In the sermon 'Crying Out to God', Jason Dohm explores Psalm 5, focusing on the earnest prayer of David and its implications for believers. The sermon breaks down into five main points: an overview of the Psalm, insights into King David, attributes of God, characteristics of God's enemies, and the privileges of His friends. Dohm emphasizes the dangers of 'practical atheism', where one lives as if God does not exist. He contrasts this with David's life of faith and prayer. The sermon highlights God's righteousness, mercy, and role as a source of joy. Dohm calls believers to prioritize prayer, recognize their need for God's mercy, and find joy in God. The speaker also addresses the enemies of God, their ultimate condemnation, and the hope and joy that God's friends experience. The sermon concludes with a call to deepen one's relationship with God and rejoice in His presence.

Sermon text for today is Psalm chapter 5. So I'll just start in verse 1. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you and I will look up.

For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy, in fear of you I will worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction.

Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you.

But let all those who rejoice, who put their trust in you, Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you. For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor you will surround him as with a shield." Lord God, I pray that you would help us, Lord, not to sit here and hear this sermon and walk away and forget it. Lord, that we would listen with attentive ears.

God, that we would seek out your word, that we would seek out so we can become more like you. Lord, please sanctify us through the preaching of your word today. Make us more like Christ. Lord, please bless Jason as he brings your word. I pray that you would help him to preach with the full authority of the Scriptures.

Lord God, that every word He speaks will be as if it was coming straight from Your mouth. God, please use the preaching of Your Word mightily today. In Jesus' name, amen. As you know, we're taking four weeks in various Psalms, selected Psalms. Last week was Psalm 1 and the title was, Oh Happy Man!

Because the psalmist, God through the psalmist was teaching us how to plant our feet firmly on the pathway of blessing. What a blessing it is that God tells us how to plant our feet firmly on the pathway of blessing and not the pathway of destruction. So that was Psalm 1. This week is Psalm 5. And the title this morning is, Crying Out to God.

This is a prayer of David that has been recorded. And that we might sing. It's a psalm that was meant to be sung. And you're familiar with how great of a memory device singing is. When you learn a song, you have it in your brain for a lot longer than you have the passages maybe that you memorize.

And so God has wanted us to know this Psalm. God has wanted us to know this prayer of David and maybe even to sing it. As we study Psalm chapter 5, I want you to just continue to come back in your mind to this term. It's a term that's not even in the psalm. Are you ready for it?

Practical atheism. We're going to study this psalm. And we just come back to this term over and over again in your mind. Practical atheism. What is atheism?

It's a denial of the existence of God. There is no God, says the atheist. And that would really be intellectual atheism. In other words, it's an expressed belief. It's what you think.

There is no God. There's another kind of atheism that's much more subtle, and it runs rampant in our lives. It's everywhere in our lives. Actually, if you study the life of David, you'll find some practical atheism in his life at all. What does that mean?

It's not the intellectual atheism where you say, I don't believe there's a God. It's the kind of atheism where you live like there's no God. The way you live betrays something that you would never lay claim to believing. You live as if you are not under the eye of God from one moment to the next. And of course we are.

So I want you to ask yourself as we study Psalm chapter 5-2, what degree am I a practical atheist? Not am I a practical atheist, you are a practical atheist. There are times, minutes, hours, days of your life where you say by the way that you live, I don't really think there's a God. It's not whether I am or not, it's to what degree I am. David in Psalm chapter 5 is not a practical atheist.

David is expressing a pattern of life in Psalm chapter 5 that embraces that there is a God, there is a sovereign God, there is a God who hears the prayers of His people. So Psalm chapter 5 can help us to throw off the practical atheism that shows up in our life from time to time. As we go to this text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, we've confessed You with our lips. Please, please don't let us deny you with our lives.

Please don't let us live days or even hours or minutes in denial that you're watching, you're hearing our prayers. You are there to be prayed to and answer those prayers with mighty answers. I thank you that you set before us Psalm 5 and David and his embracing that you are the king and the god of your people. And I pray that you would make us like that. Looking to you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well this sermon is not one that I particularly like in this way. I like to go, you know what I like to do, right? You've heard a lot of my sermons. So I like to take a couple of verses and read them and then talk about them systematically and sequentially.

And we have 12 verses. They're not historical narratives. Sometimes you can get away with going a lot of verses and taking them all at once in a single sermon. But this is not a historical narrative or a study of history in the Bible. And so there's so much content here, I've really struggled with how to organize it.

So I have not organized it the way I really like to preach, which is to take a little bit of a text and then take the next bit. So what we have before us today is a list of lists. I have five main points. One, an overview of David's psalm. Two, what we learn about King David.

Three, what we learn about God. Four, what we learn about the enemies of God, five, what we learn about the friends of God. So I'm sort of breaking it down under topics instead of portions of the text. And within each point on the list is more lists. So it's a list of lists.

I know some of you like lists sermons. This is your week. You get today. So without further ado, let's embark on our lists. Number one, an overview of David's psalm.

We have 12 verses here, and here's how they break down, I believe. Verses 1 through 3. David is approaching God. So the psalm begins with David's approach to this holy God. And he's crying out and he's asking God to hear him and to consider the meditations of his heart.

In other words, God hear the words of my mouth and consider the meditations of my heart and answer me according to your wisdom. Last week one of the things I said about Psalm 1 and this consideration of the Word of God and its place in the lives of the people of God, I said this, delighting in the Word of God and meditating day and night on the Word of God is more than just something to check off your to-do list. In other words, I think we should have reading the Word of God on our to-do list. It's a good thing to have on the list. But if you come to Psalm 1 and you see this man who delights in the Word of God and who is just meditating, turning it over in his mind, over and over and over, all day, all night, you get something much more than just something to check off your to-do list.

In the same way, I believe we have prayer set before us. This is an earnest crying out of the psalmist. David is crying out to God and if you don't get earnest and fervent and emotional out of Psalm chapter 5, if you just get, hey here's something else to put on my to-do list. You have missed Psalm chapter 5 just like we would have missed it in Psalm chapter 1 if we had done that with how we're to approach the Word of God. It is earnestness, all earnestness.

The second section is verses 4-6, where David declares God's righteousness by declaring his hatred for unrighteousness. In verses 7 and 8, David declares the ground for his coming to God. He tells us why he is able to come before God. It's God's abundant mercy. And he asks for God to lead him in God's righteousness.

In verses 9 and 10, David describes the wickedness of his enemies, and he asks God to judge his enemies. And then in verses 11 and 12, the last two verses of the psalm, David talks about the privilege of the believer. What is that? Joy in God. We're going to take that away from Psalm 5.

You have a privilege, a great privilege if you are in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore acceptable to God through Christ. This privilege is to be full of joy, to rejoice. Because God is a great endless source of joy. In summary, the whole Psalm, David cries out to be saved from his enemy and he expresses that God is a sure hope. That's why he's crying out because he believes that God hears and answers the prayers of his people.

It's clear from reading the Psalm, David is hard pressed. He's got enemies that are pressing in on him. And now he's expressing his hope that God will hear him and answer his prayers. That's number one, an overview of David's psalm. Number two, what we learn about King David.

First, how many things do I have under this one? We have a list of six. So you'll be sure that you get them all. What we learn about King David. We learn six things about King David.

First, David isn't a practical atheist, at least not while he's writing Psalm 5. If you study his life, you'll hit some other portions of David's life where he is living like a practical atheist. But not in Psalm 5. Verse 2, for to you I will pray. Verse 3, I will look up.

In other words, David does two things in sequence. He prays and then he looks to God for an answer that's not a practical atheist that's not someone who in their life denies that there is a God who hears the prayers of his people. That's someone who prays not thinking for a second that the words just hit the ceiling, but that the God in heaven hears them and then What does he do with his eyes? He looks up. I've asked.

I know that you're a God who hears prayer. I'm waiting for the answer. He prays with expectation. Secondly, David doesn't approach God as a peer. God forbid that we, even in Christ, with all of the privileges that come with being in Christ, God forbid that we should approach this holy God as a peer, as a buddy.

In verse 1, when David says, give ear, He's not commanding God, of course. He's entreating God. He's begging God. In verse 2, when David says, Give heed, he's not commanding God. He's entreating God.

He's begging God. How do we know that? Well, for sure in verse 2, when he says, my King and my God. This is not a peer to David. This is not David's buddy who's being approached.

This is David begging his King. Begging his God. Over and over in the Psalm you see capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, you have a Bible that renders it that way, Lord in all caps, that means Jehovah, that means the self-existent God. He is because He is, period. We don't even really know what that means, but it comes as close as we can get to God.

He exists from all eternity. He is outside of time. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent.

David knows it. Think of the Lord's Prayer. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. David makes that kind of approach to his king and to his God.

So number one was David isn't a practical atheist. Number two was David doesn't approach God as a peer. Number three, David prioritizes prayer. Look at verse three. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord.

In the morning I will direct it. I will direct my prayer to you and I will look up. Crying out to God is a priority for David. It can't wait until after breakfast to David. David isn't teaching that mourning is the exclusive territory for prayer.

Listen to him in... I lost my place. Give me a second. Listen to him in Psalm 55. This is also a Psalm of David.

Psalm 55 verses 16 and 17. As for me, I will call upon the Lord, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice." So in Psalm 55 also written by David, he says, when will I pray? I'll pray in the evening and in the morning and at noon. That's pretty much praying without ceasing.

So David's not teaching us in Psalm chapter 5 that morning is the exclusive time for prayer. He's teaching that prayer is the priority for him. He has enemies pressing in on every side. And how does David spend his time? He wakes up and he turns his eyes towards heaven because he knows that God is a God who hears his people and prayer is the priority, not his own action.

First things first is all that's being taught here. When David says that he prays in the morning, in the morning he'll direct his prayer to God. Fourth, David prays what he prays based on God's character. David prays what he prays based on God's character. He knows what God hates.

David talks about what God abhors or detests. He knows that God is not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. And that evil cannot dwell with him. He knows that God is merciful. If he didn't think God was merciful, he probably wouldn't bother.

He knows what God is like. He's righteous, but not just righteous, also merciful. And these truths about God shape his prayers. If you want to get more effective about praying, study this book. Study God in this book.

Study God's self-revelation, which is in the Bible. And we'll become more effective in our praying because our prayers will be shaped by what God says about Himself. We know, 1 John, we know that He hears us. If we pray according to His will, we know that He hears us. How do you pray according to his will?

You know what God is like. You know what reflects his character. And you pray like that and you know that he hears and answers when you pray like that. Fifth, David has one hope. David is a man who has turned his back on every other hope.

What is David's hope? That God is merciful. Verse 7. Just listen to verse 7. But as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy.

This is the ground for David's approaching God, the multitude of God's mercy. That God is abundant in mercy. There is one way into that house is what David is teaching. You want to go into the house of God? There is one Price of admission, and you don't have it, God has it.

It's the God of abundant mercy extending His mercy to you. Sixth, God is the source of David's joy and he wants that for all his brethren. If you're in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're David's brother. And God is the source of all his joy and he wants God to be the source of all your joy. Listen to verse 11.

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you. Joy, joy, joy for all those who trust in the Lord." David trusted in the Lord. The Lord was his joy.

The Lord was the source of his rejoicing, but he doesn't restrict it to himself. Let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. If you're David's brother, you have a great ocean of joy to dip into and you'll never diminish it. Don't worry, dip out all you like. Dip out all the joy you like.

You won't diminish that ocean at all. It just keeps coming. He's an endless source of joy for his people. Finally, this isn't a seventh point, this is just a final comment here. This isn't what we learn about David, but when we think about King David, we should think about King Jesus.

In the same way that when we think about the priests in the Old Testament and their function and what they do, they're a foreshadowing of something so much greater. When you think about it, when you come upon the priests in the Old Testament, you can't just think about the priests in the Old Testament. You have to know that what you're learning teaches you something in a small way about the Lord Jesus Christ who is the high priest of His people. So in the same way when we encounter priests in the Old Testament, we think about our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we encounter King David in the Old Testament, we should say, what is that telling me about the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ?

He foreshadows him. Jesus is the son of David. He's of the line of Judah for a reason, God's reason. We should learn from this. What do we learn?

That David is foreshadowing the Lord Jesus Christ and what he does when he's pressed by enemies. What does Jesus do when he's pressed by enemies? All through his life, all through the Gospels, he cries out to his father for help. He doesn't take these matters into his own hands, though he could call 10, 000 angels down to defend his own cause, he sets his eyes on heaven and prays to his father. He entrusted himself to his father.

Listen to Mark chapter 1 verse 35. It's just representative of what you find all throughout the gospels, but I don't have time to trace it all out. Mark 1 verse 35, Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. It could be David in Psalm chapter 5 for all we know. In the morning before the sun comes up Jesus is out.

He finds a quiet place and he turns his eyes towards heaven. Just what we see in Psalm chapter 5. Or listen to John chapter 11, verses 41 and the beginning of 42. John 11, 41 and the beginning of 42. Jesus is about to call Lazarus out of his grave.

Lazarus is not going to be dead, but for a few more seconds when Jesus says this. Listen. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, and I know that you always hear me. Thank you that you've heard me. I know that you always hear me.

Lazarus, come out!" and he comes out. David is just foreshadowing the faith of Jesus and His Father, turning His eyes towards heaven. Number one was an overview of the psalm. Number two was what we learned about David. Number three, what we learn about God.

What we learn about God in this prayer of David. First, God hears prayer. You might say duh, But it seems so basic, but in Psalm 8, which we'll be studying next week, David says, what is man that you are mindful of him? We shouldn't take it for granted that God hears prayer. Do you know that man is a speck on a speck?

Meaning if you look at the earth, you can't see you. If you look at the earth, you can't see you. If you look at the earth, you are not visible, you're a speck. But in the universe, if you look at the earth, You can't see the earth. If you've ever been to the Creation Museum and gone into their planetarium and seen where they just zoom out from planet earth, planet earth is just a speck.

You don't even see the speck from outer space. And you're the speck on the speck. So we can't take it for granted that God hears the prayers. Who are we? What is man?

That God is mindful of man. And yet God is mindful of man. God is the King and the God of His people, and He hears their prayers and He answers their prayers. It's no small thing that God hears our prayers. So even though it's so obvious, we'll make that the first thing we learn about God.

He hears our prayers. If you're among His people, He hears your prayers. Secondly, God is only and always completely righteous. God is only and always completely righteous. Listen to verse 4.

For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. Sometimes I think we lose sight of that when we think of God. Because we've become so comfortable with being a mixture and having defilement be part of everything that we know because we still have our flesh. Even when we are born again, the flesh clings to us in this life. And so everything that we do is tainted.

Nothing God does is tainted. Evil cannot dwell with Him. Evil does not dwell with Him. His eyes are too holy than to look on sin. This is the God of the Bible.

He is Only and always righteous, even though you're tainted in everything you think and do. He's nothing like us. Listen how Jesus taught that to His disciples. So you just listen to this. It's in 1 John chapter 1, and John is telling his readers what Jesus told him.

1 John chapter 1 verses 5 and 6, this is the message which we have heard from him, from Jesus, and declare to you. That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. When Jesus was teaching his disciples about this, he uses light and darkness as a metaphor. Light is purity and righteousness, and God is all light.

He's all purity. He's all righteousness. There's no blending. And darkness is corruption and unrighteousness. So that Jesus taught his disciples that if you say you have fellowship with Jesus but you walk in darkness the pattern of your life is corruption and unrighteousness you're lying.

Why? Because God doesn't delight. He takes no pleasure in wickedness. And He cannot, does not, will not dwell with evil. Third, this means that God abhors the wicked.

He detests the wicked. That God is only and always completely righteous means that he abhors, he detests the wicked. Listen to verses 4-6. Follow along while I read verses 4-6. Psalm 5 verse 4, For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you.

The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." Now here's the problem. David describes the wicked in this Psalm.

Turn to Romans 3. You need to see this. Here's the problem. David describes the wicked in Psalm 5, and Paul quotes him. So Psalm 5 shows up in Romans chapter 3.

Let's look at it. Romans chapter 3, I'm going to be reading 9 through 20. Please follow along. Now, Paul is coming out of explaining the advantage of being a Jew. And he says they were given the oracles of God.

In other words, the Jews had God's Word when the rest of the world was without it. And it's a blessing to have the truth of God's Word. And the Jews had lived with that blessing. But then, He shifts in verse 9 to say that doesn't make them better than the Gentiles. And he condemns all under sin.

Watch Paul do this. Romans 3 beginning of verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Are Jews better than Gentiles?

Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous no not one. There is none who understands there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside they have together become unprofitable There is no one who does good, no not one.

Now he quotes Psalm chapter 5, our Psalm for today. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they practice deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Paul quotes David in Psalm 14. Paul quotes David in Psalm 53.

Paul quotes David in Psalm 5. Paul quotes David in Psalm 140. Paul quotes David in Psalm chapter 36 to pile up the guilt of our wickedness before God. Jewish guilt? Yes.

Greek guilt? Yes. The guilt of the world. And then Paul says, God through David does that, that every mouth may be stopped, and that all the world may become guilty before God. So, God through David in these various Psalms, I think I just gave you five, one, two, three, four, five Psalms of David that are quoted here in Romans chapter 3.

He does that to show that all mankind stand condemned and stand with only one hope and that is that God is abundant in mercy which also makes its appearance in Psalm chapter 5. I've lost my place again. I'll find it. Just be patient. Oh yes, we're in point three.

This means that God detests the wicked. Here's the problem. Paul quotes this to say, we're all wicked. How is this resolved? Fourth, this is the fourth thing we learn about God.

God is also merciful. If we stopped here with just an all-righteous God, before whom all mankind stands guilty. There's no hope in the world. We're done. Sermon over.

But it's not just that God is righteous. It is also that God is merciful. Back to verse 7. But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy. God is not only completely righteous, detesting the wicked, he is also a God full of mercy, who takes sinners who repent and come to Him.

Now David doesn't develop the basis for God's mercy, he just says He's got a multitude of mercy. He's abundant in mercy, but I feel compelled to speak of the basis for God's mercy. It is not that God is overlooking sin. David says that God is completely righteous and then in verse 7 he shifts and says, but I'll come before God because of the multitude of His mercy. God's mercy in no way violates his complete and utter righteousness.

How can that be? Substitutionary atonement. That's how God can be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. That's also Romans chapter 3, I think. How can this be?

How can God be all righteous and yet still be merciful? Is He overlooking sin? No! He's not overlooking sin. He's a just judge.

If we had a human judge that overlooked guilt and just set the guilty free to be nice, You would say you would call for his head. How much less can a righteous God be that? No. It is that he is willing to accept a substitute. He maintains his righteousness and yet he is able to extend mercy.

It's Jesus that allows him to be just and the justifier of those who have faith. It's Jesus' work. That is the basis, that is the grounds of his mercy. It is not the overlooking of sin. David understood at least a little of this.

The most messianic of the messianic Psalms. In other words, there are Psalms about Jesus of the 150. There are some great Psalms that are so obviously about Jesus. And the most obvious to me are what? Psalm 22 and Psalm 110.

They're both Psalms of David. So he at least saw the Messiah through a glass darkly. Psalm 22 describes the crucifixion long before there was crucifixion. So we probably understand Psalm 22 a lot better than David understood Psalm 22 when he wrote it. And same with Psalm 110 that says that Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

We can see exactly how that is now that Christ has come. So David understood some of this at least. The fifth thing we learn about God. God leads His people in righteousness. Look at verse 8.

Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies, make your way straight before my face." David is praying that because he knows God is willing to answer that prayer. He is praying according to the will of God there. God is willing to lead His people in His righteousness and to make their paths straight. In other words, make their paths straight. Make it so they can discern what is right and are willing to walk in it.

By the way, when David says, for the sake of my enemies, verse 8, lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies. Now what would being led in righteousness have to do with the enemies? I believe that he's praying to be like Daniel. In what way? Well Daniel had enemies, like David has enemies.

Daniel's enemies were after him and they were looking to be able to bring a charge against him. And what did they find? Nothing. Daniel had been led in God's righteousness. Daniel's ways had been made straight before God's face.

So when his enemies were looking for something to charge they had to find something according to his faith. They had to be able to rig a system so that Daniel would be able to be accused for his worship of God. That was the only thing they could get him on. I think David is praying, God make me like that, make me like Daniel, Lead me in righteousness, make my path straight so that when my enemies look for something there's nothing. God leads His people in His righteousness.

He makes their path straight before His face. Sixth, God ultimately condemns the wicked. God ultimately condemns the wicked. Look at verse 10. Proounce them guilty, O God.

Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. This is the end of rebels against Almighty God. They are cast out. They are ultimately condemned.

Seventh, God is the joy of His people. I know I've already sort of said this, I'm going to say it again too, because it's so prominent in the text. God is the joy of His people. Back to verses 11 and 12. Here's the point of 11 and 12.

If you need more joy, you need more God. If you don't have enough joy, you should go for more God because that's where the joy is. Only God satisfies. The world, the flesh, and the devil can offer cheap thrills, but they're here and gone. Only God makes the heart sing.

Here we have a Psalm and it ends with full-throated praise of Almighty God as the source of His people's joy. I hope you know something of this, inexperience, not just classroom knowledge. I hope you have heart knowledge of God making your soul sing. If you don't, oh seek Him for it. With all my advantages, I am thoroughly ashamed at the degree to which I am still unsanctified, but I know this.

I know what it is for my heart to sing because of God. And if you don't know it, seek it. God is the joy of His people. You have the right to joy if you're the Lord's. And you should question if you're the Lord's if you know nothing of joy in your heart, if you know nothing of satisfaction in God.

Only God brings true joy. Major point number four. We're starting a new list. What we learn about the enemies of God. They're described as boastful, workers of iniquity, bloodthirsty, deceitful, flatterers, rebellious, and they're David's enemies.

That's a point. Enemies of the Lord's people are really the Lord's enemies. I'm just going to refer to them as the wicked. Cautioning us to go back to Romans chapter 3 where we just were for a definition of the wicked. Everyone, every mouth is stopped before God.

All stand deserving condemnation before God. And so then the only question is, do you have mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ or do you not? So don't think of the wicked as a mass murderer. It does not have to be that. First, The wicked shall not stand in God's sight.

We saw that last week in Psalm chapter 1. Just flip over to Psalm chapter 1 and look at verse 5 again. Therefore The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." And then just the last phrase of the whole psalm is, "...but the way of the ungodly shall perish, the wicked shall not stand in God's sight." He takes no pleasure in unrighteousness. Nor shall evil dwell with him. Every mouth will be stopped before God.

Second, the wicked are hated by God and their end will be destruction. Look at the second half of verse 5 and verse 6. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors, detests the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

What does man say about that? Man says God loves the sinner but hates the sin. So who's right? David in Psalm 5 or the modern-day proverb? Well, obviously David in Psalm 5 is right, but what's behind the modern-day proverb?

I think it's this. We only know our own hatred, which is mixed with our indwelling corruption, so to think of God that way makes us really uncomfortable. It sort of feels like imputing or accusing God of sin because we know how sinful our own hatred is. Even when it's a righteous anger or angry about something that has to do with spiritual matters in God. We find it all mixed up with our corruptions.

And so our hatred never feels right to us. And I think that's probably, I think we are gauging it correctly. And so when we think about God and hatred, we're accusing Him of His hatred being like our hatred, and it isn't at all. So I think that's what's behind, God loves the sinner but hates the sinner. We're sort of trying to say, God, you're not guilty.

Well, that's true. He's not guilty. But his hatred is nothing like our hatred. It isn't mixed with any indwelling corruptions because he has none. God doesn't have any indwelling corruptions to mix with his hatred.

Even his hatred is pure and righteous. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. I am a mess today today finding my place aren't I? Luke chapter 6 verses 35 and 36 Jesus says but love your enemies do good and land hoping for nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High.

For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore, be merciful just as your Father also is merciful. Jesus is making an appeal that His people would be like His Father in Luke chapter 6. Like him in what way? Well, he is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Now, we, because our hatreds are mixed with our indwelling corruptions, can't square that kind of hatred with being kind to the unthankful and evil. But that's not a problem in God at all. It can be absolutely perfectly true that he hates all workers of iniquity, and that he is kind to them, and forbearing with them, and patient with them, and extending and offer a peace to them. That is not a contradiction in God. You can't pull that off and neither can I?

So we're not told to hate the workers of iniquity. You'd be hating members of your own family. You'd be hating yourself. But we're told to be like God in that He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. This is not a contradiction in God.

Third, Here's something else that we learned about the enemies of God. The wicked are ruled by their inner corruptions, which make their way to their lips. Their inner corruptions which rule them make their way to their lips. They don't just stay inside, they bubble out through the mouth. Listen to verse 9 and part of verse 10.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. End of verse 10. They have rebelled against you.

They're just full of rebellion. Inner corruptions. And it governs them. This is not like the believer who has been spiritually raised from the dead, but still has a flesh that is sort of an anchor. This is not having been born again, not having a new heart, a heart of flesh.

They still have a heart of stone, a cold, dead heart, and their flesh on top of it. And what does this do? It bubbles up into their speech. Here's what Charles Spurgeon says about this. By the way, every week one of the commentaries I'm consulting is the Treasury of David.

Charles Spurgeon commented on all 150 of the Psalms. And so he's got this just wealth of great commentary. I'm so enjoying reading Charles Spurgeon on the Psalms. He says this, I take heed of the wicked man, for there is nothing that he will not say to ruin you." That's something you should know about the wicked man. There is nothing that he won't say to ruin you.

He'll flatter you with his lips. His throat is like an open tomb. He's ready to swallow you up. He'll kill you with what comes out of his mouth if he can. There's nothing that he will not say to ruin you.

I think here's a comment that should be made. All that can be in a very respectable package. So you think, well, I'll be able to spot that guy, his throat is an open tomb. No. He comes with flattering lips, but war is in his heart.

War is in his heart. Fourth, the wicked often fall by their own counsels. God makes it so. Look at the first part of verse 10. Pronounce them guilty, O God, let them fall by their own counsels.

By their own counsels. Throughout the Psalms, you see the man who digs a pit to trap someone, and he falls in it himself. Throughout the Psalms, you see the man who spreads a net to catch the feet of the unsuspecting and yet he's caught up in his own net. So often God makes the wicked fall by their own counsels. God ultimately destroys the wicked, but they are the source of their own destruction.

God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. They are the source of their own destruction. That was some things that we learned about the enemies of God. Finally, what do we learn about the friends of God from this song. First, the friends of God have one source of hope, that is God Himself.

Listen to verse 3 again and the first part of verse 11. Verse 3, My voice you shall hear in the morning O Lord, in the morning I will direct it to you and I will look up. David Rose, first thing he did, he directed his prayer to God and then he looks in expectation to God. God was his hope. This is the first part of verse 11.

Let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy. The people of God trust in their God. They really, they put all their eggs in one basket. Psalm 5 is the prayer of a man who has all his eggs in one basket.

He's not hedging his bets, betting a little here and a little there, just hoping one of them will pan out. No, it's God or nothing for David. It should be God or nothing for us. All of our trust should be there. All of our eggs should be in that basket.

So God's people cry out to Him. The first of their time, the best of their time, right when they wake up goes to Him because their eggs are in that basket. If God won't save them, they know they will not be saved. Secondly, the friends of God understand something of who God is. They paid attention to God's revelation of Himself through His Word.

They understand something of who He is. When I originally wrote that, I said the friends of God understand who God is. And then I thought, do I understand who God is? So I softened it. Because I think we have still so much to learn about who God is.

We know something of who God is from His revelation to us. That He is an all righteous God, and that we need His mercy every day. And that brings us to the third thing that we learn about the friends of God. The friends of God throw themselves completely on the mercy of God. We saw that in verse 7.

They throw themselves completely on the mercy of God. They know who God is, that He is completely righteous, and that He is almighty, and that He will judge the living and the dead. And they know that their life cannot stand the scrutiny of that all-knowing judge. And that there's one hope, that they throw themselves on the mercy of God. That he has revealed himself to be a God of mercy, so they go to him for mercy.

They run to him. They've been tutored by the law. In other words, the law has taught them something. The law has told them, has taught them that they have not obeyed it. That's what the law is supposed to teach you.

Among a few other things. But that's the first thing the law is supposed to teach you, is that you've not obeyed it. So that you know what your standing is before a holy God. And they've been taught that, the friends of God have been taught that, and so they know there's no other hope, they run to God for mercy. Fourth, the friends of God worship in the fear of God.

Listen to the second half of verse 7. We've not spent any time on this so far in the fear of you. I will worship toward your holy temple Read the whole verse all of verse 7 Because this is about the house of God, but as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy. In the fear of you, I will worship towards your holy temple." Does this have something for us? You bet it does.

When we come together, there's only one basis for us coming together and that is that God is abundant in mercy. It is in the multitude of His mercy that we come together. If you don't plan to come because of the mercy of God, stay at home. The mercy of God expressed through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is the only reason that we can come here and join together and approach God. And then when we do, we worship in fear.

The fear of God and the mercy of God do not pull in opposite directions. You might think that they would. Knowing the mercy of God relieves the fear of God, not the biblical fear of God, not at all. The mercy of God in some ways heightens the fear of God. So David says, I'll come into your house in the multitude of your mercy and then the next word out of his mouth are, in the fear of you I will worship.

A Holy reverence of God ought to be heightened by the multitude of His mercies, not diminished. Our worship should be marked by a holy fear of God where we acknowledge what He has revealed Himself to be. Fifth, the friends of God find their joy in God. I told you I was going to say it again. Now here's a fourth taste of Philippians.

We'll be in Philippians in a couple of weeks. Philippians 4.4. Paul writes, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, Rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always.

He is an ocean of rejoicing. You can dip into that ocean all you like. I've already said that. Dip in! Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice. Spurgeon says joy is the privilege of the believer. Enjoy your privileges, brothers and sisters in Christ. Enjoy your privileges. Why would you let that privilege go unclaimed?

Jesus Christ has bought joy for you with His own blood. You're going to let that go unclaimed? Not me. Not if I can help it. Sixth, the friends of God enjoy the favor and defense of God.

Look at verse 12. For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor you will surround him as with a shield. The Lord's people, the Lord's friends enjoy his favor. It's his favor.

He's holy and you're not holy, but you've been reconciled through Christ. And now because Jesus has imputed his obedient life to you, you enjoy his favor. You are accepted in the beloved because Jesus is loved and you're in Jesus you're loved. And you're the beneficiary of his favor and he defends you. Rejoice!

There's so much more to be said. I have four applications and I'll go fast. Number one, a question. Is fellowship with The Lord made possible through Jesus the heart of your religion. It's fellowship with the Lord made possible through Jesus the heart of your religion.

Jesus bought this for you. Fellowship with the Lord. J.C. Rowe likes to say, there's union and there's communion. Union is very binary.

You either have union with Christ or you don't. If you're unified with Christ, you're at peace with God. If you're not, you're at war with God. It's yes or no and once you are, you are forever. Because He can keep you.

But then there's this other matter, communion. You can be unified with Christ and know very little of communion with God. But it's to be the heart of our religion, not out here on the periphery. Fellowship with God is to be at the heart of the practice of our religion. Jesus bought this for you.

You can draw near to Him. This is a searching question. Please don't let that question just go right over the top. Ask yourself honestly is fellowship with God that Jesus has bought for me with his own blood the heart of my religion or is it out here on the periphery? Do I have union with Christ but I know very little of communion with God.

Number two, children. Children. Start your day like David started his days. Start right now. Children, are you listening?

I want to see eyes. Children's eyes. I want to make eye contact with as many as I can. Start your days like David did. If you cultivate this habit, it will change the trajectory of your life.

If you prioritize seeking the Lord in prayer, again, like we started the sermon, not just something on the to-do list to check off, but a crying out to God that comes from the meditations of your heart. Bring the things that matter to you to Him. Lay them before Him. Even your sins, lay them before Him. Now this all has to be done like David did it.

In the multitude of your mercy, okay, you acknowledge that you're a sinner and that he is righteous and you've only got one way to be before Him. It's in humility, It's because of His mercy, but start your days this way. It will change your life. The trajectory of your life changes when you begin to prioritize seeking the Lord early in the day, every day. Number three, consider the wicked and repent.

We continue to see this. Psalm 1 has the same message as Psalm 5. God treats his friends this way. God treats his enemies that way. If you make yourself the enemy of God and you have, then without His mercy, destruction awaits you.

You'll fall by your own counsels. That was the words of our text. He will destroy you, you rebel. Consider the wicked and repent. Fourth and lastly, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord. I think we're skipping out on joy that is our birthright. I think Jason Doam is skipping out on joy that's his birthright. I want to claim it.

I want to grab a hold of it. Like Jacob grabbed a hold of God. I will not let you go unless you bless me. I want to dip into that deep ocean of God's joy more and more and more. I want to rejoice in the Lord always.

God, I thank you that you are the joy of your people and I pray that you would be our joy that we would find all of our satisfaction in you in Jesus name amen