the hostility of his enemies - we can see that David was wronged and his fear and worry would be justified. But we find that he doesn’t solely focus on these things. He spends a lot of this prayer talking about the truths of God’s character and asking God for deliverance. Although David prays about the evil surrounding him, he doesn’t dwell on it. We can learn a lot from David’s example.
“O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;” (Psalm 5:3)
“Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness…” (Psalm 5:8)
“But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exalt in you.” (Psalm 5:11)
“For you bless the righteous, O LORD'; you cover him with favor as with a shield.” (Psalm 5:12)
When David could have let fear and worry overwhelm him, he didn’t. He replaced those worries with the truth of God’s character. We serve a God who sees and knows. A God who does not delight in wickedness (Psalm 5:4). A God that abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man (Psalm 5:6). No matter what threatens you, God will have the ultimate say. Will you trust Him today?
Knowledge of God’s character can have a positive impact on our daily lives. List out 10 attributes of God today.
