Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 5

To the lead musician, with wind instruments, a psalm of David.

As with the previous psalm, the temple music director was supposed to include this song in a collection of songs to be used for regular temple worship.

Not all psalms were assigned to this special collection.

This worship leader was also supposed to provide instrumental accompaniment for this song, only this time not with plucked string instruments as with Psa 4 but with blown wind instruments, perhaps something like a pan flute.

Furthermore, as with Psa 4, David wrote this song without giving any background information about the circumstances that caused him to write it.

Still, we do know at least one thing about this song – we know the time of day when David prayed or sang this song to God – it was in the morning.

How do you start your day?

Do you ever start “on the wrong side of the bed,” afraid, agitated, and upset before your day even officially begins?

If you have submitted to God’s king – to Jesus Christ – as your God and Savior, then there’s one right way to start your day and that’s to renew your trust in God through prayer.

God’s people speak to him in the morning.

Hear my words, Yahweh,

listen carefully to my whispering;

pay close attention to the voice of my pleading – my King and my God –

for to you I am praying.

Yahweh, in the morning, you hear my voice;

in the morning I present it to you and wait.

Some call the previous psalm the “night prayer” or “night song” because it tells us what David thought and prayed at the end of the day.

The same people call this next psalm the “morning prayer” or “morning song” because it tells us what David thought at the start of the day.

About this, Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.

Devotion should be both the morning … and the evening star.”

This opening section describes a variety of ways to express yourself in prayer.

Words describes general, normal speaking.

Whispering is less audible, discernible speech, like mumbling, sighing, or whispering.

Pleading is something more vocal and dramatic, like a cry for help or an outcry.

In this song, David emphasizes to whom he is praying.

He prays to Yahweh, whom he names twice, at the beginning and end.

In between, he calls him his King and his God.

God shows David’s loyalty to Yahweh as his God and his rejection of all other gods.

King is fascinating because David is God’s appointed king over Israel and eventually over all other nations.

Yet here David reveals his belief that though he is God’s chosen king, he is still a man under authority who must answer to God’s authority over him.

David says “to you” twice, which intensifies his focus on Yahweh as his audience.

David’s weaves another emphasis through these opening words.

Hear, then listen carefully, then pay close attention increase with intensity, revealing an urgent desire for God to pay attention to his prayer.

He punctuates this urgent desire with a patient approach.

He would present his prayer to Yahweh in the morning, then like a watchman at the top of a castle tower or a lighthouse keeper scanning the offshore horizon in a storm, David would wait throughout the day for God to respond to his prayer.

These opening lines reveal that though David was king, he did not live or lead in self-reliance.

He relied upon Yahweh as his God and submitted to him as his King.

Are you like David?

No matter how old you have grown to be and no matter how much influence, power, or success you achieved in this life, do you awake in the morning with an intense desire to depend on God to guide you?

Do you talk to him in the morning before you face the challenges of your day?

Do you look expectantly for how he will guide you and intervene in your life throughout the day?

There is a big difference between speaking to God only later in the day after difficult things have happened and speaking to God early in the morning before anything happens at all.

David’s opening words to this song revealed a powerful man who relied upon God completely like a helpless child, who expressed his trust through serious, heartfelt prayer, and who watched expectantly for God to intervene in his life.

He did not take a casual approach towards God.

He did not simply mumble through some formulaic, memorized prayer without thinking.

He trusted or confided in God seriously, personally, and completely.

Do you?

They savor his revulsion towards sin.

For you are not a god who enjoys wickedness:

no evil person will be a guest with you;

the boastful cannot stand before your eyes;

you hate all who do evil;

you destroy those speak lies,

a man of bloodshed and deception you detest, Yahweh.

In this section, David reflects on Yahweh’s attitude towards sin.

He recognizes that God’s attitude towards sin is very different from the attitude of other so-called gods towards sin.

Though other supposed gods would retaliate against people (and against other gods) who had offended them, these were not consistent in their opposition to sin because even they tolerated or practiced certain wrong behaviors of their own.

Pagan gods are well-known for being capricious and even immoral, judging or punishing others only when they were especially bothered in a personal way.

Do you know the difference between how a child eats chocolate and how an adult [is supposed to] eat chocolate?

A child gulps down chocolate like a dog eats food, giving little thought to how it tastes.

An adult [sometimes] eats chocolate slowly, tasting it from all four taste zones on the tongue – sweet (front), sour (just behind the front), bitter (rear mid-section of the tongue), and salty (back section).

This approach appreciates and [keyword] savors the subtle qualities and tones of each piece of chocolate.

Is this how you respond to God’s total hatred of sin?

Or does God’s holiness and hatred towards sin make you want to gag?

Or do you think about it quickly and as little as you can because it makes you feel guilty?

David savored God’s revulsion towards sin – God’s holiness – as evidenced by his prolonged, six-line reflection on this aspect of God’s character.

He did not fly quickly by this aspect of God’s character when he prayed.

He thought about it one layer at a time:

Yahweh finds zero enjoyment or pleasure in either seeing or doing wickedness.

He is so against sin that a sinful person can’t even be a temporary guest with him.

He cannot allow an arrogant person (who sings his own praises) to stand before him.

He hates (or treats like an enemy) everyone who does evil of any kind.

He destroys (or expels) everyone who tells lies.

He detests (or abhors) people who hurt or deceive other people.

Yahweh stands alone his total revulsion towards sin; no other god opposes sin so completely, in every form and to every degree.

When we savor his total revulsion of sin, his perfect holiness, we find great comfort knowing that no matter what evil occurs and whatever sins are committed against us, God never has anything to do with it these things.

We also know that he will judge anyone who persists in sinful words and behavior.

They will not succeed.

Do you – like David – savor the holiness of God and his revulsion towards sin?

The South African pastor, Andrew Murray, said this about holiness: “Holiness is not something we do or attain; it is the communication of the divine life, the inbreathing of the divine nature; the power of the divine presence resting upon us.”

Before we try to be holy, we would do well to meditate more deeply and focus more frequently on the holiness of God, for God alone is holy and only as we grow in our awareness of and sensitivity to his holiness may we come to trust in his holiness as our own.

They seek his reliable guidance.

But I – through the abundance of your loyal love – enter your house;

I bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.

Yahweh, guide me in your righteousness;

because of my enemies, make your way straight before my face.

For there is nothing reliable in his mouth:

their insides are destruction;

an open grave is their throat;

their tongue is slippery.

If you’re thinking carefully, you know that David committed his own share of sins.

So, how could he find comfort in Yahweh’s total revulsion towards sin – in his holiness?

Wouldn’t Yahweh’s stance towards sin be a problem for David rather than a comfort?

David answers this question now by contrasting himself with ungodly people (“but I”).

In doing so, he does not offer his innocence from sin as the key factor that distinguishes him from ungodly people.

He offers another quality of Yahweh instead – his faithful, loyal love.

David trusted in God’s own perfect righteousness rather than in his own attempts at self-righteousness.

For this reason and this reason alone, David knew he was able to enter God’s house rather than be turned away.

The word sojourner or dwell refers to a temporary guest or visitor.