A God Who Detests Wickedness
(Psalm 5)
1. One man recalls, “Thinking no one could hear me as I loaded a UPS tractor trailer, I began to whistle. I was really getting into it when a coworker in the next trailer poked his head in. “You know, I always used to wish I could whistle,” he said. “Now I just wish you could.” —Megs Brunner, Reader’s Digest.
2. We all know what it is like to be irritated, or even to detest something. Who likes fingernails on a chalk board, for example?
3. And then there are people we cannot stand as well. Just seeing them might irritate us. It happens sometimes.
4. When upset at evil doers, you are not alone; God’s anger is also kindled against them.
Main Idea: When you are overwhelmed by wrongdoing, you can take your burden to God in prayer and argue your case before Him.
I. Invocation: Asking God to FOCUS Upon Our Requests (1-3)
A. David is burdened and REQUESTS God’s attention (1-2).
What specific situation has burdened him? We cannot be sure. The instance of Doeg the Edommite might be in view, or, if not, something like it.
I Samuel 22:11-19 Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.” And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” Then Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.” And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.
B. He brings his requests as the FIRST thing in the morning (3).
• Notice the parallelism: give ear = consider = give attention
C. The more we are burdened, the more FERVENT our prayers.
James 5:16b18, The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
II. Rehearsing the BASIS of Prayer: God’s Character (4-7)
A. God’s HOLINESS (4)
B. God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS (justice) (5-6)
One thing hard to understand is the idea that God loves us despite the fact that He hates us. He actually doesn’t love us but hate the sin; He hates the sin, He hates us, but He has determined to love us despite the fact that He hates us.
C. God’s Hesed (love) and GRACE (7)
III. The Lament and Request: HASTEN His Judgement Upon the Wicked (8-10).
A. Honestly facing the situations as it pertains to ME (8)
B. The situation as it pertains to THEM (9)
C. The request to JUDGE them because they are evil-doers (10)
• Some of you have been horribly wronged, perhaps as a child. You should find comfort in knowing God will judge those who wronged you, if they have not repented and come to Him for forgiveness.
Imprecatory portions within the psalms are portions that call down a curse on certain individuals. We believe the testaments are compatible, although some of the Old Testament is directly applicable only to the nation of Israel. Even those portions, however, provide principles and applications for New Covenant believers.
Revelation 6:9-11, “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Romans 12:19-21, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Psalm 2:7-9, “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
H.C. Leupold comments: “…these prayers that are prayers against the wickedness of the wicked may, indeed, be prayed with great profit, at lease by the true children of God. These are psalms that express what the Lord Jesus Himself taught us to pray: ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ which includes that ‘God break and hinder every evil counsel and will.’”
D. Ponder the difference between SUBJECTIVE complaints and OBJECTIVE ones.
• We all tend to be self-referenced and think anyone opposing us is wrong.
• God is just, but He is a judge Who sees all, even entangling our own deceptive hearts.
IV. Celebrating How God Graciously Cares for His OWN (11-12)
A. We REJOICE and sing (11a).
B. When we bow the knee to God, we can ask His PROTECTION (11b).
What does it mean to take refuge in the Lord?
When God appeared to Moses Ex. 33:22, He told him, “and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by…”
When Elijah was struck with depression and travelled to Mt. Sinai, God appeared to him apparently in that same cleft/cave (I Kings 19:9).
A cleft is a space formed by a split rock, like a small cave. That is the Biblical picture of us taking refuge in the Lord. We find security in His never-changing rock-like shelter.
C. God’s CUSTOM is to bless the righteous (12).
