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Psalms 5:10 American Standard (ASV)

10 Hold them guilty, O God; Let them fall by their own counsels; Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions; For they have rebelled against thee.

Cross Reference

Psalms 69:22-25 ASV

Let their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, `let it become' a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; And make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, And let the fierceness of thine anger overtake them. Let their habitation be desolate; Let none dwell in their tents.

Psalms 83:9-18 ASV

Do thou unto them as unto Midian, As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon; Who perished at Endor, Who became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; Yea, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna; Who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession The habitations of God. O my God, make them like the whirling dust; As stubble before the wind. As the fire that burneth the forest, And as the flame that setteth the mountains on fire, So pursue them with thy tempest, And terrify them with thy storm. Fill their faces with confusion, That they may seek thy name, O Jehovah. Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever; Yea, let them be confounded and perish; That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 84 For the Chief Musician; set to the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Psalms 109:6-20 ASV

Set thou a wicked man over him; And let an adversary stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty; And let his prayer be turned into sin. Let his days be few; `And' let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow. Let his children be vagabonds, and beg; And let them seek `their bread' out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; And let strangers make spoil of his labor. Let there be none to extend kindness unto him; Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; In the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with Jehovah; And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before Jehovah continually, That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth; Because he remembered not to show kindness, But persecuted the poor and needy man, And the broken in heart, to slay `them'. Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him; And he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water, And like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the raiment wherewith he covereth himself, And for the girdle wherewith he is girded continually. This is the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, And of them that speak evil against my soul.

Psalms 137:7-9 ASV

Remember, O Jehovah, against the children of Edom The day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it, Even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed, Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee As thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock. Psalm 138 A `Psalm' of David.

Psalms 140:9-10 ASV

As for the head of those that compass me about, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them: Let them be cast into the fire, Into deep pits, whence they shall not rise.

Psalms 144:6-7 ASV

Cast forth lightning, and scatter them; Send out thine arrows, and discomfit them. Stretch forth thy hand from above; Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, Out of the hand of aliens;

Romans 3:19-20 ASV

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law `cometh' the knowledge of sin.

Psalms 21:8-10 ASV

Thy hand will find out all thine enemies; Thy right hand will find out those that hate thee. Thou wilt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger: Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, And the fire shall devour them. Their fruit wilt thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men.

Job 5:12-14 ASV

He frustrateth the devices of the crafty, So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; And the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the day-time, And grope at noonday as in the night.

Psalms 7:9-15 ASV

O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous: For the righteous God trieth the minds and hearts. My shield is with God, Who saveth the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath indignation every day. If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He maketh his arrows fiery `shafts'. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity; Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He hath made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made.

Psalms 9:15-16 ASV

The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made: In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. Jehovah hath made himself known, he hath executed judgment: The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah

Psalms 28:3-4 ASV

Draw me not away with the wicked, And with the workers of iniquity; That speak peace with their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings: Give them after the operation of their hands; Render to them their desert.

Psalms 35:1-8 ASV

Strive thou, O Jehovah, with them that strive with me: Fight thou against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for my help. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that pursue me: Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be put to shame and brought to dishonor that seek after my soul: Let them be turned back and confounded that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind, And the angel of Jehovah driving `them' on. Let their way be dark and slippery, And the angel of Jehovah pursuing them. For without cause have they hid for me their net `in' a pit; Without cause have they digged `a pit' for my soul. Let destruction come upon him unawares; And let his net that he hath hid catch himself: With destruction let him fall therein.

Psalms 59:12-13 ASV

`For' the sin of their mouth, `and' the words of their lips, Let them even be taken in their pride, And for cursing and lying which they speak. Consume them in wrath, consume them, so that they shall be no more: And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob, Unto the ends of the earth. Selah

Psalms 64:6-8 ASV

They search out iniquities; We have accomplished, `say they', a diligent search: And the inward thought and the heart of every one is deep. But God will shoot at them; With an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue being against them: All that see them shall wag the head.

Psalms 68:1-2 ASV

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; Let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: As wax melteth before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

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,

  • I. David settles a correspondence between his soul and God, promising to pray, and promising himself that God would certainly hear him (v. 1-3).
  • II. He gives to God the glory, and takes to himself the comfort, of God's holiness (v. 4-6).
  • III. He declares his resolution to keep close to the public worship of God (v. 7).
  • IV. He prayed,
    • 1. For himself, that God would guide him, (v. 8).
    • 2. Against his enemies, that God would destroy them (v. 9, 10).
    • 3. For all the people of God, that God would give them joy, and keep them safe (v. 11, 12).

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,

  • I. As a prayer-hearing God; such he has always been ever since men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and yet is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. Observe how David here styles him: O Lord (v. 1, 3), Jehovah, a self-existent, self-sufficient, Being, whom we are bound to adore, and, "my King and my God (v. 2), whom I have avouched for my God, to whom I have sworn allegiance, and under whose protection I have put myself as my King.' We believe that the God we pray to is a King, and a God. King of kings and God of gods; but that is not enough: the most commanding encouraging principle of prayer, and the most powerful or prevailing plea in prayer, is to look upon him as our King and our God, to whom we lie under peculiar obligations and from whom we have peculiar expectations. Now observe,
    • 1. What David here prays for, which may encourage our faith and hopes in all our addresses to God. If we pray fervently, and in faith, we have reason to hope,
      • (1.) That God will take cognizance of our case, the representation we make of it and the requests we make upon it; for so he prays here: Give ear to my words, O Lord! Though God is in heaven, he has an ear open to his people's prayers, and it is not heavy, that he cannot hear. Men perhaps will not or cannot hear us; our enemies are so haughty that they will not, our friends at such a distance that they cannot; but God, though high, though in heaven, can, and will.
      • (2.) That he will take it into his wise and compassionate consideration, and will not slight it, or turn it off with a cursory answer; for so he prays: Consider my meditation. David's prayers were not his words only, but his meditations; as meditation is the best preparative for prayer, so prayer is the best issue of meditation. Meditation and prayer should go together, Ps. 19:14. It is when we thus consider our prayers, and then only, that we may expect that God will consider them, and take that to his heart which comes from ours.
      • (3.) That he will, in due time, return a gracious answer of peace; for so he prays (v. 2): Hearken to the voice of my cry. His prayer was a cry; it was the voice of his cry, which denotes fervency of affection and importunity of expression; and such effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much and do wonders.
    • 2. What David here promises, as the condition on his part to be performed, fulfilled, and kept, that he might obtain this gracious acceptance; this may guide and govern us in our addresses to God, that we may present them aright, for we ask, and have not, if we ask amiss. Four things David here promises, and so must we:-
      • (1.) That he will pray, that he will make conscience of praying, and make a business of it: Unto thee will I pray. "Others live without prayer, but I will pray.' Kings on their own thrones (so David was) must be beggars at God's throne. "Others pray to strange gods, and expect relief from them, but to thee, to thee only, will I pray.' The assurances God has given us of his readiness to hear prayer should confirm our resolution to live and die praying.
      • (2.) That he will pray in the morning. His praying voice shall be heard then, and then shall his prayer be directed; that shall be the date of his letters to heaven, not that only ("Morning, and evening, and at noon, will I pray, nay, seven times a day, will I praise thee'), but that certainly. Morning prayer is our duty; we are the fittest for prayer when we are in the most fresh, and lively, and composed frame, got clear of the slumbers of the night, revived by them, and not yet filled with the business of the day. We have then most need of prayer, considering the dangers and temptations of the day to which we are exposed, and against which we are concerned; by faith and prayer, to fetch in fresh supplies of grace.
      • (3.) That he will have his eye single and his heart intent in the duty: I will direct my prayer, as a marksman directs his arrow to the white; with such a fixedness and steadiness of mind should we address ourselves to God. Or as we direct a letter to a friend at such a place so must we direct our prayers to God as our Father in heaven; and let us always send them by the Lord Jesus, the great Mediator, and then they will be sure not to miscarry. All our prayers must be directed to God; his honour and glory must be aimed at as our highest end in all our prayers. Let our first petition be, Hallowed, glorified, by thy name, and then we may be sure of the same gracious answer to it that was given to Christ himself: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again.
      • (4.) That he will patiently wait for an answer of peace: "I will look up, will look after my prayers, and hear what God the Lord will speak (Ps. 85:8; Hab. 2:1), that, if he grant what I asked, I may be thankful-if he deny, I may be patient-if he defer, I may continue to pray and wait and may not faint.' We must look up, or look out, as he that has shot an arrow looks to see how near it has come to the mark. We lose much of the comfort of our prayers for want of observing the returns of them. Thus praying, thus waiting, as the lame man looked stedfastly on Peter and John (Acts 3:4), we may expect that God will give ear to our words and consider them, and to him we may refer ourselves, as David here, who does not pray, "Lord, do this, or the other, for me;' but, "Hearken to me, consider my case, and do in it as seemeth good unto thee.'
  • II. As a sin-hating God, v. 4-6. David takes notice of this,
    • 1. As a warning to himself, and all other praying people, to remember that, as the God with whom we have to do is gracious and merciful, so he is pure and holy; though he is ready to hear prayer, yet, if we regard iniquity in our heart, he will not hear our prayers, Ps. 66:18.
    • 2. As an encouragement to his prayers against his enemies; they were wicked men, and therefore enemies to God, and such as he had not pleasure in. See here.
      • (1.) The holiness of God's nature. When he says, Thou art not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, he means, "Thou art a God that hates it, as directly contrary to thy infinite purity and rectitude, and holy will.' Though the workers of iniquity prosper, let none thence infer that God has pleasure in wickedness, no, not in that by which men pretend to honour him, as those do that hate their brethren, and cast them out, and say, Let the Lord be glorified. God has no pleasure in wickedness, though covered with a cloak of religion. Let those therefore who delight in sin know that God has no delight in them; nor let any say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God is not the author of sin, neither shall evil dwell with him, that is, it shall not always be countenanced and suffered to prosper. Dr. Hammond thinks this refers to that law of Moses which would not permit strangers, who persisted in their idolatry, to dwell in the land of Israel.
      • (2.) The justice of his government. The foolish shall not stand in his sight, that is, shall not be smiled upon by him, nor admitted to attend upon him, nor shall they be acquitted in the judgment of the great day. The workers of iniquity are very foolish. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest of all fools; not fools of God's making (those are to be pitied), for he hates nothing that he has made, but fools of their own making, and those he hates. Wicked people hate God; justly therefore are they hated of him, and it will be their endless misery and ruin. "Those whom thou hatest thou shalt destroy;' particularly two sorts of sinners, who are here marked for destruction:-
        • [1.] Those that are fools, that speak leasing or lying, and that are deceitful. There is a particular emphasis laid on these sinners (Rev. 21:8), All liars, and (Ps. 22:15), Whosoever loves and makes a lie; nothing is more contrary than this, and therefore nothing more hateful to the God of truth.
        • [2.] Those that are cruel: Thou wilt abhor the bloody man; for inhumanity is no less contrary, no less hateful, to the God of mercy, whom mercy pleases. Liars and murderers are in a particular manner said to resemble the devil and to be his children, and therefore it may well be expected that God should abhor them. These were the characters of David's enemies; and such as these are still the enemies of Christ and his church, men perfectly lost to all virtue and honour; and the worse they are the surer we may be of their ruin in due time.

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.

  • I. He gives an account of himself and prays for himself, v. 7, 8.
    • 1. He is stedfastly resolved to keep closely to God and to his worship. Sinners go away from God, and so make themselves odious to his holiness and obnoxious to his justice: "But, as for me, that shall not keep me from thee.' God's holiness and justice are so far from being a terror to the upright in heart, to drive them from God, that they are rather by them invited to cleave to him. David resolves,
      • (1.) To worship God, to pay his homage to him, and give unto God the glory due unto his name.
      • (2.) To worship him publicly: "I will come into thy house, the courts of thy house, to worship there with other faithful worshippers.' David was much in secret worship, prayed often alone (v. 2, 3), and yet was very constant and devout in his attendance on the sanctuary. The duties of the closet are designed to prepare us for, not to excuse us from, public ordinances.
      • (3.) To worship him reverently and with a due sense of the infinite distance there is between God and man: "In thy fear will I worship, with a holy awe of God upon my spirit,' Heb. 12:28. God is greatly to be feared by all his worshippers.
      • (4.) To take his encouragement, in worship, from God himself only.
        • [1.] From his infinite mercy. It is in the multitude of God's mercy (the inexhaustible treasures of mercy that are in God and the innumerable proofs and instances of it which we receive from him) that David confides, and not in any merit or righteousness of his own, in his approaches to God. The mercy of God should ever be both the foundation of our hopes and the fountain of our joy in every thing wherein we have to do with him.
        • [2.] From the instituted medium of worship, which was then the temple, here called the temple of his holiness, as a type of Christ, the great and only Mediator, who sanctifies the service as the temple sanctified the gold, and to whom we must have an eye in all our devotions as the worshippers then had to the temple.
    • 2. He earnestly prays that God, by his grace, would guide and preserve him always in the way of his duty (v. 8): Lead me in thy righteousness, because of my enemies-Heb. "Because of those who observe me, who watch for my halting and seek occasion against me.' See here,
      • (1.) The good use which David made of the malice of his enemies against him. The more curious they were in spying faults in him, that they might have whereof to accuse him, the more cautious he was to avoid sin and all appearances of it, and the more solicitous to be always found in the good way of God and duty. Thus, by wisdom and grace, good may come out of evil.
      • (2.) The right course which David took for the baffling of those who sought occasion against him. He committed himself to a divine guidance, begged of God both by his providence and by his grace to direct him in the right way, and keep him from turning aside out of it, at any time, in any instance whatsoever, that the most critical and captious of his enemies, like Daniel's, might find no occasion against him. The way of our duty is here called God's way, and his righteousness, because he prescribes to us by his just and holy laws, which if we sincerely set before us as our rule, we may in faith beg of God to direct us in all particular cases. How this prayer of David's was answered to him see 1 Sa. 18:14, 15.
  • II. He gives an account of his enemies, and prays against them, v. 9, 10.
    • 1. If his account of them is true, as no doubt it is, they have a very bad character; and, if they had not been bad men indeed, they could not have been enemies to a man after God's own heart. He had spoken (v. 6) of God's hating the bloody and deceitful man. "Now, Lord,' says he, "that is the character of my enemies: they are deceitful; there is no trusting them, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth.' They thought it was no sin to tell a deliberate lie if it might but blemish David, and render him odious. "Lord, lead me,' says he (v. 8), "for such as these are the men I have to do with, against whose slanders innocency itself is no security. Do they speak fair? Do they talk of peace and friendship? They flatter with their tongues; it is designed to cover their malice, and to gain their point the more securely. Whatever they pretend of religion or friendship, two sacred things, they are true to neither: Their inward part is wickedness itself; it is very wickedness. They are likewise bloody; for their throat is an open sepulchre, cruel as the grave, gaping to devour and to swallow up, insatiable as the grave, which never says, It is enough,' Prov. 30:15, 16. This is quoted (Rom. 3:13) to show the general corruption of mankind; for they are all naturally prone to malice, Tit. 3:3. The grave is opened for them all, and yet they are as open graves to one another.
    • 2. If his prayer against them is heard, as no doubt it is, they are in a bad condition. As men are, and do, so they must expect to fare. He prays to God to destroy them (according to what he had said v. 6, "Thou shalt destroy men of this character,' so let them fall; and sinners would soon throw themselves into ruin if they were let alone), to cast them out of his protection and favour, out of the heritage of the Lord, out of the land of the living; and woe to those whom God casts out. "They have by their sins deserved destruction; there is enough to justify God in their utter rejection: Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, by which they have filled up the measure of their iniquity and have become ripe for ruin.' Persecuting God's servants fills the measure as soon as any thing, 1 Th. 2:15, 16. Nay, they may be easily made to fall by their own counsels; that which they do to secure themselves, and do mischief to others, by the over-ruling providence of God may be made a means of their destruction, Ps. 7:15; 9:15. He pleads, "They have rebelled against thee. Had they been only my enemies, I could safely have forgiven them; but they are rebels against God, his crown and dignity; they oppose his government, and will not repent, to give him glory, and therefore I plainly foresee their ruin.' His prayer for their destruction comes not from a spirit of revenge, but from a spirit of prophecy, by which he foretold that all who rebel against God will certainly be destroyed by their own counsels. If it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to those that trouble his people, as we are told it is (2 Th. 1:6), we pray that it may be done whenever we pray, Father, thy will be done.
  • III. He gives an account of the people of God, and prays for them, concluding with an assurance of their bliss, which he doubted not of his own interest in. Observe,
    • 1. The description he gives of God's people. They are the righteous (v. 12); for they put their trust in God, are well assured of his power and all-sufficiency, venture their all upon his promise, and are confident of his protection in the way of their duty; and they love his name, are well pleased with all that by which God has made himself known, and take delight in their acquaintance with him. This is true and pure religion, to live a life of complacency in God and dependence on him.
    • 2. His prayer for them: "Let them rejoice; let them have cause to rejoice and hearts to rejoice; fill them with joy, with great joy and unspeakable; let them shout for joy, with constant joy and perpetual; let them ever shout for joy, with holy joy, and that which terminates in God; let them be joyful in thee, in thy favour, in thy salvation, not in any creature. Let them rejoice because thou defendest them, coverest them, or overshadowest them, dwellest among them.' Perhaps here is an allusion to the pillar of cloud and fire, which was to Israel a visible token of God's special presence with them and the special protection they were under. Let us learn of David to pray, not for ourselves only, but for others, for all good people, for all that trust in God and love his name, though not in every thing of our mind nor in our interest. Let all that are entitled to God's promises have a share in our prayers; grace be with all that love Christ in sincerity. This is to concur with God.
    • 3. His comfort concerning them, v. 12. He takes them into his prayers because they are God's peculiar people; therefore he doubts not but his prayers shall be heard, and they shall always rejoice; for,
      • (1.) They are happy in the assurance of God's blessing: "Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous, wilt command a blessing upon them. Thou hast in thy word pronounced them blessed, and therefore wilt make them truly so. Those whom thou blessest are blessed indeed.'
      • (2.) "They are safe under the protection of thy favour; with that thou wilt crown him' (so some read it); "it is his honour, will be to him a diadem of beauty, and make him truly great: with that thou wilt compass him, wilt surround him, on every side, as with a shield.' A shield, in war, guards only one side, but the favour of God is to the saints a defence on every side; like the hedge about Job, round about, so that, while they keep themselves under the divine protection, they are entirely safe and ought to be entirely satisfied.

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.