John Gill Commentary Psalms 5

Give ear to my words, O Lord
Meaning not his words in common conversation, but in prayer; the words which came out of his mouth, and were audibly expressed by him at the throne of grace, and design vocal prayer; and so stand distinguished from the meditation of his heart, sacred ejaculations, or mental prayer; see (Psalms 54:2) (19:14) ; and words in prayer to God ought to be few, at least not repeated, (Ecclesiastes 5:2) (Matthew 6:7) ; and these should be a man's own words, as were the psalmist's; not what were suggested by another, or written in a book before him, but what were of his own composing and putting together, under the direction of the Spirit of God; who put words into his mouth, and furnished him both with words and matter, and which he freely uttered before the Lord: and this is the "parrhesia", boldness, freedom of speech, which the Scriptures speak of, (Hebrews 4:16) (10:19) ; and the saints are allowed to use in prayer before God; when they may pour out their souls unto him, and freely tell him all their mind, as the psalmist now did.

to which he entreats the Lord to "give ear"; not that God has a corporeal ear as man has, but he that made the ear has the power of hearing: this is an anthropopathy, and is spoken after the manner of men; such as are of kind and benevolent dispositions do not turn away, but stop and hear what a poor miserable object has to say to them, to whom they listen and return an answer; and so this phrase is expressive of the kind regard God has to the prayers of the destitute, which he does not despise but delight in; and of his bowing and inclining his ear, or of the strict and close attention he gives to them; and of the full and suitable answer he returns, in his own time and way; and is what the psalmist most earnestly entreats. He adds,

consider my meditation ;
the prayer he had meditated: for meditation is requisite to prayer, and should go before it; which is necessary in order to pray with the understanding; nor should men utter anything rashly and hastily before the Lord: it may design mental prayer, in distinction from vocal prayer, signified by his words before, such as that of Moses at the Red sea, and of Hannah before Eli, (Exodus 14:15) (1 Samuel 1:13) . The word also signifies inward mourning, and groans; the root from which this is derived is to mourn, and is so rendered in (Isaiah 38:14) ; where Hezekiah compares his prayers to the chattering of a crane and swallow, and the mourning of a dove; and are the same with the unutterable groanings with which the Spirit of God sometimes makes intercession for the saints, (Romans 8:26) ; and which are not hid from God, (Psalms 38:9) ; but are well known to him: he understands the language of a sigh or groan; and so the words may be rendered "understand my moan" ^F3 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: (ynynx) "murmur meum", Vatablus, Gejerus; "gemitum meum", Cocceius, Hammond; "gemitus et suspiria mea", Michaelis.

Hearken to the voice of my cry
Which seems to intend more than groans or words, even a loud outcry, as of a person in great distress; such as the strong crying of Christ, in the days of his flesh, when on the cross, forsaken by God, deserted by his friends, and surrounded by his enemies, (Hebrews 5:7); and such, in some measure, was the case of David.

The arguments used by him, that the Lord would hearken to him, are as follow: and the first is taken from his interest in the Lord, and his relation to him,

my King and my God ;
the Lord was David's King in a civil sense; though David was a king over others, yet the Lord, who is the King of kings, was King over him, and he owned him to be so; he was set upon the throne by him, had his kingdom from him, and was accountable to him: and he was his King in a natural sense, the kingdom of nature and providence belonging to him, as he was his Creator, preserver, protector, and defender; and in a spiritual sense, he being delivered from the dominion of other lords, sin, Satan, and the world, and brought to a subjection to him by his Spirit and grace; and so to own him as his King and Lawgiver, as well as his Saviour. And he was his God; not in a general way, as he is the God of the spirits of all flesh living; nor merely in the peculiar way in which he was the God of the people of Israel; but in a most special manner, as being his covenant God and Father in Christ. He was his God, not only as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of all grace; who had distinguished him by special and spiritual blessings and favours; and whom David loved, believed in, and worshipped as his God.

And this his interest in him, and relation to him, he uses with great pertinence and propriety, as an argument that he might be heard by him; since the Lord was his King, and he his subject; the Lord was his God, and he one of his people; the Lord was his father, and he a child of his; and therefore entreats and hopes to be heard; see (Isaiah 63:15Isaiah 63:16). His next argument is taken from his resolution to pray to him, and to continue to do so:

for to you will I pray ;
and only to you: not to the gods of the Heathen, to idols, the works of men's hands, who can neither hear nor save: and to you always; suggesting, that he would never leave off praying till he was heard; he would give him no rest, day nor night, until he received an answer.

My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord
These words may be considered either as expressing the confidence of the psalmist, that the Lord would hear and answer him, and that in the morning, every morning, as soon and as often as he prayed; or that he would hear him early, quickly, speedily, seasonably, and at the best time; or else as declaring what he would do in consequence of his resolution to pray to the Lord in (Psalms 5:2) ; he would pray to him every morning: the morning is a proper time for prayer, both to return thanks to God for refreshing sleep and rest, for preservation from dangers by fire, by thieves and murderers, and for renewed mercies in the morning; as also to pray to God to keep from evil and dangers the day following; to give daily food, and to succeed in business and the employments of life; and for a continuation of every mercy, temporal and spiritual.

God should be served and sought in the first place; and so to do looks as if God was with his people, and they with him, when they awake in the morning. The Targum and Arabic version consider the words as a petition, and render them, "Hear ^F4 in the morning, O Lord, my voice", or "my petition"; and so bear the same sense as the other petitions;

in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto you ;
or "set [it] in order" ^F5 : not so much respecting the order of words, the method of prayer, which is sometimes very broken and confused, and yet regarded by God; but in allusion either to the shewbread, placed in order on the table, which was typical of Christ's continual intercession for his people, (Exodus 40:4) ; or to the offering of incense and other sacrifices, which when offered were put in order upon the altar; and to which prayer is compared, (Psalms 141:2) . Or the words may be rendered, "I will stand before you in the morning", as the Arabic version; or, "I will present unto you", as the Septuagint; that is, myself; see (Job 1:6) (Romans 12:1) ; though the supplement, "my prayer", seems to be a good one; and so the words are supplied by the Jewish commentators ^F6 ;

and will look up ;
or "out" ^F7 as out of a watch tower, (Habakkuk 2:1) ; to see if help is coming, and for an answer of prayer: the phrase is expressive of hope, expectation, faith, and confidence, that an answer would be returned; and therefore the psalmist determines to look upwards to heaven, whither he directed his prayer, and from whence the answer must come; and to look out from his watch tower, where he was waiting for it, and to continue patiently expecting it till he had it: and the ground of his confidence were the nature and perfections of God, particularly his purity and holiness, as appears from (Psalms 5:4) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: (emvt) "audi", Vatablus, Gejerus.
• F5: (Krea) "disponam", Montanus, Michaelis; "praeparabo", Pagninus, Musculus; "ordinabo", Piscator, Gejerus.
• F6: Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.
• F7: (hpua) "speculabor", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Michaelis; "speculatorus", Junius & Tremellius.

For you [are] not a God that has pleasure in wickedness
Sin, ungodliness; it is contrary to his nature, who is holy, just, and good; and to his will revealed in his law, which is the same with his nature; and sin is a transgression of it. God is so far from taking pleasure in sin, that it is the abominable thing which his righteous soul hates; though this hinders not his voluntary permission of sin, or his decree of it; which he has willed, though he does not delight in it, in order to magnify the riches of his grace and mercy in the salvation of his people:

nor is this contrary to the delight and pleasure which he takes in the persons of his elect in Christ, though they are sinners in themselves, and were so when he so loved them as to give his Son for them, and who died for them while they were yet sinners; and when he sends his Spirit to regenerate and sanctify them, and are after conversion guilty of many sins: for, though he delights in their persons, he has no pleasure in their sins; nor is it consistent with the holiness of his nature to take pleasure in wickedness, let it be committed by whomsoever;

neither shall evil dwell with you ;
that is, the evil man, who continues in a course of wickedness, and lives and dies in his sins. He has no communion with God here, nor shall he dwell with him hereafter; but shall be bid to depart from him, whether he be a profane sinner openly, or secretly a wicked professor of religion. The sense of the psalmist is, that since they were evil and wicked men, that were risen up against him, and gave him trouble, he entertained a strong confidence that God would hear him, for himself and his friends, whose cause was righteous; and appear against his enemies, who were wicked and ungodly men; and this he grounded upon the purity and holiness of God.

The foolish shall not stand in thy sight
By the "foolish" are meant not such who are so in a natural, but in a moral sense, wicked and ungodly men. The Septuagint render the word, "transgressors of the law"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the unrighteous"; and the Arabic version, "they that contradict thy precepts". The word ^F8 used comes from a root which signifies to "praise"; and may design such as are praisers of themselves, proud boasters; who are elated with their own excellencies, with their wisdom, strength, honours, riches, and righteousness, and treat all others with contempt; for though they are unrighteous, yet they trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others, which betrays their folly; hence the Syriac version renders it, "the proud"; and the Chaldee paraphrase, "mockers". And their not standing in the sight of God denotes his abhorrence and detestation of them; as when one man abhors another he cannot endure to look upon him, or bear to have him in his presence: and it shows that such shall receive no favour from him; for though, like proud Haman, they may think themselves his favourites, and they are the persons the king will delight to honour; yet to their great mortification they will find, that a poor Mordecai, a mean despicable believer, will be preferred unto them. Nor shall they stand in acceptance and confidence before him at the day of judgment: they will not be able to stand themselves, but will call to the rocks and mountains to cover them; and they will not be suffered lost and, but will be driven from the presence of the Lord into everlasting burnings,

thou hatest all workers of iniquity ;
not all that have sin in them or do sin, for there are none without it; but such who give themselves up to work wickedness, who make it the business of their lives, and are slaves unto it, living in a continued series and course of impiety; and this character does not only belong to openly profane sinners, but to some professors of religion; see (Matthew 7:22Matthew 7:23) ; and these are the objects of God's hatred. Which does not so much intend any past act of his, the preterition or passing them by, when he chose others in his eternal purposes; in which sense the word is used in (Romans 9:13) , as his continued aversion to them, denying them his grace and favour, and rejecting them from all nearness to him and communion with him; and may include the everlasting punishment of them, by which his displicine and hatred will be made manifest: and he is impartial in it, without any respect to persons, high or low, rich or poor; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will come upon every soul of man that does evil. God's love to his own people was antecedent to sin, and was placed upon them in Christ, in whom their persons are always well pleasing to him; and though they sinned in Adam, and became actual transgressors of his law, yet such was his love to their persons, that he saves them from their sins by the blood and righteousness of his son.