An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Psalm 5:1-12, with the title, “God’s Righteousness,” for Sunday, August 24, 2025. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

Former Navy Seal and University of Texas Chancellor Admiral William McRaven wrote a great little book called Make Your Bed. Its first chapter tells how as a Navy Seal, the first thing he did when he rolled out of bed in the morning, was to immediately make his bed. He said his drill instructor always made sure he could bounce a quarter off of his bed. He wrote: “It was my first task of the day, and doing it right was important. It demonstrated my discipline. It showed my attention to detail, and at the end of the day it would be a reminder that I had done something well …”. (pp. 3-6)

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What’s your “first task of the day” — something you like to do first thing every morning?”

(Some might say: make coffee, or exercise, or read the newspaper or watch the weather, and so on.)

We see in Psalm 5 for today what David’s early morning priority was: to spend time in prayer with God!

CONTEXT:

We continue our study in the Book of Psalms this quarter with Psalm 5. The context of Psalms 4 and 5 together is interesting:

— Psalm 4 ends “in peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.” (A great verse to memorize and quote when you are going to bed!)

— Then in Psalm 5 David emphasizes the morning: “In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice.” 

So just like in Genesis 1 the Bible says “And the evening and the morning were the first day” and so on, so here in Psalms 4 and 5 we find “evening and morning” prayers: Psalm 4 for an evening prayer, and Psalm 5 for the morning.  

The historical note (part of the Hebrew text, remember) says:

“For the choir director; for flute accompaniment. A Psalm of David.” So like all the Psalms, this is meant to be sung, led by “the choir director” — only this time it specifically indicates it is to have “flute accompaniment.” And it says it was indeed written by David, like about half of the Psalms. Here in Psalm 5 we see David’s morning commitment, like Admiral McRaven had his. And David’s commitment, as “a man after God’s own heart,” was to spend time with the Lord first thing in the morning — a great example for us as well. Because this commitment is such a vital element of the Christian walk, I am going to spend a little more time on this first part of Psalm 5 — though we will cover the rest of the Psalm as well.

OUTLINE:

I.  The Commitment to Morning Prayer (:1-3)

II. The Holy God We Approach in Prayer (:4-6)

III. The Way to Approach God in Prayer (:7-8)

IV. Praying For God’s Deliverance and Protection (:9-12)

TEXT:  Psalm 5:1-12

I. The Commitment to Morning Prayer (:1-3)

: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.” 

The first thing I might note about this section, is that in Hebrew David’s words: “my words” are actually the first words in the Psalm; “MY WORDS listen to O YHWH.” When a word is first in the Hebrew text like that it makes them EMPHATIC. So he’s really emphasizing that he wants God to listen to HIS WORDS. That ought to be such an incredible thing to us: that the incomparable God of the Universe might listen to OUR words!  But the amazing thing, He does — and that’s why we pray; He hears our words!

Then I would note his THREE-FOLD CRY for God to hear his prayer:

— “give ear to my words O LORD” as we just saw, then:

— “consider my groaning” (the word “groaning” here in Hebrew means “sighing, murmuring, whispering, faint utterance.” Perhaps like the “groanings too deep for words” that Romans 8 talks about … an inward sound towards God.

— “heed the sound of my cry for help …” This is more desperate yet.  A cry is the response of a baby to its need; you CRY for help when you are desperate.

Thus it appears that each of these is more intense than the one previous: first it’s: “my words”; then “my inner groaning”; then “my CRY!!”  So as we’ve talked about before, the three-fold repetition really emphasizes prayer, and then we see the intensity increase as he progresses from “words” to “groaning,” to “CRY”!

Those of you who are/have been parents, know that this is similar to when when your baby wakes up in the other room, and at first they may just wake up, and perhaps they say the words, “Mama … mama” — but then when you don’t come for a while, they may make a little groan or utterance: But if you still don’t come, it gets to a full SCREAM for help! “MAMA!! WAAAH!!” 

That’s something like the progression we see here: He’s saying, God, listen to my words … to my groan … to my SCREAM FOR HELP!  He’s getting more desperate as he goes along.  We’ve all probably been at each of those levels of prayer at one time or another!  

THEN notice in :2 “Heed the sound of my cry for help, MY KING AND MY GOD.”  Here he praises God for Who He is: “King” and “God.”  In :1 he had called Him ”YHWH” — as we’ve seen, this is the personal name of God. So David knew Who he was addressing his prayers to. In fact, this whole first section is filled with 1st-Person references:  “MY words … MY groaning … MY cry … MY King … MY God; to You I pray …”.  

So as we saw in Psalm 23 (and many of the Psalms) this is all about his personal relationship with God. He KNEW this YHWH God, with whom he had a personal relationship, and he had confidence that He would indeed hear his prayer. And of course, we can have even MORE confidence that God will hear our prayers today, as we pray in the name of Jesus, if we have that personal relationship with Him as our Lord & Savior.  But David models the way for us in prayer, of how to address God, and ask Him to hear our prayer.  

Then Verse 3 is one of my favorite verses: “In the morning O YHWH, You will hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”   Note several things here:

1)  David’s commitment to pray in the MORNING.  He says it twice: “in the morning … in the morning”.  Whenever the Hebrews repeat something, they are emphasizing it. So he’s really emphasizing the importance of God hearing his prayer “in the morning.”  Now, the morning is not the ONLY time to pray; we should be praying all day long. I just read in Matthew 14 where after He fed the 5000, Jesus went off to the mountain alone to pray, and it says; “And it was evening.” So we can pray in the evening; we can pray all day long; but David indicates here that it’s important to pray in the morning, that “in the morning He would hear (our) voice” in prayer. 

2) The English words, “order my prayer” comes from a Hebrew word which means to lay out the morning sacrifice. The very first duty of the Jewish priests in the morning at the Temple was to lay out the morning sacrifice in an orderly fashion, and get the sacrifice to the Lord started.  

In the same way, today you & I are “priests” in Jesus Christ. We are “a royal priesthood” like I Peter says; all Christians are priests of the Lord; we can each come to Him. We don’t have to go to the Temple; and we don’t have to bring a sacrifice — our sacrifice was already made in full by Jesus Christ!  So our duty now is to bring our “sacrifice of praise” and prayer to Him instead of the animal sacrifice, and we should do it first thing in the morning just as they did. Just like the morning sacrifice was the “first order of business of the day” for the Jewish priests, so our morning prayer should be our “first order of the day” today.  

One of the most important disciplines of the Christian life, is to kick off your day with God in prayer and His word. The way we begin our day is vital — it effects our whole day. I have had multiple people over the years tell me that it makes such a difference in their life when they start it in God’s word and prayer. 

David knew that, and he was committed to do that. He said:  “In the morning, O LORD, YOU WILL HEAR MY VOICE.” To me, you can just “feel” his commitment to morning prayer just “dripping” through this verse: “IN THE MORNING, O LORD, YOU WILL HEAR MY VOICE.” David was committed to that morning time with God. I think this would be a good verse for many of us to memorize, to encourage us to keep our morning time with God.  

If you don’t use the Admiral McRaven story to open the lesson, you might consider using it in this point, and ask your group what kinds of things they are committed to do every morning — then encourage them to make spending time with God their priority.  You can also use this true story:

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was pastoring in Tulsa, we had a church member who just loved the newspaper. She told me that she read the newspaper first thing every morning. She loved reading the paper so much, that when she would get back from vacation, she would stack the papers, and read them all in order. She just loved reading the paper first thing in the morning. But after a message on having our morning time with God, she made a commitment to the Lord: “No Bible, no newspaper.” She would not read the paper, until she had first had time with God in His word and prayer. That was a real sacrifice, and a huge commitment for her.

Some of us and some of our class members need to make that same kind of commitment this Sunday. David was so committed to his morning time with God, that he said: “In the morning O LORD, YOU WILL hear my voice”! Let’s have that same commitment. Let’s lead our group members to have that same commitment. 

And notice just one more thing here: after he talks about his commitment to morning prayer he adds, “and I will watch.” What a great word! He doesn’t “just pray;” he prays, and then he says, “I’m going to watch and see what God is going to do.” That is faith — expecting to see God do something later in the day, in response to your morning prayer. 

II. The Holy God We Approach in Prayer (:4-6)

Numerous times we’ve talked about how the Hebrews emphasize things through repetition — so what does that tell us about verses 4-6 when they repeatedly emphasize how God is holy and will not countenance sin? Look how many times these verses say that, in slightly different ways:

— :4a He is “not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness.”

— :4b “NO evil dwells with You”

— :5a “the boastful shall not stand before Your eyes”

— :5b “You hate all who do iniquity”

— :6a “You destroy those who speak falsehood”

— :6b “the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit”

SIX TIMES in these three verses, Psalm 5 tells us of God’s abhorrence of sin. 

And notice not just the “fact” of it, but the EXTREME TERMS in which it is put. Look at these words:

— :4b “NO evil” dwells with Him. Not even a little. NO evil!

— :5b “You HATE all who do iniquity” that’s a strong word!

— :6a “You DESTROY those who speak falsehood” — not just “slap on the wrist” — destroy!

— :6b “the LORD ABHORS the man of bloodshed & deceit.” This Hebrew word (“ta-ab”) means “detestable, abhorrent, abominable”!

These are extremely strong terms: God “hates,” “abhors,” “destroys,” NO evil dwells with Him. In Psalm 5 God makes His holiness and His extreme dislike for sin, very clearly known. 

So we are reminded in Psalm 5 that God is a holy God.  We can’t even think about approaching Him with sinful habits and attitudes.  If you think that you can just “stroll” into God’s presence, and talk with Him, and do nothing about your sin, you do not understand God at all! He is a “holy, holy, holy” God as Isaiah 6 tells us. Again, the 3-fold repetition means ultimately holy. If you think you can approach Him and talk to Him while contaminated with sin, you have another thing coming. You may say words into the air, but God’s not listening to them.  “No evil dwells with Him.”  

As Psalm 66:18 says “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” God is not going to hear our prayers, prayed from sinful hearts. He cannot and will not do it. We have to deal with the sin that “clouds” our relationship with God, in order to approach and speak with Him. This was the whole point all the sacrifices that had to be made for Aaron and the priests to approach the holy of holies. God was teaching us that as sinful people, we cannot just stroll into His presence. Our sin separates us from Him, and we must deal with our sin first, in order to have a relationship with God. God does not tolerate or countenance sin.

ILLUSTRATION

Coke Stevenson was a legendary legislator and governor in Texas in the 1930 & 40’s, greatly beloved and called by many “Mr. Texas.” In Robert Caro’s Years of Lyndon Johnson he writes:

“… there was a reserve, a dignity, about this tall, broad-shouldered silent man with that watchful stare that set him apart from the crowd. And of course he was set apart from many legislators by something else, too. “You just instinctively knew that Coke Stevenson was not someone you could approach with any kind of an offer all,” one lobbyist recalls today. l mean, did you ever see him? If You ever had—-if you ever saw that stone stare when he got angry — you would know what I mean. No one would have dared to offer Coke Stevenson a dime.’” (Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Means of Ascent, p. 159)

No one would dare approach Coke Stevenson with a bribe — and infinitely more so, no one can approach a holy God with sinful hands and heart. 

So how can we approach Him at all? We are all sinful people. This is what we see in the next point, in :7-8:

III. The Way to Approach God in Prayer (:7-8)

: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.”

Since God is such a holy God, as we just saw, and we sinful people are NOT inherently holy, how can we draw near to Him? Is it a lost cause? Not at all. Verses 7 & 8 tell us how we can approach God in prayer:

— :7 “by YOUR abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house”

— :8 “lead me in YOUR righteousness”

How can we approach God? Not by OUR own goodness and righteousness, but by HIS. It is by HIS lovingkindness (this is the Hebrew word “chesed,” the rich, almost untranslatable word that means God’s undeserved love, mercy — Martin Luther said it was the best Old Testament word for New Testament “grace.” So it is not by our own merits, but by God’s GRACE that we can draw near to Him in prayer.  

And as :8 says, it is in HIS righteousness that we come. As New Testament Christians we know that we now come to God not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

When we are saved, a “great exchange” takes place. II Corinthians 5:21 says “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We sinful, sin-stained people, now have the righteousness of Christ! So when we come to God, we are not coming to Him, asking our prayers based on how good WE are. We are coming to Him, asking Him to hear our prayers because of how good JESUS is! This may be a revolutionary idea to some of our folks. It’s not how good we are — it’s how good JESUS is!

This is actually what it means to pray “in Jesus’ name.” We are not coming to God in prayer in our own name — by our own deeds or holiness — we are coming in JESUS’ name: by HIS deeds, and HIS holiness! It is coming in JESUS’ name that is the power of our prayers. “In Jesus’ name” isn’t just a “traditional Christian closing” to our prayers. It’s the only way we can come to God, and know that He will hear and answer our prayer: by HIS lovingkindness (or grace) and righteousness.

But we shouldn’t take that grace for granted. We need to remember that we are sinners, and are only coming to Him by grace. That is why God gives us models of prayer like Psalm 5 here, in which He lists sins that we should be confronted with in our lives. That is why Jesus included the line in the Model Prayer: “Forgive us our debts.” Because we need to be confronted with our sins each day; and we need to “preach the gospel to ourselves every day” — we need to admit our sins, and ask forgiveness for them, and realize that we are forgiven ONLY by the CHESED, the GRACE of God in Jesus Christ, and that is the ONLY way that we can come before Him in prayer. It keeps us humble; it keeps us anchored to His grace, to every day be confronted with our sins, and claim again the grace of God in Jesus that saves us.  Psalm 5 reminds us of that here.  

He also adds at the end of :8, “Make Your way straight before me.” It’s important that we seek God’s leadership every day in prayer. This is why Jesus taught us to pray every day “Thy will be done.” Lead me in Your way. 

Again, it’s no coincidence that he prays this in a MORNING prayer. This is a GREAT prayer to pray in the morning: Lord, lead me in Your way today. We need to ask God every morning to direct us to do His will during the day ahead of us. 

— Martin Luther said he was a lot more productive with an hour of prayer and 5 hours of work, than 6 hours of work with no prayer.  

— Our son Paul once shared the testimony that when he first started having his quiet time in the morning, it was remarkable to him how much better his day went at work, and how much more he got done, when he started the day in prayer.  

— I make it a part of my prayer every morning now, to pray through my schedule/activities of the day ahead, and ask God to lead and bless in everything I have to do that day. 

Don’t face your day without God’s help! Like David here, ask God to lead you in HIS way every day. Again, it’s an important thing for us to do every morning, as David shows us in this morning prayer.

IV. Praying for God’s Deliverance and Protection (:9-12)

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.”

David then ends Psalm 5 by praying for His deliverance from the wicked, and for His spiritual protection on the righteous.

A. First he asks for God’s deliverance from the wicked (:9-10)

First, David describes the wicked in :9. They are described as:

“There is nothing reliable in what they say;” “their inward part is destruction;” “their throat is an open grave,” and “they flatter with their tongue.” (It of note that the giveaway characteristics of the wicked almost all deal with the tongue/words!)

Then he asks God to deal with them. And again we see a three-fold emphasis here:

— “hold them guilty”

— “by their own devices let them fall”

— “in the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out”

So he asks God to deal with the wicked who are oppressing him.

B. Then he asks for God’s protection for himself and all the righteous (:11-12). Verse 11 begins with the word “BUT” — as opposed to His judgment on the wicked, here in :11-12 he asks God for protection from the wicked. NOTICE how several times in these two verses he mentions God’s protection:

— :11 “But let all who TAKE REFUGE in You be glad”

— :11b “and may you SHELTER them”

— :12 “For it is You who BLESSES the righteous man, O YHWH.”

— :12b “You surround him with favor as with a SHIELD.”  

So he’s repeatedly praying for God’s protection here. And for good reason. He knew that he had enemies who’d be actively working against him that day. So he began the day asking for God’s spiritual protection: “Be my refuge … be my shelter … bless me … surround me like a shield.”  This is very similar to how Jesus teaches us to end the Model Prayer. Its very last request is: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” — asking for God’s protection. We don’t want to read too much of the NT back on the Old, but it is instructive that as we read through the Psalms we see that many of them exhibit elements of the Model Prayer — praise, praying for God’s will, our provision, confession, and here His spiritual protection. We  shouldn’t be surprised at that, as the same Lord inspired them. And what He gave us here in this “Morning Prayer,” as in the Model Prayer, is a request for spiritual protection.  

And what a perfect thing to ask for at the beginning of the day!  We should ask for God’s spiritual protection, for ourselves and those we love, before we head out into the day.  Life can be rough — not to mention that we have both human enemies — and a very real spiritual enemy — who is actively waging war against us.  When we, and our kids, and our grandkids go out into the world every day, we need to be praying God’s spiritual protection for ourselves and for those we love.  That’s why God commanded us in Ephesians 6, “Put on the whole armor”!  Stand firm against the real enemy you will face today. There is a war going on, and if you haven’t prayed for spiritual protection, you can get hurt!  

I remember one time watching a guy ride off on a motorcycle, and he didn’t have a helmet on. I remember just cringing and thinking: “I wish he’d put a helmet on; he could really get hurt going out with no protection for his head!” I wonder if the angels of heaven don’t feel very much the same way, when they see you and me leave home in the morning, without putting on our “spiritual armor;” without praying God’s protection for ourselves and our loved ones. Do the angels just cringe, and say to each other: “I wish they had put their helmet on before they left their house; it’s going to be dangerous out there today!”?  We need to follow David’s example here in Psalm 5, and the example Jesus gives us in the Model Prayer in Matthew 6, and ask for God’s protection for ourselves and for those we love, in our morning prayers.  

DISCUSSION/APPLICATION:

Years ago there was an American Express credit card commercial that said: “Don’t leave home without it!”

You might consider closing today’s lesson by asking your group the question:

“What is something you do NOT want to leave home in the morning, without doing?”

(Class answers might include: getting dressed!; putting on makeup; curling/straightening my hair; ironing my clothes; doing my daily walk/exercise — and so on.)

Close the lesson by challenging your group: David shows us in Psalm 5 that the most important thing we shouldn’t leave home without, is our time in prayer with God: “Don’t leave home without it!”

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— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

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