God’s Grace and Peace – Psalm 5

“To the Chief Musician. With flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King, and my God, for to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning. O Lord, in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.” Psalm 5:1-3

The Hebrew word “Nehiloth” appears nowhere else in Scripture but in this Psalm. According to the Matthew Henry Commentary, it is conjectured to be a wind instrument. The NKJV translates Nehiloth as referring to a flute. Translators believe Nehiloth is a musical counterpart to the Hebrew word for string instrument which is “Neginoth.”

How desperately do you want God to answer your prayers? David says to God, “Give ear!” “Consider!” “Give heed!” God was hearing David’s meditations and the voice of his cry because David was looking up to God. He was directing His prayers to God. All his hope was in God! Like the widow that Jesus spoke of in Luke 18, David was relentlessly pursuing God’s intervention.

The God we pray to is a King, and a God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords! This is how we regard Him. He is mighty. He is able to do more than we ask and imagine by His great power.

Meditation and prayer go together. In Psalms 19:14, David wrote, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” It is good to meditate on Him who is our strength and our Redeemer, and then, to pray to Him with complete confidence in His power and loving willingness to act on our behalf.

David made it his business to pray. Others might live without prayer, but he could not. Kings on thrones should be beggars at God’s throne. Some pray to anything that is called god, but David directed his prayers to the one true God who made heaven and earth. The living God!

David began his day with prayer. Some may say I am too busy to pray. Martin Luther is widely credited with saying, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Hans Van Staten famously said, “When man works, man works. When man prays, God works.”

We are the fittest for prayer when we are the most refreshed, and not yet filled with the business of the day. At the beginning of each new day, God invites us invoke His help and protection against the dangers and temptations that we shall face.

David directed his prayer to God as a marksman directs his arrow to the bullseye. To send our prayers to God is to send them to the right address. All our prayers must be directed to God.

David said, “I will look up.” We must look up to God to remain upright for Him.

“For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.” Psalm 5:4

When David says, “You are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness,” he means God hates it. Though the workers of iniquity prosper, none should think that God has pleasure in wickedness. God does not delight in those who delight in sin.

“The boastful shall not stand in Your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity.” Psalm 5:5

In Galatians 6:14, Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The achievements of people pale in comparison with what Jesus Christ did for us. People often push themselves to achieve great feats for the sake of selfish gain. Christ did great feats of selfless love for the sake of saving the souls of sinners from eternal hell.

God hates all workers of iniquity. To commit iniquity is to take an unfair advantage of someone. Some make a sport of this. God hates such dealers. He loves workers of charity and grace.

“You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” Psalm 5:6

War is based on deceit. Sun Tzu in his book, “The Art of War” states that “All warfare is based on deception.” Bloodthirsty and deceitful men use deception to appear weak where they are strong and to appear strong where they are weak. They intentionally leak misinformation to confuse and catch their prey unprepared for an attack.

God says to us in the Ten Commandments. “You shall not bear false witness. You shall not kill.”

If nations spent but a small fraction of their military budgets on making disciples of Jesus, the world would be a happier and more prosperous place for everyone.

“But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy. In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.” Psalm 5:7

David acted wisely. He chose to look to God for mercy. His reverence for and worship towards God helped him to say, “NO” to lying and killing in regards to King Saul. Saul treated him horribly. David had won battles for Saul. He was loyal to him. He was his son-in-law. But Saul tried relentlessly to kill David. David had two excellent opportunities to kill Saul but would not do it. David considered King Saul as God’s anointed authority. David placed his life in God’s hands and let God be God with King Saul. Eventually, Saul fell upon his own sword and died.

“Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies. Make Your way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.” Psalm 5:8-10

By God’s wisdom and grace, David baffled those who sought occasion against him. He leaned on God to direct him in the right way to go. As a mountain goat walks skillfully in high places without falling, God helped him to navigate safely amidst people who wanted to destroy him.

David’s enemies are bad characters. They disguise their malice with words of flattery. They pretended to be religious or friendly, but inwardly were wicked. Their throat is an open tomb waiting to catch someone and bury them. According to Proverbs 30:15-16, “The grave never says, ‘It is enough.’”

Persecuting God’s servants evokes God’s severity, 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 says they will fall by their own counsels. In Psalms 7:15 and 9:15, David pleads, “They have rebelled against You. Had they been only my enemies, I could have forgiven them, but they are rebels against God.” His prayer for their destruction comes not from a spirit of revenge, but from a spirit of prophecy, by which he foretold that they will certainly fall into their own traps.

“But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You. Let them ever shout for joy because You defend them. Let those also who love Your Name be joyful in You. For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.” Psalm 5:11-12

David describes God’s people as righteous because they trust in God. They love His Name. They delight in knowing Him. His prayers for God’s people are, “Let them ever shout for joy.” “Bless the righteous!” “Surround them with favor as with a shield.”

A shield, in war, guards only one side, but the favor of God defends the saints on every side.

In Job 1:9-11, the devil complained to God because God put a hedge of protection around Job. He felt that God’s protection provided Job an unfair advantage to live happily for God. Satan said to God, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

God allowed the devil to test Job with extreme losses. Job rightly surmised that he had been treated unjustly, but he never cursed God. The devil is an unfair dealer. After Satan’s test failed, God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before the test began.

James 5:11 says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” Compassion and mercy are of the Lord.

Paul opened his letter to the Christians living in Rome (Italy), Corinth, Phillipi, Thessalonica (all in Greece), Colossae and Ephesus (both in Turkey) with a blessing of grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace is what our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ want for each of us. [1]

Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” God answers our prayers in the morning, and throughout the day because He is rich in mercy, great with love and full of grace towards us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!


[1] Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, Colossians 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:1