Psalms 5:7 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David describes three kinds of people, himself, his enemies, and all God’s people, and then adds a prayer for each. First, he speaks about himself and prays for himself in Psalm 5:7-8. He is firmly resolved to stay close to God and to his worship. Sinners turn away from God and make themselves hateful to his holiness and subject to his justice, but David says, in effect, “That will not drive me away from you.”

God’s holiness and justice are not a terror to those who are upright in heart. Instead, they draw them nearer to him. David resolves to worship God, to give him the honor due to his name, and to worship him publicly in God’s house, the courts of his house. He often prayed alone, as in Psalm 5:2-3, yet he was also faithful and earnest in joining the public worship of the sanctuary. Private prayer is meant to prepare us for public worship, not to replace it.

He also resolves to worship God with reverence and a sense of the great distance between God and man. He says, “In your fear I will worship,” meaning with holy awe in his heart, as in Hebrews 12:28. God is greatly to be feared by all who worship him. At the same time, David draws his hope in worship from God alone.

He rests on God’s great mercy, that is, the endless store of mercy in God and the countless ways God has shown it. David does not trust in his own goodness or worth when he comes before God. God’s mercy should always be both the base of our hope and the source of our joy whenever we deal with him.

He also looks to the appointed place of worship, then the temple, here called the temple of his holiness. That temple pointed forward to Christ, the great and only Mediator, the one who stands between God and people and makes our worship acceptable. Just as the temple gave honor to the gold within it, Christ gives worth to our devotion, and we should have him in view in all our prayers and worship.

David then prays earnestly that God would guide and keep him in the path of duty, as in Psalm 5:8: “Lead me in your righteousness, because of my enemies.” The Hebrew sense is “because of those who watch me, who look for me to slip and seek something to accuse me of.” He made a good use of his enemies’ hatred. The more carefully they searched for faults in him, the more careful he became to avoid sin and even the appearance of it. In that way, God can bring good out of evil through wisdom and grace.

David also took the right course for defeating those who wanted to find grounds for accusation. He gave himself to God’s guidance and asked God, by his providence and by his grace, to direct him in the right way and keep him from turning aside in anything. Then even the most sharp-eyed and critical enemies, like Daniel’s enemies, would find nothing to charge him with. God’s way is called his righteousness because he has given it through his just and holy laws. If we honestly set that way before us as our rule, we may confidently ask God to guide us in each situation. How this prayer was answered is seen in 1 Samuel 18:14-15.

Second, David describes his enemies and prays against them in Psalm 5:9-10. If his description is true, and it surely is, then they have a very bad character. They would not be enemies of a man after God’s own heart if they were not wicked people. David had just spoken in Psalm 5:6 of God hating the bloody and deceitful person, and now he says that this is the character of his enemies. They are deceitful, and no one can trust them, because there is no honesty in what they say.

They think it is no sin to tell a lie if it helps them stain David’s name and make him hated. They speak as if they mean peace and friendship, but they flatter with their tongues only to hide their malice and gain an advantage. Whatever they pretend about religion or friendship, two sacred things, they are faithful to neither. Their inward life is full of evil. He says their throat is an open grave, cruel and greedy, ready to swallow and destroy, and never satisfied, as in Proverbs 30:15-16. This language is also used in Romans 3:13 to show the corruption of mankind in general, for people are naturally bent toward malice, as in Titus 3:3. The grave is open for all people, and yet people can also be open graves to one another.

If God hears David’s prayer against them, as he surely does, then they are in a dreadful state. People must expect to be treated as they behave. David prays that God would destroy them, in line with what he has already said in Psalm 5:6, that God will destroy people of this kind. If sinners were left to themselves, they would soon ruin themselves. He asks God to cast them out of his protection and favor, out of the inheritance of the Lord, out of the land of the living. It is a fearful thing when God casts people out.

Their sins already deserve destruction, and there is enough to justify God in rejecting them. David says, “Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions,” because they have filled up the full measure of their sin and are ripe for ruin. Persecuting God’s servants fills that measure very quickly, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. Even more, they may fall by their own plans. What they do to protect themselves and harm others, God can turn into the very means of their ruin, as in Psalm 7:15 and Psalm 9:15.

David adds, “They have rebelled against you.” If they were only his enemies, he could have forgiven them safely. But they are rebels against God, against his rule and honor. They will not repent and give God glory, so David clearly sees their ruin ahead. His prayer for their destruction does not come from revenge, but from the Spirit of prophecy. He is declaring that all who rebel against God will surely be destroyed by their own counsel. And if it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble his people, as 2 Thessalonians 1:6 says, then we pray for that to happen whenever we say, “Father, your will be done.”

They are the righteous, as Psalm 5:12 says, because they trust in God. They are fully convinced of his power and complete sufficiency, and they risk everything on his promise. They feel safe in his protection as they walk in the way of duty, and they love his name. That means they are pleased with everything by which God has made himself known, and they delight in knowing him. This is true, pure religion, to live with contentment in God and dependence on him.

David’s prayer for them is, “Let them rejoice.” Let them have good reason to rejoice, and let their hearts be filled with joy, even great and overflowing joy. Let them keep on shouting for joy, with a steady and lasting joy, a holy joy that ends in God. Let them rejoice in you, in your favor, in your salvation, and not in anything created. Let them rejoice because you defend them, cover them, or spread your protection over them, and because you dwell among them. There may also be a reference here to the pillar of cloud and fire, which was Israel’s visible sign of God’s special presence and protection.

We should learn from David to pray not only for ourselves, but for others, for all good people, for everyone who trusts in God and loves his name, even if they do not agree with us in everything or fit our own interests. We should include in our prayers all who belong to God’s promises. “Grace be with all who love Christ sincerely” (Ephesians 6:24). In doing this, we are joining with God.

David’s comfort about them is found in Psalm 5:12. He brings them into his prayers because they are God’s special people, and so he has no doubt his prayers will be heard and that they will always rejoice. They are happy because they can be sure of God’s blessing: “You, Lord, will bless the righteous, and will command a blessing on them.” God has already said in his word that they are blessed, and so he will make them truly blessed. Those whom God blesses are truly blessed.

They are also safe under the protection of his favor, and some read the line as, “With favor you will crown him.” His favor is their honor. It will be to them like a beautiful crown and make them truly great. God will also surround them with his favor on every side, like a shield. A shield in war protects only one side, but God’s favor protects his people all around. It is like the hedge around Job, going all the way around him, so that as long as they stay under God’s care, they are completely safe and should be completely content.

When we sing these verses and pray them back to God, we should, by faith, place ourselves under his guidance and care. Then we can rest in his mercy and grace, and look ahead with joy to God’s final victory over all his enemies and his people’s victory in him and in his salvation.