Psalm 5

Many of us ask for guidance from the Lord, as does the Psalmist in this Psalm (v8).  But what do we mean when we ask this of our God?  Compare your answer to that question with that of David the King.

After pleading with God to hear him (v1-3), David is reminded that God is holy and will have no connection at all with sin (v4-6).  David then contrasts his own approach to God (v7-8) with that of his foes (v9-10), ending with a prayer that the righteous will rejoice in God’s blessing (v11-12). 

Consider these few thoughts verse-by-verse.

·        v1: “”Consider my meditation”: perceive, understand my murmuring. In Ps. 39:3 this word speaks of a strong, burning thought within that he shares with no one else.  God knows our hearts; we can trust His ability to understand our hearts accurately, with more precision that we know ourselves.

·        v2: “My King and my God”: “King” refers to rulers or chiefs at a variety of levels, though most often used of the King.  Other Semitic languages had a similar term.  For the Ammonites their chief god was “Moloch”.  For God’s people the King was not the one chosen and thus empowered by the people.  He was God’s Anointed (Ps. 2:2; 18:50).  Thus the King had one ultimate allegiance, one Sovereign.  God (Elohim) was his King!  Certainly you can see the connection between David and the greater Son of David, Messiah (the Anointed One).  The Davidic king was to be God’s “Son” (Ps. 2:7), God’s Firstborn (Ps. 89:27).  These titles in Psalms of David were not merely figurative; they were anticipatory, predictive of the Eternal Son.

·        v3:  This is a morning prayer.  It seeks God’s guidance and blessing.  Thus the first thing God’s people do, at beginning of day, is to “look up” to God for the day’s needs.  How do our days begin?  Does anyone think that the answer to that question is not important?  Coffee?  Newspaper? Breakfast?  Jogging?  In the presence of your King?

·        v4-6: In a negative way David describes the holiness of God.  God IS the absence of evil; it shall not dwell with or be at home with God.  It has no standing with Him.  He hates and abhors and will destroy those who are defined by evil. 

·        v4: “You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness”: Evil is never funny or enjoyable to God.  He is not “a God” like that, indicating there are gods who do gain pleasure from sin.  

·        v5: “workers of iniquity”: Iniquity is a term that indicates trouble, the aftermath of sin.  These workers  are frequently spoken of in the Psalms (15X).  They do those things that result in trouble.  And yet they worship the gods that take pleasure in wickedness.  This is important to consider in this Psalm.  In the end the Psalmist will ask for God’s blessing that results in great joy and rejoicing.  Thus there is a contrast between those who take pleasure in sin and those the righteous who are blessed by God (v12).

·        v7-10:  Therefore David calls on God to hear his prayer (v7-8) and to judge the workers of iniquity (v9-10).

·        v7: David does not come in the sense of deserving God’s blessing.  He rather acknowledges his only basis to seek God is mercy and the only way he will enter God’s presence is in fear (reverence, with trembling).  Note that by mercy we have entrance into the “house” of God!  In fear we enter into His holy temple.  For many this is a necessary clarification.  We love to think of God and His house of delights or blessing.  It is true, very true, that God desires to abundantly bless His people.  So when we come let us come knowing it is of His mercy.  But when we come to God let us remember we enter a “holy temple” as well.  It is a relationship of worship characterized by the holiness of God referred to in v4-6.  We do not, we cannot, come into his presence as people who find pleasure in wickedness.  He is a merciful and holy God.

·        v8: When we come to God in this way we are truly prepared to ask for His leading.  We will not ask, “lead me to what I want.”  We will instead ask, “Lead me in Your righteousness.”  We will seek HIS way.

·        v9-10: David reminds God of the nature of the workers of iniquity.  What he describes is the depravity into which every human is born.  The Apostle Paul understood this.  In Romans 3 he drew from a collection of Old Testament passages to describe the sinfulness of all men.  One of the quotes is the last half of Psalm 5:9.  Their throat is an open tomb or sepulcher.  Think of the stench, the filth of an “open tomb”.  That is the nature of the natural man.  Thus, as is the case in Rom 3, so here, they are declared guilty.

·        v11-12:  There is a question that must be considered in the move from v9-10 to v11-12.  If v9-10 describes all mankind, it includes David.  It includes those on whom he prays God’s blessing.  This “enigma” is of course clarified perfectly in Romans (and all the New Testament) in the salvation provided through the Lamb of God.  Those “who put their trust in You” (v11) are those who are trusting God for salvation.  They are those whose faith will be credited as righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4).  Remember, David knew his sinfulness, that he too was depraved.  He came to God in reverential fear, and he came “in the multitude of Your mercy”.  Remember, “Not by works of righteousness we have done but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

May we begin our mornings, every morning, in the house of God, His holy temple.  You need not leave your house or even your bedroom.  Access into His presence has been opened wide by the blood of Christ.  But come, not in the pleasure of wickedness, but in mercy and fear.  Not mere human pleasure but deep joy will be yours as He surrounds you with His favor.
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Additional thought on Psalm 5:
In v7 David acknowledges he can only come to God on the basis of His "multitude of mercies."  In v10 the problem with the workers of iniquity is their "multitude of transgressions."  These phrases contain the same word "multitude" (Heb. rob).  The word refers to abundance, what is common, excellence.  Think of each of those synonyms.  God is filled with mercy; it is common to Him; He is really good (excellent) at it!  The same can be said of the wicked and their transgressions.

But now we ask, how can the wicked come to avail themselves of God's mercy?  David was a sinner by birth just like every other person.  So am I a sinner.  Those who excel at transgressing God's law are in for a lot of difficulty, the judgment of God as David prays for here.  But what if I want to turn from my transgressions?  What if I want to be assured of God's mercy?  Well the answer is also found in David!  In Psalm 51:1 David came to God in the aftermath of his horrendous sin in the matter of Bathsheba.  He prayed: "According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." 

To the wicked the LORD says: 1) Confess your transgressions; own up to them.  Quit making excuses for them.  2) Then plead God's "tender mercies" ... not the same word although certainly related to mercies in 5:7.  It's God's compassion, the thing that moves Him to be merciful.  It is a call to God to pity us, and when you use that word pity you are confessing your sin, owning up to it, agreeing with God's view of what you have done!

God’s Plan for Saving Israel, Ezekiel 20:33-44

God’s plan of salvation of course is focused on the cross of the Messiah.  But the issue we are concerned with here is one of prophecy: how will God bring about the application of the cross to Israel as a nation?  This passage in Ezekiel states four phases, if you will, of that work.  These four appear in other places (Ezek. 34; Zechariah 11-14, etc.).  

·        First is the regathering, v34.  Scripture teaches that God will bring Israel back to the land and there He will bring them through the fire.  That is why so many people are convinced that what has been happening in Israel these days is fulfilled prophecy.  The nation is certainly not saved; but they are in the geographical location where salvation is destined to happen.

o   Note the word fury.  This is the term that speaks of God’s attitude toward sin after His wrath and anger.  It is His burning anger, like the sting of a scorpion that burns hot in the body of its victim.  God is saying here He will have the same hot intensity in bringing back His people to the land.  A similar thought is in Zech. 8:2.  God has great fervency for Zion.

·        Then there is some sort of wilderness experience, v35.  In the wilderness is where God pleads His case.  It includes the times of tribulation that must come upon His people in the latter days.  It is the desert experience of Rev. 12.  The nation 2/3 decimated (Zech. 13:8) will be a remnant protected by God from the greatest onslaught of antichrist.

·        Third, Israel is brought into relationship with God by the New Covenant, v37.  The passing under the rod (tribulation) will bring the remnant to the place of the covenant, where God’s law is written on their hearts and they know Him in truth.

·        Finally, there is a saved nation, v38.  The tribulation purges the nation of rebels so what is left is holy unto the LORD!  This is no chance plan by God.  Rather it is the plan of the all-wise God who seeks advice from no one.  He will do this by His own zeal.  In that day all will know that He is the LORD!

Zechariah 6:1-8

We now have come to the last of the eight visions of Zechariah.  You perhaps have already seen there is a connection between the first and eighth visions that indicates we should see if there is a progress through these visions.  Let’s review.

Ø 1:7-17: 4 horses: God will protect; the nations are at rest.

Ø 1:18-21: 4 smiths: God will judge the nations, in his time.

Ø 2: measuring line: God has a plan for Jerusalem.

Ø 3: clothing for Joshua: the Nation will be saved, righteous.

Ø 4: lampstand: by God’s grace Zerubbabel will finish the work.

Ø 5:1-4: flying scroll: sin will be judged.

Ø 5:5-11: woman in a basket: sin will be removed.

·        What he saw, 6:1-3.  Zechariah sees four chariots, pulled by pairs of different colored horses, riding out from between two bronze mountains.  Before we consider what the interpreting angel said we can consider how some have viewed these symbols. 

o   Many equate the chariots with the four kingdoms of Dan. 2 and 7 (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome).  However equating the colors with these kingdoms is a stretch in my view, not to mention that it seems the chariots are headed for those kingdoms.  Our thought is that they speak of God’s authority and power, sufficient to judge those and all nations.

o   The bronze mountains may refer to Mt. Zion and the Mt. of Olives, between which is the Kidron Valley, called in Joel 3:2,12 the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the site of the judgment of the nations.  Bronze in Scripture is often symbolic of judgment.

o   The colors of the horses may speak, as they do in Rev. 6, of war (red), death (black), victory (white) and pestilence (dappled). 

·        What he heard (from the interpreting angel), 6:4-8.

o   The chariots with the horses are spirits or winds (the same Hebrew term is used for both).  They likely represent angels who are described in Scripture as ministering spirits.  In Jer. 49:36 and Rev. 7:1 the four winds carry out God’s task of judgment.

o   These spirits are headed to the nations.  Two (the black and white, death and victory) are headed for Babylon which was already judged by God. Egypt (the nation to the south) was under judgment at this time though she would be restored later.  The strong horses go over all the earth.

o   These things can be debated.  What cannot be debated is the bottom line: the Spirit of God is at rest.  Remember the first vision?  Those horses went throughout the whole earth and found the nations at rest.  But that does not necessarily leave the Lord at rest.  By His judgment the time will come when He will be at rest, especially in terms of His people Israel.

What comfort there is here, both in Zechariah’s day and ours!  By God’s sovereign power the nations rested and the work was completed.  By that same power God’s judgment will put His Spirit at rest, the Spirit of holiness.  Let us trust God in this.  Let us work for the night is coming; let us redeem the time for the days are evil (Rom. 13:11-14; Eph. 5:16).