Let's look at Psalm 5 tonight. Psalm 5. We looked at Psalm 4 not too
long ago, and it ends with David laying down to sleep in peace. And he gives a real good reason
why he's able to sleep well. For thou, Lord, only makest me
to dwell in safety. And here in Psalm 5, it begins
with a morning prayer. David awakes from sleep and says,
give ear to my words, O Lord. consider my meditation In Psalm 55 16 David said this
as for me I will call upon God and The Lord shall save me That's
faith in it. That's faith. The Lord will save
me Anybody that's ever called upon the name of the Lord He
said you shall be saved and David unflinchingly knew that to be
true. And then he said this, evening
and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall
hear my voice. This is something that I don't speak on enough and I want
to often call our attention to what the Bible has to say about
prayer. We don't always think of these
Psalms as prayers, but just about every one of them, I think maybe
every one of them is a prayer. The songs that we sing, many
of them are prayers. You ever think about that? We
sing them to music, but we sing, I need thee every hour, in joy
or pain, come quickly and abide, or life is vain. Lord, come,
abide with me, fast falls the even tide. The darkness deepens,
Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, O help of the helpless, abide with me. That's a prayer.
And we should sing them that way. And that's what David's
singing here. His heart's crying out to the
Lord in song. And I think we often should do
that even maybe just without music, maybe when we're alone,
to sing unto the Lord a new song. All of the Psalms are messianic.
You always have to look for the words of the Savior in the Psalms. He teaches us here and all through
his word to pray, to pray. And I probably am the worst in
the world about praying. but I suspect you're not that
far behind me because I think we're all a lot alike. I believe
that's true. Our Lord taught us to pray by
example. In Mark 1.35, it says, in the morning, rising up a great
while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary
place and there prayed. In Luke 6, 12, it says, it came
to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray
and continued all night in prayer to God. Do you ever wonder what our Lord
prayed? Did he pray differently than
we do? Being the son of God himself and praying to his actual father? We're praying to our actual father
too. We know some of the things that
our Lord prayed and what a blessing it is to know them. You remember
when Simon, the Lord told Simon, Satan has
desired you that he might sift you as wheat, but I've prayed
for you. One of those times when the Lord
got up way before sunup and prayed maybe many times, that he did
that, he was praying for old Simon. Because he knew Simon
was impetuous and just like us, I'm hurt, just like us. He knew
that he needed prayer, needed the Savior's love and power. He also taught us how to pray.
In Matthew 5.44, He taught us to pray for those who despitefully
use us and persecute us. That's hard to do, isn't it? That's hard to do. It's impossible
without His grace, to pray for those who have hurt us, pray
for those who have said things about us and broken our hearts. He prayed for his sheep from
the very cross. He prayed for those that forsook
him as he hung on Calvary. In Matthew chapter six, verses
five through 13, he told us to pray in secret. specifically
not like the Pharisees. Don't go around praying openly
in public. People still do that after the
word of God is so clear about that. There's nothing unclear
in the word of God about that. Don't let me see you praying.
I've seen pictures of people, you know, football players or
famous people like actually kneeling with their hand in the air. Does
that make you want to throw up? I don't want to sound self-righteous,
but that literally makes me want to throw up. That's our flesh, that's us by
nature, wanting to show off for God and everybody else. He said,
do not do that. Don't do that. He gave us an
example prayer. Our father, who are we praying
to? Same one he's praying to, our
father. which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Whatever God does or doesn't
do for us, hallowed be his name. He's good and right, whether
our prayers get a yes or a no or a something in between, it
doesn't matter. He's good. He does all things
well. So that's gotta start with that,
doesn't it? Hallowed be thy name. You be glorified, Lord, in this,
whatever happens. We're praying for some specific
things in this church right now. Whatever the Lord does, hallowed
be his name. Whatever he's pleased to do,
we'll bow. And we'll bow by his grace with our hearts and know
that he does all well. In Matthew 9.38, he taught us
to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers
into his field. Isn't that beautiful? We don't
even, I pass over these things in the scriptures I don't think
about. The Lord's teaching us to pray, what to pray for and
how to pray. Who we're praying to, our Father
in heaven hallowed. We're taught clearly in the word
of God to pray for one another, pray for one another, pray for
the sick. Pray for those that are troubled. Paul said, pray
for me as he ministered the word. Pray that I'll be able to preach
it boldly as I ought to preach. That's how he worded that. Pray
for me for the same reason. David starts this prayer as he
did many times with a request that the Lord would hear him.
Don't take for granted that God's gonna hear you. Don't take that
for granted. We know that he hears his own,
but the Lord is high and lifted up. Don't come before him with
vain repetitions and foolishness. Our words are to be select. Let
your words be few. He's in heaven and we're not. It's a good way to begin to not
take for granted. Lord, hear me. You know, there's
a group of people in Jeremiah 11, verse 14, it says, therefore,
this is God speaking to his people. Therefore, pray not thou for
this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for
I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their
trouble. That's the God we're talking about. Now we can't ever
assume that, no matter how horrible somebody is, we can't ever just
assume, well, God don't want me to pray for them, because
they're not worth it. No, we can't assume that, but this tells
us a little something about the God we're dealing with. God's faithfulness to hear the
cry of his sheep is never in doubt, he's promised that, but
I wouldn't be so presumptuous about myself in any certain situation that God would hear anything.
It should never cease to amaze us that God would hear us. David
cried at times, the Lord heard me. Even in his holy temple,
he heard me. And he seemed to be amazed that
God would give ear to his pathetic prayer. Give ear, Lord, to my
words. Now, we don't always pray out
loud. Words can be formed in the mind and heart just as surely
as on the lips, and God can hear those. They're still words. We choose
words before God. And we need to think about that,
not that we're to try to impress God with our eloquent prayers
or When you're speaking to your father, you don't have to impress
him. Who in the world would think
that they could impress God anyway? But we do choose words before
God. In verse three, the word direct
means to lay out in order. In the morning, will I direct
my prayer unto thee? I will lay it out in order. arrange my words before God. This is why vain repetitions
are specifically rejected by Christ. Don't pray like the Pharisees
in vain repetitions. We're not chanting some mantra,
trying to change our luck or to influence the fates or some
kind of foolishness like that. We're speaking to the God who
made us. when we pray and who has called unto us and says to
us, come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. It's not just
some mindless repetition. Reasoning is something else altogether. Ecclesiastes 5.2, be not rash
with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. For God is in the heavens and
thou upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few.
And that doesn't necessarily mean to pray short prayers. Our
Lord, we just read a while ago where he prayed all night at
times. It means let your words be select. Realize who you're praying to
at the same time that you don't try to impress him because he's
your father And you couldn't anyway Not just our words, but that
which we can't put into words It's part of our prayer According
to the scripture our meditations are musings You see that As part of this as well Our thoughts,
God can consider those too. He discerns the thoughts and
intents of the heart. And so what comes out of our
mouth is not all there is to it. Isn't it a blessing? Look at
the word there, consider. I will direct my prayer unto
thee. Lord, give ear to my words. That
means to consider them. For God to consider our prayer is an amazing blessing, to have
the ear of God Almighty. Have you ever talked to somebody
in a conversation and you got Distinct impression they weren't
hearing anything you said. They were distracted. If you've
ever talked to your children, then that's a yes. Usually they're
wanting to be somewhere else doing something else, and you're
trying to impress something upon them, and sometimes you have
to do so very emphatically, because it's important that they hear
you. It's so good to know that the
Lord's not like that. He's running the universe and
yet he's not distracted at all when you're speaking to him. David says, my King and my God,
look at verse two again. My King, hearken unto the voice,
consider my prayer, my King and my God. Why would you pray to
anybody else? Why would you pray to a God that's
not on the throne? Why would you pray to a God that
wants to and can't, that tries but people won't let him? What
if somebody doesn't let him answer my prayer? I don't have to worry about that.
Because I'm praying to my God. That's so comforting. Unto you
will I pray. You see that? Unto you will I
pray. You might think that's superfluous
language. Of course, he's praying unto you. You know why he's emphasizing
that? You're the king. I'm praying
to the king. I'm praying to the one that does
what he will. I'm praying to the one who owns
the cattle on a thousand hills. I'm praying to the one who's
able to touch and heal, who's able to say the word and
our brother will be healed. If we had any idea who we're
praying to, we'd pray a lot more. Verse three, my voice shut out
here in the morning. Let that be true. What you do
first thing will say a lot about you. What you do first thing every
day will say a lot about you. What it will say about some of
you is that you love coffee. But that's okay because that's
something you can do as well as other, you can multitask,
can't you? You can drink your coffee and sit there and consider
God and think about those that you love and how much they need
him. Think about what God's doing
right now and what he can do. Think about who he is and praise
his name from your heart just because of who he is. And my voice shalt thou hear
in the morning, O Lord, in the morning while I direct my prayer
unto thee and will look up. I'm not gonna dwell on my problems,
I'm gonna dwell on the one who is the solution to every problem. I'm not gonna look at things
and people and circumstances and difficulties. I'm gonna look
up by his grace. I'll watch expectantly This is
what we do by God's grace. We pray and then we leave it. I'll pray, isn't that interesting
the way that's worded in the order? I will direct my prayer
unto thee. I'm gonna pray to God and then
what are you gonna do? I'm gonna wait on him to do what
he's gonna do. I want to do that now. I want
to do what God would have me do in any situation. I want to
cry to him. I want to pray to him, and I
know that I can't do anything about it. I'm not going to pray
somebody well or pray my problem's solved like religion talks about. Prayer is just the opposite of
that. It's acknowledging that we can't do anything. Prayer
is not you doing something. Prayer is you looking to the
one who can do something. Prayer is bearing your heart
to Him. And I want to do that, but when I pray, I'm looking
up. What does that mean? I'm waiting
to see what God does. I told Dee just the other day,
I said, we'll just see what God's gonna do. And whatever it is,
it'll be good, woman. We're gonna see what God's gonna
do. If you know him, that's enough. Let's see what he's gonna do.
We watch, we look up to see if our
Lord will be gracious or if he'll send us a trial that's bitter. Whatever he does will be right.
We'll leave it with him. Call upon his holy name. And
then look at verse four. Four. Thou art not a God that
hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with
thee. And here in this verse, we have
to consider what David's praying about. He's praying for deliverance
from his enemies. And he's saying here, I know
that you're not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. Your
enemies are against you. They're against your king. They're
against your people. And I know that displeases you.
So I'm crying to you. He's praying in this psalm for
victory over them and knowing that God is holy and hates iniquity.
He says, I'm gonna pray and watch. Knowing this, And in our situation,
not the same, right? You're not fighting any wars
tomorrow, right? You don't have any enemies coming
after you with weapons right now, I'm assuming. But listen,
this doesn't change. You're a God, you're holy. You're holy, whatever you do
is gonna be right. You don't have pleasure in wickedness,
neither shall evil dwell with thee. And however this turns
out, I know that don't change. He may not do what I expect him
to do. And if he does, he may not do it the way I thought he
was gonna do it. But I know this, he hates iniquity,
he'll do what's right. As in everything he does, and
that's a comforting confidence in which to pray. If the enemies, Maybe you're
praying in some situation where there is some real evil involved,
and you're praying to the Lord to put it down, end it, put them
out of business, Lord. And he may do the opposite of
that for now. He may put them in business. He may make them think that everything's
going great for them. But we know better, don't we?
We know better. Psalm 73, I was envious at the
prosperity of the wicked, but then the Lord showed me how it
really is. So that's comforting. You're
not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, no matter how this
looks now. And then verse five, the foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. So David is saying here, I know
one thing for sure, whatever God does, it will be right. And
anyone who has any sin will not stand before him ultimately.
He may temporarily give them a foothold somewhere, but ultimately
they will not stand. I don't know what God will do
in any specific circumstance, but I know this, he hates those
that are not in Christ. and he loves those that are in
Christ. Don't let the outcome of your circumstance change your
mind about that, because you can count on it. It's God we're
talking about. Religion loves to quote John
3.16, you know that. God so loved the world, but you
won't hear him quote this verse much. You know why they don't? Because
if they quote this verse or even acknowledge that it exists, then
they can't make John 3.16 say what they want it to say. It can't say what they want it
to say as long as that verse is in the Bible. So they choose to ignore this
one so they can pervert the other one. John 3.16 cannot mean that God
loves everybody, that he loved Judas the same as Simon Peter.
Does Psalm 5.5 mean that God hates everybody? Do you know
anybody that's not a worker of iniquity? It sure kind of sounds like it,
don't it? that God hates everybody. Well, how do you reconcile the
two? You don't have to reconcile that which doesn't conflict.
God hates all workers of iniquity. Those who are in Christ, he sees
no iniquity in them. This is not everybody. By nature,
it's everybody. But that's why we have a gospel.
That's why we have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to show
that God does make a difference between his people and the rest
of this world. There is the election and there's
the rest. The key to understanding how
God can love the world and hate everybody who has any sin, you
know what it is? You know what the key to understanding
that? He hates everybody with iniquity and loves the world. Here's the
key, Romans 8, 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God's love is in Christ. He hates everybody who has any
sin. And that's you and me and everybody
else by nature. And unless we are in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. How does that happen? How do
we find ourselves in Christ? First Corinthians 1.30, but of
him are you in Christ Jesus? You didn't make a decision. God
put you in his son. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification. That word means holiness. Oh,
he hates all workers of iniquity, but Christ is made unto us holiness
and redemption. Ephesians 1.3, you're familiar
with that passage, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse six, to the praise of the
glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. In Christ is so many times in
that passage of scripture. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians
one later in the chapter that our experience of that saving
grace was that we by God-given faith trusted in Christ. After we heard the word of truth,
the gospel, which Paul preached and who all those called of God
preach. And when we did, he sealed us
with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the Lord takes possession of that which he redeemed, me
and you. If you do not believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel, this gospel that we preach, you
have no reason to believe that God loves you. Absolutely none. You have no reason to believe
that God loves you. John 3.18, he that believeth
on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Do you know what being condemned
by God is? God does not condemn those that
he loves. Christ said in John 644, no man
can come unto me except the father which hath sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day. And the father hath said to his sheep
in Jeremiah 31 three, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Where have you drawn us to Christ? No man can come to me except
the Father draw him. But when he does draw you, Christ is yours. This is why
David was able to say what he did in verse seven. I guess we'll
kind of close with verse seven tonight. But as for me, I will come into
thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple. By God's grace, that's us tonight. That's us. You remember when
the Lord said, who is my mother and my brethren? Who is my family? And he beckoned with his hand.
It says he did his hand like that and said, behold, my mother
and my brother and my sisters, those that are sitting, worshiping,
hearing, rejoicing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the
flesh. If God hates all workers of iniquity, then what hope is
there for me? You think about it personally
like that? What hope is, if God hates all workers of iniquity,
where does that put me? Well, by God's grace, there's
a beautiful word in verse seven. Mercy. Mercy. I'm gonna come into God's house,
you know why? Because that's where God has
mercy on sinners. by the preaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has mercy on sinners there.
Oh, give us grace, Lord. David said, I would dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. That's what I want. I have one
desire. I want to dwell in his house
forever. His house is not a building,
we understand that, but it is the fellowship of his saints.
We are his church. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. In the multitude of thy mercy,
where is the multitude of God's mercy? Lord, where do you feed your
flock? That's where his mercy is, right there. The Pharisees
came into God's house bragging. That old Pharisee, he was bragging
on his law keeping and the publican like David said, I'll come into
that house crying for mercy. God have mercy on me, a sinner. You see the other word in this
verse that we've seen. So many times in the gospel everywhere
in this book and in the other Psalms that we've looked at,
that word fear. In thy fear will I worship toward
thy holy temple with reverence because God is God and his truth
is truth. The fellowship of his people
is not subject to the whims and the feelings and the foolishness
of the flesh. Cannot be Just to put it in plain terms
we're gonna start having to act like God is God if we're gonna
worship him together David said here, I'll worship
toward the place. What's what is the Holy Temple
represent? Oh, if one thing characterizes
the holy temple of God, even the tabernacle, when it was just
that tabernacle covered with badger skins, everywhere where
God has had communion with his people, if there's one thing
that characterizes it, it's what? Blood. Bloodshed over and over. Every day, blood. Blood coming
forth on the brazen altar. Blood carried into the holy of
holy. Blood splashed on the mercy seat.
Atonement, redemption, Christ crucified. That's how I'm gonna
worship. Look into him, look into Christ
and what he did for me. God help us in that. God's love and mercy are in Christ
Jesus. I will not, I cannot comfort
sinners with delusions of universal love. We are commissioned by Christ
himself to preach the gospel that he preached. The one who
said, if you believe not that I am, you're gonna die in your
sins. He didn't go around saying, I just love everybody so much.
He said, if you believe not that I am, you're a goner. You're gonna die in your sins. We were commissioned to preach
what John the Baptist preached when he pointed to the Son of
God and said, behold, God's lamb that takes away sin. Paul said,
if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha. So don't go around hating the
Lord Jesus Christ and then talking and then singing about his love.
We need to tell sinners where God's love is, in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. And thank God for this prayer
of David's that teaches us to pray, to not take for granted
the Lord's mercy, but to cry for it with all of our hearts. I will come into God's house
in the multitude of his mercy, wherever God's having mercy on
sinners, Oh Lord, put me there. Put me there. And I'll worship
toward the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified by God's grace.
Let's pray.