Psalms 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This psalm is a morning prayer for help. The speaker asks God to listen, states that God takes no pleasure in wickedness and rejects liars and violent people, and asks to be led safely because of enemies whose words cannot be trusted. He asks God to hold those enemies guilty and to let everyone who takes refuge in God be glad, and he ends by saying God blesses and shields the righteous.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • The speaker asks the LORD to give ear to his words.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to consider his utterance, which may be a murmuring, a groaning, or a meditation.
2. 5:2
   • The speaker asks God to listen to the sound of his cry for help.
   • The speaker addresses God as his King.
   • The speaker addresses God as his God.
   • The speaker gives as his reason that he prays to God.
3. 5:3
   • The LORD hears the speaker's voice in the morning.
   • In the morning the speaker sets something in order before God; what he sets in order is not stated, though it is taken as his prayer.
   • The speaker watches and waits expectantly.
4. 5:4
   • God is not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness.
   • Evil does not dwell with God.
5. 5:5
   • The arrogant and boastful cannot stand before God's eyes.
   • God hates all workers of iniquity.
6. 5:6
   • God destroys those who speak falsehood.
   • The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
7. 5:7
   • The speaker says that he, unlike them, will come into God's house.
   • He comes by the abundance of God's steadfast love.
   • He will bow down toward God's holy temple.
   • He bows down in reverent fear of God.
8. 5:8
   • The speaker asks the LORD to lead him in God's righteousness.
   • The reason given is his enemies who watch him.
   • The speaker asks God to make God's way straight before his face.
9. 5:9
   • There is nothing reliable in their mouth.
   • Their inward part is destruction.
   • Their throat is an open grave.
   • They make their tongue smooth in flattery.
10. 5:10
    • The speaker asks God to hold them guilty and condemn them.
    • The speaker asks that they fall by their own counsels.
    • The speaker asks God to thrust them out for the multitude of their transgressions.
    • The reason given is that they have rebelled against God.
11. 5:11
    • The speaker asks that all who take refuge in God rejoice.
    • The speaker asks that they shout for joy forever.
    • God spreads shelter over them.
    • The speaker asks that those who love God's name exult in him.
12. 5:12
    • The LORD blesses the righteous.
    • God surrounds the righteous one with favor as with a large shield.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

"LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH). Jewish practice was to say "my Lord" rather than pronounce it, and English translations from the KJV onward follow that custom by substituting LORD. The KJV's "meditation" is a rare Hebrew word meaning a low murmur or sigh, the sound made under the breath when troubled, not silent reflection.

5:2

"My King" was ordinary political language. A king was the person who heard petitions and settled disputes, and this psalm keeps that setting throughout: a plea formally laid out (v. 3), and a verdict asked for against the other side (v. 10).

5:3

"Direct my prayer" translates a Hebrew verb for setting things out in order, laying wood or an offering on an altar, or setting out a case in court. Morning was both the time of the daily sacrifice and the customary time for legal hearings, so the verse pictures a petition formally presented at daybreak. "Look up" is literally "keep watch," like a lookout waiting for an answer to come back.

5:4

"Dwell with thee" uses the language of hospitality. In a culture where a guest under your roof was under your protection, saying evil cannot lodge with God means it is not welcome in his house and gets no shelter there.

5:5

The KJV's "foolish" does not mean unintelligent. The Hebrew word describes the boastful and arrogant, people full of their own swagger. "Stand in thy sight" is courtroom language: being able to hold your ground in front of the judge rather than being thrown out.

5:6

"Leasing" is obsolete English for lying or falsehood; it has nothing to do with renting. "The bloody and deceitful man" is literally "a man of bloodshed and deceit", one who kills and one who cheats, either as two kinds of person or as one person who does both.

5:7

"Mercy" here translates hesed, the loyal, committed kindness owed within a relationship or promise, closer to steadfast devotion than to pity. "Temple" translates a word meaning a great house or palace, used both of a king's palace and of God's sanctuary. Bowing *toward* the sanctuary, rather than inside its inner rooms, was the normal posture for worshipers standing in the courtyards or praying at a distance from it.

5:8

"Mine enemies" is literally "those who watch me" or "lie in wait for me", people keeping the speaker under observation, looking for a slip. "Make thy way straight" uses road language: a level, unobstructed track, the opposite of a path that twists or is blocked.

5:9

"Their inward part is very wickedness" is literally "their insides are a yawning ruin", a pit or chasm where a person's interior should be. "An open sepulchre" is an open grave: a tomb standing uncovered, ready to swallow whoever comes near and stinking of what is already in it. "Flatter with their tongue" is literally "they make their tongue smooth."

5:10

The KJV's "destroy thou them" translates a Hebrew verb meaning "declare them guilty" or "hold them liable", a verdict, with the consequences following from it, rather than a request for immediate slaughter. "Let them fall by their own counsels" is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew: either their own schemes are what bring them down, or they fall away because of those schemes.

5:11

"Thou defendest them" is literally "you spread a covering over them," the image of a shelter stretched overhead. "Thy name" is a standard Hebrew way of speaking of a person as they are known and can be called upon; loving God's name means attachment to him as he has made himself known, not affection for a word.

5:12

The shield here is the large, body-length shield carried by front-rank soldiers, tall enough to crouch behind completely, not the small round shield strapped to the forearm. That is why the verse says "compass" or "surround": the covering goes all the way around.