John Calvin Commentary Psalms 5:3

"O Jehovah, in the morning shalt thou hear my voice; In the morning will I order [my prayer] unto thee, and will keep watch." — Psalms 5:3 (ASV)

The first sentence may also be read in the future tense of the indicative mood, Thou shalt hear my prayer. But, in my opinion, the verb is rather in the optative mood, as I have translated it. Having implored God to grant his requests, he now urges Him to hasten.

Some think he alludes to the morning prayers which were usually joined with the daily sacrifices in the temple, according to the requirement of the law. Although I do not disapprove of this opinion, I have no doubt that, compelled by the weariness of a rather long delay, he wishes his deliverance to be hastened. It is as if he had said, “As soon as I awaken, this will be the first subject of my thoughts. Therefore, O Lord, delay no longer the help that I need, but grant my desires immediately.”

The expression, To direct to God, I understand to mean the same thing as directly approaching God. Many, as if the language were elliptical, supply the words, my prayer. But in my judgment, David rather intends to declare that he was not turned here and there, nor drawn in different directions by the temptations to which he was exposed, but that to turn to God was the established pattern of his life.

In these words, there is an implied contrast between the wandering and uncertain movements of those who look around them for worldly assistance, or depend on their own plans, and the direct guidance of faith. By this faith, all godly people are drawn away from the vain allurements of the world and turn to God alone.

The Hebrew word ערך, arac, means to set in order or arrange, and sometimes to prepare or make ready. This meaning is very fitting for the passage, where David clearly states his resolve not to be drawn away in any degree from his orderly course into the indirect and circuitous paths of error and sin, but to come directly to God.

By the word, watch, he conveys the idea of hope and patience as well as of anxiety. As צפה, tsapah, in Hebrew means, to wait for, as well as to look for, I have no doubt David intended to say that after he had unburdened his cares into the bosom of God, he would, with an anxious mind, watch like a sentinel, so to speak, until it became clear that God had indeed heard Him.

No doubt, in the act of longing, some degree of uneasiness is always implied; but the one who looks for the grace of God with anxious desire will wait for it patiently. This passage, therefore, teaches us the futility of prayers that lack the hope which can be said to elevate the minds of the petitioners into a watchtower.