Somebody Else’s Mail (9)

The superscription to Psalm 5 reads “To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.” I had to take a quick peek at the Hebrew for “flutes” in my Strong’s, as I don’t imagine what the Levite musicians played 3,000 years ago bore much resemblance to a modern wind instrument, especially one usually made out of nickel-silver alloys.

As it turns out, the word only appears in certain English Bibles. Some consistently omit the superscriptions for reasons discussed in this article. Even in the cases where it does appear, we have nothing else in the Old Testament with which to compare it. The usage is unique. Strong’s says it may refer to a musical instrument or simply be the name of a particular melody, which is a discreet way of saying the translators are guessing. Most modern translations go with “flutes”, though a few say “wind instruments” and the NIV goes with “pipes”.

It would be nice if we perfectly understood the etymology and popular usage of every ancient Hebrew word. This one we don’t. We can only imagine how this psalm sounded in full vocal chorus with accompaniment.

Unlike our last psalm, this one addresses the Lord in prayer throughout.

Psalm 5:1-3 — First Things First

“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.”

A Man with Priorities in Order

From time to time, we hear complaints about the hectic pace of modern life and about how difficult — even impossible — it is for the most devout believers to find adequate time to spend with the Lord daily. David’s example stands as a bit of a rebuke to all such feeble excuses. The man was king of Israel. If anybody had a full schedule, David did. Yet what we read here strongly suggests he was in the habit of worshiping and taking his requests to the Lord early in the day. The implication is that this was his regular practice. The word “watch” tells us he didn’t rush through it either. He lingered.

In fact, this makes sense. The psalm begins with a groan. David was a man of war for most of his reign. It wouldn’t surprise me to find he fought more battles than all the other kings of Judah combined. 1 Chronicles 18 provides a partial list: the Philistines (of course), Moab, Zobah-Hamath, Syria, Edom, Ammon and Amalek. That’s a lot of enemies. Conflict characterized David’s life from the moment he killed Goliath, and only worsened when Saul began his campaign to rid the earth of David. When he became king, in addition to his enemies abroad, David also had to put down the occasional rebellion at home. Even when he didn’t, there was always simmering tension over his kingship, especially in the tribe of Benjamin.

In short, he was a man under a lot of stress, and he handled it by prioritizing prayer and worship. You and I are wise to do the same. We too have enemies, and the worst of these are invisible.

My King and My God

The expression “My King and my God” is unique to the Psalms. We find it again only in Psalm 84, credited to the Sons of Korah. David was a king, but David also acknowledged the King of kings.

Broadly speaking, in biblical usage our God is King primarily in relation to Israel and Lord in relation to his Church. That’s not to say it’s inappropriate for Christians to address our God as King. In addition to the King of Israel, the NT writers also call him King of the ages, King of the nations and King of kings. They also make much of his kingdom, of which the Church is the most visible expression in our present age.

That said, the writers of the NT and his own followers refer to Jesus as Lord far more often than they refer to him as King. The title “King” appears in the NT thirty-six times in relation to Jesus or God. Many of these are repeats in the synoptic gospels, and most of the rest are distinctly and deliberately Jewish (“King of the Jews”). “Lord”, on the other hand, appears almost 600 times, the vast majority in relation to Christ and his relationship to his Church.

Psalm 5:4-6 — Six Statements About God

“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.”

I mentioned David’s priorities. Right after the opening verses, the king goes straight into worship mode. This is not going to be one of those “me me me” prayers we tend to find ourselves engaging in a bit too often. David is going to speak about his enemies, but first he talks to the Lord about God’s own person and works. Where evil is concerned, God has no part in it and no relation to it except as judge of it.

David makes six distinct assertions about the Lord’s character and actions:

• He takes no pleasure in wickedness;
• Evil is not found in his presence;
• He cannot tolerate pride;
• He detests every evildoer;
• He destroys liars; and
• He abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful people.

This is all relevant to what he will say later about evildoers, but it has the virtue of focusing first on God himself.

We often hear that God hates the sin and loves the sinner. That is not accurate. Here, David uses the verbs “hate” and “abhor” about God’s attitude toward people of evil character. Jesus taught that the evils men do all proceed from inside them, from their thought lives and attitudes. Sin is not simply a matter of things we do; it’s right there in our nature, deep in our hearts. Those who embrace their evil impulses and let wickedness run riot in their lives richly deserve God’s hatred, and he expresses it toward them in various ways.

Psalm 5:7-8 — The House of Love

“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.”

In the Fear of You

Where evil men are an abomination in the presence of God, David had no concern or reserve about entering God’s house. He lived in the fear of the Lord, meaning that he characteristically ordered his life according to the Law. Note that this was not some kind of legalistic trade-off. Again, it was because David understood God’s character. His right to stand in the presence of God, he writes, comes “through the abundance of your steadfast love”. Only God makes human righteousness possible in the first place, and only a righteousness based on faith pleases him, as Hebrews 11 reminds us. It is not David’s righteousness but “your righteousness”: God’s definition of what pleases him, not man’s opinion about what ought to make God happy.

This was Cain’s error. He used his own judgment about what God (in his not-so-humble estimation) should be expected to like, and offered that. As we might have predicted, he fell well short of the mark.

Next Week

I’m going to have to break our study of Psalm 5 into two parts, because our next verse has a NT application that has confused some readers and deserves a little discussion. See you early next Saturday, LW.