We’ve already done the first half of this psalm but I think it’s important for us to read through the whole thing again and get the flavor of the whole thing again.
O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (ESV)
This is a psalm of urgent prayer; a psalm reaching out for help; but also a psalm grasping at the holiness of God as a means of finding vindication and victory.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.
The last part of the first half of this psalm was spent considering the holiness of God, and the sanctity which the people gave the Temple. But how much do we know about the Temple? Try to place yourself back in the time when the House of God stood like skyscraper, rising above everything else in Jerusalem. It rose 150 feet into the air. The complex was so huge that it could’ve fit almost 6 football fields inside of it. And this is good, because during festival times there would’ve been millions of Jews in Jerusalem, with 300,000 to 400,000 on the Temple complex at the same time. This thing was huge. It was one of the most impressive things man has ever built. And that wasn’t even the most impressive part of it!
Deep in the heart of the Temple was the Kadesh HaKadashim. The Holy of Holies. This truly is the heart of the entire Temple. This was the entire reason the Temple was even built. While the Temple is considered the house of the Most High, this is where He actually dwells. The Temple was built so that God could have a place on the earth to put His feet up. The Temple is the actual dwelling place of God! So all of the beauty and splendor of the Temple complex (and it was beautiful) was like filthy rags (Is 64:6) compared the intense beauty of our God and our King.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.
When we think about how holy our God is, how could we not want to be led into His righteousness? It could be so tempting to just skirt by and glory in the grace which we are freely given. To be sure, there’s nothing we can do to earn the salvation which we have been given. We are a chosen people. He chose us. Out of all the people in the world, you were a chosen by the King of the Universe. Elected.
Sometimes we as Christians view this as a wholly Christian concept but, historically, the Israelites always viewed God and their election the same way. They had their salvation because God chose them among all peoples. Though it’s easy to think that they followed the Torah in order to attain salvation this concept wasn’t introduced until around the time of Martin Luther. The Israelites followed the Torah because they loved their God – even if they sometimes forgot this – and it was what He asked them to do. Obedience is the sincerest form of love. So when Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments, (John 14:15)” this wasn’t an unheard of concept. John echoes these sentiments when he writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3)”. For those who are married or in a functioning relationship, would it be showing love to know what your significant other likes and then to just do whatever you want without caring about their likes because you know that they already love you and that they’re already yours? The obvious answer is ‘no’. If you truly love them, you go out of your way to do the things they like. Should we expect it to be any different when we talk about our love for our God who brought us in to His family?
So David, in this verse, is asking the Father to lead him into His righteousness because he knows that God has only his best interest in mind. But it’s important to note that when he bows down before the Temple, before he does anything else, he seeks after the righteousness of God. Hmm… where else have I heard something like that? Oh yeah, Jesus told us the first thing we should always do when He said, “…seek first thing kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6:33).” So before we go to God, asking for Him to help us out, we should first seek righteousness. This isn’t a magic formula but it is being obedient.
If the last part of this verse sounds familiar it’s probably because it too is speaking of the repentance which brings righteousness. David crying out “make your way straight before me” is same thing John the Baptist was doing when he was making straight in the wilderness the paths of the LORD (John 1:23, Matt 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, Is 40:3). John was calling for the repentance of the people. Calling for them to turn from what they were doing and seek after the righteousness of the LORD. Then, when they were truly ready to seek the kingdom, they would be ready for the words of Messiah, which are living and breathing. In Colossians 3:16 we are urged to let the Word of Messiah dwell in us so that we can build one another up in His wisdom.
So let this be a reminder that the first thing we should do when we’re presented with a new situation is to seek the righteousness of God. Search out how this new thing is guided by the Kingdom of God and how God’s righteousness would react to it. That would be the advice of not only David, but also our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.
This is a good reminder of what we find when we step outside of the righteousness of God. It’s wise to remember that we have a description elsewhere in the Bible which gives us a description of what satan is here to do in the world (steal, kill and destroy – John 10:10) so why would we think that those who serve his ends would be any different?
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
How many of you can feel this one? A cry for justice in the midst of injustice. We’ve all had times where we felt that we were unfairly facing slander. When we look at this verse, though, we need to recognize that David is first seeking righteousness and he’s not asking for justice because his enemies have done anything to him, specifically. He’s crying out for justice because his enemies have rebelled against God.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.
Still, at the end, we come back to the positive. We come back to the recollection of strength and protection. Notice that protection comes to those who celebrate the Name of the LORD. I’m not saying that God doesn’t protect those who don’t enjoy singing praise and worship songs, but it would appear that, if you truly enter into praise with the right heart, the LORD will extend His wings over you.
The key here is our pursuit of righteousness. We don’t attain any kind of eternal salvation by our pursuit of righteousness. If that’s why you’re pursuing righteousness you’re going about it for the wrong reasons. We pursue righteousness because we love our Father and it’s what He wants of us. We pursue righteousness because He gave His son for those who believe in Him. We pursue righteousness because love doesn’t care about puffing itself up; on the contrary, love shows obedience because an action may be sacrificing (1 Cor 13).
So seek the righteousness of the LORD because He has done so much for us, and His protection will follow. Even if that protection comes in a form you may not have expected.
This was a fun one. There’s a lot to look at here and to dig in deeper. I barely grazed the surface and it took two posts to get through 12 verses. The true fun is in finding out what else might be there. Seek it out yourself and see what treasures you can uncover!
Shalom!
This was first published at my personal blog which is linked below.
http://thepoiema.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-psalms-5b-lead-me-in-your.html