If you are like me, and I believe that you are, somewhere during those four weeks you would reach the place where you would turn to that person and say, "No, I cannot help you, I have done everything I can do. I can do no more."
But, so we ask God for His help from morning till night.
Psalm 5 is considered to be a GOOD MORNING PSALM. David begins the day by asking for God's help. The background behind this psalm is that Absalom, David's own son, was the instigator in forming a rebellion against his father, and David had to flee for his life.
Absalom had been a blessed young man, but he blew every opportunity God gave him.
We are told in 2 Samuel 14:25, "But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him."
In this psalm, as David woke up to face another day, he asked the Lord for TWO things. He first asked the Lord for...
I. GOD'S ATTENTION
One of the greatest things that parents can do to help their children to be prepared for life is to teach them to pray.
Illus: Often when children face their difficulties their parents will ask, "Have you really thought about what you should do?" The question we should be asking is, "Have you prayed about what you should do?"
The reason many are making bad decisions today is not because they are not thinking about their decisions, but because they are not praying about their decisions.
David was a grown man with many problems, but someone had taught David how to pray his way out of, and through, trouble. Many of the problems he was facing were self-inflicted, nevertheless he knew how to PRAY his way out of them.
Notice TWO things about his prayer.
A. His boldness
Look at Psalm 5:1-3, "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."
David wanted God's undivided attention so he cried out, "Give ear to my words, O Lord..." David woke up and his whole world had caved in on him and he wanted God to listen to what he had to say!
Illus: Have you ever talked to people and the whole time you were talking to them, they were listening to you and to someone else at the same time. It is frustrating for us to talk to someone like that. Why? Because we feel what we have to say is important and they do not act like it is important enough to give it their full attention.
Illus: This is the frustration that most children feel. Their parents live in a fast-paced society. They are trying to make a living, and doing things that they like to do, and they do not take time to sit down and give the children the SPECIAL ATTENTION they NEED! The children grow up feeling they are not important. Then one day they get mixed up with the "wrong" crowd. Why? Because that crowd will take time to listen to them. Guess what direction the children's lives go then!
David was in serious trouble. He turned to his heavenly Father and said, "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation."
The Hebrew word that is translated here as "give ear," means "To broaden."
That is, David was asking God to cup His hand around His ear so that other voices were shut out and David's voice could be heard good.
David had lost his army, his power, prestige, and his throne and he wanted to make sure that he had God's attention because he knew that God could help him!
Illus: What David might not have considered was that all the children of God could get on their knees at one time and call on Him and He could hear each one of the prayers without any problem. How can God do that? He can do it by being everywhere and knowing all things and being all powerful all the time - BECAUSE HE IS GOD. He is not limited as we mortals are! If two people are talking to us we have to stop them and ask them to wait because we can only concentrate on one conversation at a time.
But, God is never overpowered by any kind of force, or pressure, that people can place on Him.
In verse 2 we read, "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray."
The first phrase, "Hearken unto the voice of my cry..." is really stronger than the first plea. "Hearken" can be translated, "To perk up the ear."
There are things that we humans hear and when those sounds reach our ears, everything else becomes secondary and we tune them out as on a busy street we might hear cars, people talking, birds chirping, etc., but if a child cries out in pain we immediately only hear that.
Illus: "Perk up the ear," is something we can vividly see in animals like cats and dogs. Perhaps you have seen a dog laying around, almost asleep, when all of a sudden he raises his head and his ears stand up because something has gotten his attention that you did not even hear.
That was what David wanted God to do, tune him in when no one else could hear him - "Hearken unto the voice of my cry..."
In his bold prayer, David gives two reasons why God should hear his prayer.
(1) Because God was his King - "...my King..." A king is supposed to hear the appeals of his own people. David had been a king and he knew what it was to have people to appeal to him to be heard.
But there is another reason David felt God should hear his cry.
(2) Because God was his GOD - "...my God..." God is not like mortal man. He is all powerful. David was saying that God was the ONLY ONE who could help him - God was HIS GOD! David was not going anywhere else for help! "...unto thee will I pray." (v. 2b)
Also look at verse 3 as we read, "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."
David knew something that a lot of Christians do not know, that is that the best time to pray is in the morning
Illus: Someone said, "An hour of prayer in the morning is worth two hours of prayer in the evening."
Well, David said, "...in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee..."
In the morning David "shot" his prayers up to God the same way an archer would shoot his arrows toward heaven.
Then David said, "...I... will look up." David was letting God know that after he sent his prayers up to Him then he would be looking heavenward for an answer to those prayers.
Look at David's motivation behind his praying this prayer in the morning. These verses show us HIS BOLDNESS. Now look at...
B. His burden
In verses 4-6 we read, "For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shalt not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
Ungodly men love to share their ungodliness with each other.
Illus: An ungodly man can have half a dozen children and a loving wife who all wait for him to come home, but he will go out and spend the family's money and break his marriage vows. He will tell his evil buddies what he is doing and not a one of them will rebuke him. Why? Because they are as evil as he is and they find pleasure in wickedness.
David said, "For thou are NOT A GOD THAT HATH PLEASURE IN WICKEDNESS..."
Absalom and his friends were wicked. They drove King David from his throne. David told God that he knew it was a wicked thing that they had done, and that he knew God knew it was a wicked thing they had done, and it was something that God could not bless!
The worst thing a wicked person can do is attack God's children.
Illus: There is not a parent here who would sit back knowing let someone abuse your children and not step in and do something about it.
If we humans love our children that much, you can rest assured that God, the Father, Who DOES NOT HAVE PLEASURE IN WICKEDNESS, is not going to sit back and allow wicked people to abuse His children.
Illus: A large family attended a church. Because there were so many of them they would often use the power of numbers to get things their way. They got mad and forty of them left and went to another church. Within a few years they were trying to do the same thing at that church, but the pastor stood up to them and would not back down. Meanwhile one of them had been voted in as the church treasurer. When she discovered things were not going to go their way she took all the tithe and offering checks her family had placed in the offering and tore them up as an act of retaliation. The rest of the church people left things in the hands of the Lord. Guess who got terribly sick and died a slow, painful death. Could it be that happened to her because of what she did to God's money?
Listen, the WICKED can do their wickedness and fool themselves into thinking they are getting away with it, but they are going to find out that there is a God Who TAKES NO PLEASURE IN WICKEDNESS and He will punish them.
Illus: Look at the violent death Absalom met with. 2 Sam. 18:9-14 says, "And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab....And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak."
When the wicked rise up against you, as God's child, place it in God's hands. He can do a better job of taking care of the wicked than you can.
Psalm 5:5-6 says, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
The wicked are digging their own graves and do not even realize it. David asks for GOD'S ATTENTION. He also asks for...
II. GOD'S ASSISTANCE
What made David think he would not fall under the same judgment of God as the crowd he had been talking about?
Look at the contrast between the GODLY and the GODLESS. David said, verse 7, "But as for me..." He told us already about the wicked, now "...as for me..."
Look at the contrast.
Verse 7 says, "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."
The temple of Jerusalem was not yet built. God dwelled the tabernacle, tent. David said that he would not be as the wicked, but he would go to His house the same way a child goes to his father's house. In other words he was telling God that he was not trying to live his life at a distance from Him, but David wanted to be as close to God as he could be.
Illus: David recognized it was a privilege, bestowed on him from God, to be able to go into His house. David knew he was not worthy to enter such a holy place so he went, "...in the multitude of thy mercy..."
In verse 8 we read, "Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face." David recognized that he did not know which way to go so He prayed that God would LEAD HIM.
Look at verse 9 where we read, "For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue."
Notice that David said what Paul said in the New Testament, "...their throat is an open sepulchre..."
David knew that was how Absalom stole the hearts of his friends and his army, with falsehoods and flattery.
Absalom's lies had hurt David deeply. We can see that in verse 10 as we read, "Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee."
God allows the wicked to build traps for the righteous and then traps them in the traps they built themselves.
Illus: How often have we seen wicked people try to destroy people's reputations and when it was all over with, the only reputation that was ruined was the reputation of the one who had been out to destroy others. One day the wicked will find themselves, in this life, and the life to come, in the hands of an angry God.
Conclusion:
In verses 11-12 we read, "But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield."
I. GOD'S ATTENTION
A. His boldness
B. His burden
II. GOD'S ASSISTANCE
