Psalm 5

into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your Word. Father, we pray now that as we read your Word, you would apply it to our hearts. We pray that you would. By the power of your Holy Spirit, let us be able to understand these things. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, we are at Psalm 5. Let me go ahead and pull up the Psalm for us here. Psalm 5, real quick, if these videos are helpful to you, don't forget to hit that thumbs up button and let Facebook and YouTube and et cetera know that this is valuable to you. All right, here we go, Psalm 5. to the chief musician with flutes, a psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning I direct it to you, and I will look up.
You are not a God, who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy. In fear of you I will worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward part is destruction, their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels.
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You. But let all those who rejoice, who put their trust in You, let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you. For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor, you will surround him as with a shield.
I just realized that's really small type for you guys. I'm sorry about that. Let's go ahead and ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So A, what is this about?
Well, David's crying out to God. Once again, he's, He's getting to the Lord in prayer and he's saying, give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you and I will look up. He's praying. He's praying and he's saying, God, hear me. He's praying and he's saying, Lord, please turn your ears towards me. please listen to me."
Right? There's this reality that sometimes we don't feel like the Lord's hearing us when we pray. And I'm being real honest with you. I know that that's not some thing that a pastor might, maybe a pastor's not supposed to say something like that, but sometimes it feels that way, doesn't it? And so David cries out, Lord hear me, Lord hear me, Lord hear me, please. pay attention to my words.
What a great promise we have in the book of Hebrews when it says that Jesus has been tempted in every way like we are yet without sin. And because of that he is able as our High Priest to go before our Heavenly Father. And He intercedes for us. He mediates between us. He goes for us before the Father. So we are able to boldly enter into that throne of grace, not because of our righteousness, but because of Jesus' righteousness. What a beautiful truth we have that we have a priest who makes our prayers heard before the Father as He cries out.
He says you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. He goes through this whole part in 4, 5, and 6 and what is he saying? That God is holy. That God is pure. That God is perfect. The scriptures say that God is so holy that he cannot even stand to look upon sin. David is acknowledging to God in his prayer, I know the type of God you are. I know that you are holy. I know that you are perfect.
I know that you don't take pleasure in sin. You don't like the way of the wicked. And so he's acknowledging here, the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. What is he essentially saying? He says, God, you are perfectly pure and holy and wonderful and good. God, I know that you're this way.
And so with that foundation of holiness set, of purity for God set, he says, but as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy. We're going to see here that David is not relying on his own righteousness, but he needs to go to God's temple and he needs to cry out for mercy. Isn't that what Jesus shows us when he gives us the two different types of men who go into the temple, right? The Pharisee who goes in there, and he says, he offers up his big, grandiose prayers to God, and he puffs up his chest, and he talks about his own righteousness, and he says, thank you, Lord, that I am righteous, and I'm not like that man over there, the tax collector or a sinner. But then there's that other man who needs God's mercy. He's so burdened by his sin that he won't lift up his eyes. He says, God have mercy on me, a sinner.
When we go into God's tabernacle, do we enter into God's presence thinking that we are righteous? Or knowing that we go before the mercy seat of God? That we need to go to God, covered in the blood of Christ. He says, I'm in fear. of you, I will worship toward your holy temple."
David's worshiping God because he reverences, he honors, he fears God. Lead me, O Lord. Notice here, in your righteousness, David is leaning on God's righteousness, God's purity, God's holiness, not his own. That's how he will stand up against the enemy. I'm gonna warn you, okay? If you are trying to go toe-to-toe with your enemy, the devil, your greatest adversary, and you're leaning on your own strength, you're leaning on your own righteousness, you're gonna fall flat on your face.
We don't look to ourselves for our own righteousness, but we are able to stand strong because of Christ's righteousness. make your way straight before my face." Oh isn't that what we long for? That God would make the way before us straight, that we would know the paths to take, and that we would follow in those great paths of righteousness.
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you." Again, notice he's saying that it's not because they've sinned against David, but ultimately their sin is against God himself. Let all those who rejoice, who put their trust in you, let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them.
Where is your joy? We rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I tell you, rejoice. We rejoice in the Lord. Our joy is in the Lord. The Lord is our shield. The Lord is our strength. The Lord is our helper. The Lord is our righteousness. The Lord is the one who has secured your salvation. The Lord is the one who makes your path straight. The Lord is the one who fights for you. The Lord is the one who has conquered your greatest foe, Satan.
Let those who love your name be joyful in you, for you, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor you will surround him as with a shield." Isn't that such a wonderful promise? I think back to Ephesians chapter 6 when we're to take up that shield of faith. We pick up that shield, and it's God himself who surrounds us and protects us. It's God himself who quenches the fiery darts of the devil. In my Bible, I think that's what I'm going to underline. I'm going to underline verse 11 and 12. In my Bible, I'm going to highlight that as what I think is the best verse to get at here.
So what are you called to do? In your life, what are you called to do? Trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Go before His throne with confidence. Go before Him with faith and rejoice that He hears you, and that if you are in Jesus Christ, He loves you, and that you are being guided by Him. Lean not on your own understanding. Don't trust in your own strength, but stand firm in the Lord.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would be strong in prayer. Lord, that we would be those who would cry out to you for help. That we would find our strength not in ourselves, but as we lift up our chin and we look to you. Please care for us this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may you rejoice in the great blessing of knowing that God is your strength and your shield. See you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.