Devotionals

Psalm 5

Psalm 5
ESV
4
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
 

  evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
    the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

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.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before

I want to focus on verses 7-8. David in verses 4-6 spoke on those who are wicked but from verse 7 David gives a but. David here represents us born again, believers and children of God. We have access to the presence of God because of Jesus, who was the ultimate sacrifice we needed to be born again into God's family. We aren't saved and have access to God's presence because of our works.

The Bible reveals to us that we are justified by faith not works so that we can't boast (1 Peter 1:22). It's a grace we can pray to God from whenever we are. Whether in the bathroom, in the streets, or the kitchen, we can all have access to pray to God. We can all be children of God and be saved because of Jesus Christ.

David had humility because he recognised where the privilege to enter into God's grace came from. The privilege came from God's mercy. It's by God's great love for us that He sent His son (John 3:16). We have the joy of all having access to God's presence, the veil was torn, symbolising our access to God. That it's now open to everyone who believes in the Son of God.

This great God should bring us to fear of Him. Having the fear is God means great reverence, respect, awe and seeing Him as great, mighty etc. This will bring us to worship and worship in respect of God. This great God who could easily strike us all is keeping us alive, allowing us to live not because He is slow in His return, judgement and promises but out of love He wants us to repent and accept to be saved (2 Peter 3:9).

Seeing all the wicked, David desired to be walking in God's righteousness. David didn't focus on His own righteousness, His works and His holiness but He relied on God's. We rely on Christ's righteousness as children of God. It's Christ's righteousness that God sees when He sees us, not our filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) of good deeds and our false humility. David noticed the wickedness of those against him and longed to be like God.

When we are drawing closer to God and in awareness of His holiness, we feel the conviction, that we have fallen short. We compare God's perfection to our sinfulness and recognise we fall short (Romans 3:23). We grow in awareness of the areas in our lives that need improvement, healing, change and refining. We seek to not walk crookedly but like David, we seek to walk the straight and narrow path set by God. We as believers walk on the narrow path (Matthew 7:14), we seek to walk on the path leading to life and not destruction. David didn't rely on himself or his righteousness to lead him there but rather He sought God's help and His holiness.

What I want you to get from this:

1) It's by God's mercy you are now righteous through His son

2) When we draw closer to Christ we want to be more like Christ and start becoming more like Christ.

3) We need to seek God's help and His righteousness to help us walk on the straight path. We need to cry out to God to help us walk on righteousness and in the fear of Him. We need Jesus Christ's holiness to be justified, redeemed and sanctified.

I want you today to meditate on these 3 points and go to God in prayer. Ask God to help you walk in righteousness because of His righteousness.

-etty