God Has Always Blessed Those Who Grieve -- David's beautiful insight in Psalm 5

God wants us to express our grief to Him.

Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Psalm 5

Grief is a central part of life and always has been; that's why the Psalms are filled with expressions of sorrow and grief. Psalm 5 gives us a balanced perspective of lamenting the wicked things happening to him and the continued trust of God's protection and expectation of God's blessing. The Beatitudes are a good explanation of this balance.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice (5:11)

This week's post is rather blunt. It's a tough topic (lamenting the wickedness in the world). We will end with Psalm 5's words of blessing, but I don't just want to pay lip service to the many sources of true lament in our world. You may want to choose to emphasize the end of the psalm in your group time; I just want to make sure we all appreciate that there are things to lament in our world, and we should cry out to God about them.

Getting Started: Things to Think About

Count Your Blessings

This week's psalm is a lament, but the psalmist (David) is confident that God blesses the righteous. So, what are the blessings you are aware of every day?

In my experience, being daily thankful helps carry me through the times when I feel like I have more sorrows than blessings.

Rapid-Fire Ideas

During the commentary below, I throw out some questions. You may want to turn one of them into your opening attention-getter, rather than the depressing topics I suggest below.

• When is the best time of day for you to pray?

• How patient are you waiting for God's response to your prayer?

• Have you ever experienced a "backstabbing" campaign?

• Can God turn suffering or sorrow into a blessing?

Times Are Tough Out There

In our psalm, King David laments about the amount of wickedness in the world (and the number of evildoers).

[Context alert: David is specifically talking about wickedness in his circles -- leaders and rulers among the Hebrews, and wickedness specifically directed at him. In other words, Psalm 5 is a personal lament. But we haven't studied a general lament this quarter, so I propose that we spend some time talking more generally about wickedness in the world and the people who suffer under it.]

We don't have to look far for lots of examples in the news. What are some recent stories about wickedness that have really burdened your heart?

To Whom Did You Go for Comfort as a Child?

This is based on a question I read in my Serendipity Bible. When you were in need of comfort as a child, who was your go-to?

Depending on where you are in life, it might be easier to remember times when you gave comfort to someone else (like your own child or a student), and that would be just fine.

What are the sorts of things that children need comfort for? How did you offer it? (And at the moment, I'm talking about here in our families/schools. Things like war and famine will come up in my next section, but that doesn't mean that kids right here haven't experienced awful things.)

This Week's Big Idea: The Voice of the Martyrs (and Other Watchdog Organizations)

What a thankless and dangerous job, to work for a true watchdog. Yet I'm thankful they're doing it.

I want to make sure we understand how tough the times are around the world. Here is an excerpt of an email I got this week from The Voice of the Martyrs:

Joe has served as a pastor in a North African country for more than two decades. “You can’t really imagine what the people here endure,” he said. “If you are identified as a Christian, you are [treated like] someone who has leprosy.”

Originally from a sub-Saharan country, Joe emigrated as a student and fell in love with the beauty of the arid North African nation where he moved.

As Joe shared his Christian faith with other students, God gave him a passion to lead others to Christ and then make disciples of them. Joe changed the focus of his studies to Christian theology and eventually became a pastor. Much of his ministry work now involves training Christian leaders and teaching new believers how to follow Christ in this restricted nation.

Joe’s ministry work brings great joy but also great danger. “No single believer I know ever told me it is easy,” he said. “It is difficult for the mindset of the people here to accept someone who rejects Islam.” In attempts to intimidate the Christians Joe ministers to, someone has left threatening messages on the church door and smashed members’ car windows.

“We are afraid,” Joe admitted. “We are exposed, so I can tell you that many times we start a day, but we don’t know how the day will end.”

Still, Joe said encouragement from the global body of Christ has helped him and his congregation persevere and continue in the ministry to which the Lord has called them. The local church is still growing, and Joe continues to point others to Christ in North Africa.

I think it would be valuable to spend a little time researching current examples of persecution and suffering around the world. There are many people for whom Psalm 5 would not just be words on a page but a challenge to their very hearts.

I'm not just talking about religious persecution. We should lament the wicked things that happen to anybody. I recently read a Times investigation into children kidnapped in Syria during the Assad regime as punishment for their parents. It's unbelievably heartbreaking. And then another article about children kidnaped from Ukraine for brainwashing in Russia. And then stories about children starving as a result of the war in Gaza. And in Sudan. And in Haiti. And in so many more places around the world.

And I lament. And I cry out to God to put an end to such wickedness. (To which I hear the question, what am I doing about it?)

If you're going to do any research about actions of wickedness in our world, don't sugarcoat anything. We should all be broken and on our knees in devastation for what happens to people around our world.

What can you do, no matter how small it seems, to help make a difference in one of these situations?

Bonus Big Idea: AI and Cyberspace

You didn't think I would ignore this topic, did you, what with AI being mentioned with so many stories about how hard the world has gotten?

Yes, it's certainly terrible the number of jobs and families who have been upended by AI, but I want to focus on something different -- how AI has enabled terrible crimes. And I'm just going to talk about four of them (because this is all overwhelming enough as it is).

• Scammers can use AI to scam senior adults with avatars of their grandchildren -- make the scammer look and sound like a loved one in financial need. This is about as low as it gets, but it's not as bad as it gets ...

• Perverts can use AI to create nude photos of pretty much anyone and distribute them online. And if one of these photos circulates in a person's peer group, that can be so utterly devastating (to anyone, but especially a child).

• Bullies can use AI to create leverage over someone (like a nude deepfake) and then bully them in cyberspace into doing something terrible to themselves, often with the bullies watching online.

• Everyone can use AI as a conversation partner, and with the "loneliness epidemic" accelerating, some people have become reliant on those "digital friends". And when the AI model changes, it can have real-world consequences.

So, yes, just that many more things to lament and cry out to God about.

Whatever you do, don't ignore it.

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Psalm 5: A Lament

Depending on whether you classify Psalm 38 as lament or penitential, this might be our first "psalm of lament". "Lament" is deep sorrow or grief. In the Psalms, these laments are either communal (44, 74, 79, etc.) or personal (22, 38, 41, 54, etc.). I mentioned above that Psalm 5 is a personal lament -- David is lamenting the things that have happened to him. But plenty of psalms are more general, lamenting things happening to God's people, or about the presence of wickedness in the world period.

Fully 1/3 of the Psalms deal with some kind of lament. In other words, the compiler of the Psalms understood that sorrow and grief are a regular part of the human existence.

And according to many great Christian leaders, the psalms of lament are one of the most special parts of the entire Bible. They help us put our grief into words and express it to God. Life is filled with sorrow, and it is meaningless to attempt to ignore it (especially after we just spent a week studying Psalm 139 and how God knows our every thought).

In verse 1, the word translated "sighing" in the CSB is translated "lament" in the NIV. This word only appears twice in the Bible, but it's obvious that we're talking about a mournful sighing.

Laments follow a basic pattern -- and this pattern can help us process our own griefs --

• address God directly,

• describe the complaint,

• remember how God has delivered in the past,

• make a specific request,

• vow to praise God whatever the outcome.

Here's an outline of Psalm 5:

• "Hear me, God" (1-2)

• God will hear me because He hates evil (3-7)

• "God, protect Your followers and punish the wicked" (8-11)

• Closing declaration of confidence

One fun thing in the title of the Psalm: "For the director of music/the choir director. For pipes/flutes. A psalm of David." We've talked about titles a few times; some have more information than others. In this title, the word often translated "pipes" only occurs here in the entire Bible, and the assumption is it's some kind of wind instrument; the root word is similar to the word for "flute" (but not exactly the same).

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Part 1: God Is a God of Righteousness (Psalm 5:1-6)

1 Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing. 2 Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you.

3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you and watch expectantly. 4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil cannot dwell with you. 5 The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who tell lies; the Lord abhors violent and treacherous people.

It might seem strange to start a prayer with "listen to me, God", but that's essentially what we're doing when we start a prayer with "God..." or "O Lord..." And remember that this prayer is codified for public Jewish use, so David is just making everything clear.

Remember poetic parallelism -- "listen to my words" and "pay attention to my cry" are two ways of saying the same thing.

"My King and my God", however, is worth taking a second look at. David brought up "the Lord as King" in Psalm 2 (we talked about this when we studied Psalm 110). Remember that the Hebrews asked for a king (Saul) because they had rejected God as their king (1 Sam 8:7), and yet here is their king declaring God to be King. This is a slap in the face to the faithless Jews.

"In the morning" doesn't mean that God only hears morning prayers. This was just a common time for prayer. (This leads to a potential discussion -- what is your favorite time to pray? Or, when do you tend to feel like your praying is most "effective"?)

And David is not saying that he expected to get an "answer" from God the day he made a prayer! He is simply describing his prayer life in terms of a daily cycle:

• David offers his prayer

• God hears his prayer

• David waits for God to answer

As you know, it could be weeks or months or longer before you get a clear "answer" from God (and sometimes that answer is "no"), and David is taking that into account here. David offers his prayer, and he waits. He offers it again, and he waits. We get the sense that David will continue to offer this prayer until he knows God's answer. (And again, that answer might be "no".)

There are two really important things here I don't want us to miss:

One, David patiently waits for God's response. How many of us offer a prayer, wait an hour or two, and then go right on ahead with what we wanted to do anyway?

And two, David is attentive to God's response. He's on the lookout for God's response. How many of us miss God's answer because we're not looking for it? Think about it -- is it not silly to offer a prayer and not pay attention for a response? Why offer the prayer in the first place?

But then David transitions to why he believes God will hear his prayer favorably. It doesn't need much explanation -- God opposes wickedness, and David is asking God to oppose the wicked. Pretty simple.

Here's why this is a valuable lesson for us: prayer is not really about us telling God what to do -- it's about us listening to what God is going to do.

• We will never tell God something He doesn't know.

• We will never convince God to do something outside His character.

So, why do we pray? One, because God told us to, and two, because it helps us "get in tune" with God's plan for our life.

By "explaining" why God should answer this prayer, David is clarifying to himself why he is offering this prayer in the first place.

Apply this to whatever your prayer might be --

"God, I want to be a billionaire."

Why?

"Because it will make my life easier."

Okay, you need to think about that for a while.

And don't bother trying to make your prayer sound spiritual! God knows what your true motives are!

David knows that his prayer is in line with God's character. In my opinion, this is the proper application of what Jesus said in John 14:13

Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Jesus' "name" is His character -- praying "in Jesus' name" means praying according to Jesus' character.

In poetic (and dramatic) fashion, David is simply saying that God cannot tolerate the presence of sin, and God punishes sin. These things are true.

Note: the word for "lie" is more what we would today call "slander". They're not just general untruths, they're slanders directed at David, which helps us understand the next part of the lesson.

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Part 2: The World Is Full of Wickedness (Psalm 5:7-10)

7 But I enter your house by the abundance of your faithful love; I bow down toward your holy temple in reverential awe of you. 8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my adversaries; make your way straight before me.

9 For there is nothing reliable in what they say; destruction is within them; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongues. 10 Punish them, God; let them fall by their own schemes. Drive them out because of their many crimes, for they rebel against you.

[FYI: I'm going to talk more about verses 7 and 8 in the next section.]

This section highlights something we have talked about many, many times -- why do "good" people suffer and wicked people prosper?

The whole point of Ecclesiastes is to come to grips with the cycle of wickedness in the world. And what is the Book of Job if not one giant example of a "good" man suffering?

So here's David: "God, I'm a faithful Hebrew. I love and worship you and desire to follow Your ways. But there are these people out there, and they're wicked. Will You do something about them?"

This is definitely softer than last week's outburst in Psalm 139! "Lord, if only You would kill the wicked!" But the sentiment is the same.

I think we can read between the lines here:

• David's political opponents were lying about him in order to increase pressure on him and make him more likely to fail as a ruler.

• Some of these same people were in David's circles and being quite two-faced, again for the purpose of opposing Davd as king.

• These people were not opposing David because they thought they could rule better! They just wanted an easier path to get wealthy.

Now, we probably haven't been in situations quite as lofty as these (as "Game of Thrones-ian" as millennials might say), but we have all faced lying, manipulation, and opposition in our workplaces and maybe even in our families. And maybe even in our church! "God, I'm just trying to be Your faithful follower, and these wicked people are trying to ruin it. Do something about it!"

In my "rapid-fire" idea section at the top, I called this a "backstabbing campaign". Those can be brutal, and sometimes there's no coming back from them. Has that ever happened to you? How did you try to handle it, and how did it turn out?

The important follow up question would be What would you do differently if it happened again?

Before you move on, you probably want to address the unspoken reality behind these verses: what are these wicked people doing in the family of God -- the leadership in Jerusalem -- in the first place?

We wouldn't continue to offer these prayers of lament if the conditions prompting them didn't still exist. So after 3,000 years, God still allows wicked people to live and interfere with His kingdom work? WHAT GIVES, GOD??

This would be your heaviest group discussion, and we've talked about this topic many times, so you had better get good participation --

Why are there wicked people in the world (and in the church), and why do they seem to prosper like they do? Why do so many "good" people suffer like they do?

Make sure the discussion stays on track. This is an easy topic for people to veer off onto their pet "soapbox sins" and lose the forest for the trees. My keyword reminders to you are sin and judgment and eternity.

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Part 3: May the Righteous Find Refuge in God (Psalm 5:11-12)

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them shout for joy forever. May you shelter them, and may those who love your name boast about you. 12 For you, Lord, bless the righteous one; you surround him with favor like a shield.

David rightly ends his psalm on an uplifting, encouraging note. He wanted his people to trust in God's plan, and he also wanted to remind himself of his trust in God.

Reads verses 7 and 8 again. Realize that David's use of "God's house" and "temple" (there was no temple yet) refers to God's presence. David runs to God's presence by virtue of God's own faithful love -- this is the same quality we talked about last week (and many times before) -- His faithfulness to His covenant, and His merciful love to His sinful people.

In other words, David's prayer is based on God's character, not David's.

Indeed, the word for "favor" doesn't have a pronoun (i.e., "Your favor") -- this is another metonymy for God Himself. God defends His people like a shield.

God has allowed David to "take refuge" in Himself, and David knows that offer extends to anyone who would claim God's faithful love. So, let everyone "take refuge" and "find shelter" in God and rejoice.

Today, we understand that "refuge" in God really does refer to eternal salvation, and that is available in Jesus Christ, the Son of God (can't get away from the doctrine of the Trinity for too long). And this is how we can reconcile "shelter in God" with "suffering in the world"; our souls are secure in God's care.

More than a few Old Testament figures -- David among them -- seemed to grasp this, at least in part. My favorite such story comes a few hundred years later in Babylon:

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. 17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

They didn't know what "refuge" would look like, but they trusted God with their lives. And because of where that moment existed in the history of God's people, God chose to rescue them physically from danger. The "shield of favor" David mentions was a literal shield of protection from fire. But even if He had not, the three Jews would have nonetheless trusted Him.

If you want to keep this week's lesson more upbeat, spend your discussion time on verse 12:

• What do God's blessings look like?

• What does God's favor look like?

This has to apply when things "seem good" and when things "seem bad".

But let's come back to the earlier part of the psalm. The continued presence of wicked people suggests that God's people have suffered in tangible ways. When people suffer physically for righteousness, does this mean that God failed as a shield?

Obviously not, but we need to calibrate what we think "protection" and "blessing" means.

Take the question to its extreme -- what could God's blessing possibly look like to a faithful Christian living in North Africa, or in Syria, or in Haiti? Short of finding some personal testimony to that end, I don't think we ever imagine. But if those Christians can have the faith and courage to follow God's righteous path, then what could we ever experience here in Thomson GA that would cause us to doubt God's care and protection?

I think Jesus gives us the best way to understand what David is saying:

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5)

Some of that grief and pain is itself a blessing in this life. (How? There's another great topic to discuss!) But all of that grief and pain is turned into a blessing in the next life.

So, taking the Beatitudes into account, how can you apply Psalm 5 to your own life?

My takeaway from the psalms of lament -- we should pay attention to and lament wickedness and suffering in our world. We should also continue to trust and pursue God.

What are you lamenting right now? How can this psalm help you? What can your Bible study group do to help you through that lament?

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Closing Thoughts: Psalm 139

Let me call back something we learned last week in Psalm 139.

One of my laments is the suffering of children in the world (which we should all lament). And basically all of that suffering is caused by wicked people. And that makes me very upset with those wicked people.

In Psalm 139, David was also extremely upset with such people -- "O that You would slay the wicked, O God". But David followed it with a deep breath and "Search me and know my heart, O God."

Can we somehow maintain gospel compassion and leave the justice and judgment to God's perfect understanding of everyone's heart? This is what Paul meant when he said,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. (Eph 6:12)

Those wicked people, if they could be rescued from Satan's power, could be saved. Our hope and prayer should always be for the salvation of souls.

Let God handle the judgment. You work for the good of the oppressed and pray or the salvation of souls.