Psalms 5
1 For the end, for her who inherits (this music to play?), a Psalm by David
2 Give ear to my words, O Lord,
understand my cry,
3 Pay attention to the voice of my prayer,
O my King and my God,
because I will pray to you, O Lord.
4 In the morning, you will listen to my voice.
In the morning, I will present myself to you and I will look on.
5 Because you are not a God who wants lawlessness,
nor will one acting wickedly live beside you.
6 The lawless will not continue before your eyes;
You hated all who work lawlessness.
7 You will destroy all who speak the lie;
The Lord detests blood-thirsty and deceitful men.
8 But I, by the abundance of your mercy, will go into your house,
I will bow down to your holy shrine in fear of you.
9 O Lord, lead me in your righteousness for the sake of my enemies,
make your way straight before me,
10 Because there is no truth in their mouth,
Their heart is empty,
Their throat is an opened grave,
They were deceiving with their tongues.
11 Judge them, O God!
Let them fall away from their own plotting.
Expel them according to their multitude of impieties,
because they have provoked you, O Lord.
12 And let all who hope in you be glad;
They will rejoice forever, and you will settle among them,
and all who love your name will boast in you,
13 Because you will bless the righteous,
O Lord, you have crowned us with a shield of favor.
***
I would like to note that this Psalm is a prayer to God. Not only that, but it is a prayer to be delivered from enemies or from those who are persecuting or speaking against David. We’ve all been through that. Whether a bully when we were kids, friends picking on us, family members, work bosses, you name it, they’ve done it. Either by physical abuse or verbal abuse, they've done it.
There are some Scholars who think that Εἰς τὸ τέλος (for the end) refers to the eschatological nature of a Psalm. In other words, it is a line that that was added in the title to state that the following Psalm is addressing the end times in some way. Let’s see if that can hold up as we look at this Psalm.
Perhaps verse 3 is one of those “end time” indicators with the use of ὁ βασιλεύς μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου (O my King and my God).
2 Give ear to my words, O Lord,
understand my cry,
3 Pay attention to the voice of my prayer,
O my King and my God,
because I will pray to you, O Lord.
Jesus is the eschatological King who reigns from on high. He was to “come into his kingdom”. He was called by the Romans in a mocking way, “the King of the Jews”. But here, we have David praying to “my King”! Is this perhaps prophetic in nature that a new King will come?
In verse 4, we will see something familiar; “In the morning”. We as humans always see the dawn of a new day as a fresh start to the bad day we just had. So did ancient people.
4 In the morning, you will listen to my voice.
In the morning, I will present myself to you and I will look on.
Kαὶ ἐπόψομαι (and I will look on) is a figure of speech that means that “I’m waiting on a reply”. It’s very similar to the expression in this dialog.
Person 1: “Can you help me?”
Person 2: “Let me see.”
Here, “Let me see” means “Let me find out if I can help you or not”.
In verses 5-7, we see why God should listen to this prayer.
5 Because you are not a God who wants lawlessness,
nor will one acting wickedly live beside you.
6 The lawless will not continue before your eyes;
You hated all who work lawlessness.
7 You will destroy all who speak the lie;
The Lord detests blood-thirsty and deceitful men.
The prayer is from a righteous person before God. God will not put up with lawlessness. He will destroy all of those lawless people. If this Psalm is eschatological, then this is referring to the end.
But David will bow down in the holy shrine before God and pray.
8 But I, by the abundance of your mercy, will go into your house,
I will bow down to your holy shrine in fear of you.
9 O Lord, lead me in your righteousness for the sake of my enemies,
make your way straight before me,
He prays that the Lord will lead him along the right path, because his enemies are speaking against him. He wants to be vindicated before God.
Note the poetic way that the enemies are referred to in verse 10.
10 Because there is no truth in their mouth,
Their heart is empty,
Their throat is an opened grave,
They were deceiving with their tongues.
The enemies are speaking against the Psalmist. The Psalmist wants vindication from all of these deceits. In the last line, ἐδολιοῦσαν (they were deceiving) is in the imperfect which make the aspect “continual”. In other words, they are continually deceiving when they speak.
And what does the Psalmist think should happen to people like this?
11 Judge them, O God!
Let them fall away from their own plotting.
He thinks God should judge them and let them succumb to the “plots” or “devices” of their own doing. For eventually, evils are found out. Eventually, evils get exposed. Eventually, a person’s evils will be their undoing.
The Lord is to “expel” them.
Expel them according to their multitude of impieties,
because they have provoked you, O Lord.
By the context, ἐξωθέω (expel by force) means to “expel them from us who are ungodly and not the godly”. “Expel them because they have caused you to become angry and let your wrath come down”! This too may be an indicator that this Psalm is eschatological in nature. The wicked are driven off like “dust from the face of the earth” (Psalms 1:4) and the righteous will remain.
But nothing may make this more eschatological than the last 2 verses.
12 And let all who hope in you be glad;
They will rejoice forever, and you will settle among them,
and all who love your name will boast in you,
13 Because you will bless the righteous,
O Lord, you have crowned us with a shield of favor.
Note, this is perhaps after the ungodly are expelled. The Lord will settle or live among the righteous and all the righteous will boast in the Lord. God currently lives “up there”, but eventually, he will live with us. Our enemies surround us on all sides, but the Lord “will drive them from the face of the earth”.
The righteous will be protected with the shield that God has provided them.
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