In The Morning
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Introduction
Introduction
Here we are with another of Psalm of David’s. Now the timing of this psalm is unknown and unlikely to have come directly after psalm 4, but it could have and here in the book of Psalms it does. We recognize that it does that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 4 was a psalm for the night and this psalm is a psalm in the morning.
This psalm is a prayer of David’s when he was exposed to danger by wicked enemies. David sought the Lord in His troubles expressing confidence in drawing near to God. David desired to come to God for the strength needed to make it through the day against his many adversaries.
Let’s read along together and look closely at this psalm and learn to draw close to God to receive the necessary divine resources and direction for our days and especially in our times of need.
1 Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing. 2 Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you. 3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you and watch expectantly. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil cannot dwell with you.
5 The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; the Lord abhors violent and treacherous people. 7 But I enter your house by the abundance of your faithful love; I bow down toward your holy temple in reverential awe of you. 8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my adversaries; make your way straight before me.
8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my adversaries; make your way straight before me. 9 For there is nothing reliable in what they say; destruction is within them; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongues. 10 Punish them, God; let them fall by their own schemes. Drive them out because of their many crimes, for they rebel against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. 12 For you, Lord, bless the righteous one; you surround him with favor like a shield.
Start With A Passionate Plea
Start With A Passionate Plea
1 Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing. 2 Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you. 3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you and watch expectantly.
David starts with a plea to the Lord to listen and consider. David in his time of trouble and adversity pleas to the Lord to listen to his words and consider his sighing. Hear or heed and consider with understanding and paying attention to, what David says is sighing in the original language is a continual and ongoing sighing.
9 Lord, my every desire is in front of you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
David perhaps has come before God previously - perhaps many times even and lays his trouble out before the Lord asking and pleading for the Lord to hear and consider. He even says pay attention to the sound of my cry. David is ultimately calling on God to listen and respond in conformity to the sound of his cry - perhaps even appealing to consider the earnest ways through which he prays. Earnest prayer is a prayer of great desire. A desire is not a simple wish but a deep seated craving and intense longing to attain. Prayer comes from intensified desire, in fact many times the deeper the desire the stronger the prayer. Prayer without desire is just careless words mumbled.
David is not demanding of the Lord and is not compelling the Lord but is approaching to the one place he can take his troubles. David in a time of persecution, adversity and discouragement turns to the Lord. In our troubles and discouragements how often do we feel we have no where to turn? Praise the Lord we can go to Him in our times of trouble! David says my King and my God - these are personal and possessive pronouns, “my” is found 7 times here in the first three verses.
When in our troubles we turn to our King and our God to pray, remember He is personal and not so distant; and being personal we can be personal with Him. We dont have to try to impress with our spiritually great wordy long prayers. We can reveal our tears and sighing - we dont have to be put together for the Lord. It is important to see that David prayed to God - he said “for I pray to You”and this may seem elementary or basic but it is essential nonetheless. Sometimes we come praying so full of our needs and feelings we never focus on God and sense His presence. David was a great man of prayer because in his praying he focused not so much on WHAT he was praying but WHO he prayed to.
David makes his plea to the Lord in the morning. The beginning of the day. How one starts their day really sets the tone for the rest of the day, imagine the difference if the tone for the day was set by being with the Lord first. Hudson Taylor the famous missionary to China, had trouble finding time to be alone with God. He began to wake up at 2:00 AM and use those quiet hours while everyone else slept to commune with God. Jesus also woke early in the morning to be alone with God the Father in prayer.
21 They gathered it every morning. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
“An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul.” Spurgeon
The passionate plea is insincere if it does not wait expectantly. David says I plead my case and watch expectantly. Fully expecting that the Lord hears, cares and acts. After pleading your case watch for God to respond - expecting!
Pray With Sacred Perspective
Pray With Sacred Perspective
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil cannot dwell with you. 5 The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; the Lord abhors violent and treacherous people.
David prays with a perspective that is not just proper but it is sacred. It is not so much as coming and understanding how big our God is and having that perspective but understanding that our God is holy and does not pleasure in the wickedness. We are not the only ones who seek to see the wicked and evil dealt with and we definitely dont desire to deal with it like the Lord God.
The story is told of a woman in nothern England who hung out her washing and was so proud of its whiteness. She thought it glistened! Then snow came making a beautiful blanket of white. Seeing her blankets and snow side by side, she exclaimed, “What can a poor woman do against God’s almighty snow?” “So, in the radiance of God’s holiness we are led to exclaim, ‘what can any man or woman do against God’s holiness and purity?
God does not delight - find pleasure, nor is He amused or even entertained in wickedness. Evil cannot dwell with the Lord - evil will not last. The boastful cannot stand in Your sight.
None of the wicked or wickedness has a place before the Lord, none are given audience or time for the Lord God in all His holiness cannot be in the presence of such filth for He is holy holy holy as we ready in Isaiah and Revelation.
The Lord HATES evildoers, DESTROYS liars and ABHORS violent and treacherous people. Notice here it talks about the person and not just the sin. Until sin is dealt with one is at enmity with God.
9 Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, 10 no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.
11 And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
A sacred perspective reminds us who we are, who are enemies are and who God is. As David drew closer to God he became more aware of God holiness and man’s sinfulness. “This is a good way to measure how well you are praying and whether, as you pray, you are drawing close to God or are merely mouthing words. If you are drawing close to God, you will become increasingly sensitive to sin, which is inevitable since the God you are approaching is a holy God.” Boice.
Place of Humble Submission
Place of Humble Submission
7 But I enter your house by the abundance of your faithful love; I bow down toward your holy temple in reverential awe of you.
David did not see himself different from the wicked and the sinners, just that he enters by a different door. You cannot approach the Lord denying your own wickedness and sinfulness.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
David says I enter by Your abundant faithful love. The psalmist says I am not here because of me, but despite me. I am here because of You, because of Your abundant and faithful love. Davids confidence in prayer is strengthened by remembering God holiness and righteousness and the privilege by which he has been granted through God’s great love!
16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Because of God’s faithful love - hesed - mercy by this he could approach and by this we can also approach. As believers we have been granted access into the throne room of heaven! Our confidence isnt that we are righteous and everyone else a sinner but that God had mercy on us as sinners.
David says I bow down - this Hebrew word is also elsewhere translated worship. The significance is that David takes the posture of one humble before God. Arrogant desire to stand before God a worshiper is humbled and bows down before God in worship. David does not base his prayers or his worship on how he feels, but on his reverence for a holy righteous but merciful God.
Seeking Proper Plan and Path
Seeking Proper Plan and Path
8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my adversaries; make your way straight before me. 9 For there is nothing reliable in what they say; destruction is within them; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongues. 10 Punish them, God; let them fall by their own schemes. Drive them out because of their many crimes, for they rebel against you.
David moves on in his prayer before God to ask for the Lord to lead and guide him in His righteousness. David says I need your help to navigate in your righteousness. We dont automatically find God’s path of righteousness, it is not tread upon by accident. One may cross it by accident but never walking upon it by accident.
9 A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.
23 A person’s steps are established by the Lord, and he takes pleasure in his way.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
David knows his flesh has a way to go and a path to take but it is not the straight path. Our flesh has a path and a way to go but it does not lead where we want to be.
12 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
25 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.
15 The inexperienced one believes anything, but the sensible one watches his steps.
David says because of his adversaries he needs to know the way of righteousness.
11 Because of my adversaries, show me your way, Lord, and lead me on a level path.
11 I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.
David shows his reliance on God - for there is nothing reliable in what the people say, they speak not the truth destruction is within them and their throat is an open grave. Literally unsealed tombs of death and decay. They flatter - literally speak dishonest praise - making smooth or slippery) with their tongues.
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks boastfully.
28 A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.
Our adversaries have many ways to get us off God’s path. Fear, intimidation, threats, lies and also flattery. The greatest and most destructive fall comes from a big swelled head filled with flattery. David focuses on the words of the wicked as evidence of their wickedness - what did Jesus say?
34 Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
Our righteousness or wickedness will sooner or later show up in our speech - David Guzik. David rightly identifies that the proper path is for him to leave punishment of the wicked to the Lord. The wicked cannot succeed, they will fail by their own schemes merely for this fact alone.
16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed justice, snaring the wicked by the work of their hands. Higgaion. Selah
11 An evil person desires only rebellion; a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
Position of Praise
Position of Praise
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. 12 For you, Lord, bless the righteous one; you surround him with favor like a shield.
David finishes the psalm and his prayer by giving us the proper position for those in the Lord - PRAISE. Those who take refuge - a place of safety and shelter - they should rejoice and shout with joy FOREVER! Those who come for refuge in the Lord are forever protected in a position of praise forever.
20 You hide them in the protection of your presence; you conceal them in a shelter from human schemes, from quarrelsome tongues.
May those who love your name boast about YOU! Boasting can be done but if anyone is to boast they must boast in the name of the LORD!
31 —in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
17 So let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
23 “ ‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.
The Lord blesses the righteous one — we are righteous because of Him and His grace! This is the greatest blessing of all—the favor of God. Knowing that God looks on us with favor and pleasure is the greatest knowledge in the world. This is our standing in grace. Surrounded with His favor like a shield
29 How happy you are, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is the shield that protects you, the sword you boast in. Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will tread on their backs.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
When Martin Luther was on his way to face a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church to answer for what they said were his heretical teachings, one of the Cardinal’s servants taunted him saying, “Where will you find shelter if your patron, the Elector of Saxony, should desert you?” Luther answered, “Under the shelter of heaven.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
David gives us before and after picture for prayer. Before we pray we direct our prayer to God and after we pray we should look up with expectancy.
Are we praying with exasperation or expectation? It is okay to start exasperated but we should come to expectation.
The idea behind directing the prayer to God is not so much aiming as it is arranging or ordering. It takes an order to lay a sacrifice upon the altar.
Lay your sacrifice arranged on the altar in the morning. It seems that every great man or woman of God has developed a consistent morning discipline.
As we do this first in the morning our day is directed around the leading and guiding of God and his way of righteousness and His straight paths. We are prepared to correctly traverse the traps and attacks of our enemies and adversaries. Directed by the Lord of truth as opposed to the lies of our adversaries.
Our praise and joy is not dependent on circumstances. Our praise and joy is solely anchored in the Lord and who He is as our refuge and shield our protection in the face of enemies.