God’s Protection, Psalm 5, Day 9, Jan 9, | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

May all who take refuge in you be glad.
Spread your protection over them

Psalm 5

¹ Listen to my words, LORD,
   consider my lament.
² Hear my cry for help,
   my King and my God,
   for to you I pray.

³ In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.

I am not a morning person, but my days go so much better when I can have my time with God first.

It is wise to cultivate pathways into prayer. Try to cultivate the habit of, at least, a brief chat with God when you first wake up. You will be in a calmer frame of mind to face your day.

I like David’s simple and sublime faith. He lays his requests before God, and waits expectantly.

I sometimes have the image when I have prayed about a situation that God has taken it into his hands and his hands were busily working, moulding and fashioning it.

When you pray, God ALWAYS hears. He does step into the situation (except when we are are wilfully continuing in sin. In that case, a valid prayer is “Lord, help me to repent,” rather than “Lord, bless me”).

The answers to prayer vary. They can be Yes, No, Slow, Grow.
Read this brilliant piece by Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision.
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2010/04/bob-pierce-founder-of-world-vision-on.html

⁴ For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;

with you, evil people are not welcome.
⁵ The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.

Oh dear. The arrogant cannot stand in his presence. Jesus tell us to be humble so that we might find rest for our souls.

What is humility? Asking for a humility is a dangerous prayer because the process of being humbled is a painful one.

But, Lord Jesus, because I want to stand in your presence, and because I want rest for my soul, give me your humble spirit as a gift (and make the process of developing a humble spirit as free from pain as possible).

You hate all who do wrong;
⁶ you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
   you, LORD, detest.

You who are lied against, you who see the deceitful triumph, take heart. The Lord hates those who do wrong. He detests the deceitful.
Lord, purify my heart, my speech and my tongue.

⁷ But I, by your great love,
   can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
   toward your holy temple.

⁸ Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.

A beautiful prayer for guidance. Make your way straight before me.

⁹ Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;

   their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
   with their tongues they tell lies.

How awful this sounds! Have you known disgusting situations like this?
I have. In fact, in toxic church situations, in an atmosphere of fear and distrust and ambition and scheming, sadly, Christians too can behave like this

¹⁰ Declare them guilty, O God!
   Let their intrigues be their downfall.

Banish them for their many sins,

for they have rebelled against you.

This prayer of the Psalmist is a good and valid prayer because, in fact, such people only cause harm and evil.

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

¹² Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

I love the Psalms. They are an excellent model for healthy prayer. David comes into God’s presence troubled by his enemies, by deceitful people whose words cannot be trusted, whose hearts are full of malice, who scheme and intrigue.

He achieves peace. He realizes that God does not like or favour such people either. He prays that their intrigues may lead to their downfall and banishment. He lays his requests before God, and waits in expectation.

He ends by reaffirming God’s goodness and power, ¹² “Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield.”

He is at peace, and so, after travelling through his turbulent emotions with him, are we.