4 For not a God desiring wickedness `art' Thou, Evil inhabiteth Thee not.
`And I have known, my God, that Thou art trying the heart, and uprightness dost desire; I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these: and now, Thy people who are found here I have seen with joy to offer willingly to Thee.
Jehovah the righteous doth try. And the wicked and the lover of violence, Hath His soul hated,
To declare that upright `is' Jehovah my rock, And there is no perverseness in Him!
Is a throne of mischief joined `with' Thee? A framer of perverseness by statute?
Only -- the righteous give thanks to Thy name, The upright do dwell with Thy presence!
Purer of eyes than to behold evil, To look on perverseness Thou art not able, Why dost Thou behold the treacherous? Thou keepest silent when the wicked Doth swallow the more righteous than he,
Jesus answered and said to him, `If any one may love me, my word he will keep, and my Father will love him, and unto him we will come, and abode with him we will make;
peace pursue with all, and the separation, apart from which no one shall see the Lord,
and the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they may shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp of it `is' the Lamb;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 5
Commentary on Psalms 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 5
The psalm is a prayer, a solemn address to God, at a time when the psalmist was brought into distress by the malice of his enemies. Many such times passed over David, nay, there was scarcely any time of his life to which this psalm may not be accommodated, for in this he was a type of Christ, that he was continually beset with enemies, and his powerful and prevalent appeals to God, when he was so beset, pointed at Christ's dependence on his Father and triumphs over the powers of darkness in the midst of his sufferings. In this psalm,
And this is all of great use to direct us in prayer.
To the chief musician upon Nehiloth. A psalm of David.
Psa 5:1-6
The title of this psalm has nothing in it peculiar but that it is said to be upon Nehiloth, a word nowhere else used. It is conjectured (and it is but a conjecture) that is signifies wind-instruments, with which this psalm was sung, as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed-instruments. In these verses David had an eye to God,
In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must engage and stir up ourselves to the duty of prayer, and encourage ourselves in it, because we shall not seek the Lord in vain; and must express our detestation of sin, and our awful expectation of that day of Christ's appearing which will be the day of the perdition of ungodly men.
Psa 5:7-12
In these verses David gives three characters-of himself, of his enemies, and of all the people of God, and subjoins a prayer to each of them.
In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must by faith put ourselves under God's guidance and care, and then please ourselves with his mercy and grace and with the prospect of God's triumphs at last over all his enemies and his people's triumphs in him and in his salvation.