Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
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Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Psalm 5:1-12; A Psalm for Morning
Jason Sterling June 8, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin
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If you have a copy of God's Word, go to the center of your Bible, open it up. You should find the book of Psalms. We're going to be looking at Psalm 5 this morning. We've been looking at various psalms this summer and the thing I love about the psalms and the reason why we're just going to keep coming back to them from time to time, is they normalize struggle. Is they normalize struggle? The Psalms teach us to pray our struggles rather than fake our way through our struggles. This morning we're going to look at Psalm 5. It's another Psalm I mentioned this last week.
Speaker 1:40% of the Psalms are Psalms of lament, and so they tell us that God's people were often sad. 40% of the Psalms are Psalms of lament. We see another one this morning with Psalm chapter 5. Last week, psalm 4, we have bookends here Psalm 4 was a Psalm for bedtime. Psalm 5 is the flip side of that coin and it's a psalm for first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1:You know those feelings when you wake up in the morning and immediately pressure hits you. You start thinking about all the things that are waiting for you during the day and you just want to pull the covers back over your head and pretend like the day is not starting. You know that feeling. This psalm puts voice to that experience. David shows us how to start our most challenging days, and not by ignoring the difficulty, but by bringing the difficulty to the God who can do something about them. So follow along with me.
Speaker 1:This is the word of God, psalm 5. Give ear to my words, o Lord. Consider my groaning, give attention to the sound of my cry. My king and my God, for to you do I pray, o Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice. In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch For you. Are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in fear of you. Lead me, o Lord of righteousness, because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me, for there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. 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. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them. For those who love, your name may exult in you, for you bless the righteous. O Lord, you cover him with favor as with a shield. This is the word of God. Let's pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to help us this morning. Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be good and pleasing to you. O Lord, my rock and my redeemer you have brought us here. I pray that you would teach us and give us ears to hear Psalm 5 this morning. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:How do you start your mornings? How do you start your mornings? What is your morning routine? Well, if you're like many of us, your morning routine probably starts with a blaring alarm clock ringing in your ear. Or perhaps your morning routine right after the alarm clock sounds, maybe you reach for your phone and you start scrolling and you start checking email or looking at social media or looking at the news and you think, start thinking about the long list of everything that is waiting for you during the day ahead, within the first few minutes of the morning. We begin most of us by feeling the weight and the pressure and the stress of the day ahead. We often start our days by reacting rather than starting our days with intentionality. Many of us I'm preaching to myself this morning start our days with panic rather than peace and priority.
Speaker 1:David knows and knew about difficult mornings. He began his days with real enemies who were seeking to destroy him. He started his days with political pressure and crisis that could topple the kingdom at any moment. He began his days by facing huge decisions that affected lots and lots of people. The pressure was crushing and it was in many ways a matter of life and death. But David would begin the day we see it here in Psalm 5 not with a cup of espresso or shot of espresso that would be a lot a cup, a shot of espresso or with exercise. He started started with prayer and prayer. This prayer didn't just help him survive. It actually filled him with wisdom and confidence and joy and an unshakable sense of protection. We get a glimpse into that morning routine in Psalm 5, into David's morning prayer, life, and in this prayer we get a roadmap that takes us from reaction and helps us take us from reaction to being intentional.
Speaker 1:As we start the day in prayer. It takes us from panic to a place of peace and priority. So, as we start the day, three things that we need that we see in this psalm. We need one to approach God. Secondly, to seek God's guidance. And lastly, to rejoice in what God provides. So that's where we're headed Approach, seek and rejoice. Let's look at those in turn approach, seek and rejoice. Let's look at those in turn. Number one we need, as we start the morning, to approach God, and we see that David prays first thing.
Speaker 1:Look at verse three oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning it's repeated again and in these first few verses we learn a ton about the different ways that we can come to God in prayer. Sometimes we come groaning, don't we? Look at verse one? Give ear to my words, o Lord, consider my groaning. Think about that word.
Speaker 1:A groan is a deep, wordless sound that comes from deep inside of you, when life knocks the breath out of you and when you are so overwhelmed with life and whatever it is that you're facing that you can't even put a word to it. It is that you're facing that you can't even put a word to it. You can't find words to express what you're feeling, and you've experienced this. You know what it's like to sit on the side of your bed in the morning and just take a deep breath and all you can do is let out a sigh. Or maybe you're in the kitchen and you're holding your cup of coffee and you're trying to pray, but you have no words for the ache inside of your soul. David is telling us here that in those moments, in those groans, that is not a failure in prayer, that is prayer. Isn't that good news? And it's even better news when you get to Romans 8 and the apostle Paul reminds us that in the middle of our heartbreak and when the words run out and we have no words, the Holy Spirit takes those wordless groans and puts them into prayer to God, the Father.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we groan, sometimes we cry out. Look at verse 2, give attention to the sound of my cry. This idea of crying out. This is not a quiet, controlled, well-reasoned and thought out and polite prayer at the beginning of the morning, the way we often think about prayer. No, this idea of crying out. It's more like yelling. It's urgent, it's immediate, it's desperate. It is simply saying God, please help me.
Speaker 1:And again, david understands that that isn't just acceptable, that that is actually what God wants to hear from us. And if you keep looking there, you'll note too. He says my king and my God, to you I pray. That's important, very personal, and it also gets at the relationship with God and who God is and the covenant relationship he has with God. Look at the words my it automatically. David is beginning his day and it puts him in the proper place. He is submitting himself, he's waking up, he's bowing the knee, saying God, you're the king, I'm the creature, I submit to you, I am under your authority and your rule. This is your world and you are in control. And that's important for us to remember, especially as we start a new day, to place ourselves under God's rule, reminding us who we are and who he is.
Speaker 1:And the other way we can come is we can come prepared. Look at verse three, so we can cry out and groan or come prepared. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you. And watch the new international version. I think it's clearer. It says in the morning, I lay my request before you and wait expectantly. The word prepare is the image of arranging or setting things in order. Sacrifice obviously points to the temple where sacrifices were made, and so the picture here is of a priest carefully and intentionally arranging wood for a sacrifice.
Speaker 1:So you see what David is praying here. He's saying that's what I do with my prayers. Sometimes I groan, I cry out. Sometimes I carefully arrange them, very deliberately and carefully. I present my request to God. Here's the point. Come as you are, just come, just start talking, just start praying to God. Come when you can't find the words and all you can do is groan. Come. Come when all you can do is cry out and yell Lord, help me. Or come with carefully arranged prayers.
Speaker 1:David is saying wherever you are, whatever it is you're struggling with, just come First thing in the morning, before we reach for anything else. Reach for God, who holds the world and your life in his hands. Place yourself under his protection and his rule and his care. He is your king. Secondly, not only do we approach God at the beginning of the morning and come as we are. Approach God at the beginning of the morning and come as we are. Secondly, we seek his guidance and help. And so what does that look like? What do we do when we come? Verse 8, this is a great prayer to pray at the beginning of every morning. Lead me, o Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your path or your way straight before me. So notice, david doesn't just say bless me today, lord. No, he has a very specific prayer for guidance in the midst of very difficult circumstances, in the midst of everything in his life that's pressing in on him.
Speaker 1:We had Wonder Lab last week and the theme of Wonder Lab was this hiking-camping theme. If you're into hiking or camping and you hike or camp for several days, what do you do at the beginning of each day? You look at your compass. It guides you, it shows you the way to go. You get one degree off at the beginning of the day. By the end of the day you're miles off course.
Speaker 1:Prayer is much the same way. It functions as a spiritual compass of sorts. It's the way that we recalibrate our heart and our soul at the beginning of the day, before the day begins, we set our heart in the direction of God. Without it, we often the busyness sweeps in, the to-do list sweeps in and we lose our way and get off course and we turn inward and start relying on our own gifts and relying on ourselves instead of relying on God. When we wake up in the morning and we have all these decisions in front of us, even before the conflicts arise and the temptations of the day come, david gives us a framework here. Lead me today, lord, in your righteousness. Lord, help me to see the next right step to take. Guide me in your way instead of my ways. What does that look like practically? What is the righteous path? What does that actually look like? Well, it looks like lots of things.
Speaker 1:But in this Psalm, david is praying specifically for God to guide him in two areas. One, to guide him with his speech and his words. Did you see that? Look at verse 9. David describes his enemies. The truth is not in their mouth. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter me with their tongue the open grave. Think about that image. It's saying their words, his enemies' words are like the stench of death, bringing harm and destruction and decay, rather than life and truth.
Speaker 1:But here's what's astounding and remarkable the Apostle Paul quotes this verse in Romans 3, verse 13,. And he doesn't just apply it to David's enemies. He applies it to you and he applies it to me. He applies it to all of us. The scope expands from them to us. You see the implication, don't you? All of us and we know this, unfortunately have the capacity to use our words to destroy people and bring death rather than life. And so, as we begin our morning, that should be something on our prayer list.
Speaker 1:The way we use our words, prayer list, the way we use our words, whether it's text message, whether it's a social media post or a face-to-face conversation, we are to pray that our words would bring life rather than death. Think about James 3, the tongue, our words, have the power to set the entire course of our life on fire. So every morning, god, would you help me today with how I speak and use my words. May you fill them with grace and truth rather than the stench of death. Help me to speak life-giving words to my family and to my co-workers and to my friends.
Speaker 1:The other thing and place we need guidance is in our response to injustice. Look at verse 10. David prays make them bear their guilt, let them fall by their own counsel, cast them out. I mean, those are strong, very strong words and strong language, and we can spend a lot of time on this. I need to speak to it. We're going to see this more as we move through the psalms. You see lots of this language in the Psalms.
Speaker 1:These are called imprecatory Psalms and they often, if we're honest, they make us very uncomfortable Because when we hear it it sounds very harsh and vindictive. Again, lots to say. I can't say everything. Let me say a few things. First, notice that David isn't seeking personal revenge. He could have he could have sent his army and destroyed them. He is seeking God's justice. When we seek personal revenge, we're driven by wounded pride and anger and the desire to retaliate. And I'll show them or I'm going to make them pay or I'm going to do to them what they've done to me.
Speaker 1:But when David prays for God's judgment, he's actually demonstrating remarkable restraint and remarkable faith, because he's actually putting the matter in God's hands. David knows that his view of things is limited and that his sense of justice is limited and it's tainted by sin and his own emotion and his own self-interest. But he knows that God's justice is perfect and Jesus shows us a fuller picture of this when we get to the New Testament, 1 Peter, 2, verse 23,. Listen to this when they hurled insults at him, at Jesus, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, here it is he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. Jesus absorbed the justice and the judgment of God for our sin and the judgment of God for our sin and, as a result, jesus calls us to confront evil in this world. With a surprising response, and it takes lots of grace and lots of Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:But Jesus in the New Testament says things like turn the other cheek, give them the extra cloak or the extra clothing, Be generous, go the extra mile. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12, 21,. Overcome evil with good, not by becoming a doormat no, it's not what it's saying or not by ignoring injustice, but by engaging evil differently, with extraordinary love, rather than what's most natural for us, which is retaliation. It's saying here trust God, who will ultimately make all things right. Lastly, not only are we to seek God's help and guidance and ask and approach God in many different ways. Lastly, we see that we are to rejoice in what God has done through Jesus.
Speaker 1:Look at verses four through six, very strong language again, notice the word for. So it's connected to what's already been said in verses one through three. Why does David pray Verse four? For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Pray verse 4, for you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Like you're going to do something about evil. It can't dwell with you. And so you pray because you know that God doesn't like wickedness and evil. I can groan, I can cry out, because I know God hates all of that more than I do. God cannot tolerate evil.
Speaker 1:The arrogant look at those verses cannot stand before him. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. You see where this is going. You see where this is going. We're in trouble, aren't we? So what about us? That's where the question goes. What about the bloodthirsty thoughts and the evil and the wickedness and the deceit and all of those things, and the arrogance that is inside each of us? That is inside each of us? Well, david answers that question because he holds up the perfect holiness of God and says God hates evil.
Speaker 1:And then look at this remarkable verse in verse 7. It's remarkable, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love not might not, I hope will enter your house and bow down. Notice the contrast Evil cannot dwell with God. The arrogance can't stay in your presence. And yet David says I can, I can enter your presence. And yet David says I can, I can enter your house.
Speaker 1:Then the question is, how in the world is that possible? Well, you see it in this phrase through the abundance of your love. That word there is the Hebrew word, hesed, which is God's covenant love, and the Jesus storybook Bible says that word means God's forever, always and forever, never breaking love. David here and this is important to understand he's not saying I deserve access to God's presence because I'm better than all these other enemies that I have. He doesn't say that. David doesn't say I'm different than the evildoers or I'm a good man, I've lived a good life. Now I can ask you to hear me and come into your house. No, he pleads for mercy. He acknowledges that he only comes through the steadfast love of God.
Speaker 1:God's covenant faithfulness finds its ultimate expression in the Lord Jesus Christ. David looked to the temple and the sacrifices that the priests would make to atone for his sin. You and I look to Jesus, who is the true and final temple, the ultimate sacrifice and proof of God's love for his people. We can approach God because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus satisfied the holy justice of God on the cross and clothed us with his righteousness and we can enter into his house, into his presence, not because of our goodness and because we're good enough, but because God, through Jesus, was good enough for us. We recognize that it's not about our performance, but it's about Christ and his perfection and his perfect life that he won for us and that we receive by faith.
Speaker 1:In the book A Praying Life, paul Miller writes this illustration about our prayers and he said imagine your prayer as a poorly dressed beggar. Prayer as a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor and stumbling to the gates of the palace to meet the great king. And as you shuffle up to the barred gate, the guards at the gate suddenly hold their nose and stiffen because your smell has preceded you and you start to stammer out a message, but no one can quite understand it, and you say I want to see the king. They still can't quite fully understand, but they're thinking there's no way you get to see the king in the shape you're in. And then, before you leave, you manage to stammer out and to say and whisper Jesus, I come in the name of Jesus and at the name of Jesus, the palace suddenly comes alive. The guards straighten up. The guards, who would have nothing to do with you, suddenly bow to you, open up the gates and let you in and the palace lights come on. You walk down the hall to the throne room of the king and the king sees you and starts running down the hall and takes you in his arms and wraps his arms around you.
Speaker 1:That's the gospel. That's what Jesus has done for you. That is why it's good news, good news indeed, and it is amazing, isn't it? And notice, very briefly, how David responds to this amazing grace. Look at the second half of verse 7. He doesn't say oh, whatever. He doesn't say oh well, I think I'll go sin some more because I know there's a sacrifice. No, he bows down, he throws himself down in humble worship and it leads look at verse 11, it leads to joy, into singing.
Speaker 1:And so tomorrow morning, the sun starts to rise and your feet hit the floor. Instead of reaching for the business of the day, what if you reached for God? Just start saying something, whether it's a groan or a yell or crying out, or if your prayers are perfectly arranged. Come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask Him to lead you tomorrow in all righteousness, as you think about your speech and as you encounter people who have treated you unfairly and poorly, and rejoice in Jesus and his life, death and resurrection. Because of him, you have access to the very throne of God, not because you are worthy, but because he is worthy. Friends, jesus is better than you think and when we come to God in the morning, it changes everything about the way we think about our day.
Speaker 1:Let's pray, father. Thank you for teaching us this morning. I pray that you would help us to come to you in the morning. Sometimes we think we have to be put together. Convince us, we don't. You just want us to come and I pray, lord, that you would make our path straight, that you would help us as we speak words to the people around us this week, that we'd speak words of life to the people around us this week. That we'd speak words of life, lord, I pray that we would choose love over revenge. Help us, holy Spirit, to do those things. Thank you for Jesus, and it's in his name we pray, amen.