Psalm 5
1. Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groaning.
2. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray.
3. In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order {my} {prayer} to You and {eagerly} watch.
4. For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.
5. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.
6. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
7. But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.
8. O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.
9. There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction {itself.} Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue.
10. Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.
11. But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.
12. For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.
Psalms, psalms, and more psalms. Is there nothing else? When is he ever going to talk about something else? Well, yes, there are many psalms and as you say there are many other Bible quotations that could be spoken of, but we will continue in the Psalms for a while yet because they are so helpful.
It has been said that the psalms are very personal, and they are the very personal cry and song of the writer be it David or Asaph or Moses. Have you ever read them thinking that this is exactly what I feel and experience at different times? For David or Moses is not the only one whom God has made or saved or used or spoken to. These words are my cry, they are your cry and prayer also. They were even the words of Jesus who knew every one of them by heart.
So yes, we will not be able to cover all of the psalms, however they are all in every Bible to be read by you, so we will not need to comment on all of them. But we will pick the ones that seem to fit the thought we want to present today.
In verse 10 we read the words guilty and rebellious against God while verse 11 speaks of God sheltering those who love Him. Is this a disconnect, does it cause us to wonder what kind of a God this is? For it definitely shows a difference of what happens to the two, one getting the favour of God and the other His anger? And since this is so certain we wonder if we can ever earn the love of God. And if so how?
Yes, we can, for Jesus said that God so loved the world that He sent Jesus, and Jesus calls us to repent and believe. Repent from our rebellion and believe that He can erase our guilt so that we can be sheltered in His love. It is our choice to rebel or repent, we make the choice. And it does make the difference.
That is good news