Psalms for Lent 2013. (6) Psalm 5. Safe under the cover of God's favour!
The
Lord listens to the prayers of his people and grants them their petitions and
addresses their needs according to his wise counsel.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my
sighing. 2 Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you
I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I
plead my case to you, and watch.
We need to know that the
Lord listens to our prayers. How many people did you hear saying – my prayers
do for not go further than the ceiling? This may be the origin of the tradition
to pray that God “will have mercy upon us
and listen to our prayers”. Although we know that the Lord hears all our
prayers, for the sake of our human nature and weakness, we may beg the Lord not
to ignore our sighs and our pleas, if it
helps us to believe that he delights in our petitions and that our
dependence on him brings glory to him as our supreme, yes, our only provider.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will not sojourn with you. 5 The boastful will not stand before
your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful.
It
would be much harder to believe in God’s empathy with my predicament if it is
the result of me being an evil and boastful liar who causes the detrimental
fall of others through deceitful conniving. This sometimes is the reason why it
feels as if our prayers do not reach the Lord. Because we know our evilness, we
find it hard to believe that God would give attention to our prayers.
If
this is where you are today, yet you are also sighing, sadly wishing for God’s
interventions in your plight, your prayers should start with repentance, with a
plea for forgiveness and hope that in Christ you will be restored to God’s
presence and companionship.
Only
then can we again come to him with our daily needs and plead for his help with
our challenges.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house, I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. 8
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way
straight before me.
So let’s enter into the
house of the Lord to worship God, to listen to the announcement of his grace
and the forgiveness of our sins and learn from the wisdom of God’s Word, that
we too may dwell with the Lord, may walk with him and follow his wisdom as we
receive his salvation and experience him rescuing us again.
9 For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts
are destruction; their throats are open graves; they flatter with their
tongues. 10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their
own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have
rebelled against you.
As we pray that evil will
come to a fall and the dominion of evil must be destroyed and the rebellion of
God’s enemies will be judged, let’s be sure that we are not one of them, but a
child of God who is safely in his hand.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them
ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love
your name may exult in you. 12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you
cover them with favour as with a shield.
May the blessing of God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be and remain with us today, and always.
May his favour cover us as
with a shield!
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