This psalm is like a prayer. It is meditative and almost softly melodic. In the first verse one can almost picture just before sunrise as David awakens in the morning, gets on his knees and has a quiet talk with God. He presents his concerns to God in conversational style. “Lead me, O Lord.” There is no immediate background to this prayer, but given the many exploits he endured as outlined in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, one can almost assume that there is relevant history to undergird his concerned expressions.
Lead me, O Lord
In this chapter, David wants to be on the right side of God, not in position per se, but within God’s favor. Someone apparently has been on the wrong side of the law, if you would, and this disturbs David. As if God doesn’t know, he points out his concerns and the contrasts between what he has strived to achieve and the missteps of the unmentioned perpetrator. What is poignant though, is that he does not do this in arrogant self-righteous fashion. He merely points out the differences preceded by humbling himself before God and presenting his plea.
His presentation is like that of Moses in Exodus 32. There the great leader gently reminds God of His character. He mentions the potential tainting of His reputation by those who are watching His response. Such does David in directing God’s attention to a problem that perhaps He overlooked. Finally, he ends his discourse by again referring to the righteous, but is careful not to label himself as such. After all, God can distinguish who is who. Yet, he again presents a gentle outline of what the righteous look like and how God has rewarded them in the past and will do so in the future.
This passage is key fodder for a trend that eventually led to God’s identification of David as a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). It reveals that David had a true relationship with God. Evidently, he, like Job, knew Who his Redeemer was (Job 19:25).
Prayer
Dear God, we know You don’t need reminders. Indeed, You are aware of our issues and our circumstances. Often we get off course from Your plan. We now simply say, “Lead me, O Lord”. Amen.
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2 thoughts on “Lead me – Psalm 5”
In Psalm 5 David recognizes the incompatibility between God and sin in any form, and his inability to please God and to escape the deception of sin. So he asks God to help him, being sure that together with God He will be invincible. And all of this is because David knows that holiness and righteousness are harmony with God, the real way of happiness, because God is the Only that is able to give to the man full satisfaction of the soul.
Julian Sava
Bible verses have different impacts on different people, and at different times. I have re-read Psalm 5 and I see that there are clearly enemies against David, and he is pleading with God for His continued mercy and protection to be upon him.
David knows what wickedness is, but as for him, he shall remain faithful to his Lord whom he trusts to deliver him from his enemies who are out to destroy him. And these “enemies” are not just David’s foes but those that rebel against God.
Maya