Rooted: Those Planted in the Lord can stand confidently in the presence of the enemy

Psalm 5

Good morning church! Reading through the first several Psalms you may notice that all of them are very similar in their message. There are a lot of parallels in these first several chapters. But that solidifies the importance of these principles that God is teaching us through these passages. Principles of prayer, trust, reliance, and combatting evil are all integral concepts that we must learn and grow in on our walk with Christ. Let us dive into Psalm 5 this morning and see what God will teach us through this chapter.

Psalm 5:

English Standard Version Psalm 5

1  Give ear to my words, O LORD;

consider my groaning.

2  Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

3  O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

4  For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

evil may not dwell with you.

5  The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

you hate all evildoers.

6  You destroy those who speak lies;

the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7  But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

will enter your house.

I will bow down toward your holy temple

in the fear of you.

8  Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness

because of my enemies;

make your way straight before me.

9  For there is no truth in their mouth;

their inmost self is destruction;

their throat is an open grave;

they flatter with their tongue.

10  Make them bear their guilt, O God;

let them fall by their own counsels;

because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

11  But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;

let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may exult in you.

12  For you bless the righteous, O LORD;

you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege we have in reading and studying your word. We are so undeserving of your love and your protection yet you give it to us as a free gift and have given us your Word to use as a cornerstone in our lives. Help us to focus on you this morning, let the words I speak be yours and not mine. Open our minds and hearts to learn from you today. In your name we pray, Amen.

Let’s jump into our first point of today which is Those planted in the Lord can, and should, pray daily. You may be thinking: “wow this seems very similar to how Pastor Adam’s last sermon started out.” Which is somewhat true, because David starts both of these Psalms with a plea to God to hear his prayer. We must realize the importance of daily prayer and understand the blessing we have that the God of the universe welcomes us to bring our concerns to Him. Let’s read verses 1-3.

English Standard Version Psalm 5

1  Give ear to my words, O LORD;

consider my groaning.

2  Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

3  O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

We discussed the importance of prayer in my last sermon, pointing out that prayer is mentioned in the Scriptures over 650 times. But the importance of prayer should be something that we are reminded of over and over again. If we forget to pray, we forget to communicate with our Father. Romans 8:26-27 says this

English Standard Version Chapter 8

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

An interesting word to focus in on in verse 1 is consider. Charles Spurgeon put it this way - “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!”

In Psalm 4, David pleaded for God to hear his prayer, and here in chapter 5 he is asking for God to take his prayer and, if the prayer is a righteous prayer, to grant him mercy.

Has anyone gone a long time without talking to a friend or a family member? How does it feel the longer you go without speaking? Whether its from conflict amongst yourselves or just busyness or lack of effort, the relationship is strained and grows further and further apart without any communication. And eventually, you will likely get to the point where that person is just a distant memory and the relationship is gone, and there is no interest in reconciliation. We must not let ourselves get that way with our prayer life.

Then in verse 3 he mentions the sacrifice he prepares for the Lord. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made by killing certain animals deemed worthy through scripture and instruction by God. But for Christians today, Christ sacrificed himself as the ultimate sacrifice so that we no longer are required to provide sacrifices ourselves. Hebrews 10:4 states

English Standard Version Chapter 10

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins

We talked about this in my last sermon as well, how we are to sacrifice our lives, our worldly desires, and take up our cross to follow Christ. We cannot do anything to earn our salvation but we must do this daily, we must be in continual reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the responsibility we have to give up our flesh.

Point number 2 is this: Evildoers will not prevail over the Lord. Let’s read verses 4 through 6.

English Standard Version Psalm 5

4  For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

evil may not dwell with you.

5  The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

you hate all evildoers.

6  You destroy those who speak lies;

the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

Verse 4 starts out by stating what we should all know and understand about God: He hates sin. He hates evil. And evil cannot be within God, not even an iota, because He is perfect, Holy, and unblemished. There are multiple verses throughout the Bible that reflect this. Hebrews 6:18 says “it is impossible for God to lie, and 1 John 1:5 states God is light and in Him there is no darkness. Then David goes into verse 5 stating that the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. The King James version uses the word ‘foolish’ instead of boastful, which can be understood as sinners will not stand in the presence of God. Now does that mean all of us are going to be sinless, blameless, in this life? No. But we are called to repentance, to strive to not sin, to be sanctified and turn from evil and sin. But Jesus gave us the gift of reconciliation and redemption if we confess our sins and turn away in repentance.

Then it goes into verse 6, which states “You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” In Pastor Jonathan’s sermons these past couple weeks we have been learning about false teachers through Paul’s writings to Timothy. Well verse 6 here quite plainly describes what God thinks about anyone speaking lies and those who try to deceive. He abhors them. Abhor is not a word I routinely use in my everyday vocabulary, but it packs a punch, doesn’t it? The definition of abhor is to regard with disgust and hatred. I’m sure everyone can think of at least 1 thing right off the top of their head that they are disgusted about. Well God is disgusted with liars and deceivers. Proverbs 6:16–19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Although God hates all sin, these are the sins that the Lord absolutely abhors.

Then we get into the 3rd section of the Psalm. Point number 3 is Believers are invited to take refuge in the Lord’s protection, but the wicked will be cast away because of their unrighteousness. Lets read through verses 7 through 10 again.

Psalm 5:7–10 “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.”

This section of verses starts off with an invitation to enter the house of the Lord. We are given the opportunity to reside with God, to live in His presence, to be surrounded by His love, and mercy, and grace, and protection. But then David goes on to say “I will bow down in the fear of you.” We must recognize who we are, and who God is. We are to enter into his presence with admonition, with reverence, and with the understanding that we are nothing apart from Him. Then verse 8 goes into a request for help, to stay in the straight and narrow path, because of our enemies. If we rely on our own way, our own navigation, that will lead us into destruction. We will fall into the trap of the devil, into worldliness, into the lies that David describes in the earlier verses. We must rely on God’s direction to guide us like a father leading his child.

Then verse 9 reverts back to the liars and deceivers. It is a very descriptive verse, and says that everything that comes out of these people’s mouths is garbage, and it is because their inmost self is evil. The second half of verse 9 says “their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.” Now most of us should know some basic human anatomy here. What comes after the tongue? The throat. Should anyone be flattered by a tongue that is connected to an open grave? That sounds disgusting! But what do false teachers do? They sugar coat, they dress up their lies, they make them sound good and make you feel good, but as soon as you get swallowed into their deceit, you fall into the pit of evil. Wicked people will attempt at all cost to lure you in with what appears to be good words, but will ensnare you in their trap. Romans 8:6–9 says “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

Verse 10 goes on to say something that we already know as believers, and that is a request to make these evil people face their consequences. Rebels against God will end up in 1 place, and that is the pit of Hell. In the last part of this verse, we are also reminded that these people have not just rebelled against us, they rebelled against God himself. We are told to personally forgive those who have sinned against us, but we are not in power to forgive those who sin against God. Spurgeon said it well in this quote - “When we hear a judge condemning a murderer, however severe his sentence, we do not feel that we should be justified in condemning others for any private injury done to us.” It is not up to us to decide judgement for others who have gone against us, God ultimately will judge them in the end.

Well that was a lot. But we aren’t done yet, the last section turns into joy for those who put their faith in God. Point 4 is Those planted in the Lord have eternal protection. Lets read the last 2 verses, 11 and 12.

Psalm 5:11–12 “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.”

Let all who take refuge in you rejoice. We are to praise him for what He does for us, every moment of every day. We are to sing for joy! And that isn’t me encouraging everyone to sing out during worship just because I’m the worship pastor! We are called to sing, just like the first song we did this morning. Did you draw a breath as the dawn awoke, And does your heart still beat? Is the mighty Word of the living God upholding you? Then sing! Rejoice in those promises.

Expanding on the earlier passage in Romans 8, verses 9-12 says:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

And to wrap up the chapter verse 12 describes the favor we have when we put our faith and trust in Him, we have protection from evil by the shield of God. We are covered. And the blessing we receive is unending, stretching farther than we could ever imagine, and one that can never be broken.

As we come to a close this morning, do we place our full trust in the all powerful protection of Christ? Do we believe that if He is for us, no one can be against us? Do we go about our day aware of those trying to deceive us or make us question our faith? Let us be confident in his love, his strength, his mercy and his providence. Let us pray.