The Impact and Application of the Psalms in the New Testament

This is a passage I read that is really excellent on the implications of the Psalms as they are used in the New Testament. As we strive to understand the relevance and application of the Old Testament books on the writers of the New Testament and accordingly on the practical application of such into our own lives, writers delving fruitfully into the topic such as we see here are entirely worth our time to read.

Their New Testament use
Our Lord, at the beginning of His ministry, made a pointed omission from an Old Testament passage, by closing the book before the phrase 'the day of vengeance of our God' (Isa. 61:1f.; Luke 4:18-20). This, taken with His teaching on repaying evil with good, might suggest His discarding of the whole concept of judgment; but it soon becomes clear that matters are not as simple as this. He has come with salvation, yet its very approach brings judgment all the closer. The 'wicked husbandmen' in the parable are brought to a final, and as it turns out, a fatal decision when the son of the house confronts them; the small towns of Galilee, having had their taste of heaven, now face a deeper hell than Sodom's.

This paradox has its bearing on the psalms of imprecation. The psalmists in their eagerness for judgment call on God to hasten it; the Gospel by contrast shows God's eagerness to save, but reveals new depths and immensities of judgment which are its corollary. 'Now they have no excuse for their sin.'

In its quotations and echoes of the Psalter on this theme the New Testament sometimes speaks with less severity than its source, sometimes with more, but never with mere personal rancour. We... can note, as samples, that God's wrath and the Messiah's 'rod of iron', which are prominent in Ps. 2, are prominent in Revelation; that the 'day of His wrath' (110:5) finds its echo in Rom. 2:5, and the anger called down on those 'who do not know' God (79:6) is confirmed in 2 Thess. 1:8 (where, however, the offense is clarified as refusal to acknowledge Him, not mere ignorance).

Occasionally the New Testament breaks off a quotation at the point where retribution is threatened in the Psalter, but this is usually for reasons of relevance rather than any reservations of doctrine. For example in Jn. 10:34 the point at issue has been fully made with the words 'I said, you are gods'; nothing would be gained by completing the quotation: 'nevertheless you shall die like men' (Ps. 82:7). Much the same is true of 1 Pet. 3:12, quoting only half of Ps. 34:16. Again, in Rom. 3:19 the phrase, 'that every mouth may be stopped', concludes the case against man which has been built up in the previous chapters, so that he falls silent. There is no need here of the sanctions which loom up behind Ps. 63:11. On the other hand the silence is significant in Jn. 13:18, where our Lord quotes Ps. 41:9 on the friend 'who ate my bread' and 'lifted his heal against me', but forbears to pray, as David prayed, for the opportunity to requite him. He has something better to offer him.

At the same time there is 'sorer punishment' revealed in the New Testament than in the psalms, simply because the whole scale of human destiny has come into sight. This is very clear from a comparison of Ps. 6:8 with Matt. 7:23, where the words 'Depart from me, all you workers of evil' are transformed from a cry of relief by David into a sentence of death by Christ. The principle is the same truth and lies cannot live together. 'Outside' will be 'every one who loves and practices falsehood'. But it is one thing to be driven off by David; quite another by Christ, to the final exclusion which is also the climax of almost every parable in the Gospels.

The New Testament, then, so far from minimizing the role of judgment, increases its gravity at the same time as it removes it from the sphere of private reprisal. This is illustrated by its use of two of the most heated outbursts in the Psalter, in Ps. 69 and 109. Each of them is treated as prophecy, and taken to be the sentence of God on invincible impenitence. Peter quotes Ps. 69:25 and 109:8 of Judas, in the spirit of our Lord's sorrowful but unquestioning references to his perdition. Paul has a similar tenderness for Israel (for whom he could wish himself accursed) when he sees them inheriting the doom of Ps. 69:22f.; 'Let their feast become a snare... let their eyes be darkened... and bend their backs forever' (Rom. 11:9f.) - but he clearly regards the clause 'for ever' as revocable if they will repent, as indeed he expects them to do. So we gain the additional insight into these maledictions, that for all their appearance if implacability they are to be taken as conditional, as indeed the prophets' oracles were. Their full force was for the obdurate; upon repentance they would become 'a curse that is causeless', which, as Pro. 26:2 assures us, 'does not slight'.

Their present relevance
As a preliminary to this question there are two further elements in the New Testament to take into account... The first is the plea of God's elect for vindication..., a plea which our Lord accepts in Lu. 18:7f., and which is echoed in the martyrs' cry in Rev. 6:10: 'How long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?' What seems to be meant in both cases is the accusing fact of innocent blood, 'crying' like Abel's 'from the ground' to God. It can hardly mean the conscious prayer of the martyrs, for in reality the example of Stephen set the tone for his successors (as his Master's did for him), ending the old tradition of indignant protest (cf. 2 Chr. 24:22; Jer. 18:23). But Stephen's prayer for his enemies could be answered only through their repentance, as indeed it was the case of Saul. Otherwise, in the sight of heaven this blood would still be on their heads. Even the atoning blood of Christ, although 'it speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel', becomes damning evidence against those who abuse it.

The second element is the occasional equivalent of cursing in the New Testament. The Lord Himself led the way with His acted and spoken oracles of judgment on unfruitful Israel (Mk. 11:14; 12:9) and on unfaithful churches (Rev. 2f.). In the age of the apostles, if the fate of Ananias and Sapphira was not actually invoked, the temporary blinding of Elymas was; so too was the handing over of the Corinthian offender to satan (1 Cor. 5:5). The future requital of Alexander the coppersmith is stated in terms of Ps. 62:12 in 2 Tim. 4:14 (but note the prayer of verse 16). What is common to all these cases is concern for the welfare of the kingdom or of the offender himself (including Alexander, it may be, while there was yet hope of repentance: 1 Tim. 1:20). The personal interests of those who call down these judgments have nothing of the prominence which they appear to have in the psalms. The fewness of these prayers or oracles of judgment, and the absence of bitterness, are proof enough of the new thing that has happened; but their presence at all in the New Testament confirms its continuity with the Old.

We conclude, then, that it is not open to us to renounce or ignore the psalmists, part of whose function in God's economy was to make articulate the cry of 'all the righteous blood shed on the earth' (to borrow our Lord's phrase). But equally it is not open to us simply to occupy the ground on which they stood. Between our day and theirs, our calling and theirs, stands the cross. We are ministers of reconciliation, and this is a day of good tidings.

To the question, Can a Christian use these cries for vengeance as his own? the short answer must surely be No; no more than he should echo the curses of Jeremiah or the protests of Job. He may of course translate them into affirmations of God's judgment, and into denunciations of 'the spiritual hosts of wickedness' which are the real enemy. As for the men of flesh and blood who 'live as enemies of the cross of Christ' or who make themselves our enemies, our instructions are to pray not against them but for them; to turn them from the power of satan to God; to repay their evil with good; and to choose none of their ways. 'As men in need, who may yet be rescued, they are to be loved and sought; as men who have injured us, they must be forgiven. But as men to follow or to cultivate' - and here the psalms and the New Testament speak with one voice - 'they are to be rejected utterly, as are the principalities and powers behind them'.

If these passages in the psalms open our eyes to the depths and just deserts of evil, and to the dangers of borrowing its weapons, they have done their work. To say that theirs is not the last word on the subject is no reproach: more work first needed to be done. That work and final word belonged to Christ, and we are its inheritors. (Derek Kidner, IVP Academic, TOTC, vol. 15, pp 43-47)

Psalm 5:5

Note: You will notice in vs. 5 that depending on which version you are reaching for you will see primarily the verse begin either with “The boastful” or “The foolish.” Now we may say boasting is foolishness but one can possibly be foolish without boasting so that they are not necessarily the same thing. Franz Delitzsch addresses the proper use here and says, “Now there [are] specific designations of the wicked… [they] are the foolish, and more especially foolish boasters; the primary notion of the verb is not being hollow, but that of sounding, then of loud boisterous, nonsensical behavior.” With that understanding I think it would appear the NIV has this word translated most accurately into our English language when it uses “The arrogant” to translate the Hebrew word halal. The others aren’t too far off base but neither really gets the entire meaning either. These are men who are fools and are proud to tell the world they are so. Matthew Poole captures this sentiment when he says, “The foolish; or, the madmen, as the word properly signifies.”

“The arrogant shall not stand in your sight.”
¨      […] it is a very just inference from this, that iniquity is hateful to God, and that, therefore, He will execute His just punishment upon all the wicked. He calls those fools, according to a frequent use of the term in Scripture, who, impelled by blind passion, rush headlong into sin. Nothing is more foolish, than for the ungodly to cast away the fear of God, and suffer the desire of doing mischief to be their ruling principle: yea, there is no madness worse than the contempt of God, under the influence of which men pervert all right. JC
¨      Folly is the designation of boasting; and of sin generally, with the additional idea of high-mindedness here, which is especially offensive to God. JFB, A.R. Fausset
¨      Oh, how foolish are we if we attempt to entertain two guests so hostile to one another as Christ Jesus and the devil! Rest assured, Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts… A little sin is a great folly, and the greatest of all folly is great sin. Such sinful fools as these must be banished from the court of heaven. Earthly kings were wont to have fools in their trains, but the only wise God will have no fools in His palace above. CHS
¨      […] wicked men…, who are indeed morally and really madmen, in fighting with the Lord God Almighty, and exposing themselves to such dreadful hazards and mischiefs for such mean and monetary advantages. [They cannot stand in thy sight] either in battle against thee… or in judgment at thy tribunal… MP
¨      [These men] are not able to maintain their position when they become manifest before the eye of God. K&D, Franz Delitzsch

“[…] you hate all workers of iniquity.”
¨      The verbal phrases “[you are not a God] who takes pleasure” (vs. 4), “you hate” (vs. 5), and “the Lord abhors” (vs. 6) affirm three times God’s absolute hatred of evil. In Malachi’s days some argued that God “delights” in evildoers (Mal. 2:17). But in response, the Lord revealed how He will quickly judge the unfaithful people... Similarly, the negative statements “cannot dwell” (vs. 4) and “cannot stand” (vs. 5) are completed by the phrase “you destroy,” having the same root as the verb in 1:6: “but the way of the wicked will perish.” God hates both sin and those who sin against Him. EBC, W. VanGemeren
¨      It is not a little dislike, but a thorough hatred which God bears towards workers of iniquity. To be hated of God is an awful thing. O let us be very faithful in warning the wicked around us, for it will be a terrible thing for them to fall into the hands of an angry God. CHS
¨      Such men Jehovah hates; for if He did not hate evil, His love would not be a holy love. K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨      [God has a] continued aversion to them, denying them His grace and favor, and rejecting them from all nearness to Him and communion with Him; and may include the everlasting punishment of them, by which His discipline and hatred will be made manifest: and He is impartial in it, without any respect to persons, high or low, rich or poor; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will come upon every soul of man that does evil. God's love to His own people was antecedent to sin, and was placed upon them in Christ, in whom their persons are always well pleasing to Him; and though they sinned in Adam, and became actual transgressors of His law, yet such was His love to their persons, that He saves them from their sins by the blood and righteousness of His son. JG
¨      The workers of iniquity are very foolish. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest of all fools; not fools of God’s making (those are to be pitied), for He hates nothing that He has made, but fools of their own making, and those He hates. Wicked people hate God; justly therefore are they hated of Him, and it will be their endless misery and ruin. MH

Personal Summary:

I think it may be wise to consider the biblical concept of godly hate. I remember a few years ago hearing a pastor, in a Reformed church, try and pawn off Rom. 9:13 as “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I loved less.” I also remember a fellow Reformed Christian trying to explain to me how God loves all men indiscriminately regardless of if they are saved or not by the fact that He has not immediately destroyed them. All of us at some point or another have heard this argument proposed.

Yet neither of these things is the biblical concept being discussed in this verse or in others such as Rom. 9:13. The word actually means God hates them! Not loves less and not dislikes, hates. Let’s look at the original words used in both passages. In Ps. 5:5 the Hebrew word is שׂנא sane’ which literally means to hate, be hateful; hater, one hating, enemy; to be hated; hater. This is the same word used in Mal. 1:3 which is what Romans 9:13 references. In the verse in Romans the meaning hasn’t changed from the Hebrew to the Greek either, the Greek word is μισεω miseo which means to hate, pursue with hatred, detest; to be hated, detested; if anything the word may have gotten stronger, not weaker. Neither are given in uncertain terms or application.

You see, the problem is that we view the clear evidence of Scripture as revealing either a flawed God or a God we are not willing to defend. The problem is not that the word of God is not clear on the matter or that the language left us was somehow too ambiguous for us to determine what is being said. It accomplishes all of that easily. The problem is that our sinful hearts cannot fathom the thought that God hates someone and we don’t feel capable of reconciling that He can both perfectly hate one and perfectly love another; as if the two stand opposed to each other, which they do not. A holy God must hate sin or He fails to be holy. To be actually holy He must hate sin as a personal affront to His very being and accordingly He must hate those who frolic in sin in opposition to His declared will and His holy nature. But God, through His Son, took pity on some that His mercy and love might shine forth in those whom He saves. That doesn’t mean those men weren’t filthy sinners as well, they were and are, but they are no longer viewed in light of their own depraved hearts but through the prism of the imputed righteousness of Christ. As such they cease to be hated by God for they are no longer wretched sinners that hate God in His eyes, but justified saints being sanctified until He calls them home in glory.

The one attribute and action of God does not threaten or contradict the other. The two work in perfect harmony and put the holy loving God of heaven on full display for the world to see. We do not need to be apologists for who He is, we do not need to rewrite His inerrant word to make it fit our sinful sensibilities; we need to proclaim Him just as He has revealed Himself to us and glorify Him for who He actually is. When we start trying to manipulate the God of the Bible into a god made in our own image, a god without offense or opposition to sin and sinners alike, we cease to worship the God of the Bible and it is certain not one man guilty of this has ever made God more perfect than He already is. In other words, you have accomplished nothing except sin itself. Is it not enough that He has saved us from our sin and given us the immense honor to proclaim Him to the world? Can we not rest easy there and bathe in the warm glow of His holy character?

Understand the actions and attributes of God all work together in one cognitive holy theme. Just as God hates both the sin and the sinner He likewise, as Francis Turretin says, justly, “[imposes punishment] not only on sin but also on the very person of the sinner… Justice demands necessarily that all sin should be punished, but does not equally demand that it should be punished in the very person sinning or at such a time and in such a degree.” (Institutes 1.19) Here we see the theme is constant and steady regardless of how we approach it (or from what point the matter is being considered from). God hates sin and thus He has to punish sin. God hates the sinner who commits sin and thus justice determines that the sinner be punished as well. In the case of the elect their sins have been equally punished, and more so, through Christ who was the propitiation for their sin. He stood in our place, but our sin was still punished. Justice suffered nothing; in fact justice got more than it ever deserved in the person of Christ Himself who knew no sin. Accordingly, there is no confusion between a God that shows mercy through His Son and a God that punishes the wicked for their evil, all sins have or will be paid for in time.

God hates sin and therefore we too must hate sin, especially in our own lives. God loves His children because of Christ, not because of something special in them. This causes no contradiction to how He relates to the reprobate and we cannot be found in contempt for having convinced the world it does through our repeated attempts to make them think God loves them when He does not. It is better for us to proclaim the actual message of this verse and others like it: “God hates your sin and He hates you; in fact, He hates you so much that He will not even allow you stand in His presence. Repent wicked man! You have lived your life as an affront to a holy God and He has no choice but to punish you for your sin! Repent wicked man! Put your faith in Christ who died on the cross for the elect and is risen from the dead seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Anything less will assure you of facing God’s wrath and in that you are to be pitied, in that you stand no chance, in that you will perish in your sins and spend eternity in hell.” Woe to the man that faces the wrath of God! But in your empathetic outreach, in your obedience to the Great Commission to gather the elect, you cannot step outside the parameters we have been given and make God into something He is not. Proclaim His word bluntly and allow the Spirit to work in whom He will according the to will of God and may the sinner be saved with truth.

Dear Lord I pray:

“Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.”

Men may reject you, ridicule you, persecute you for the truth, but may we stand sure and unwavering regardless of what the cost may be. May the richness of God’s glory shine forth forever more!

Psalm 5:4

“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness…”
¨ Here David makes the malice and wickedness of his enemies an argument to enforce his prayer for the divine favor towards him… His reasoning is grounded upon the nature of God. Since righteousness and upright dealing are pleasing to Him, David, from this, concludes that He will take vengeance on all the unjust and wicked. And how is it possible for them to escape from His hand unpunished, seeing He is the judge of the world? This passage is worthy of our most special attention. For we know how greatly we are discouraged by the unbounded insolence of the wicked. If God does not immediately restrain it, we are either stupified and dismayed or cast down into despair. But David, from this, rather finds matter of encouragement and confidence. The greater the lawlessness with which his enemies proceeded against him, the more earnestly did he supplicate preservation from God, whose office it is to destroy all the wicked, because He hates all wickedness. Let all the godly, therefore, learn, as often as they have to contend against violence, deceit, and injustice, to raise their thoughts to God in order to encourage themselves in the certain hope of deliverance. JC
¨ The basing of the prayer [is] on God’s holiness… [and] the light of the divine holiness is to sinners a consuming fire, which they cannot endure. K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨ [This is] the ground of his hope. Deliverance from his enemies is the object of his prayer. His enemies are wicked therefore God will deliver him, as being a sincere worshipper, from them. JFB, A.R. Fausset
¨ And now the Psalmist having thus expressed his resolution to pray, you hear him putting up his prayer. He is pleading against his cruel and wicked enemies. He uses a most mighty argument. He begs of God to put them away from him, because they are displeasing to God Himself. CHS
¨ Sin, ungodliness; it is contrary to His nature, who is holy, just, and good; and to His will revealed in His law, which is the same with His nature; and sin is a transgression of it. God is so far from taking pleasure in sin, that it is the abominable thing which His righteous soul hates; though this hinders not His voluntary permission of sin, or His decree of it; which He has willed, though He does not delight in it, in order to magnify the riches of His grace and mercy in the salvation of His people: nor is this contrary to the delight and pleasure which He takes in the persons of His elect in Christ, though they are sinners in themselves, and were so when He so loved them as to give His Son for them, and who died for them while they were yet sinners; and when He sends His Spirit to regenerate and sanctify them, and are after conversion guilty of many sins: for, though He delights in their persons, He has no pleasure in their sins; nor is it consistent with the holiness of His nature to take pleasure in wickedness, let it be committed by whomsoever. JG
¨ Seeing that God of nature hateth wickedness, He must needs punish the wicked, and save the godly. 1599 GB
¨ David [takes notice that God is a sin hating God and is encouraged in his prayers] against his enemies; they were wicked men, and therefore enemies to God, and such as He had not pleasure in. See… the holiness of God’s nature when he says, thou art not a god that hath pleasure in wickedness, he means, “Thou art a God that hates it, as directly contrary to thy infinite purity and rectitude, and holy will...” God has no pleasure in wickedness though covered with a cloak of religion. Let those therefore who delight in sin know that God has no delight in them… MH

“[…] neither shall evil dwell with thee.”
¨ Again, we may infer from this passage the common doctrine, that God, although He works by Satan and by the ungodly, and makes use of their malice for executing His judgments, is not, on this account, the author of sin, nor is pleased with it because the end which He purposes is always righteous; and He justly condemns and punishes those who, by His mysterious providence, are driven whithersoever He pleases… David declares simply, that there is no agreement between God and unrighteousness. JC
¨ […] neither shall evil be received by thee as a pilgrim, to sojourn even for a time in thy tabernacle. He who would dwell with God must be holy, as God is holy. JFB, A.R. Fausset
¨ Deeply ingrained in Israel’s belief system and developed in her Wisdom literature is the conviction that the God of Israel hates evil in any form. Whereas other religions brought together good and evil at the level of the gods, God had revealed that evil exists apart from Him and yet is under His sovereign control. The religion of Israel was revelatory. The psalmist shows a clear conviction that God hates in the most radical way any form of evil and denies lawless persons any (present or future) right to His presence. He who expects His own people to disassociate from evildoers and encourages righteous and holy living cannot betray them by having a double standard. EBC, W. VanGemeren
¨ That is, the evil man, who continues in a course of wickedness, and lives and dies in his sins. He has no communion with God here, nor shall he dwell with Him hereafter; but shall be bid to depart from Him, whether he be a profane sinner openly, or secretly a wicked professor of religion. The sense of the psalmist is, that since they were evil and wicked men, that were risen up against him, and gave him trouble, he entertained a strong confidence that God would hear him, for himself and his friends, whose cause was righteous; and appear against his enemies, who were wicked and ungodly men; and this he grounded upon the purity and holiness of God. JG

Personal Summary:

How important this Psalm is for us to know and to understand. How often have we made our plea to God when assaulted by the world, perhaps even assaulted by the Church, based upon our own merits and on the merits of our individual case? Yet when left alone, when judged by ourselves, we are just as guilty as the men against whom we are bringing before the Lord. It is our relationship with Christ and the fact that He has died on the cross for our sins and justified us that allows us to approach God and plead our case. It is on the merits of Christ that we rest and on the holiness of God that we make our plea. We are not comparing these men who persecute us to ourselves for therein they have good standing; we are pleading our case by comparing them to God. These men are not justified sinners such as the saints are; they are guilty sinners worthy of God’s wrath and that is the case that must be made.

God hates sin and He hates the sinner. Without Christ each and every man on the earth will pay a just punishment for their sin. When they have wronged us we have a right to take our complaint before God and expect that the sin they have committed against us is an affront to His holy nature and as such must and will be dealt with accordingly. In Christ our cause is righteous; but theirs can never be even when cloaked in the guise of Christianity. Cast your cares upon the Lord, share with Him the concerns of your heart, plead your case before him openly and often, but do so with the deciding factor resting with His character and never your own. The greater offense is not that they have sinned against you but that in so doing they have sinned against God and evil cannot dwell with Him. It is in this fact that we may entertain and rest in the blessed hope that we will be delivered from our troubles and the wicked will answer for their sins.

When we are assaulted it is natural to feel hurt, to feel the sting of the occasion. But let us discipline ourselves and train our hearts to be so firmly fixed on heaven and the glory of God that personal injury may be laid aside and the greater consideration will always be the sin they have committed against our Lord. And then when we come before Him we may say with David that we are making our case for the sin they have committed against us in light of the greater offense it is against a holy God who cannot suffer sin to be left unpunished.

I will leave you with the pious prayer of Martin Luther in dealing with Ps. 5. “Lord Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world and alone the way to eternal life. Restrain the corrupters of your word and all the enemies of your truth. Preserve the truth of your Gospel in these latter days and in faithful teachers who will lead us in the way everlasting. Grant us to serve you in steadfast faith and a good conscience to our end. Amen.” May it be so and may our end always be the glory of God no matter what the price. Soli Deo Gloria!

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.