The sermon 'Morning Prayer of a Man Who Knows His God' by David Green explores Psalm 5, examining how David approaches God with expectancy, meditating on God's character, petitioning for guidance amidst enemies, and expressing confidence in God's protection. The sermon highlights the basis for approaching a holy God, which is not personal worthiness but God's loving-kindness. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding God's holiness, which excludes the wicked, and the access granted by grace that produces reverence, not presumption. David's prayer serves as a model for believers, urging them to come boldly, humbly, honestly, and joyfully to God, with the assurance of Christ's advocacy on their behalf. The imagery of God as a shield provides confidence and joy for those who seek refuge in Him.

You can go ahead and be turning your Bibles tonight to the Psalms. We're going to go to Psalms, and today we'll go to the fifth Psalm, Psalm 5. Psalm 5. While you're turning there, most everybody has had opportunity and experience of needing to get in front of someone important. Maybe it's a doctor, a lawyer, maybe a boss, a teacher, somebody important, and not being sure that you'll be welcome when you get there.

There's that moment before you knock or before you dial the phone where you stop and you you ask yourself do I have standing here? Is this person really going to listen to me when I show up? Does this person want to hear from me? It doesn't matter whether it's your boss or a congressman or the lawyer or the doctor, whoever it is, you have something that you want to talk to them about but you're not sure if the time is right or if they're too busy to hear you or if they're even going to be interested in what You've got to say. David opens up Psalm 5 with that question already answered.

He doesn't wonder whether God's going to receive him. He orders his prayer like a man laying out his case. And there he watches expectantly for the response. David writes this Psalm. You see it there in the introduction of Psalm 5.

He wrote this Psalm for the chief choir director for the flutes, it says. A morning prayer full of urgency and confidence. The psalm moves through three sorry four clear moments. David's approach to God in prayer, his meditation on who God is, his petition for guidance in the midst of enemies, and his confidence in God's protection and blessing. The controlling question running through all four is this, on what basis does a sinful man draw near to a holy God and what does that access produce in the life of faith?

Psalm 5 is our text. The title of the message is, Mourning Prayer of a Man Who Knows His God. So let's go ahead with the reading here in the scriptures in Psalms 5 For the choir director for the flute, a psalm of David beginning verse 1 and going down to verse 12 the entire psalm this is what it says give ear to my words oh yaw way consider my meditation Give heed to the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God. For to you I pray, O Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil does not sojourn with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood.

Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness, I will enter your house. At your holy temple, I will worship in fear of you. Oh Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes. Make your way straight before me.

There is nothing reliable in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God, by their own devices.

Let them fall in the abundance of their transgressions. Thrust them out, for they are rebellious against you. But let all who take refuge in you be glad, and let them ever sing for joy. And may you shelter them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For it is you who blesses the righteous one, O Yahweh, you surround him with favor, as with a large shield." So reads the infallible, the inerrant, the all-sufficient Word of the Living God.

As As we look at this text, we see the divisions laid out there. So the first point that we want to make in here is the approach Morning prayer offered with expectancy. Verses 1-3. Give ear to My words, O Yahweh. Consider my meditation.

Give heed to the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God. For you I pray, oh Yahweh, in the morning, you will hear my voice. In the morning, I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch." As we read that and as we consider the text before us, we Notice some words that kind of stand out as he calls out to God in prayer. He calls God to give ear and take heed. This is a man who is not mumbling, he is crying out, calling on God to listen and to take heed.

Listen and to take heed. He addresses God as not just God, but my King and my God. You see, David was in a personal covenant relationship with him. He's not just God, he's my God. He's not just King, he's my King.

This was personal for David. And this was the ground upon which David stood before him, ground for his boldness. He prays in the morning, He prays in the morning, verse 3, and He eagerly watches, knowing, beloved, as he prayed, he had faith, you will hear my voice. You will hear my voice. Prayer is not just monologue.

Prayer is not just monologue. He was expecting divine answer. He was anticipating a divine response to come from Almighty God. As we Consider the words here in this text, and as we look at this first part of Psalm 5, we must ask ourselves, what does our morning prayers sound like? What does it reveal about our standing with God and our view with God.

Tying this into our study about who God is, where are we at with God when we pray to Him in the morning. Do we pray with expectation, or do we pray merely out of habit? David lays out his prayer the way a man files a brief with confidence that it will be read, considered and answered. That's the way it is when you go before a judge. You have a petition.

You want it to be answered. You want it to be read. You want it to be considered. And we're going before the most gracious, holy judge of all the earth. It is one thing to ask.

But notice what David does before he asks for anything further. He stops to think about who he is speaking to. And what he sees there makes everything else possible. And that brings us to verses 4 through 7. He says here, For you are not a God who delights in wickedness.

Evil does not sojourn with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit, but as for me, in the abundance of your loving-kindness, I will enter your house and your holy temple.

I will worship in fear of you." You see, this is the of you, you think this is the theological heart of the psalm. As David prays, he meditates on God's moral character before he makes another request. I think sometimes we miss that in our own prayers. We approach to the throne room of heaven, and we do so so frequently and so boldly, but often we forget. He is our Father, yes, but He is our Heavenly Father.

He is our great God. What does that mean? Who is he? And who are we? As David meditates on this, the first thing we see is that God's holiness excludes the wicked, verses 4 through 6.

There's an old practice in certain courts where a petitioner could not approach the king unless the king first extended his scepter. If the king withheld it, you did not come forward regardless of how urgent your business was. Or even how sincere your intentions. You can see something of this logic here in verses 4-6. As David meditates on the character of God, he is about to address.

Evil cannot dwell with him. The boastful cannot stand before him. He destroys liars he abhors the violent notice in this in this text the escalating language He does not delight, cannot stand, hates even, destroys of whores. This is not just ceremonial distaste. David is saying something about God that is very true.

The door is shut. Not ajar, not cracked, but it's shut. God, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, the sovereign God of the universe, the omnipresent, omniscient God of heaven and earth, the God of David, The God of David, the God that we worship, serve, love, is the same God that we read of here. He does not delight in wickedness. Evil does not sojourn with him, does not travel with him.

It's not his traveling companion. The boastful will companion. The boastful will not stand before his eyes. He hates all workers of iniquity. I remember it well.

The year was 1998. I was in Roanoke, Virginia. 17-year-old boy, still in high school. I'd been invited to preach at a fellowship meeting. There were preachers There, some of whom had been preaching longer than my daddy had been tying his shoelaces.

And I didn't know any of them. But John Kohler had invited me to preach at that meeting. And I went there. The building was huge. It was an old building that had been built sometime in the Jerry Falwell days, so it was a big building.

In fact, some of the preachers there were still influenced by the teachings of Jerry Falwell. And so, before the church service started, The preachers were told to be there for a discussion, for a biblical discussion. And the topic was, does God love everybody? Does God love everybody? Now as you can imagine, some of those old hard-line Armenian fellows were pretty passionate about what they believed about the love of God.

And me being 17 years old I just kind of sat back and watched and saw how these men, some of them pretty hard-line Armenian, all the way up to some pretty hard-line what we'd call Calvinists or doctrines of grace fellows got together and had discussion about this subject. It wasn't going very well. I thought, man, I'm not even going to get to preach. Until this middle-aged preacher by the name of Jeff Lawrence calmly opened up his Bible and pointed the brethren to Psalm 5-5 and laid that out there before everybody. Bare bones to everyone and I still recall him reading it.

He read the whole thing, "'the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.'" And even though not everyone in the room agreed completely, all had to agree that this is the word of God. David sure did come down and say this in his prayer. And of course there's other passages like it, but the reality is that no matter where you come down on this issue, come down on this issue, the reality is that there are, there's a truth, there's a truth contained here in this passage, and that is that the door is shut to some people. And David brings that out.

God does not delight in wickedness. You hate all the workers of iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. There is a reality that is true to be found here, and that is the throne room of heaven is not wide open for everybody.

One of these days, death and judgment is coming, and not everybody's going to end up in heaven. It's reality. It's reality. It's found in the Bible. Heaven is real, but so is hell.

God does love. That is true. God is love. But understand something, God also hates, and it's found here in this passage, as well as other passages within the scriptures. And so what is our hope?

Who then can come before God? Who then can approach before Yahweh? Who then can enter into the throne room of heaven. Verse 7 turns on a single word, but, but, But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness, I will enter your house. The King's scepter has been extended.

Not because David earned it, not because you or I have earned it or we are able to enter in, but because God in His covenant love chose to extend it, chose to hold it out. David says, but as for me, he sets himself apart not by merit, not by any good work that he had done, not because of anything that he had accomplished, not because of his genealogy or anything like that. He says by relationship he enters in the abundance of your loving-kindness. Nothing here about righteousness that he had done, but the abundance of your loving kindness, and he worships in fear of you. In fear of you, in fear of Yahweh, in fear of God.

You understand that access granted by grace does not produce presumption, It produces reverence. You and I, when we approach unto God, yes, we are understanding that He is our Father, But He is our Heavenly Father. You see the respect shown there, the reverence shown. We're not flippant when we approach unto God and say, oh, Daddy, like some people are when they approach to God, we show Him reverence because of who He is and because of who we are. Every believer stands before God on the same ground as David did.

Not personal worthiness, but loving kindness of God. This is the only ground that any of us have ever had for coming to him. When we get to the conclusion, We'll see exactly how that door was opened up and who opened it. But having established the ground on which he stands, David now turns to what he actually needs. Then he comes to the petition, verses 8 through 10.

Again, if you're following along in the LSB, you'll see that this is already divided up by these verses. Maybe someone else might have outlined this a little bit different, but this is kind of the way that I've got it here. The petition guided by righteousness in the presence of enemies. Look there with me. So we read it again.

Oh, Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes. Make your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave.

They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God. By their own devices let them fall in the abundance of their transgressions Thrust them out for they are rebellious Against you David's request is interesting here because he doesn't lead with an ask for protection, but for guidance in righteousness. He wants to walk in the right path. Oh, there are many adversaries.

That is a fact. But we do need guidance in righteousness. We need that kind of a prayer to lead me in your righteousness because of my foes." He then describes his enemies with striking intensity, unreliable words, says there's nothing reliable in their mouth. Inward destruction, throats like open graves. If some of this sounds familiar, It should.

The Apostle Paul quotes from this in Romans chapter 3, talking about the depravity of man. Throat's like open graves, flattering tongues. David's enemies are no different than all of us apart from God's grace. In other words, were it not for the grace of God in your life and my life, you and I would look exactly like the kind of people who were giving David trouble when he wrote Psalm 5. We're all depraved.

And the connection is made to Romans chapter 3 and especially verse 13. As we look at this and understand that this is not unique to David's enemies, this is human depravity, universal human depravity, your depravity, your depravity, your depravity, and mine. And we're not enough for the grace of God in our lives. This is where we'd be in this Psalm. With the door shut and no access to Almighty God.

As I mentioned in the introduction, there are certain Psalms that are called imprecatory Psalms. This is one of them. Verse 10, hold them guilty, O God, By their devices let them fall. In the abundance of their transgressions thrust them out, for they are rebellious against you." When you read something like this, you may think that this is nothing more than personal revenge. But it's not.

That's not David's heart here. It is a prayer that justice be done. That God would vindicate His own name against those who rebel against Him. And so, We shouldn't feel uncomfortable when we read words like this. In a world full of deceit and opposition, the believers, that's us, those of us who have come to know the Lord, our first request should be for moral clarity and righteous direction, not merely personal and not merely personal comfort.

Far too often we're eager to rush to the comfort part when we pray, but we should want and desire above all things to walk worthily of the access that we've been given. I think we see that here in Psalm 5 in this great prayer here. What does this life of access and righteous walking produce? It's not anxiety, not white It's not anxiety, not white-knuckled endurance. Legalism will do that sort of thing to you.

But that's not what is here. That's not what's to be found in this passage. David ends this Psalm in a place that might surprise you because we find him in great confidence. Verses 11 and 12. But let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them ever sing for joy and may you shelter them that those who love your name may exalt you for it is you who blesses the righteous one oh Yahweh who surround him with favor as with a large shield.

The confidence is joy and shelter for those who take refuge. The psalm doesn't end as I said in anxiety, but gladness. Those who take refuge in God are glad, even singing for joy. Verse 11 says, God shelters them. The image of a large shield surrounding the righteous is the image of a warrior.

God himself is that shield. He is the perimeter of protection. What do we have to worry about with a shield such as our God? None of this is presumptuous. It is covenant confidence.

The one who knows God's holiness, the one who has entered by His grace and walks in His righteousness, can face enemies and their schemes without despair. The shield isn't your strength. It's not my strength. Guess what? Some days we feel stronger than others, don't we?

Some days are better than others. We might get up today and say, oh, today's the day. I'm going to take it on. Tomorrow we might feel like it's all the world's come crashing down and this big. The shield is God.

Whether I feel strong or not, whether you feel strong or not, none of that matters. It's the favor of God surrounding you. And let me tell you something, if you're in God's favor yesterday, you'll be in God's favor today and forever. Again, not because of who we are or what we are. You see, being in relationship with God isn't like being in relationship with your spouse.

We love our spouses. I think if we're all honest with ourselves, there are some days that we don't like our spouses. Because there's something about relationships with human relationships with human beings, sometimes we get on each other's nerves. It just happens. God's not like that.

Not ever. To bring this to a close, Psalm 5 gives us a model for every believer's prayer life. That model is to come boldly, approach your king in the morning with expectation. Number two, come humbly. You stand before a holy God by grace alone, not by merit.

Come honestly. Name your enemies and your need for guidance. And come joyfully. Your God is a shield. He blesses the righteous.

This is the model for our prayer life. We know that God knows all of these things before we even ask, but He has invited us to come. And so this is our model as we read here in Psalms 5. And here's the ground beneath all four of those calls. Here's what Christ did.

He entered the presence of a holy God as our representative, bearing our sin, absorbing the full weight of the wrath that we read about, verses 4 through 6. The wrath due to every boastful word, every deceitful tongue, every act of violence in thought or deed. You and I know somewhere as we read verses 4 through 6 somewhere within our flesh and within who we are we fit right in there. But Jesus bore it completely so that when we come to God, We don't come as those who hope that maybe the door is cracked a little bit and we can sneak in. We don't come as like the person who is coming to meet the boss for the first time.

We've got that anxiety. We knock on the door and we say, boss, you, Are you busy? I've got something I want to talk to you about. You got time for me? Nothing like that.

We come, as Hebrews puts it, with full assurance through a new and a living way. You see, Christ died on the cross for our sins, But he didn't stay in the grave, he rose. And right now he's at the right hand of the Father today, making intercession for us, he's alive. And every morning prayer that you make goes up to a God who has a living advocate ready standing in his presence on your behalf. The abundance of loving-kindness David knew about he could claim by faith looking forward.

We claim by faith looking back. See, he was looking forward to what Jesus would do. You and I, we look back on it. To a cross where the door was open and was never shut again. This is why you can order your prayer in the morning and watch with expectancy.

You're not waiting as some door hoping to be let in. You're not waiting to find out if you're welcome. You already know. And so for those who are, have been saved, start this week, this is your challenge, start this week with five minutes before anything else. Before the phone, before the coffee, before the noise of the day begins.

Open up the Psalms. Lay out your prayer before God. Do it the way David did it. Name what you need. Name who your God is and then watch.

Not because God needs the ritual, He doesn't. Because we need Him. A man who orders, a man, woman, or child who orders his prayer in the morning and watches for an answer is a man who walked differently by noon. That's a fact. I trust that this Psalm, Psalm 5 has been a blessing to you as it was to me as I thought about it.

And as we consider this text, bring us to a close. I'll just ask, do we have any questions tonight? All night.