Psalms 5
Big idea: A morning prayer, and it is built on one distinction: what God cannot live with, and who God covers. The first half piles up what evil cannot do in his presence — cannot stand, cannot live there, cannot survive being seen. The second half is what the psalmist does instead: walks in, bows toward the temple, and asks to be led on a straight path, because the alternative is a road paved by people whose throats are open graves.
Psalm 5 asks to be led on a straight road. Psalm 6 is what happens when the man on that road falls ill and can't get up.
5:1–7 — In the morning I lay my requests before you
A morning prayer built on a single distinction, and the first movement establishes it by listing impossibilities rather than prohibitions: evil cannot LIVE there, the arrogant cannot STAND there. It is a statement about what that presence permits, not about what it forbids. Which makes verse 7 the point of the whole movement — he walks in anyway, and says exactly why, and the reason is not that he is different from the people just listed.
1 For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David. Give ear to my words, Yahweh. Consider my meditation. 2 Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you. 3 Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly. 4 For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can’t live with you. 5 The arrogant will not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. 6 You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 7 But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.
5:8–12 — Make your way straight before my face
The request is a road. 'Make your way straight before my face' is road-building language — level the ground ahead — and the reason follows immediately: the existing route is crowded with people whose speech is described as a grave. The psalm then asks for something more restrained than it might have: not lightning, but that their own plans be allowed to finish. It closes by widening from one man asking for a path to everyone under a shield.
8 Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. 9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. 10 Hold them guilty, God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. 11 But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them. Let them also who love your name be joyful in you. 12 For you will bless the righteous. Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).