FRAMING THE PSALMS: PSALM 5

Psalm 5  John Brown of Haddington

Here,

(1.) The man according to God's heart, in the assured faith of God's hearing his prayers, and hating his sins, fixes a daily, an early, an earnest, a steady, a grace-founded correspondence with God, in his ordinances of meditation, prayer, praise, etc., ver. 1-7.

(2.) Behold him humbly requesting God's special direction in duties which his enemies had rendered difficult to perform; supplicating and predicting the ruin of his implacable foes; and, in the assured faith of obtaining it, imploring comfort and prosperity to his fellow saints, ver. 8-12.

While I sing, let my heart and flesh cry out, and my soul pant and wait for the Lord. In the firm faith of infinite mercy to forgive all my crimes, and wash out all my sinful stains, let me blush at, and detest my own abominations. Let me cultivate the closest familiarity with the Lord my God. Let my prayers correspond with his promises, and with the particular condition of myself or others.

Psalm 5  John Cumming

David, in the midst of his grievous afflictions, lifts up his prayer to God, and predicts the overthrow of the wicked, and the establishment of the way of the just, from the fact, (verses 1, 2, 3,) that God is the hearer of prayer ; secondly, (verses 4, 5, 6,) that he hates all iniquity; thirdly, (verses 7, 8,) that through grace he himself would devote his best services to God ; and fourthly, (verses 9, 10,) that their sins cried for vengeance ; and lastly, from God's promises to bless and favour all who are in Christ Jesus, interested in his sacrifice, and clothed in his righteousness.

" Fools," in verse 5, means " carnal and wicked men." In verse 10, the future tense is preferable to the imperative.

Let us dread sin as the greatest evil, as most hateful to God, and most ruinous to ourselves, and sing this Psalm with fervent prayers that we may be washed in the blood of Jesus, and encompassed with the favour of God as with a shield.

Psalm 5 William Romaine

This is a prayer of the Lord Christ, in which he was heard and answered. He trusted in God at all times, and he was carried through his obedience and sufferings with continual success. So will our prayers through him find admittance within the veil, and bring down every needful blessing.

Let us ask in faith nothing wavering, and our prayer hearing God will grant us our hearts desire. May we sing with this sure trust in his faithfulness.