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Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together to Psalm 5. Psalm 5. I'm gonna read and preach the first half of the psalm this evening, verses one through eight. And Lord willing, the rest of the psalm in the near future. This is a psalm about prayer. About prayer in the midst of enemies and also worship in the midst of enemies. And we're gonna dive right in, so let me pray for us, and then we'll begin. Lord Jesus, we know that you prayed to your Father during your earthly life. You trusted him to defeat your enemies. You walked in the path of righteousness. Help us now to learn to do those things in you, by your grace and power. We pray in your name, amen. Psalm five, verses one through eight. This is the word of God. To the choir master, for the flutes, a Psalm of David. 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 watch. Four, 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 toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. We'll consider first together what verses one through three say about prayer, then what verses four through six say about enemies, and finally what verses seven and eight say about And the key words for kids are as follows, if you'd like to write them in. Fridge, breakfast, golem. Fridge, breakfast, golem. And then Canaanites, Niagara, and onion. Canaanites, Niagara, Onion. The title of the psalm reads, To the Choir Master, which reminds us that this psalm was meant to be sung. For the Flutes, which seems to be a note about the musical accompaniment of the singing. And a Psalm of David, telling us that David is the author of this psalm. The King of Israel, who points ahead to the King of Kings, our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the opening verses, we're told about the how, the who, and the when of David's prayer. In terms of the how of David's prayer, I want us to notice first that he prays earnestly, earnestly. He says, give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry. Think about when it is that you groan and cry. It's when you're in pain, physically or emotionally perhaps. It's when you're in a difficult situation that's beyond you and you need help. It's when you're desperate. And when we groan and cry out in prayer, we are recognizing and expressing our desperate need for God. We are praying earnestly. And as we do so, we are following in the footsteps of Jesus, who, as Hebrews 5.7 says, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Groaning. Romans 8, 26 and 27 says, 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 too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. The Puritan David Dixon wrote that in time of trouble, The heart hath more to say to God than words can utter. And what a man cannot express, the Lord will take knowledge of it, no less than of his words. David prays earnestly, like Christ did, like we in Christ can now do in our times of trouble. David also seems to pray audibly, doesn't he? He says, give ear to my words. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry. Oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. David prays audibly. So can we. We can pray all kinds of ways, of course. We can pray in our minds. We can write out our prayers in a prayer journal. But it's also good sometimes to pray out loud. Not loudly necessarily, though there's a time and place for that too, but I just mean vocally, verbally, like I'm talking out loud right now. Praying out loud helps us pray realistically. It helps take the jumble of words and phrases in our mind, like those magnetic words and phrases you might have on your fridge, and it helps us put them together. into sentences that make sense, that are meaningful and heartfelt and real. In addition to helping us pray realistically in that way, praying out loud I think helps us to pray personally, meaning to a real person, to God. Prayer is not just us talking to ourselves, it's us talking to God. It's not like you speaking into a voice recorder app, it's like you speaking to a real person on the phone. Praying out loud helps you remember that there's really someone on the other end of the line and that he's listening and that he hears you and considers you and pays attention to you. Well, who is on the other end of the line? It's God, of course. The how of David's prayers that he prays earnestly and audibly, the who of David's prayers that he prays to God. He prays to the Lord. Give ear to my words, O Lord, that is Yahweh, the God who is in covenant relationship with David and with us through the Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant making and the covenant keeping God. Verse two, he calls him. my King and my God, that is the one who rules over me and my life with wisdom and love, the one who rules over my enemies with power and justice, the one who has subdued me to himself, to use the language of the shorter catechism, and who rules and defends me and restrains and conquers all his and my enemies. To you do I pray, David says. God is not like the idols about whom Isaiah 46.7 says, if one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. No, God is the one true and living God who gives ear to our words and considers our groaning and gives attention to the sound of our cries. How about the when of David's prayer? Verse three. "'Oh, Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice.'" Now, if you're not a morning person, you might groan right at this moment, but just listen. "'In the morning, you hear my voice.' "'That's not the only time of day,' David prays, of course, "'but it is an important time of day for prayer for him.'" Psalm 88, verse 13, "'But I, O Lord, cry to you. "'In the morning, my prayer comes before you.'" Psalm 119, 147, "'I rise before dawn and cry for help.'" This is what Jesus did, isn't it? Mark 1.35, and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. So if you were to come up to me after the service, and you were to say, Matt, if I could have quiet time each day, first thing in the morning, or last thing in the evening, which do you think would be best? I would say first thing in the morning. Not because it's wrong for you to have your quiet time last thing at night before you go to bed, but because there's something about what you do first thing in the morning that sets the tone for the rest of the day, isn't there? And if you wait until evening to feed your soul, that's kind of like waiting until dinner to feed your body. You could do it, but it might not be best. Just like your body needs physical food for the day, your soul needs spiritual food for the day. So I would say, find a good way to get yourself sufficiently awake, whatever that means for you, and then feed your soul a good breakfast each day. But regardless of when you have your set quiet time each day, it's good to start the day with a time of prayer. In the morning, like David, like Jesus, let God hear your voice. So pray early, we could say, and earnestly and audibly to the one who is your Lord and King and God, to the one who hears your prayers and considers them and gives attention, perfect attention to them. The focus shifts in verse four from prayer to enemies. David's asking God for help in the midst of his enemies for, or because God is against his enemies. Let's consider that now under our second main point, and we'll consider the enemies first, and then God's opposition to the enemies. Notice how the enemies are described. First, more generally there in verse four, it mentions two things, wickedness and evil. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness, evil may not dwell with you. wickedness and evil are synonymous and the opposite of righteousness and good. The beginning of verse five mentions the boastful, that is the proud, the arrogant, those who are full of themselves and who boast in themselves. The end of verse five there refers to the evildoers, those who do evil instead of good. First part of verse six, Talks about those who speak lies, those who are untruthful and untrustworthy, who can't be relied on to tell the truth, who speak what is false, who tell lies. And the second part of verse six mentions the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Deceitful's parallel to those who speak lies. And the bloodthirsty refers to people who are violent and murderous even. These are David's enemies. They are wicked, they are evil, they are boastful, they are evildoers, they speak lies, they are deceitful, they are bloodthirsty. No wonder David prays earnestly to God for help in the midst of them. And he reminds God of God's stance towards these enemies. So let's consider, secondly, God's opposition to these enemies. David mentions six things briefly. First, verse four again. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. God does not delight in wickedness, he delights in righteousness. God delights in righteousness because he is righteous. He does not delight in wickedness because he is not wicked. What about us? Do we delight in wickedness? If we're honest, sometimes we do. Because we're still sinners. But we've also been given a new heart by the Spirit's work of regeneration, so we have really a love-hate relationship with wickedness. We're like Gollum with the ring. He hated it and he loved it, it says in the story. We're like Paul in Romans 7, 15, for I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. And verse 19, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. And verse 21, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Sometimes we still delight in wickedness. But by God's grace, it is no longer our deepest delight. As children of God, our deepest delight is what our Father delights in. And He is not a God who delights in wickedness, He is a God who delights in righteousness. So next time you're tempted to delight in wickedness, Remember that your father does not delight in wickedness. He delights in righteousness. And you were called to imitate him as one of his beloved children. Number two, second half of verse four. Evil may not dwell with you. Psalm 15, one and two says, oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. Psalm 101, verse seven, no one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house. Evil may not dwell with God. Evil may not dwell with God because God is good. Habakkuk 1.13 says that God is of purer eyes than to see evil and that he cannot look at wrong, meaning he does not see evil or look at wrong with approval. Evil may not dwell with him who is good. So then, how can you and I dwell with God? since we are evil, since we are not good like God is good. We can dwell with God because God has come to dwell with us in the person and work of his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We who are evil can dwell with God who is good because Christ took our evil, our sin, upon himself on the cross and bore the wrath of God for it. and because Christ took his perfect goodness and imputes it to us, credits it to our account. So our evil is removed, his goodness is provided, and therefore we can dwell with God. We dwell with him now, and we will dwell with him for all eternity. Revelation 21.3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. The third thing David says about God's opposition to his enemies is there in verse five. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. The boastful, again those who are proud and arrogant, those who are full of themselves and who boast in themselves, shall not stand before the eyes of God on the day of judgment. Like the wicked in Psalm 1, verses five and six. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The boastful will not stand before God's eyes. Hebrews 4.13 says, and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. The boastful will not stand, they will fall before the eyes of the one who sees right through their proud boasting. Number four, second half of verse five. You hate all evildoers. Obviously this is striking language and it might make us wonder, doesn't God love everyone? Even evildoers? Doesn't the Bible say God is love? And of course it does say that. God is love. And there is a sense in which God loves everyone if by that we mean that he created them and he sustains them and he pours out his common grace on them and offers his special grace to them in the gospel. God loves evildoers in that sense. But there's also a sense in which God hates evildoers, isn't there? He hates those who hate him. He is opposed to those who are opposed to him. He is not cheering them on in their rebellion against the king. He is merciful, but he is also just. He is a God of love, but also a God of wrath. He is kind, but also holy. And though there is a sense in which he loves evildoers, there is also a sense in which he hates evildoers. So while hate the sin but love the sinner is fairly good advice for us, it isn't quite right to say that that's what God does. God hates the sin and the sinner, and he will punish the sinner for his sins for all eternity. if the sinner doesn't repent of his sins and believe the gospel which God in love and mercy patiently holds out to him. Number five, verse six. You destroy those who speak lies. The God of truth will destroy those who speak lies and who refuse to repent of their lies. and put their faith in him. Satan is a liar and is the father of lies, John 8, 44. God is the God of truth, and as God will destroy the father of lies, so he will destroy all his unrepentant children. The sixth and final thing David says about God's opposition to his enemies here is in the second half of verse six. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. The natural response of the God of life and truth is to abhor the man who is bloodthirsty and deceitful. These were, quote, the shimays and doe eggs and ahithophels and joabs of David's time, one commentator said. Pastor Tim talked about doe-egg recently in the First Samuel series, how evil doe-egg was, you may recall. But, as another commentator pointed out, sadly, David himself sometimes did all this. He was bloodthirsty and deceitful. Only in Christ can he, or we, pray like this. One takeaway for us here is that we need to watch out for these things in our own hearts and lives and in the hearts and lives of our fellow church members. Wickedness and evil and boasting, speaking lies, being deceitful, and even bloodthirsty. When we become a Christian, when we put our faith in Christ for our salvation, we are freed immediately and permanently from the guilt of all these things. But we are not freed immediately from the presence of all these things in our hearts and in our lives. We are brought into the promised land of salvation, but there are still Canaanites in the land that need to be defeated. So let's watch out for these things in our own hearts and lives and in each other's hearts and lives. And let's together look to Jesus for the grace we need to conquer these Canaanites. And let's imitate our father, who is the opposite of all these things, as his beloved children. So David's asking God for help in the midst of his enemies because God is opposed to his enemies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man, et cetera. But David, on the other hand, will worship the Lord. through the abundance of his steadfast love. Let's consider that now under our third and final point this evening, worship. And we'll think first about what he says about worship in verse seven, and then what he says about leadership in verse eight. Verse seven, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. David says, but I, And we note the contrast, the contrast between David and his enemies. Though by nature we are all enemies of God, by grace he makes some of his enemies his friends. Calls to mind Ephesians 2, one through five, doesn't it? And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. David says, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house, your tabernacle, your temple, We now have access, not to the earthly temple, but to the very throne room of heaven. Hebrews 4.16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We have access to the Father through the Son. Ephesians 2.18, for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. 3.12, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. David says, I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you. David's humble worship is fueled by the fear of the Lord. And this is all, quote, through the abundance of your steadfast love. It's not through the abundance of David's righteousness. It's not through David being more righteous than his enemies. It's not through David being righteous, it's through God being gracious. Psalm 103 verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. God is abounding in steadfast love. Think Niagara Falls. God is constantly and abundantly pouring out his steadfast love on us, his children. And David's response is, as ours should be, to worship the Lord. And a heart that worships the Lord and fears the Lord, prays sincerely for the leadership of the Lord. Verse eight. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. David is asking the Lord to lead him in his perfect righteousness because of his enemies and their wickedness. He's asking God to make his way straight before him, much like in Psalm 23 that some of us considered in Sunday school this morning. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Or Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Or Psalm 27, verse 11. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. when you and I are under attack from our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Or when their subtle influence is causing us to stray from the path. We need the Lord to lead us in his righteousness and to make his way straight before us. We need the Lord to lead us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He does that by his word. which shows us the way. He does that by his spirit who convicts us of sin and points us to Christ and empowers us for obedience. And he does that by his church, his people, who lovingly call us back when we stray and who humbly walk with us in the narrow way that leads to life. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. Two things by way of further application as we draw to a close this evening. First, don't let the world lead you in unrighteousness. Let the Lord lead you in righteousness. Don't follow the world. Don't follow the devil. Don't follow your heart. Follow the Lord. Second, always remember, never forget, that it is only through the abundance of God's steadfast love that you are no longer his enemy, and that you now worship him and fear him as David did. When you boil it all down, when you peel back all the layers of the onion to the core, what is it really that makes the difference between you and the unbeliever? It's not your works It's not your righteousness. It's not even your faith. It's not even your choice that makes the ultimate difference. It is God's steadfast love for you. What is at the very center, the very core of your salvation? Think about that. What's right at the heart? Is it you or God? Is it something you've done, even you believing? Or is it something God has done? Dear saints, at the center of our salvation is the steadfast love of the Lord. Deuteronomy 7, six through eight, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. We were not chosen because of our good works. We were not even chosen because of our faith. Because God foresaw our faith. We were chosen because of God's steadfast love that he chose to set on us before time began. He didn't choose us because of us. He chose us in spite of us. He didn't choose us because there was something in us that caught His eye, even our faith. He chose us because it was according to the purpose of His will and to the praise of His glorious grace. Ephesians 1, 5 and 6. He chose us because it was according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will and so that we might be to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1, 11 and 12. He didn't choose us for our faith, but for His glory. It's all through the abundance of His steadfast love. Do you worship God? Do you fear God? Does He give ear to your words and consider your groaning and give attention to the sound of your cry? Are you a friend of God and no longer an enemy? It's not because of you, it's because of Him. If you peel back all the layers, all the way down to the core, you won't find you there, you'll find Him. You are who you are through the abundance of His steadfast love. Let's pray together.
In the Morning You Hear My Voice
Sermon ID | 326251945517844 |
Duration | 35:13 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday - PM |
Language | English |
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