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The Sermon for Evensong on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026
Psalm 5 is a prayer by the psalmist for deliverance from his enemies and from their wickedness.
The psalm begins with three imperatives: ponder, consider, hearken. All of these call upon God to hear the words of the psalmist’s prayer, to consider what he is thinking or pleading for in his thoughts, and to listen even to his murmured prayers. Acknowledging God as his King and his God shows the reader that he regards God as the supreme ruler of all things, and therefore the One to whom he should pray and call for deliverance from his enemies. The fact of God’s eternal kingship means for the psalmist that God alone is just and will hear his prayers. For that reason, he will pray to God early in the morning, and will take confidence in doing so (v.3).
In verses 4 to 6, God’s character of abhorring evil and wickedness is made plain. God takes no delight in wickedness, and no evil shall dwell with him. The Hebrew verb translated by “shall…dwell “ (Prayer Book Psalter) expresses the idea of a quick visit by someone passing by. This emphasizes the truth that God cannot even coexist with evil for a short time. God is incompatible with evil. Verse 5 proclaims the fact foolish people cannot stand in God’s presence. The word “foolish” does not merely mean unwise, but morally deficient, always choosing a bad course of action. The other half of the verse bears this out by adding, “For thou hatest all them that work iniquity.” Verse 6 specifies liars, the blood-thirsty (murderers), and the deceitful as those that the Lord will destroy. In polytheistic religions of the ancient near east, the gods were simply holy by being gods, even when their myths depicted them as behaving like sinful human beings. In ancient Israelite religion, as in Judaism and Christianity today, God is holy not simply because he is God, but because of his extreme goodness and inherent nature.
Verse 7 shows by contrast that the psalmist will enter God’s house in the abundance of God’s mercy, aware of his own sins and his deep need of God’s mercy. In the fear, or reverence, of God he will offer worship toward God’s temple. This is the attitude with which we should draw near to God, and this is why it is right for Christians to believe that they are saved, not by their own merits, but by God’s grace, in which they must trust.
In verse 8, the psalmist prays to the Lord to lead and guide him in His righteousness, on account of his enemies. If he were to behave as sinfully and recklessly as his enemies, how could God distinguish him from them? Therefore he prays that God would make his way clear and plain for him to perceive.
Verses 9 and 10 swing back to the characterization of the persistently sinful: their words show no faithfulness to God or what is good, their inner being is wicked, their throat like a tomb of the dead, and they speak to flatter people, having evil purposes in mind. The psalmist prays that God will destroy them even through the evil plans and purposes of their minds, and that he will cast them out. The reason for God to destroy them is that they have rebelled against God. If we don’t understand the psalmist’s plea in verse 11, we must realize that the idea of the possibility of a wicked man’s conversion and submission to God was almost unheard of, and the only solution in the psalmist’s mind was for God to destroy and cast out the wicked. We must also realize, that, apart from Christ’s saving grace and redemption, all human beings are sinful and wicked at heart, rebelling against God. That is why we need salvation!
The last two verses of the psalm emphasize the rejoicing of all who put their trust in God and the fact that they will always give thanks since God protects them as they love his Name. God gives his blessing to the righteous person and defends him with his favor like a shield.
From this psalm we learn that God protects the righteous because they trust in him and delight in his will, whereas the wicked deserve God’s destruction. This does not mean that we do not need to pray for people to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him. The psalm simply shows that as far as the sinful and the righteous are concerned, God protects and favors the righteous, who with trust approach Him, conscious of His abundant mercy.