Psalm 5

Psalms 5:1-3

Give ear to my words: The Hebrew title, not shown on this page, reads To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David, and Nehiloth is itself an honest unknown, read by most as wind instruments and by others as a term for inheritances or a tune name, with no certainty available. The three verses build a morning pattern, give ear, hearken, and my voice shalt thou hear in the morning, prayer offered before the day's business begins. I will direct my prayer and will look up pictures a worshipper laying out a sacrifice and watching to see it accepted.

Psalms 5:4-6

The appeal changes ground from the psalmist's need to God's own nature, for thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, holiness stated as the reason evil cannot lodge with him, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight extends the same holiness to worship itself, an unfit worshipper barred from the courts rather than merely disapproved. Verse 6 names the false witness and the violent man together, them that speak leasing and the bloody and deceitful man, as the two figures the following verses set the psalmist against.

Psalms 5:7-8

But as for me turns from the wicked man's exclusion to the psalmist's own access, and the ground of that access is named plainly, in the multitude of thy mercy, not merit set against the wickedness just described. Worship toward thy holy temple describes the tabernacle at this early date in David's reign, the sanctuary the ark had reached before Solomon's house was built. Verse 8 asks for a straight path because of mine enemies, the same men described in the verses before, so the psalm moves from doctrine to a request that fits the danger.

Psalms 5:9-10

The description of the enemies' speech, their throat is an open sepulchre, is quoted at Romans 3:13 as part of Paul's catena of Old Testament texts proving that none is righteous, the words carried into the New Testament unchanged. They flatter with their tongue names the danger as deception rather than open violence, a mouth that has no faithfulness even while it speaks smoothly. Verse 10 asks for the fall Paul's quotation assumes has already been proven true of every mouth, let them fall by their own counsels, their own schemes turned back on them.

Psalms 5:11-12

let them ever shout for joy: The psalm closes where it began, at trust, but now as the ground of joy rather than of a plea, let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice, the same word that opened verse 8 turned toward gladness. Because thou defendest them names the same protection the wicked verses denied themselves by their own falsehood. Verse 12 closes with the shield image, with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield, the blessing surrounding the righteous the way the enemies' own deceit surrounded them in verse 9.