Psalm 5 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Psalm 5 Short Summary:

David begins Psalm 5 asking God to hear his prayer. His prayer is a groaning to the Lord for the wicked to be judged and the righteous to be blessed. He writes about God’s intolerance towards wickedness. How God hates evildoers, boasters, liars, and men who are bloodthirsty. He asks God to punish the wicked, bringing the consequences of the guilt on them.

Psalm 5 Summary

AUTHOR:

• King David of Israel authored Psalm 5

NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES:

• Romans 3:13

THEMES:

• The wicked cannot stand before God.

• The psalmist asks God to cast down the wicked and bless the righteous.

DEFINITIONS:

• Imprecation – A curse spoken over a person or a group of people.

OUTLINE:

• PROTECT THE RIGHTEOUS AND PUNISH THE SINNERS (5:1-12):

  • David begins Psalm 5 asking God to hear his prayer. His prayer is a groaning to the Lord for the wicked to be judged and the righteous to be blessed.

  • He writes about God’s intolerance towards wickedness. How God hates evildoers, boasters, liars, and men who are bloodthirsty.

  • David did not want to be like those men. He offered sacrifices, worshiped at the Temple, and humbled himself before God.

  • In God’s “abundance of steadfast love” He accepted David.

  • David asked the Lord to lead him in the way of righteousness.

  • He also asked God to punish the wicked, bringing the consequences of the guilt on them.

  • “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” (5:10).

  • David concludes by praising God for being a refuge and shield to the people who love Him and who try to walk according to His law.
    

APPLICATION:

• Perhaps you know the word “imprecation.”

• An imprecation is a curse that a person speaks over another person.

• Psalms like Psalm 5 are sometimes called imprecatory psalms, because the psalmist is wishing for God’s judgement and punishment to fall on wicked people.

• Can we still speak like this today? Would it be wrong for a Christian to talk like this? Aren’t we supposed to love all people?

• Yes, we are supposed to love all people and we should earnestly hope for all people to repent and turn to God.

• God shares this desire. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 reads, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

• But God knows and informs us that not all men will repent, and evil will persist on the earth till the return of Jesus.

• There will always be liars, murderers, blasphemers, mockers, abusers, and thieves on the earth, and what is worse is that some of them will get away with their sins and escape punishment during their lives.

• In a sense, when we pray for Jesus to return, as John did in Revelation 22:20, we are praying an imprecatory prayer.

• We are expressing our desire for Jesus to come, eliminate evil, deliver justice to those who perpetrated evil on the earth, which requires punishment to be handed out.

• So no, these imprecatory psalms aren’t somehow in contradiction to the Christian love found in the New Testament.

• They are the expressions of a man who desired to see the world rid of sin, the same desire we express in welcoming Jesus’ return.