Well, turn with me to the Old Testament Book of Psalms, Psalm 5 this morning. If you're using a pew Bible, you'll find it on page 570, Psalm 5. And I normally don't say anything like this, but I feel the need to say it this morning. I want you to know that All of the scripture readings that we've read together today, including the psalm that you're about to hear proclaimed, were chosen and selected and placed into the bulletin. And the bulletin was complete by about three o'clock on Friday afternoon. And the sermon manuscript was complete at noon yesterday. And I didn't look at it again until this morning when I came into my office at eight o'clock. And I think you'll understand why I'm saying all of that to you. So I want to speak for a few minutes on this subject this morning, a song for the next morning. Psalm 5, this is what the Word of God says. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God. For to you do I pray. Oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make way, your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels because of the abundance of their transgressions. Cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exalt in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield. We have all experienced the next morning. You know, that morning after a night of sinful actions, that morning after a night of devastating conflict, that morning after a night of painful news. There is always the next morning. And if you have lived for any length of time, you have already experienced enough next mornings to last a lifetime. So what do you do in these mornings? What do you say? What do you sing? What do you pray? What do you believe? Where do you turn? In whom do you trust in the next morning? Psalm 3, Psalm 4, and Psalm 5 stand together in the Hebrew hymn book, and very likely they stand together in the history of David. Psalm 3 is a morning prayer Psalm 4 is an evening prayer, and Psalm 5 is another morning prayer. And it is possible that these three Psalms were written in succession. If so, then it is likely that this Psalm is continuing to address the rebellion of David's son, Absalom. And this is why some have labeled this Psalm the next morning Psalm, referring to the next morning, when Tuesday's prospects are as grim as Monday's. And in Psalm 3, David woke to his first day of exile. And then in Psalm 4, that day ended. And in Psalm 5, David began a new day in the same situation. As a result, discouragement had flooded his soul. Discouraged souls throughout the centuries have been able to identify with David's song. According to the superscription, David wrote this sad song to be played on the instrument that is best suited to express his feelings of discouragement, a flute. The sound of the flute is the appropriate sound for a heart that is in anguish, especially considering it was the instrument that was used to accompany the mourning of the dead. And because this song was addressed to the choir master, This particular song was to be corporately sung by the entire congregation when they gathered for worship. Furthermore, unlike the preceding Psalms where some verses are directed to the readers, this Psalm in its entirety is addressed to God. In Psalm 5, David gives us a song for the next morning. Here, He teaches us how to walk with God in our discouragement. And through his own prayer, David models biblical prayer for us. And he teaches us how to respond to our next morning discouragement with prayer and trust. So would you notice with me four headings or truths this morning? First of all, I want you to see David's plea in verses 1, 2, and 3. He writes, Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God. For to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you, and I watch. Now David began this psalm with a passionate plea for help. This is not a calm and casual prayer. It's a personal plea from someone who is completely and utterly discouraged in his soul. You'll notice the word my is used six times in the first three verses. This is a personal prayer that David is voicing to God. And he begins this song for the next morning with a phrase at the beginning of verse one. Give ear, which literally means to broaden with the ear in the hand. It pictures cupping your ear and putting it behind your hand, you know, like your grandfather or your grandmother used to do when they couldn't hear you. and say, listen, listen, Lord, put your hand behind your ear, Lord. Give ear to my personal pleas and cries for desperation. Put your hand there, Lord, so you can hear better what I'm saying to you. You'll also notice that as the psalm progresses, there is a synonymous parallelism that takes place as each thought in David's prayer restates the previous one with compounding intensity. Look at your Bible and I'll show you. There's three sets of three that takes place in these opening verses. There's three verbs. Give ear to my prayer. Consider my prayer. Give attention to my prayer. There's three objects. Oh, Lord, my king and my God. And there's three prayers. There's words, there's groanings, and there's cries. And these three sets of three emphasize a tone of urgency. They emphasize a tone of intensity that reflects the ever-increasing discouragement in David's soul. And I think to get the heart of his prayer in these first three verses, you could see it all in one word in the text. It's the word groaning. You could translate it meditation. The psalmist uses it in Psalm 39.3, and it points to unspoken prayer, aching and longing and yearning of your innermost being when you're trying to talk to God. You are groaning in your prayers to God. And this is one of the reasons why I read for us this morning in our New Testament reading Romans chapter eight. Because when our sorrow and our situation is so far beyond us, It is like a groaning or a gnawing or a toothache in our soul. And friends, this is why theology matters. Theology matters because when you and I find ourselves in a place like David, in this psalm, Where all of our words to God, all of our prayers to God, could only be described as a groaning, as a gnawing in our soul. Theology matters. Because the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, begins to pray for us in our groanings, groaning for us on our behalf to the throne of God. Listen to Romans chapter 8 and verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings. There's that word. Too deep for words. The groanings are so intense. They're so urgent. They're so deep in our souls. Paul says you can't even describe them. Have you ever found yourself like that? Have you ever found yourself where you were so discouraged and hurt and in pain in the very depths of your being that you could not put words together to pray to God? I've been there. I've been there many times. Last fall, I was there for a long period of time. This spring, I was there for a long period of time. And you say, well, what did you do, pastor, in those next mornings when you found yourself there? Here's what I literally did. I took my Bible in those next mornings, and I sat down at the table where I spend time with the Lord, and I laid my Bible in front of me, and I read it, and I could not put a single word together to pray. And so I left my Bible open in front of me, I bowed my head, And I said, God, your word teaches me that your spirit intercedes for me with groanings when I don't know what to pray. And God, I've got nothing. I can't put one word together. So I'm gonna sit quietly before this Bible and trust that your spirit is gonna pray on my behalf to you, the groanings that are in my heart. You know my heart, God. You know my soul. You know the Spirit is in me, and you know everything I'm struggling with. So Spirit, pray. And I sat, silently, and waited. And friends, I think that's the heart of David's prayer. I really think that's what he's teaching us. It's a groaning plea from a heart and soul that doesn't even know what to say, but it knows who it needs to talk to. And in verse number two, in this groaning of David, He addresses the Lord as His King and as His God, acknowledging that the Lord Himself, Yahweh, is the supreme judge and ruler of His life. And because He is King and He is Lord of heaven, He is also sovereign over all the earth, including the very circumstances that David finds himself in that are contributing to his discouragement. And through the use of this language, David is reminding himself and us that because the Lord is our King, and because the Lord is our God, He and He alone is the only one to whom we can pray. And there is no need in David's life, just like there is no need in our lives that is greater than the God to whom we pray. He is our King. He is our master. He is our Lord. And in this time of the deepest need of David's soul, he depended upon the Lord. And in verse three, we see that David was not only personal and passionate in his prayer, he was prepared when he prayed. From verse three, we learn that this was a morning prayer. David says, O Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice. In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. And David is teaching us how not just in the next mornings, but in every morning, he began his day with God. He had a morning routine of orienting himself, his life, and his troubles before God. That's why one A famous missionary said, the best time to tune your instrument is before the concert starts, not after it. And this is how David tuned himself to God in his presence. David, going to God in the first moments of the day, shaped his thoughts and prepared him to view the day from God's perspective, not his next morning perspective. Did you hear that? From God's perspective, not his next morning perspective. And friends, it's a reminder that the majority of our waking hours are spent in the world. They are not spent in a quiet place with an open Bible. which is why the morning time with the Lord is a precious gift that should be guarded in our lives and it should be exercised in our lives. And I can only speak for me this morning, but the morning is not enough. Recently, in recent months, I've been stopping whatever work I'm doing at noon. and going to a quiet place in my office and spending more intentional time with the Lord before I go back to my work. And this quiet time with God gives us the wisdom, gives us the perspective, it gives us the discernment that we need to navigate our days and our decisions. It gives us what we need to deal with distractions and dangers and deceptions. that we're surrounded by on a daily basis. Chuck Swindoll said, when our outlook is dim in the morning, when discouragement worms its way in, a good remedy is to focus our attention upward. And what a difference it makes in our day. Throughout scripture, spiritual turning points occur at morning times. Darkness gives way to light as contemplation gives us insight. Darkness is dispelled by light with time with God. Notice that David was very orderly and systematic in his worship. He says that he prepares a sacrifice in verse 3. It literally means that he directs things to the Lord. He is systematic in what he is doing. It has a military connotation. It's a soldier presenting himself to his commander to receive orders for the day. God, I'm directing my life to you this morning. Show me how to live it. Notice also that David anticipated that God would answer him. He said that he would make this sacrifice of his life to the Lord and he would watch. He would look with expectation and see how God would answer. It's the same language that Fred read to us out of Habakkuk chapter 2. that just as Habakkuk stood as a watchman on the tower to watch and see what God has done, David has come in the morning hours of the next morning, and he surrendered himself to God. He's directed his whole life upward to God. And he says, I'm here, I'm a sacrifice to you, and now God, I've surrendered it all to you, and I'm gonna sit back and watch what you do with it. That's the picture. As David prayed and pleaded his soul to God, he watched in expectation, believing that in God's perfect timing and will, he would respond. So friends, I ask you this morning, what do you do when you face your next morning? In his next morning, David's discouragement moved him to God. Has your discouragement moved you closer to God or further away from Him? David began his next morning with prayer. Do you? David came prepared when he came into God's presence that next morning. Do you? Do you, like David, believe that God is greater than your need? That God is greater than your pain. That God is greater than your hopelessness. Oh, don't miss this, friends. Instead of looking inward, and instead of looking outward, David looked upward, and it changed everything. When we not only see David's plea in verses four to seven, we see David's perspective. He says, for you're not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you. Notice how he begins this next stanza in the psalm with the word for it introduces the basis for David's passionate plea. It emphasizes why David is expectant. He remembers and rests. in the character of God. And in verses 4 to 6, David highlights the holiness of God with seven succinct statements. Do you see it? In verse 4, God does not delight in wickedness. In verse 4, evil may not dwell with God. In verse 5, the boastful cannot stand before God. In verse 5, God hates evildoers. In verse 6, God destroys those who speak lies. In verse 6, God abhors the bloodthirsty. And in verse 7, God abhors the deceitful man. And just as there was a progression of expectancy and intensity in verses 1, 2, and 3, With David's prayer, there is a progression in David's statements regarding God's holiness in verses 4, 5, and 6. And you'll notice at the end of this, David is emphasizing what God hates, what God destroys, and what God abhors. David was gripped by the complete and utter holiness of God. And you'll notice also that David does not say that God hates the sin and he loves the sinner. That's a very popular statement in Christian circles. But look at the text. Look at what it says. David says that God hates all evildoers. He hates all those whose sin is their way of life. That's why one commentator said, it has become fashionable to speak of God hating the sin and loving the sinner. And while there is a sense in which that distinction is valid, in that God loved a world of sinners like us. There is no getting away from the fact that God hates the sinner who engages in those rebellious activities. It is the sinner, from God's perspective, who deserves to perish. Sin is not only opposed to God's will, it is repugnant to His nature. And by ceasing to hate it, God would cease to be holy. God would cease to be perfect. God would cease to be just and righteous. God would cease to be God. And David is showing us that we will never take sin as seriously as God does. until we truly understand how holy God is in His character. I'll point out to you once again the word that He uses to summarize it all. He abhors these actions. It's related to the New Testament word from which we find in Romans chapter 1, abomination. It's off limits. It's abominable in God's sight, these activities. Now notice in verse seven, David continues to exalt God's character, and he moves from the holiness of God, and he emphasizes the steadfast love of God. And he does it with a contrast. He says in verses five and six, this is God's posture to the wicked, to the evildoers. And then in verse seven, he says, this is God's posture to me, and he says, but I, I, indifferent. While the wicked are barred from God's presence, David says that he has access to God's presence. Because God has poured out His abundant, overflowing, steadfast love on his life. And the contrast between David and his enemies couldn't be clearer. David has experienced the mercy of God. David has experienced the grace of God. David has experienced the steadfast love of God. David has been washed and renewed and cleansed by God. David is, this moment, in the very discouragement of his soul, loved and cared for and adored by God. And in that same moment, God is against the evildoers. And notice what David says. He says because of God's steadfast love, he'll enter God's house and he'll bow down to God in fear and he'll bow down to God in worship. And friends, this is a reminder that God's unwavering love and grace for us in Jesus Christ should give us immense confidence as we worship and pray. We can count on him to hear and answer our prayers and deliver us from all of our enemy situations. Because this God of steadfast love will never abandon us. David's perspective the next morning was changed by focusing on God's attributes. Specifically, He meditated on God's holiness and God's abundant, abounding, steadfast love. David did not try to clear his reputation. He did not try to do damage control to his image. He relied on God to justly deal with the wicked. And when it seemed that no one else believed him and no one else loved him, he found his comfort He found his home. He found his place in God's never-ending, ever-flowing, never-letting-go love. And in that next morning experience, David regained his confidence through worship. He understood What you and I need to understand, that when our perspective is on God, and when our perspective is on His character, rather than our circumstances, God's character will always dispel our discouragement. We not only see David's plea and David's perspective, we also see David's prayer in verses 8, 9, and 10. He writes, lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness. Because of my enemies, make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. In verse 9, David turned to his enemies and his discouragement over to the Lord. He realized that not a word from the mouth of his enemies could be trusted, that they all spoke destructive, slanderous lies about him, rallying others against him and twisting and distorting the truth. And David's description of the effects of sin was so powerful that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to quote verse 9 of this psalm in Romans chapter 3 and verse 13, reasoning that all of us are under the power of sin and that the only way a person can be restored to God is by believing in and receiving Christ as their Savior. And because of sin's potent grip, in verse number 10, David prayed for God's justice. And you'll notice that he made three requests, that they would bear their guilt, that they would fall by their own counsel, and that they would be cast out. And you'll notice that the driving issue in David's heart was not his enemy's opposition to him. It was their rebellion against God. This was bigger than the life of David. And David wasn't praying like this merely for his benefit. He was jealous for the name and the fame and the glory of God. He could not bear to see God's name profaned. And so he prays that God would act justly, not for David's sake, but for God's own sake. And it's also important to note in the text that David was not asking God to do something that God wasn't already going to do. Do you see that? He was just asking for judgment to begin sooner rather than later. It wasn't that his enemies were going to get off the hook. God was going to bring judgment to them regardless. David just prayed that it would come sooner than later. And though most of David's prayer was focused on those who were opposing him, we really get the heart of David's prayer. in verse number eight. In his discouragement, David didn't want to resort to the tactics of his enemies. He knew that discouragement could easily escalate into resentment and bitterness and hatred and retaliation and despair. And so David prayed in verse number eight that the Lord would lead him and make a straight path for him to follow and walk in. And when David prayed for the Lord to lead him in righteousness, he was praying prayers like this, friends. Psalm 23 3. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake, for the sake of God's name. Not David. He was praying prayers like Psalm 25 verses four and five. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation and I will wait for you all the day long. Or Psalm 86 in verse 11. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Can't you hear his burden? He was all twisted up inside, just like you and I get. And his heart was pulling him this way and it was pulling him that way. And it was pulling him all over the place. And he prayed, God, make a path of righteousness for me. Lead me, God, and take all of these knots that are in my stomach and in my life and unite them all together, God, in fear and worship and honor of you. That was his prayer. Or Psalm 143 in verse 8. Oh, God, let me hear in the morning your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way that I should go, for to you I lift my soul. David was trusting in God's character to lead him in a safe and secure path. And dear brother and sister, would you hear your pastor this morning say these words to you? Don't live in your discouragement. Pray that God would lead you out of it. Pray that God would pave a path of righteousness before you where your soul would be restored, where you would be refreshed and renewed in the steadfast love and mercy of God. And friends, can I say to you this morning that verse eight is a prayer that all of us should and could pray on a regular basis. Oh, you've heard me say it before. It's one of the greatest prayers and desires of my life that God would allow me to live a path of straightness. That my children and now my grandchildren would not look at my life and see twistedness and see corruption and deceit. But they would see straight wheel tracks and that they could get inside those wheel tracks and walk in the same path. That my church family could see those same wheel tracks for decades and get in them and follow them. That if I were to die tomorrow, and some of you would go to my office and help my family pack up all of the books and the files and everything that's in there, you wouldn't find hidden sins on my computer. You wouldn't find things stashed somewhere. out of people's sight. But you would find books and words that I've underlined and marked that have stood out to me that I want to try to implement and apply in my life. That you would read through journals that would chronicle my struggles and my victories. That you would see and have confirmed that what you've heard me say, what you've seen me live, is straight. And you could follow it. It's what Jesus taught us to pray in the Beatitudes. Oh Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. This is the prayer of verse eight. Not that we would live crooked, hidden, deceitful lives, but lives of straightness that give a clear compass and bearing that people could follow. So in your discouragement, in your next morning experience, do you pray the way David prayed? Do you leave room, friends, for God to lead you? Do you? Or do you have it all figured out? Do you pray for God to use you to lead a clear, straight example of what it means to walk with God Men that your wives would never ever have to question your action because they know your heart and your character and your straightness. Or do you need to confess and turn from a crooked path this morning? When we not only see David's plea, David's perspective, and David's prayer, finally in verses 11 and 12, we see David's praise. He writes, but let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exalt in you, for you bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield. Now notice David's towering view of God and his character. It led him to end this psalm with praise and worship. And he begins verse 11 with a contrast with the word but. And it emphasizes the contrast between those who rebel against God and those who find refuge in God. And he uses the phrase take refuge. It doesn't refer to a Temporary quick shelter in a rainstorm. It means committing your life and your destiny to God It means relying on his power in his protection It's a picture of salvation and then walking in and with God for the rest of your life It's not like like what I did a few months ago when I was out on a run and the app the weather app said I was good for an hour And I got three miles in and I was no longer good. And there was no place to go. And there wasn't a dry piece of clothing on my body. That's not the type of refuge he's describing. He's describing a refuge that is permanent. I liken it to Genesis chapter five. When the Bible talks about Enoch, and Enoch walked with God, and he wasn't because God took him. The British preacher G. Campbell Morgan says of that verse, that God was walking with Enoch, and he looked at Enoch, and he said, Enoch, you're closer to my house than yours, so come with me. David's prayer that those who would find refuge in God, do you see it? They would rejoice. They would forever sing for joy. They would be protected and they would exalt in the Lord. And do you see what's happening in the flow of the text, friends? David's next morning prayer resulted in his soul moving from discouragement and despondency to joy as he focused on the character of God and the promises of God and God's gracious answers to his prayers. That's why the psalmist in Psalm 34, 19 said this, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers Him out of them all. Many are our afflictions, friends. Many are our sorrows. Many are our discouragements. But when God is our refuge, in His timing, not ours, He will deliver us out of every single one of them. And in verse 12, David concludes this psalm by affirming the supreme goodness of the Lord towards all of his saints, and he makes two statements. God, you bless the righteous, and God, you cover them with favor as with a shield. Do you see the language that he's using? Do you see how he's finding his joy? He's not just finding His joy in the character of God. He's finding His joy in the benefits of God that flow from His character. He's finding His joy in the fact that God is His refuge. And that He's under the shadow of the almighty wings of God. And that God takes His wings and He upholds His people. He's the lifter of their heads. He's the one who brings joy in the next mornings. And he's resting in that, and he's finding refuge and home and safety and comfort in that. And then he says, and God, you're my shield. And the language that he uses of a shield, it's a shield that is so big it covers from the ground all the way above his head. It's the same picture that Paul gives in Ephesians chapter six about the shield of faith and the armor of God. And Paul says in Ephesians chapter six that the shield of faith is taken up by the Christian to extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. And so when the evil one is sending his fiery darts at the believer, the believer is to take up the shield of faith and stand in front of that shield of faith and the shield of faith protects them. from the fiery darts of the devil. Do you see the psalmist? He's my refuge. And God, those who find their refuge in you, you take your favor, God. You take your blessing and you pour it out on their life like a shield covering all of them, all of them. That's what God in his grace does for people like you and me in our sorrow and in our difficulty. That's why the psalmist cried out in Psalm 33, 20 and 22. Our soul waits for the Lord. He's our help and our shield. Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, oh Lord, be upon us as we hope in you. That's it. He is the shield all about you. He's your refuge and your strength. So when you wake up the next morning, do you find your refuge in him? Is he your song? Is he your shield? Even though you're full of sorrow, discouragement, regret, and pain, do you rejoice and exult in God and his character and blessing and faithfulness? Friends, this song gives us a song for the next morning, for all of the next mornings. David models for us how to walk with God when we're discouraged. He was consumed with a holy passion for God. And he sought God with total abandonment and urgency. And his hope was not based on his circumstances. His hope was based on the unchanging character of God. And my prayer for all of us today is that we would find in our discouragement what David found in his. A righteous and merciful God. who's waiting to meet us in all of our next mornings. Let's pray. Give ear, O Lord, our King and our God, to the prayers of your people. Hear our words, hear our groanings, hear our cries. Would you be our refuge? Would you be our shield? Would you lead us in straight paths for the sake of your name? And would your favor be upon us in such a way that you would heal and restore? Oh God, tomorrow we're gonna have a next morning. Would you meet us in that quiet place and help us? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.