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Psalm 5 - Living God's Way

Psalm 5

Living God's Way

I titled this Psalm this way, not because it contains very specific instructions on how to live our Christian lives, but because it shows the broad overview on what it means to live God's Way. If you have no idea what I'm referring to by God's Way, check out http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/

Psalm 5 is written in a ABABA format, meaning David had 2 main points in his Psalm.

Summary
Part A: How we should live our lives
v1-3 Prayer for God to hear David's prayer
v7-8 Prayer for God to lead David's life
v11-12 Prayer for God to protect David

Part B: How we shouldn't live our lives, and the judgement for it
v4-6 Holiness of God and the judgement for the unholy
v9-10 Prayer for God to bring forth judgement

Prayer for God to hear David's prayer
Okay, it sounds cheesy. Pray for God to hear prayer. Kind of cyclic?
David prays:
v1 Give ear to my words, O Lord
consider my sighing
v2 Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray
David asks 4 times in the first two verses for God to hear him, and twice he hints at needing God's help. 3 times, he praises God as Lord, King and God. This is in line with what we've already studied in the previous Psalms, about David's sadness for the depravity of man and about praising God in prayer.

v3 Hints that David prays in the morning and lays his daily requests before God and waits for God to fulfill them.
There are 2 issues here to address:

1. People often ask me if I pray in the morning or at night, do my devotions in the morning or at night. Personally I believe in doing my devotions at night, as they help me to reflect on my day. However, some people make a stand for doing it in the morning to set the direction for their day right with God. Nevertheless, I pray both in the morning and at night. Reason being prayer is a privilege. God has given us the freedom to pray through His Son Jesus Christ, and we should find prayer a gift, not a chore. From what I've seen so far through the Psalm 1-5, we pray in the morning to set direction and lay down our requests, and at night as a reflective and repentant prayer. Devotion, however, should also be done at both day and night. Psalm 1:2 - But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Well, big lesson and big application for me here. Gonna start working on this tomorrow.

2. So far in the collection of Psalms, it's seems that David is very confident in God to fulfill his prayer requests because of his own "holiness". It seems to advocate the wrong teaching that God will give you whatever you want of him if you are "holy". This is WRONG. God is NOT obliged to give you anything, but David's confidence stems from the fact that he prays in accordance to God's Will, and the things that David prays about are the furtherance of God's plan, thus it will be completed regardless of David's actions and holiness.

Prayer for God to lead David's life
David continues with his praise for God and thanksgiving in verse 7:
But I, by your great mercy,
will come into your house;
in reverence will I bow down
toward your holy temple.
He speaks of God's holiness, and his willingness to obey and worship God.
In verse 8, David asks for God to lead him in righteousness because of his enemies - possibly because David feels his enemies are making his path in righteousness harder to walk, and rightly so - we ourselves are often waylaid by our very subtle enemies, in our friends and things we so mistakenly love.

Prayer for God to protect David
David prays for God's favor to surround those who are righteous. Again, there is a lot of imagery in this Psalm, such as sing for joy, rejoice in you, surrounded with God's favor like a shield. The  only condition here for them is that they take refuge in God and are found righteous.

Summary of Part A:
David prays in a overall pattern, asking God to Hear, Guide and Reward. He starts off asking for God's grace to hear his prayer, his wanting to come to God. Following which, he asks for God's guidance in righteousness, and finally, he asks for God's reward to the righteous - to have joy and to be protected from evil so as to continue walking in the path of righteousness. We too, should ask God for the same thing. Where are we in our walk with God? Do we live this same life as David prayed for?

I first asked God to hear my prayer in December 2010, after I graduated from school. I remember taking a bus from home to church, about to start a church camp I was coerced into going for. At that point of time, my life was a wreck, having no direction, no purpose, and minimal love for God. I prayed for God to work in my life, to reveal Himself to me, to be more than "head knowledge" to me. Over the course of the church camp, I was blessed to be a participant in Celebrate Christmas in Singapore. Having seen God working in the people around me, the gospel being shared all over Orchard Road, and having a meaningful conversation with a tourist who stopped to admire our freedom to preach Christ so freely - I was convinced, I believed fully in God as Creator, myself as a sinner, Jesus' death and resurrection as the only atoning sacrifice. And I continued praying for God's direction in my life. He has led me through 3 months at Project Serve @ SYFC, 1 year, 10months of National Service, and still leads my life today, often directing me back to Him when I turn astray so many times. Over these 2 years, I have experienced God's blessing, the joy of knowing God intimately and doing His will, and at the same time been a benefactor of God's grace so freely that every single time I fall away He has pulled me back to Him.

Part B:
Holiness of God and Judgement for the unholy
David describes a few things that God hates:
- God does not take pleasure in evil
- The wicked cannot dwell with Him
- Arrogant cannot stand in His presence
- Hates all who do wrong
- Destroys liars
- Abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men

Prayer for God to bring forth judgement
David continues to pray - in relevance to God's plan to judge the wicked. He goes on to describe them
- Not a word from their mouth can be trusted
- Hearts filled with destruction
- Throat is an open grave (Speak words that cause harm to others?)
- With their tongues they speak deceit
And calls for judgement from God
- To declare them guilty
- To let their intrigues be their downfall (meaning fall to their own schemes)
- Banish them for their many sins
- For they have rebelled against you
David calls out for God's judgement on these wicked people described in the verses, to ease his own suffering with them (read Psalm 4).

Summary for Part B:
We should show love for God's plan like David did. It may seem sadistic or cynical on David's part to call for judgement on sinners, but we are called to love what is good and condemn what is evil, not tolerating it. We often tolerate "minor sin" to the extent that we allow it to become part of our lives.

Questions to ask:
How has God heard our prayers, directed our lives and protected us in our lives?
What are some of the "minor things" that we often tolerate, not just for ourselves, but also people around us?
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