Psalm 5:3

Note: There is a lot of variance here as to the translation of this verse. Even from version to version there are hardly two that are the same, however insignificant the variance may be. We’ll start by looking at some of these variances.

First, you will find that almost all translate the beginning of the verse with something along the lines of My voice you shall hear in the morning. But I have two variances here where the 1599 GB and John Calvin translate it in the optative mood. They see it as expressing a wish or desire to the Lord rather than a declarative statement. In these cases we read something along the lines of O that thou wouldst hear my voice in the morning. Calvin explains it as follows, “The first sentence may also read in the future tense of the indicative mood, Thou shalt hear my prayer. But, in my opinion, the verb is rather in the optative mood, as I have translated it.” I make no attempt to definitively determine which is true or not. I know this much though, I trust the exegetical standards of Calvin and think that it makes more sense written the way he has translated it. I don’t know that the 1599 GB bolsters such a position since they were all heavily influenced personally by Calvin and it would have been strange for them to interpret it differently. Even so, to start the verse by declaring a wish or desire to the Lord and then to proceed into the object of that request seems most logical to my mind; to begin with the indicative and then to repeat it immediately thereafter seems needlessly redundant and we know that where such technique is employed in the Bible it is always there for a reason such as truly, truly.

Next we see a couple of versions that replace the word prayer where it says in the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee. Now there are still others who use the word it or me (myself) which is really no change at all and just a continuation of the previous thought. But in the RSV and ESV it is replaced with prepare a sacrifice and I don’t believe this change is right. What I assume they are trying to accomplish is capturing the context and translation in one word which in this case the English fails miserably to achieve. It seems most accurate that prayer is indeed the right word; but, as you will see later, the idea of a sacrifice is true and correct in dealing with the prayer; Franz Delitzsch and Spurgeon specifically make note of this. Also, part of the difficulty here is the word we see as direct which inadequately represents the meaning here. For the actual word would probably be more accurately given as lay in order as it is in Lev. 1:7 and as Calvin references below; prepare comes much closer to a proper translation which makes the two (prayer and sacrifice) seem almost in conflict. I think perhaps the only way to effectively convey the right idea here is the grammatically impossible translation of the Amplified which translates it as (a prayer, a sacrifice). Perhaps one day we will have an English word to rectify this problem but until then only study will be able to convey the right context and the right word at the same time.

“O that thou wouldst hear my voice in the morning, O Jehovah.”
¨      Having besought God to grant his requests, he now entreats Him to make haste. Some think he alludes to the morning prayers which were wont to be joined with the daily sacrifices of the temple, according to the appointment of the law. Although I do not disapprove of this opinion, yet I have no doubt but that, constrained by the weariness of a somewhat lengthened delay, he wishes his deliverance to be hastened; as if he had said, “As soon as I awake, this will be the first subject of my thoughts. Therefore, O Lord, delay no longer the help of which I stand in need, but grant immediately my desires.” JC
¨      In the morning. This is the fittest time for intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul. Let us give God the mornings of our days and the morning of our lives. Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. CHS
¨      […] the morning is a proper time for prayer, both to return thanks to God for refreshing sleep and rest, for preservation from dangers by fire, by thieves and murderers, and for renewed mercies in the morning; as also to pray to God to keep from evil and dangers the day following; to give daily food, and to succeed in business and the employments of life; and for a continuation of every mercy, temporal and spiritual. God should be served and sought in the first place; and so to do looks as if God was with His people, and they with Him, when they awake in the morning. JG
¨      Morning prayer is our duty; we are fittest for prayer when we are in the most fresh, and lively, and composed frame, got clear of the slumbers of the night, revived by them, and not yet filled with the business of the day. We have then most need of prayer, considering the dangers and temptations of the day to which we are exposed, and against which we are concerned; by faith and prayer, to fetch in fresh supplies of grace. MH

“In the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee.”
¨      To direct unto God, I take to signify the same thing as to directly approach to God. Many, as if the language were elliptical, supply the words, my prayer. But in my judgment, David rather intends to declare that he was not turned hither and thither, nor drawn different ways by the temptations to which he was exposed, but that to betake himself to God was the settled order of his life. There is, in the words, an implied contrast between the rambling and uncertain movements of those who look around them for worldly helps, or depend on their own counsels, and the direct leading of faith, by which all the godly are withdrawn from the vain allurements of the world, and have recourse to God alone. The Hebrew word arac signifies to set in order or dispose… This sense is very suitable to the passage, in which David plainly declares it to be his determination not to be drawn away in any degree from his orderly course into the indirect and circuitous paths of error and sin, but to come directly to God. JC
¨      [Hermann] Hupfeld (a German theologian from the 19^th century) considers the mention of the morning only as “poetical expression” and when getting rid of the meaning prima luce (first light), he also gets rid of the beautiful and obvious reference to the daily sacrifice. The verb [‘arak] is the word used of laying wood in order for the sacrifice, Lev. 1:7, and the pieces of the sacrifice, Lev. 1:8, 12, 6:5… The laying of the wood in order for the morning offering of the lamb was one of the first duties of the priest, as soon as the day began to dawn; the lamb was slain before sunrise and when the sun appeared above the horizon laid piece by piece upon the altar. The morning prayer is compared to this morning sacrifice. This is in its way also a sacrifice… As the priests, with the early morning, lay the wood and pieces of the sacrifices of the Tamid upon the altar, so he brings his prayer before God as a spiritual sacrifice… K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨      “I will direct my prayer.” It is the word that is used for the laying in order the wood and the pieces of the victim upon the altar, and it is also used for the putting of the showbread upon the table. It means just this: “I will arrange my prayer before thee;” I will lay it out on the altar in the morning, just as the priest lays out the morning sacrifice. I will put them in order, call up all my powers, and bid them stand in their proper places, that I may pray with all my might, and pray acceptably. CHS

“And I will keep watch.”
¨      By the word, watch, he conveys the idea of hope and patience as well as of anxiety. As, tsapah, in Hebrew means, to wait for, as well as to look for, David, I have no doubt, intended to say, that after he had disburdened his cares into the bosom of God, he would, with an anxious mind, look out, as it were, like a sentinel, until it should appear, that in very deed God had heard him. No doubt, in the exercise of longing, there is always implied some degree of uneasiness; but he who is looking out for the grace of God with anxious desire, will wait patiently for it. JC
¨      The word implies a confident, and withal patient, expectation of relief. MP
¨      […] he brings his prayer before God as a spiritual sacrifice and looks out for an answer, perhaps as the priest looks our for fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, or looks to the smoke to see that it rises up straight towards heaven. K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨      Faith hath a supporting art after prayer: it supports the soul to expect a gracious answer… An unbelieving heart shoots at random, and never minds where his arrow lights, or what comes of his praying; but faith fills the soul with expectation… Now this expectation which faith raiseth in the soul after prayer, appears in the power it hath to quiet and compose the soul in the interim between the sending forth… and its return home… It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian’s soul before any likelihood of it appears to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long before it is received… For want of looking up many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take his name in vain?  O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise. William Gurnall

Personal Summary:

I love this Psalm and this verse only builds upon that love. We are being instructed here to cry to the Lord and to send our prayers up to Him as spiritual sacrifices every morning. That much I am reasonably sure, that while being emboldened here, is something we all knew. But how many of us pray with the confidence spoken of in this Psalm? It’s not just that we send our prayers to heaven; it is that as we do we expect an answer. We aren’t praying to some impotent god that has no ability to care for us and to answer our prayers. We pray to the omnipotent God that is Lord and ruler over all and has the ability to answer each and every prayer we send up to Him. This gives us hope! Not hope like the world has which is nothing more than wishful thinking, a toss of the dice in a game of chance; no, this is sure hope. This is knowing that the Lord hears our prayers and will answer them and thus we can with all assurance look to heaven and wait for an answer from our mighty God. To do or to expect anything less would be down right irreligious! It doesn’t mean that every answer will be the one we wanted or the thing we thought was best for us; but the Lord does hear us, will answer us, and it will be for our good and His glory, of that much we are sure.

Robert Hawker says it well when he says,

[…] what an assurance have all the faithful of being heard, when they are led by His Spirit, act faith upon his person and meditation, and thus direct their prayer with the first morning, unto Him that proves Himself the hearer of the prayer of the poor and destitute, and despiseth not their desire. [Christian!] do put it down as a sure unerring mark, that wherever the Spirit gives grace to pray, the Lord has already come forth to answer prayer.

We have hope because it does not depend on us. Not on the stability of our minds and our hearts, not on the purity of our actions, not on any one thing we do or say. It depends on Him alone and with an unwavering faith in such an awesome God there can be no other conclusion but to know that you are heard and will be answered. Beyond this though we have more benefit still! It is not just sure hope that we are given here, we are given here a reason for why we can look to God with patience. Faith in God produces hope and that hope produces patience. We may not get the answer immediately; but so what? Wait on the Lord with patience, look to Him daily and know that you will get a response; know that even the patience you have been given will produce fruit wherein ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We serve such a beautiful God who is worthy of all praise and glory. Can we ever stop marveling at who He is and what He does for us? Even in dealing with the act of prayer, something we take for granted, there are so many levels of beauty that we may spend a lifetime seeking to uncover them all and still find that we have only just scratched the surface. With all sincerity of heart I say in closing, Soli Deo Gloria!

Psalm 5:2

Note: Calvin in his commentary objects to a possible translation at the end of this verse of “when I pray to thee” versus “unto thee will I pray.” I looked up a number of our current translations and did not find this to be the case in anything I have. But, if you happen to have a version that translates it so then take notice that Calvin objects based on the grounds that it loses context and leads us away from David’s intent to reassure himself with who God is.

“Give heed to the voice of my cry…,”
¨      […] the word cry, which signifies a loud and sonorous utterance of the voice, serves to mark the earnestness of his desire. David did not cry out as it were into the ears of one who is deaf; but the vehemence of his grief, and his inward anguish, burst forth into his cry… After David has said in general, that God hears his words, he seems, immediately after, for the purpose of being more specific, to divide them into two kinds, calling the one obscure or indistinct moanings, and the other loud crying… If, then, at any time we are either backward to pray, or our devout affections begin to lose their fervor, we must here seek for arguments to quicken and urge us forward. JC
¨      […] crying hath a voice – a soul moving eloquence; coming from our heart it reaches God’s heart. Ah! my brothers and sisters, sometimes we cannot put our prayers into words: they are nothing but a cry. To a loving Father His children’s cries are music, and they have a magic influence which His heart cannot resist. CHS
¨      As if he had said… I speak with deep anxiety and concern, but with a failing utterance; and I cannot express myself, nor make myself understood as I wish. Do thou, therefore, understand from my feelings more than I am able to express in words. And, therefore, I add my cry; that what I cannot express in words for thee to hear, I may by my cry signify to thine understanding. Martin Luther
¨      [This] seems to intend more than groans or words, even a loud outcry, as of a person in great distress; such as the strong crying of Christ, in the days of His flesh, when on the cross, forsaken by God, deserted by His friends, and surrounded by His enemies; and such, in some measure, was the case of David. JG
¨      His prayer was a cry…, which denotes fervency of affection and importunity of expression; and such effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much and do wonders. MH

“[...] my King and my God, for to you I will pray.”
¨      […] by calling God his King and his God, he intended to stir himself up to entertain more lively and favorable hopes with respect to the issue of his afflictions, let us learn to apply these titles to a similar use, namely, for the purpose of making ourselves more familiar with God. At the close, he testifies that he does not sullenly gnaw the bit, as unbelievers are accustomed to do; but directs his groaning to God: for they who, disregarding God, either fret inwardly or utter their complaints to men, are not worthy of being regarded by Him. JC
¨      It is the part and duty of a king to answer the just and humble desires of his subjects. To thee alone will I direct all my prayers, and therefore from thee alone I expect succor and relief. MP
¨      [These titles] are the pith and marrow of the plea. Here is a grand argument why God should answer prayer – because He is our King and our God. We are not aliens to Him: He is the King of our country. Kings are expected to hear the pleas of their own people. We are not strangers to Him; we are His worshippers, and He is our God: ours by covenant, by promise, by oath, by blood. Here David expresses his declaration that he will seek to God, and to God alone. God is to be the only object of worship: the only resource of our soul in times of need. CHS

Personal Summary:

Once again we see what a wonderful God we serve. Unable to make our petition to the Lord as we should or might, we send up our anguish, our emotional pleas to Him and He hears us. He is moved by those things that cause us anguish in our lives. We may with all confidence make our case to God and expect that He hears the prayers of His children and even our cries. He hears our emotion, our deep anxiety and concern over the various issues in our lives. With fervency we are heard by our God and He considers these cries as prayers and replies.

We are assured that He hears our prayers because of who He is. Without the designation of Him being our King and our God our prayers are worth nothing. Without that designation we might as well grab any man we run across on the street and make our cry for help. But our sovereign God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son for our sake and works on our behalf to do what is best for us in our lives. Oftentimes we get in difficult times in our lives and we can actually feel the zeal melting away from our hearts. We find ourselves sinning in ways we are no longer accustomed to and in shame we withdraw from the Lord. We seem to think, as Adam did in the Garden, that we can hide from Him; or worse yet that we should, that we have cause to hide from Him. But as Calvin pointed out it is on the basis of whom He is that we make our pleas and expect our deep cries to be heard no matter how bad we feel our lives have become. It is important for us to constantly remind ourselves that He is our King and our God who is so devoted to and connected with His people that there is nothing we cannot take to Him and that there is nothing that escapes His notice.

Cast your cares before the Lord and when lost for words, when hopeless in life, know that He hears you even when unable to express your heartfelt petitions to Him specifically. What amazing assurances God gives us in all facets of our lives! Open your heart to Him who is able to grant you the desires therein and know that He hears you always. Amen.

Psalm 5:1

“Give ear to my words…”
¨      [David] prayed neither coldly nor only in a few words; but that, according as the vehemence of his grief urged him, he was earnest in bewailing his calamities before God; and that since it did not immediately appear what would be their issue, he persevered in repeating the same complaints. JC
¨      […] words in prayer to God ought to be few, at least not repeated, and these should be a man's own words, as were the psalmist's; not what were suggested by another, or written in a book before him, but what were of his own composing and putting together, under the direction of the Spirit of God; who put words into his mouth, and furnished him both with words and matter, and which he freely uttered before the Lord: and this is the "parrhesia", boldness, freedom of speech, which the Scriptures speak of, and the saints are allowed to use in prayer before God; when they may pour out their souls unto Him, and freely tell Him all their mind, as the psalmist now did… [God has a] kind regard… to the prayers of the destitute, which He does not despise but delight in; and of His bowing and inclining His ear, or of the strict and close attention He gives to them; and of the full and suitable answer He returns, in His own time and way; and is what the psalmist most earnestly entreats. JG
¨      What David here prays for…, may encourage our faith and hopes in all our addresses to God. If we pray fervently, and in faith, we have reason to hope… that God will take cognizance of our case, the representation we make of it and the requests we make upon it; for so he prays here: Give ear to my words, O Lord! Though God is in heaven, He has an ear to His people’s prayers, and it is not heavy, that He cannot hear. Men perhaps will not or cannot hear us; our enemies are so haughty that they will not, our friends at such a distance that they cannot; but God, though high, though in heaven, can, and will. MH

“[…] consider my meditation.”
¨      By not uttering the desires of his heart, he shows more emphatically that his inward feelings, which he brought with him before God, were such that language was insufficient to express them. JC
¨      […] it was not a lip prayer only, but… proceeded from and was accompanied with the deepest thoughts and most fervent affections of his soul. MP
¨      There are two sorts of prayers – those expressed in words, and the unuttered longings which abide as silent meditations. Words are not the essence but the garments of the prayer… Yet the use of language may prevent distraction of the mind, may assist the powers of the soul, and may excite devotion. David, we observe, uses both modes of prayer, and craves for the one a hearing, and for the other a consideration… If I have asked that which is right, give it to me; if I have omitted to ask that which I most needed, fill up the vacancy in my prayer… Let thy soul consider it as presented through my all-glorious mediator: then regard thou it in thy wisdom, weigh it in the scales, judge thou of my sincerity, and of the true state of my necessities, and answer me in due time for thy mercy’s sake! There may be prevailing intercession where there are no words; and alas! There may be words where there is no true supplication. Let us cultivate the spirit of prayer which is even better than the habit of prayer. There may be seeming prayer where there is little devotion. We should begin to pray before we kneel down, and we should not cease when we rise up. CHS
¨      […] meditation is requisite to prayer, and should go before it; which is necessary in order to pray with… understanding; nor should men utter anything rashly and hastily before the Lord: it may design mental prayer, in distinction from vocal prayer… The word also signifies inward mourning, and groans; the root from whence this is derived to mourn… and are the same with the unutterable groanings with which the Spirit of God sometimes makes intercession for the saints, Rom. 8:26; and which are not hid from God, but are well known to Him: He understands the language of a sigh or groan; and so the words may be rendered "understand my moan." JG
¨      The Psalmist well shows… how from within, from the chamber of the heart, without the body’s utterance, it reaches unto God: for the bodily voice is heard, but the spiritual is understood. Augustine
¨      [This] signifies that which is spoken meditatively, here praying in rapt devotion. K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨      [God] will take [our prayers] into His wise and compassionate consideration, and will not slight it, or turn it off with a cursory answer; for so he prays: Consider my meditation. David’s prayers were not his words only, but his meditations; as meditations [are] the best preparative for prayer, so prayer is the best issue of meditation. MH

Personal Summary:

What a beautiful and reassuring opening verse to this Psalm! How wonderful it is for the people of God to know that it is not just the words of our mouth that God receives on our behalf; it is also our groanings, our moans, or sighs. When we are plagued with weakness and infirmity, when we are embattled with sin, when we are so beaten up that we feel we do not have the knowledge or strength to ask the Lord for what would heal us yet our moans are heard by Him and He answers. It may not be as we had hoped He would answer. It may not be in the time that we wanted Him to answer. But what a beautiful picture of a loving God that listens not just to our specific petitions but listens for our moans of anguish and receives them, considers them, and answers them. What we mull in our mind, what we feel in our heart, all of it is laid open to our God and He listens to the meditations of the saints and replies not just in response to the specific issue but we can hear Him saying lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. With this realization in mind we read Rom. 8:26 and see that our God is so faithful that we don’t even have the capacity to pray for what we should be praying for and thus the Spirit intercedes for us just as Spurgeon said, “[He] fill[s] up the vacancy in [our] prayers.”

He is here now and forever and we are not alone. When it seems like we are indeed alone, when it seems as if we cannot be heard, when it seems like we have no hope, He is there for His children. When we are slouched in our chairs at night burdened with problems and we find it impossible to verbalize a prayer as only lumps in our throat and exhaustion seem to appear, He is there and He hears our pain. What could possibly prevent us from regular fervent prayer when we serve a God who is so faithful that He even hears our moans? What beauty and reassurance we have here! Let us revel in this truth and pray to the Lord with all of our might and in all of our affairs both now and always, Amen.

John Calvin on the Psalms

In this following passage Calvin outlines for us the beauty and practical application of the Psalms in the lives of believers. Rarely will we find a more expert presentation intended to lead us to study this book and to make it a central part of our walk with the Lord.

"I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, 'An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;' for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. The other parts of Scripture contain the commandments which God enjoined His servants to announce to us. But here the prophets themselves, seeing they are exhibited to us as speaking to God, and laying open all their inmost thoughts and affections, call, or rather draw, each of us to the examination of himself in particular, in order that none of the many infirmities to which we are subject, and of the many vices with which we abound, may remain concealed. It is certainly a rare and singular advantage, when all lurking places are discovered, and the heart is brought into the light, purged from the most baneful infection, hypocrisy. In short, as calling upon God is one of the principal means of securing our safety, and as a better ad more unerring rule for guiding us in this exercise cannot be found elsewhere than in The Psalms, it follows, that in proportion to the proficiency which a man shall have attained in understanding them, will be his knowledge of the most important part of celestial doctrine. Genuine and earnest prayer proceeds first from a sense of our need, and next, from faith in the promises of God. It is by perusing these inspired compositions, that men will be most effectually awakened to a sense of their maladies, and, at the same time, instructed in seeking remedies for their cure. In a word, whatever may serve to encourage us when we are about to pray to God, is taught us in this book. And not only are the promises of God presented to us in it, but oftentimes there is exhibited to us on standing, as it were, amidst the invitations of God on the one hand, and the impediments of the flesh on the other, girding and preparing himself for prayer: thus teaching us, if at any time we are agitated with a variety of doubts, to resist and fight against them, until the soul, freed and disentangled from all these impediments, rise up to God; and not only so, but even when in the midst of doubts, fears, and apprehensions, let us put forth our efforts in prayer, until we experience some consolation which may calm and bring contentment to our minds. Although distrust may shut the gate against our prayers, yet we must not allow ourselves to give way, whenever our hearts waver or are agitated with inquietude, but must persevere until faith finally come forth victorious from these conflicts... It appeared to me to be requisite to to show in passing, that this book makes known to us this privilege, which is desirable above all others - that not only is there opened up to us this familiar access to God, but also that we have permission and freedom granted to us to lay open before Him our infirmities, which we would be ashamed to confess before men. Besides, there is also here prescribed to us an infallible rule for directing us with respect to the right manner of offering to God the sacrifice of praise, which He declares to be most precious in His sight, and of the sweetest odor. There is no other book in which there is to be found more express and magnificent commendations, both of the unparalleled liberality of God towards His Church, and of all His works; there is no other book in which there is recorded so many deliverances, nor one in which the evidences and experiences of the Fatherly providence and solicitude which God exercises towards us, are celebrated with such splendor of diction, and yet with the strictest adherence to truth; in short, there is no other book in which we are more perfectly taught the right manner of praising God, or in which we are more powerfully stirred up to the performance of this religious exercise. Moreover, although The Psalms, are replete with all the precepts which serve to frame our life to every part of holiness, piety, and righteousness, yet they will principally teach and train us to bear the cross; and the bearing of the cross is a genuine proof of our obedience, since by doing this, we renounce the guidance of our own affections, and submit ourselves entirely to God, leaving Him to govern us, and to dispose of our life according to His will, so that the afflictions which are the bitterest and most severe to our nature, become sweet to us, because they proceed from Him. In one word, not only will we here find general commendations of the goodness of God, which may teach men to repose themselves in Him alone, and to seek all their happiness solely in Him; and which are intended to teach true believers with their whole hearts confidently to look to Him for help in all their necessities; but we will also find that the free remission of sins, which alone reconciles God towards us, and procures for us settled peace with Him, is so set forth and magnified, and that here there is nothing wanting which relates to the knowledge of eternal salvation."

May the study of this book personally lead each of us to share its significance just as Calvin has done here. May that, in turn, lead to an increase in the use of the Psalms by all of the people of God both privately and corporately. Then may we see it lead all of us to fervent prayer and a close walk with our God with an utter abandonment of self to His glory and in obedience to His will.