Psalm 5    

“Give ear.” This follows the introductory line, “a Psalm of David.” Although the Hebrew preposition “לְ” can mean “by David” (i.e., authored by David), it is grammatically ambiguous and could equally mean “for David” (i.e., dedicated to David) or even “about David” (a psalm about his life and example). Although ancient tradition assigns this psalm to David, since it talks about entering the Jerusalem Temple (Psalm 5:7) which was not built until after David’s death, it is unlikely that the title serves to denote Davidic authorship. It is more likely that someone after David’s death composed it dedicated to David and his noteworthy prayer life. Many commentators doubt David was the author.^a

“I will make preparations for you.” The Hebrew verb about making preparations was used about making preparations for sacrifices, but it was also used for making verbal preparations; in this case, it would be preparing words to speak to God. In any case, the fact that Psalm 5:1-2 are about praying and crying out to God, and this verse, Psalm 5:3, begins with “you will hear my voice” and ends with “and will carefully watch” indicates that the psalmist is speaking of making preparations to petition God in what he says, whether or not his petition was accompanied by a sacrifice. The psalmist would prepare his petition to God and then would carefully watch for an answer.

There are some wonderful lessons in what the psalmist does here. For one thing, he starts preparing to approach God “in the morning.” He understands that it is important to magnify God, recognize Him for who He is, and ask for His help as the day starts. The psalmist does not ignore God, forget Him, or “put Him on a back burner” until later in the day “when I have time for Him.” Also, the fact that the psalmist prepared to approach God shows that his prayer or petition was deliberate and well thought through. He knew what he was asking God for, and why. This was not a “memorized prayer” that he had said hundreds of times before and could say in his sleep. The Psalmist had some specific requests and genuinely wanted and expected God’s help.

We also see that the psalmist trusts that God would hear and answer his prayer, because after praying, the psalmist “will carefully watch” to see what God’s answer is and what God does. Too many people pray to God but do not expect an answer and do not even watch to see if and how God answers their prayer. This psalmist prayed to God first thing, prayed a deliberate and well-thought-through prayer, and then watched for God’s answer. That is a wonderful example of how to pray.

“bloodguilt.” That is, the one who had killed innocent blood, the murderer.

“bow down.” The word translated “bow down,” shachah (#07812 שָׁחָה), is the same Hebrew word as “worship.”

[For more on bowing down, see commentary on 1 Chron. 29:20.]

“nothing trustworthy in their mouth.” Evil people are very good liars and deceivers for a number of reasons, and so it is important when determining what kind of person someone is to look at the fruit of their lives. Jesus taught us this, and said we will know people by their fruit (Matt. 7:16-20). Sadly, many people are good liars and smooth talkers and they convince naïve people of their evil ideas in spite of the evil fruit their lives bear.

The Hebrew Masoretic text reads “his mouth,” but that could be a corruption because the Septuagint reads the plural and there is some Hebrew manuscript evidence for the plural; and furthermore, the plural reading makes sense.

“Let them fall by their own plans.” It is a consistent theme through Scripture that evil people bring evil upon themselves (see commentary on Prov. 1:18).