Psalm 5
12 verses · Psalm of lament
In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.
Introduction
David, the Morning Prayer, Book 1: The book of David, Poetry, Psalms Overview.
David wrote this as a prayer for the start of the day, timed to the hour when the morning offering was laid on the altar. The psalm before it ended at night, and this one begins at first light. He comes to the house of God knowing what kind of God lives there and what kind of people cannot stay. Listen for the way he sets out his request like an offering and then keeps watch, and for the sharp words about speech. It ends on the whole company of those who trust.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who timed their prayers by the daily sacrifice
- Where
- The sanctuary at the hour of the morning offering, with the worshipper bowing toward the holy place
- When
- The reign of David; a morning prayer set for use at the sanctuary. c. 1010 to 970 BC on the superscription, which Young's Literal Translation renders To the Overseer, Concerning the Inheritances, a Psalm of David
Historical context
Israel's day at the sanctuary opened with a lamb burned on the altar at first light and closed with another at dusk. Prayer attached itself to those two hours, which is why verse 3 names the morning twice. The verb behind laying the plea before God is the word used for laying the wood and the pieces of the offering in order on the altar. The prayer is arranged like a sacrifice and left there. Rock-cut tombs stood outside the towns, and touching a grave left an Israelite ceremonially unclean for a week, so the open grave of verse 9 describes a flattering mouth as carrying that same defilement. Verse 5 stood against a world of temples where a worshipper's work was to feed a god and keep him in a good mood.
Significance
For the first hearers the psalm drew a line down the middle of the worshipping community. Some enter the house of God by the abundance of His loving devotion, and others arrive with smooth speech and open graves for throats. It ends where an Israelite wanted to stand, surrounded with favour as with a shield, and the word is the large body shield a soldier stands behind.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi opens this psalm on the obscure word in its heading, and shows the reader how a commentator works when the sense is uncertain. He is quoted here from the Judaica Press Tanach with Rashi. He reports that Menachem took the word, and three others like it in other headings, as the names of musical instruments, with the melody fitted to the instrument. He records a midrashic reading of the word as heritage and sets it aside, holding that the psalm says nothing about heritage. His own suggestion is bands or troops, which lets him read the psalm as "a prayer concerning the bands of the enemies that come upon Israel" (Rashi on Psalms 5:1:1). On that reading the speaker is the whole people, and Rashi says plainly that the Psalmist "recited this psalm on behalf of all Israel". Ibn Ezra, quoted from the Sefaria Community Translation, spends his note on the grammar of the heading instead, and shows which Hebrew letters interchange and which do not (Ibn Ezra on Psalms 5:1:1).
The morning of the fourth verse is the hinge of the chapter for Rashi. He reads it as the hour of the court rather than the hour of waking, "because it is a time of judgment for the wicked" (Rashi on Psalms 5:4:1). The word for the prayer he takes as an arrangement, a setting out of the case in order (Rashi on Psalms 5:4:2). Radak, quoted from the Finch translation of 1919, which is public domain, reads the cry of the third verse as a subject appealing to a court. God is "a king over me, and I cry unto Thee as men cry unto the king" (Radak on Psalms 5:3:2). Rashi adds a note on the second verse that a reader in trouble will recognise. The psalm covers both the hour when a man has strength to ask and the hour when the worry stays shut in his heart (Rashi on Psalms 5:2:1).
Two of the readings here touch a Christian reader directly. On the seventh verse Rashi identifies the man of blood and deceit as "Esau and his descendants" (Rashi on Psalms 5:7:1). Ibn Ezra reads the same figure as the talebearer instead, and proves it from the prophets (Ibn Ezra on Psalms 5:7:1). Rashi's reading puts a nation in the verse where Ibn Ezra puts a habit, and the site reports Rashi's identification as his own rather than as the sense of the text. On the eighth verse Ibn Ezra reads a man coming to the house of God with empty hands. He has no grain offering to bow with, so what he brings is the acknowledgment of God's abundant love towards him (Ibn Ezra on Psalms 5:8:1). That is prayer standing in the place of an offering, inside the Temple period and in the plain sense of the psalm. Rashi reads the same entry as thanksgiving for a deliverance already granted (Rashi on Psalms 5:8:1).
The end of the psalm is read as a petition against a plan rather than against a person. Radak takes the hard verb of the eleventh verse in its own sense of missing the mark, and reads it of the counsel: "Make them miss the mark in their counsel" (Radak on Psalms 5:11:1). Rashi ties the same counsel to what was formulated against Israel (Rashi on Psalms 5:11:1). At the last verse he gives the shield of the psalm a shape, "a shield which encompasses a man from three sides" (Rashi on Psalms 5:13:1). Ibn Ezra reads the standing of the sixth verse as the standing of servants before their king, so that the psalm's wicked are the ones refused that post (Ibn Ezra on Psalms 5:6:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this psalm and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Midrash Tehillim carries nine, at 5:1 to 5:4 on the heading, at 5:6 and 5:7 on the sixth verse, and at 5:11, 1:3 and 149:3 on the tenth and thirteenth. Four entries of Midrash Tanchuma Buber stand on the second, eleventh and thirteenth verses, at Vayera 1:1, Noach 23:1, Vayera 24:1 and Chayei Sara 1:1.
The Talmudic locators are seven. Four stand at Berakhot 6b:28 on the fourth verse, Chagigah 12b:11 on the fifth, Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 1:3:4 on the sixth, and Berakhot 30b:17 on the eighth. Three more stand at Tractate Soferim 7:4 on the ninth verse, Sotah 42a:6 on the tenth, and Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:1:11 on the eleventh. Five entries of Ein Yaakov stand beside them, in the Glick Edition at Berakhot 1:27, Khagigah 2:10, Sanhedrin 11:80, Shabbat 23:1 and Sotah 5:5.
The remaining midrashic locators cluster on the seventh and twelfth verses. On the seventh the corpus carries Bereshit Rabbah 32:1, Vayikra Rabbah 32:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:1 and an entry of Otzar Midrashim on the missing and extra letters. On the twelfth it carries Bereshit Rabbah 62:1 and 92:2, with Ein Yaakov, Sotah 5:4. Three more stand on the fourth, eighth and ninth verses, at Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5, Devarim Rabbah 1:11, Aggadat Bereshit 29:2 and two entries of Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai at 14:22 and 14:23. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Psalms 5:1:1 to 5:13:1, the Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Psalms 5:1:1 to 5:9:1, the Sefaria Community Translation; Radak, Radak on Psalms 5:3:1 to 5:11:1, R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, translated by R. G. Finch, London, 1919; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/psalms/5.json, the 7 Talmud and 33 Midrash locators of this chapter.
Psalms 5:1-3
Give ear to my words: Gill read the cry of verse 2 as the loud outcry of a man in great distress. In verse 3 the verb behind lay my plea means to set things out in order. The verb behind wait means to lean forward and watch, and the Hebrew says morning twice.
Psalms 5:1
“Give ear to my words, O Lord. No one has this confidence except the Church. He who is a sinner has not dared to say, Give ear to my words, O Lord. He who is angry and curses has not dared to say, Give ear to my words, O Lord; but he wishes rather that God would close His ears.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Psalms 5:1
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 prayer. Moses at the Red Sea cried to God, though he said nothing. Yet the use of language may prevent distraction of 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. What an expressive word! "Consider my meditation."
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
my King and my God: Verse 2 adds two titles to the plea, my King and my God. Charles Spurgeon marked the pronoun in each title as the heart of the prayer. David, himself a king, calls the LORD his King.
Psalms 5:2
“My King and my God. He has truly dared to say, My King and my God, in whom sin does not reign in his mortal body. My King and my God. Because Thou reignest in me, and sin does not reign, therefore Thou art my God. Thou art my God, because the belly is not my god, because gold is not my god, because lust is not my god. Since Thou art virtue, and I desire to have virtues, therefore Thou art my God, that is, my virtue.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:2
“Hearken unto the voice of my cry,.... Which 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, Heb 5:7; and such, in some measure, was the case of David.”
Psalms 5:2
"The voice of my cry." In another Psalm we find the expression, "The voice of my weeping." Weeping has a voice—a melting, plaintive tone, an ear-piercing shrillness, which reaches the very heart of God; and 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: but the Lord can comprehend the meaning, for he hears a voice in our cry.
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice: In the morning David lays his plea before the LORD and waits for His answer. Charles Spurgeon counted the morning the fittest time for speaking with God. Psalm 88:13 and Mark 1:35 set prayer at daybreak too.
Psalms 5:3
“Observe, this is not so much a prayer as a resolution, " 'My voice shalt thou hear;' I will not be dumb, I will not be silent, I will not withhold my speech, I will cry to thee for the fire that dwells within compels me to pray." We can sooner die than live without prayer. None of God's children are possessed with a dumb devil. "In the morning." This is the fittest time for intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 5:3
“In the morning I shall stand before Thee, and I shall see. See the order. In the morning, not in the evening, not in darkness, but in the morning. In the morning I shall stand before Thee: I shall stand firmly, and I shall imitate Moses. In the morning I shall stand before Thee: before Thee I shall stand, not before another. But when it is morning, and I have stood, and I have stood before Thee, then I shall deserve to see Thee.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:4-6
a God who delights in wickedness: The plea now rests on God's own nature, that He delights in no wickedness and that evil cannot dwell with Him. Barnes glossed the word behind boastful as proud or insolent. Henry took these lines as a warning to the man praying.
Psalms 5:4
“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 were displeasing to God himself. "For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.""When I pray against my tempters, " says David, "I pray against the very things which thou thyself abhorrest." Thou hatest evil: Lord, I beseech thee, deliver me from it!”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:4
“Neither shall the malignant one dwell beside Thee. When someone who is evil withdraws from us, let us rejoice: this happens in us which happens also in the Lord. For see what the Holy Spirit says. Neither shall the malignant one dwell beside Thee. See what he says, the malignant one shall not dwell beside Thee. 'For what communion has light with darkness? what agreement has Christ with Belial?'”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:4
Neither shall evil dwell with thee - As thou art holy, so thou hast pleasure only in holiness; and as to evil men, they shall never enter into thy glory; לא יגרך רע lo yegurecha ra, “the evil man shall not even sojourn with thee.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You hate all workers of iniquity: The object of hate here is the workers themselves. Charles Spurgeon read it as a settled and thorough hatred, and Psalm 11:5 speaks of the LORD in the same terms. The same workers of iniquity are ordered away at Psalm 6:8.
Psalms 5:5
"The foolish shall not stand in thy sight." Sinners are fools written large. 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. "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity." It is not a little dislike, but a thorough hatred which God bears to workers of iniquity. To be hated of God is an awful thing.
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:5
“Neither shall the unjust remain before Thine eyes. When it is said, Neither shall they remain, it is shown that at one time they did remain. For the unjust did at one time remain before the eyes of God, they remained while God awaited their repentance; but since they remained unjust, therefore they did not remain before the eyes of God.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:5
“The foolish - Referring still to his enemies, as having this character, and urging the fact that they “had” such a character as a reason why God should hear him, and deliver him. The word “foolish” here, הוללים hôleliym, is used to denote the wicked, under the common idea in the Scriptures that sin is folly. Compare Psa 14:1. It is rendered by Prof. Alexander, “the proud” or “insolent.” The Aramaic renders it “deriders;” Latin Vulgate: “unjust;” Septuagint “transgressors;” Gesenius, Lexicon, “proud.” So DeWette.”
the man of bloodshed and deceit: The LORD abhors the man of bloods, as the Hebrew reads, and Albert Barnes took the plural as guilt of bloodshed. Bloodshed and deceit stand together, and the enemies of verse 9 speak lies and practice deceit. Shimei used the same phrase against David at 2 Samuel 16:7.
Psalms 5:6
“That speak leasing - Falsity, from the Anglo-Saxon leasunge, a lie, falsity, deceit; from leas, lie, which is from the verb leasian to lie. See on Psa 4:2 (note). The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man - איש דמים ish damim, the man of bloods; for he who has the spirit of a murderer, will rarely end with one bloodshedding. So the Jews, who clamored for the blood of our Lord, added to that, as far and as long as they could, the blood of his disciples.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:6
“Thou wilt destroy all who speak a lie. I see a new thing. He who works evil is held in hatred; he who lies, perishes. Let us see which is more, to be held in hatred by the Lord, or to perish. He who is held in hatred by God is indeed unhappy, because he is held in hatred by the Lord: but he still lives. But he who speaks a lie and perishes, has already ceased to be.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:6
Observe, that evil speakers must be punished as well as evil workers, for "thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing." All liars shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. A man may lie without danger of the law of man, but he will not escape the law of God. Liars have short wings, their flight shall soon be over, and they shall fall into the fiery floods of destruction. "The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
Psalms 5:7-8
the abundance of Your loving devotion: The ground of entry is the abundance of God's loving devotion, the Hebrew word chesed, kindness. The bowing in verse 7 is toward the holy temple. Verse 8 asks the LORD to make the way straight, with the enemies in view.
Psalms 5:7
“But I, in the multitude of Thy mercy, will enter into Thy house. They in their iniquity go out from Thy house: I in Thy mercy enter into Thy house. I will enter into Thy house, which is the Church. I will worship toward Thy holy temple in Thy fear. That is the house which is also the temple.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:7
“But--as in Ps 2:6, literally, "and." house-- (1Ch 9:23), the tabernacle. temple--literally, "palace," applied to God's residence, the Holy of Holies (1Sa 3:3; 2Sa 22:7); the inner part of the tabernacle. toward--not in; the high priest alone was allowed to enter.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Psalms 5:7
“With this verse the first part of the Psalm ends. The Psalmist has bent his knee in prayer; he has described before God, as an argument for his deliverance, the character and the fate of the wicked; and now he contrasts this with the condition of the righteous. "But as for me, I will come into thy house." I will not stand at a distance, I will come into thy sanctuary, just as a child comes into his father's house.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness: The word for enemies means those who lie in wait and watch, and John Gill rendered it observers. The LORD's righteousness and His straight way are the answer to men waiting for David to fall. Psalm 27:11 makes the same request.
Psalms 5:8
“Lord, lead me in Thy righteousness because of my enemies. I indeed desire to enter into Thy house, and I wish to enter by Thy straight way: but since my enemies set stumbling-blocks continuously along the paths, and lay snares in the road for me who desire to go into Thy house; therefore I ask Thee, that Thou wouldst direct my feet even unto the end in Thy way. It is mine to set my feet in Thy way: it is Thine to correct my steps.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
4 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:8
Now we come to the second part, in which the Psalmist repeats his arguments, and goes over the same ground again. "Lead me, O Lord, "as a little child is led by its father, as a blind man is guided by his friend. It is safe and pleasant walking when God leads the way. "In thy righteousness, " not in my righteousness, for that is imperfect, but in thine, for thou art righteousness itself. "Make thy way, " not my way, "straight before my face."
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
Psalms 5:8
“The way of our duty is here called God's way, and his righteousness, because he prescribes to us by his just and holy laws, which if we sincerely set before us as our rule, we may in faith beg of God to direct us in all particular cases. How this prayer of David's was answered to him see 1 Sam. xviii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 5:8
“The righteousness of God, therefore, in this passage, as in many others, is to be understood of his faithfulness and mercy which he shows in defending and preserving his people. Consequently, in thy righteousness means the same thing as for or according to thy righteousness.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Psalms 5:8
“Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness - When entered into the house, and prostrated before the temple, he knew that, unless God continued to lead and direct, he was not likely to profit even by such great advantages. We need God not only to bring us to his house, but to keep our feet while we are there. Because of mine enemies - His conduct was marked; his enemies looked upon and watched him with an evil eye.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Psalms 5:9-10
Their throats are open graves: Romans 3:13 carries the line word for word. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the open grave as a dwelling place of corruption. Verse 10 then asks God to declare them guilty and to let their own devices bring them down.
Psalms 5:9
“For there is no truth in their mouth. The heretics are described; the man of blood and deceit is described, whom the Lord shall abhor. There is no truth in their mouth: they do not have Christ the truth in their mouth, because neither do they have Him in their heart. Their heart is vain. It reads better in the Hebrew: 'Their heart is ἐπίβουλον (treacherous).' For the heart of the heretics truly lies in wait for all whom it deceives. Their throat is an open sepulchre.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
4 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:9
“This description of depraved man has been copied by the Apostle Paul, and, together with some other quotations, he has placed it in the second chapter of Romans, as being an accurate description of the whole human race, not of David's enemies only, but of all men by nature. Note that remarkable figure, "Their throat is an open sepulchre, "a sepulchre full of loathsomeness, of miasma, of pestilence and death. But, worse than that, it is an open sepulchre, with all its evil gases issuing forth, to spread death and destruction all around.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
Psalms 5:9
“For there is no faithfulness in their mouth,.... In the mouth of the ungodly, as the Chaldee paraphrase; in the mouth of every one of them, as Aben Ezra interprets it: that is, in the mouth of every wicked, bloody, and deceitful man; of everyone of David's enemies, as Saul, or the conspirators with Absalom his son. There was no steadfastness in them; nothing right, sure, or firm said by them; nothing that could be depended upon; there was "no truth" in them, as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render it.”
Psalms 5:9
“The wicked are not reliable because by nature they are full of wickedness, or literally, "wickednesses," of every kind (Ro 8:7). sepulchre--a dwelling-place of corruption, emitting moral putridness. flatter--or, "make smooth." their tongue--speaks deceitfully.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Psalms 5:9
“For there is no faithfulness in their mouth - There is nothing in them which can be confided in; nothing in their promises and declarations. They are false and treacherous, and I can, therefore, only appeal to thee. It is easy to see the propriety of this statement, and of those which follow, on the supposition that this refers to the rebellion of Absalom. Absalom had gone to Hebron on a false pretence 2Sa 15:7-10, and every act of his in this whole transaction had been treacherous and false.”
Cross references
Psalms 5:9
- Quoted inRomans 3:13“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
'Their throat is an open sepulchre' (sin catena)
Declare them guilty, O God: The Hebrew verb is asham, and Albert Barnes read it as holding them guilty so that they bear the penalty. The last clause gives the ground of the plea: they have rebelled against You. Psalm 7:15 and 16 show the same fall.
Psalms 5:10
"Against thee:" not against me. If they were my enemies I would forgive them, but I cannot forgive thine. We are to forgive our enemies, but God's enemies it is not in our power to forgive. These expressions have often been noticed by men of over refinement as being harsh, and grating on the ear. "Oh!" say they, "they are vindictive and revengeful." Let us remember that they might be translated as prophecies, not as wishes; but we do not care to avail ourselves of this method of escape.
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:10
“According to the multitude of their impieties cast them out. He did not say from where He should cast them out: whether He should cast them out from heaven, whether He should cast them out from the earth: from where He should cast them out, the Scripture does not say; but it is a ὑπερβατόν (a transposition) and a ὕστερον πρότερον (a putting of the latter first). We ought therefore to read, According to the multitude of their impieties cast them out.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:10
“Destroy thou them, O God - All these apparently imprecatory declarations should be translated in the future tense, to which they belong; and which shows them to be prophetic. Thou Wilt destroy them; thou Wilt cast them out, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Psalms 5:11-12
let them ever shout for joy: The LORD blesses the righteous and surrounds them, and the Hebrew word for shield here is the large one. The verb with it means to encircle, so Henry read that favor as a defence on every side. Spurgeon put the joy of verse 11 in God Himself.
Psalms 5:11
“Joy is the privilege of the believer. When sinners are destroyed our rejoicing shall be full. They laugh first and weep ever after; we weep now, but shall rejoice eternally. When they howl we shall shout, and as they must groan for ever, so shall we ever shout for joy. This holy bliss of ours has a firm foundation, for, O Lord, we are joyful in thee. The eternal God is the well-spring of our bliss. We love God, and therefore we delight in him. Our heart is at ease in our God.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:11
“And let all rejoice who hope in Thee. Let those perish, let those of the Church rejoice. They shall exult forever. Here, forever, we ought not to speak of the present age, but of the age to come. In short, he did not say, they exult in this age; but, they shall exult, it is said of the future. For here there is sadness, but there is joy there. The heretics laugh in the present, but they shall mourn in the future: we, however, mourn in the present, that we may laugh in the future.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 2, on Psalm 5patristic
Psalms 5:11
“It is conjectured (and it is but a conjecture) that is signifies wind --instruments, with which this psalm was sung, as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed --instruments. In these verses David had an eye to God, I. As a prayer-hearing God; such he has always been ever since men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and yet is still as ready to hear prayer as ever.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
You surround them with the shield of Your favor: The opening word For gives the reason for verse 11's joy. Matthew Henry read verses 11 and 12 as David praying for all God's people along with himself. The psalm that began with one man's groaning ends on the righteous as a company.
Psalms 5:12
“For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous - A righteous soul is a peculiar object of God’s affectionate regards; and therefore will be a subject of continual blessing. With favor - Literally, Like a shield, thy favor will crown him. God loves such; and this love is their defense. In all places, times and circumstances, it will preserve them. “Keep yourselves,” says the apostle, “in the love of God.” He who abides in this love need not fear the face of any adversary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 5:12
“For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous. As he has blessed him with a righteousness, even the righteousness of God imputed to him, by which he is denominated righteous, and with the forgiveness of his sins; so he will bless him with peace and prosperity, with all spiritual blessings, with the blessings of grace here, and glory hereafter.”
Psalms 5:12
“Jehovah has ordained his people the heirs of blessedness, and nothing shall rob them of their inheritance. With all the fulness of his power he will bless them, and all his attributes shall unite to satiate them with divine contentment. Nor is this merely for the present, but the blessing reaches into the long and unknown future. "Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous." This is a promise of infinite length, of unbounded breadth, and of unutterable preciousness. As for the defence which the believer needs in this land of battles, it is here promised to him in the fullest measure.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)Particular Baptist
How this psalm is built
The form: A prayer in two halves, the first setting the fate of the wicked against the worshipper's entry, the second going over the same ground again, as Spurgeon classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The morning said twice | Verse 3 names the hour at the start of each half of the line, in the morning You hear my voice and at daybreak I lay my plea before You, and the Hebrew carries the word for morning both times. Jerome presses the order: in the morning, not in the evening and not in darkness, and the man who says it stands firmly and waits to see.Jerome, Homily 2, on Psalm 5, 420. | Psalm 5:3 |
| Who cannot stand there, and who enters | Verses 4 to 6 say what God will not have near Him, the boastful, the workers of iniquity, the liars and the man of bloodshed, and verse 7 opens with But I will enter Your house. Charles Spurgeon marks verse 7 as the close of the first part, where the character and the fate of the wicked are set against the condition of the righteous. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the worshipper bows toward the holy place rather than entering it, since only the high priest went in.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1, 1869, on Psalm 5:7. | Psalm 5:4, Psalm 5:7 |
| The mouth taken apart | Verse 9 names the speech of the enemies part by part, the word that cannot be trusted, the destruction within them, the throat that is an open grave and the tongue that practises deceit. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the open grave as a dwelling place of corruption that gives off moral putridness, and Albert Barnes reads the whole verse as the reason the psalmist can appeal to God alone.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Psalm 5:9. | Psalm 5:9 |
| The two ends stated together | Verse 10 asks that the guilty fall by their own devices and verses 11 and 12 ask that those who take refuge rejoice and be surrounded with favour, so the psalm closes by naming both parties in one breath. John Gill reads the blessing of verse 12 as righteousness imputed and sins forgiven, and Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew has the favour crowning a man like a shield.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Psalm 5:12. | Psalm 5:10, Psalm 5:12 |
In the New Testament
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 9 is carried into the New Testament word for word. Romans 3:13 quotes the open grave and the deceitful tongue in the chain of texts Paul uses to show that the whole race is under sin, so a line the psalm aimed at particular enemies is applied there to every reader. Charles Spurgeon notes the same use and reads the description as one of the human race rather than of David's enemies alone.
Where it sits in the Psalter
Inside the Psalter the psalm belongs with the morning psalms. Psalm 3:5 wakes because the LORD sustains him and Psalm 5:3 lays the plea at daybreak and watches, so the two put the same hour to different uses, one after a night of danger and one before a day of it.
The shield at the close
The closing shield is the second one in five psalms. Psalm 3:3 calls the LORD a shield around the man, and Psalm 5:12 surrounds the righteous with the shield of His favour, and the Hebrew word in verse 12 is the large shield that a man stands behind rather than the small one he carries.
The debated concept: the prayer against the enemies at verse 10
Verse 10 asks God to declare the enemies guilty and to cast them out, and readers have long differed over what a Christian does with such a line. Charles Spurgeon answers the objection by the psalm's own words, that the rebellion is against God rather than against the man praying, and he grants that men of refinement have often noticed these expressions (The Treasury of David, Vol. 1, 1869). Adam Clarke holds that these apparently imprecatory declarations belong in the future tense and are prophecy rather than request, so the psalm states what will happen to the impenitent (Commentary on the Bible, 1832). Jerome reads the line as deliberately open, since the Scripture does not say from where they are to be cast out, and leaves the sentence with God (Homily 2, on Psalm 5, 420). Each of the three keeps the judgment in God's hands and differs over the grammar and the aim of the sentence.
Keep studying
Studies2
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Spurgeon and Jerome, Homily 2, on Psalm 5, 420.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The painting
Narrow Road of Virtue and Wide Road of Sin. Jan Micker, not stated on the file page. National Museum in Warsaw. Public domain.