The fifth psalm is a morning prayer. Not M-O-U-R-N, but M-O-R-N-I-N-G. Like this morning. This is a morning prayer. And in it, David gives us truths that govern true prayer. is not real to me, it's because prayer is not real to me. And if prayer is not real to me, God will not be real to me. God cannot become real to a Christian just through reading the Bible or books or studying theology or even listening to sermons. God becomes real in prayer. And we need all those other things, obviously. But if God isn't real to me, it's because prayer isn't real to me. And this psalm is one of those amazing psalms that is in its totality, it's a prayer. Let's read. Psalm 5. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Some translations translate that, my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry. My King and my God, for to You do I pray. O Lord, in the morning You hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for You and watch. In the morning unto You do I direct my prayer and look up. For You are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity or evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful men. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me, for there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Because of the abundance of their transgressions, cast them out, for they have rebelled against You. But let all who take refuge in You rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them that those who love Your name may exalt in You. For You bless the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield." Father, this is Your Word. Would You speak to us through it? Now we ask You to give us of Thy Spirit. We ask You for this today. Give us Your presence. We ask You to let us have eyes to see and ears to hear. Save us this morning from distractions. We ask You, Lord, to capture our minds, that we would hear the voice of our Savior through Your Word. coming home to us personally, intimately. Lord, make Your Word, we ask this morning together, make it life-giving and feed us. We thank You that You hear us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Some of the Psalms are amazing prayers. Psalm 5 is one of them. The entire psalm is a prayer. It's not teaching, though it does teach. It is not speaking to men, though it does speak to us. David is speaking to God throughout the entirety of the psalm. It's been called a morning prayer because of verse 3. It's been called a prayer for coming to the house of God, Hebrews 3 says, we are the house of God. It's been called a prayer for coming to God's house because of verse 7. And this psalm is a marvelous example of how we must approach God if we would be heard in prayer and what we can expect of Him when we do approach Him in prayer. The purpose of Psalm 5 seems to be to show us how David approaches God in prayer. And it gives us truths that govern true prayer. We could call them principles, but they're truths. They're realities. So this morning, that's what I hope we can see together is David's approach to prayer. And through his example of praying here, We're led into His quiet time. We're led into His prayer closet. Isn't it a marvelous thing that David's prayers are recorded for all the church of all the ages? What a loss we would have if that were not the case. So, I want us to see several things this morning in these few minutes together. First of all, we see here in verses 1 through 3 what our spirit or attitude in prayer should be. Our spirit in prayer, the spirit and attitude of our hearts in prayer, verses 1 through 3. He says, Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Consider my groaning. Think about what I'm feeling and experiencing, Lord. Give attention to the sound of my crying. My King and my God, for to You do I pray. O Lord, in the morning You hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for You. And watch, what kind of things make up a prayerful heart? What kind of attitudes, what kind of spirit about us must be cultivated? What is a proper spirit about prayer? Let's see a few things that we see right here in verses 1 and 2. First of all, the proper attitude or spirit in prayer is that of appealing to God, making appeals to God, pleading. The other day I saw a child who was about three years old in a church fellowship or a church luncheon, and the mother was talking to someone in line, and their 3- or 4-year-old was over here a few feet away and was standing. They were ready to eat. The child was. And that child wanted Mama to get its plate. So she's loitering, talking, fellowshipping. So the child starts going, Mama! Mama! Just a minute. Mama! And wouldn't stop. Did not stop. What's that child doing? Pleading. making appeals. Have you ever noticed how much throughout the Psalms David is doing that? He's just appealing. Look at it. He says, Give ear, O Lord, to me. Give ear. This amazing reality of appealing to God, and it's really throughout Scripture. We are not childlike enough in our praying, so we don't gain ground in prayer. Appealing, making appeals, childlike pleas to the Lord. Just a sprinkling. Think about these. Psalm 17, for instance. David begins to pray. He says, Hear my calls, O Lord. Attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer. Now let me ask you this. When you pray, how often do you pray like that? Do you ever come as a child to the Lord and truly begin to pray and throughout your praying just make childlike appeals? Lord, would you hear me this morning? Father, let me have your ear. Lord, please pay attention to me. Does that seem strange to us? Well, I wonder if there's a connection between David having a heart and an attitude and a spirit of pleading and making pleas in a childlike way. Is there a connection between that and him being called a man after God's own heart? And in Psalm 17, he says simple things like, Keep me, hide me, preserve me. Psalm 28, he says, To you, O Lord, I call my rock. Don't be deaf toward me. When was the last time you asked God to not be deaf toward you? That offends our religiosity. It almost would seem to border on irreverent to talk to God about Him being deaf to you. But the psalmist did it. These are childlike pleas warning God's attention. And when we are serious about warning God's attention, There is some mysterious reality that we have God's attention. He's serious about hearkening to the cries of those who are serious about appealing to Him. Psalm 55, he says, give ear to my prayer. Attend to me. Answer me. That's only a sprinkling of just a few examples David, as a child, appealing to God His Father. That's what our spirit and our attitude must be this appealing. Why? Because when we do that, when we come in a fresh way and we get out of our rut and we're just real in prayer, it keeps the rut of our prayer life from just becoming a dead routine. Within this spirit of appealing, making appeals to God as He does at the beginning of the 5th Psalm in verses 1 and 2, it shows us several things. Sincerity of heart. Seriousness. A sense of urgency. A sense of, Lord, I want to be heard. Hear me this morning. Give me your attention. It speaks of focus in prayer. So this must be the spirit of our praying as it was David's, making appeals to God. We never move beyond that because it's childlike. And that is a true spirit of prayer. Now there's another, a second thing, and that is, you see it in verse 2, that composes the spirit and attitude we ought to have in prayer, and that is submission. Look at verse 2. He says, give attention to the sound of my cry. The next phrase, my king and my God. Submission. We're not speaking to the man upstairs. We're coming to a king. And I think it was Spurgeon's hymn that said, Thou art coming to a king, so large petitions with thee bring. Yeah, we're coming and we're to approach and we're to make appeals, but we never move away from remembering who it is that we're addressing in prayer. The King. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, that's who we're addressing in prayer. That's who's hearing us when we pray. Any contemporary frivolous, shallow attitude of being bosom buddies with good old Jesus needs to go. Yes, he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother, and he's a sympathizing high priest, but he is forever king. And David, in his spirit of prayer as he makes appeals, he remembers this. He comes with a heart, not only of appealing, but of being in submission. My King and my God. This must be maintained. That's the heart of a reverend. That's the spirit of a reverend heart in prayer. Appealing to the King, who is not only our King, He is our God. And ought to be addressed that way. And then the third thing you see in this spirit of prayer that we ought to have is not only appealing and submission, but see verse 3. He says, O Lord, in the morning You hear my voice. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for You and draw near. Or in the morning I direct my prayer unto You and I look up. What is this speaking to us of? Consistency. Consistency in the morning. His mercies are new when? Every morning. They're brand new, never leftovers, never warmed up from yesterday, but brand new mercies every morning. And right now, as we live and breathe, we are actually, literally partaking of God's brand new mercies every day. As thy days are, so shall thy strength be. these exceeding great and precious promises of God, which are mercies. And David is showing consistency here when he says, Lord, in the morning, literally as soon as it is morning, every morning I come and I draw near. Spurgeon said prayer should be the key that unlocks the morning. When you wake up on your bed, do you ever open your eyes and you realize you're conscious Suddenly, before you move, do you ever express anything to the Lord? Some mornings I'll wake up and I'll just say, Hallelujah. Thank You, Father. Hallelujah. On our bed in the morning, just as we rise. And when David says, Lord, in the morning I will, Look to you. In the morning I will direct my prayer to you." He really is talking about consistency daily, day in and day out. He said in another psalm, evening, morning, and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan and you hear my voice. It's a way of saying our entire day and evening is to be prayerful. This was consistency in David's life. When we wake on our bed, when we go in the bathroom, when we're in the shower, in the mid-morning, when we're at the grocery store, living in a spirit of prayer daily as David did, consistency. Now, one of the great blessings in looking at the life of a praying man like Lyndon Ravenhill was just to try to see his habits in prayer. And you know, basically, if you've read his books or heard him, you know what prayer was to him. And his daily routine, I suppose for over 70 years, he would go to bed about 10 at night and he would wake up about midnight or one o'clock and he would get up and go to his study. And from about one to four or five, He would get on His face and He would worship for a while. He would get up. He would get His Bible. He'd get a hymn book. He'd sing. And then He would begin to make supplication just thinking of those He wanted to pray for. There were people, there were many Christians around the world and in America He prayed for every day for 20, 30 years. He would pray. He'd begin to make appeals for them in the night seasons. And then he would begin to pray for nations, whatever would come to his heart. He would be in there until about 5 a.m., and then he would go back to bed and sleep until about 8.30. And he would get up, have breakfast with his wife Martha, and they would read and pray together. And then he'd go into his office about 9.30, and he would have about an hour, hour and a half of prayer. And then he would study. And then he'd have lunch with her. And then he'd go back to the office. And he would pray 2 to 4 o'clock. And then he would stop. They'd have an early dinner. And he'd pray about 7 to 8 alone. And then back with Martha again. So throughout the day, the whole clock, morning, noon, night, evening, the middle of the night, he was at prayer. Six, eight, nine hours per day in prayer. This prayer life. practiced what David did and said in the Psalms at evening and at morning and at noon. Well, I pray in Psalm 5 here, David is expressing that consistency, O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. Does this press upon you, the need for real regular time with God? Is there time for it? We must make the time. Ravenhill said, no man is greater than his prayer life. No Christian has any more of a Christian life than what their prayer life reflects and regulates. This spirit of prayer in David was comprised of appealing to God bowing in submission with a submitted heart and consistency all the time. And so must we. So what spirit and attitude must govern prayer? Appealing, submission, consistency. And then one final one, verse 3. He says there, in the morning, I will direct my prayer to you and look up. I will watch. I will look up or watch. I wait in expectation is the idea. That's David's assurance that he was praying in faith and expecting God to hear him. When you pray, or when I pray, as we're praying, do we believe God is actually listening to us? That's the starting place. If when you come to pray, you don't actually believe and you're not practicing the conscious reality, I know my Father is listening to me right now. If we don't have that nailed down, we will not pray in faith. He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He's a what? Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So we must come back to the bedrock, solid truth of the Word of God when we pray, which says, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their cries. When I pray, God is listening. Unless I'm harboring sin, right? If I harbor sin, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So if I'm harboring sin, no. But if I'm walking in the light, and I'm not, every time I bow my knee, every time I bow my heart, every time I open my mouth and voice prayer to the Lord, He is hearing right then. I do have His attention. 1 John 5, this is the confidence we have in Him. that if we ask anything according to His will, He is hearing us. Now, don't go any further about prayer unless you make sure you believe that. Because if you don't believe you're being listened to and heard, you will have no confidence in prayer. You will be a double-minded man in all your ways. You will be forever doubting, wondering. I don't know if God's hearing me. Maybe He is. Well, I was good yesterday. Maybe He's hearing me today. I was bad yesterday. He probably won't hear me today." No. This thing has to be nailed down. Do I believe God is listening to me and hearing me when I pray? If He is, then I, as David says here, will look up. I will be in expectation of His answering my prayer. If you don't believe He's listening to you, and if you doubt that He'll answer, Then why are you even praying? You're playing a game. Expectation in prayer glorifies God. Expectation is faith. He's either a liar or everything He said in here about prayer is true. I'm listening to you. The prayers of the upright are a delight, the Bible says. He not only hears the cries of His children, He wants to hear them. He not only wants to hear them, He says our prayers are a delight to Him. So, do we expect God to be hearing us? And do we expect answers? This is David's spirit of prayer. Now the second thing I want us to see is on down in Psalm, verse 4 and following. The first truth was the spirit and attitude in which our prayers ought to be. Appealing, submission, consistency, expectation. That's what's in verses 1 through 3. What do you have beginning in verse 4? You have this truth. God does not hear the unbeliever. God does not hear the wicked. And so David, amazingly, in this morning prayer, he begins to pray about the wicked. He begins to pray about wicked, unbelieving men. And it's quite a thing to think about. The wicked is a reference to every unbeliever, every person who is not in Jesus Christ, who is not regenerate and converted and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a true, justified child of God. Every one of them is in the class of the wicked. Verse 5 calls them the foolish, the boastful. Verse 6 calls them liars and says God abhors them. It begins to get strong language, but David is praying this. Question, why is David praying in the morning about the wicked? Do you ever do that? I don't. Why would he do that? You know why? Because when we leave the secret place of the Most High, when we leave the presence of God and we go forth to drive on the freeway, or go to a company, or go to a wicked secular university, or go wherever we go, all we are surrounded by are wicked people. They're everywhere. This city of St. Louis is an exceeding wicked place. And so is every city and town in America. David was surrounded at times by evil men who wanted to kill him, who hated him, who wanted to bring him down. He was surrounded by the wicked and he didn't know where they were. They were lying in wait for him. And so he prays about the wicked. I suppose because he wanted God to work among them and toward them, And he wanted to maintain a right perspective. You know, we can easily be deceived by people around us. Their words can be smooth as butter and nice and evil is in their hearts. The Bible says that all the time. We can easily be deceived by others. Young ladies, you can be deceived and tricked and lured and your heart snared and your thoughts snared by an attractive guy who has a great personality And all he has is evil intentions. David prayed about the wicked because there was discernment to be there to be gained. Let's read verses 4 and following. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." Quite a perspective that David brings. Verse 9, look on down at it. Here he just gives the characteristics and describes in prayer every unconverted person. For there is no truth in their mouth. Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels." Why would David pray that way? You know what? Lost people, wicked people, unregenerate people are walking in darkness. They are in the snare of the devil. taken captive by Him to do His will. If God doesn't do that to some of them to stop them in their madness, they'll go right on to hell. It's a great, great mercy of God when He makes people suddenly face their guilt and let them fall by their own counsels Notice he says, verse 10, "...because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you." You know, that one verse is enough for any young Christian to know not to have a relationship with an unbeliever. That one verse is enough. That's a description of the lost person. That's what's inside them, though it's often covered up well. So David here is praying about the wicked. And he says, O Lord, evil ones can't dwell in Your presence. You hate evildoers. You destroy them. You abhor them. Why does he pray this way? I don't know that he did every day, but this morning prayer he does. He brings to bear in his praying as he worshipped God He kept this perspective of God's view of the world and of the wicked. So must we. We must, if we will have a clear perspective. And then thirdly, look at verse 7 and following. True prayer, David shows us here, is a heart that approaches God in prayer. Approaching God. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Our approach. It's on the basis of what? how well we're doing, how good we feel, how many people we've witnessed to, how many chapters of the Bible we've read this week? No. Our approach, David says in verse 7, is based on one thing, pure mercy and grace. He says, but I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, mercy, the loving kindness of our God, and His tender mercies, that's the Old Testament language of Grace and grace alone. Mercy. The wonderful mercy of God. I don't care if a Christian has known the Lord 80 years and they have a phenomenal prayer life, or it's a brand new Christian that knows nothing. The basis of prayer is one thing. The grace of God. Not merit. Not works. Not sincerity. And David knows his approach is always on that. Notice throughout the Psalms how often he says that. Your mercy, O Lord. Our approach must be on the basis of God's grace and mercy. And David says, I, through that steadfast love, will come. I will enter your house. I will draw near. Now, the house of God is referred to here. the house and the temple in the Old Testament? What was that? The house of God. David came to the temple. They came to the tabernacle. They came to Solomon's temple. They came to the place of worship. What was the temple to the house of God then? It was the designated place of approaching Jehovah's presence. You couldn't worship Him in the Old Covenant any other place. This was the place. There my glory will dwell. Here is where you draw near. The designated place of God's presence was the house of God. That's why David said, I will enter your house. The dwelling place of God with men. Now think about it. What is our designated place of worshiping God? What is the designated place for us to draw near to God. The Person of Jesus Christ. He is our meeting place. He's our altar. He is the dwelling place, the only one, where God and men can meet. He's the only place through which we can draw near and come. It's through Christ alone. And David is a type and a shadow of this here when he says that. We come in prayer. And when we come, we do what David says. We make a choice. I will enter into your presence. Do you do that? Is it a calculated choice? When you want to draw aside to pray, do you say, OK, I am going to bring my mind. I'm going to bring my heart. I'm going to bring my affections. I'm going to bring my focus. I'm going to bring my body into prayer. And I am going to seek the Lord. I am going to enter. This must be engaged in our hearts or we will be lackadaisical about it. Are we lazy in prayer? It's because we're not of David's spirit. I will enter your house. So we come in prayer. Who do we come to? We come to a reconciled God. We come to a gracious Savior. We come to a welcoming Jesus. We come to a loving Father who says, Come! Come! That's what He says. Doesn't it say it all the time in the Scripture? The Savior said, Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He said, Come unto Me and find rest for your souls. He said, Come to the disciples. Come and dine. He said, If anyone thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink." So let's approach. The throne of grace has come. The Savior who died for us and rose again and is enthroned above is a dispenser of grace and mercy. So why would we not come? Why do we hesitate? Why do we hold back? He says, come. Let's approach. Are you hungry? Come and get food. Are you weary? Come and you will find rest. Are you wounded? Come and He, the Good Samaritan, will pour in oil and wine. Are you brokenhearted over something? Come. He's the only source of healing. and making all things new, are you so discouraged that you can hardly function right now in your life? Just come just as you are, wounded and weary, bleeding, hurting, needy, doubting. You know what's a glorious thing? Through all the Gospels, no one ever came to the Lord Jesus asking for help that got turned away. No, no instance, no case ever Did anyone get denied and turned away? They were all heard. They were all helped. They were all given the Savior's grace. What a reality that is for us. James Smith, a writer in history, said this, Despondency and doubt is not becoming of a prince, much less a Christian. Our God is the God of hope, and we are to hope in Him. We should hope. We should hope in His mercy, His patience, His provision, His plentiful redemption. We should hope for light in our darkness, strength in our weakness, direction in our perplexity, deliverance in danger, victory in conflict, and yes, triumph in death. We are to hope in Him. Do we? David, in this psalm, when he expresses his expectation for God to hear him and that God's going to answer, is hoping in God. What does our Father do? How does our Savior feel when He sees that we, in all of our struggle, are looking and hoping in Him? Do you think He's going to answer? David says here, I will. enter your house." And he means, I will enter your presence. Verse 7, notice. He says, I'll bow down. He's saying, I will worship. Do we worship when we come to pray? We ought to worship. Our hearts ought to bow in worship. And we ought to just consciously adore our God and our Savior and let our heart affection go toward Him. I will worship, verse 7. Verse 8, David says, I will ask you to lead me. He says, lead me. And then look at verse 11. Let's skip on down to verse 11. David says, But let all who take refuge in you do what? Rejoice. Saints rejoice. Rejoice in your God. Rejoice in your Savior. Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Rejoice. We're called to rejoice. This place of prayer, this attitude of prayer, this morning prayer is the real place of joy. You know, ultimately, Christ is a joy giver, but often real joy It comes to us. We experience it when we experience Him in the place of prayer. Joy. And David here says, this is a command, let all those who put their trust in You, let them rejoice. Spurgeon said this, This phrase, let all those who put their trust in you rejoice, Spurgeon said, this is a permit and a prayer and a promise. He says, here is permission to rejoice. Here's a ticket to the banquets of joy. Be as happy as you like. You have divine permission to shout for joy. We ought to at times. We ought to at times. permission to rejoice. And he says, you have command here for joy. We're commanded to rejoice. The Bible never tells us to feel anything, but it does tell us to rejoice. Have we learned this? Spurgeon says, you have command here to be joyful, to joy. Come, ye mourning ones, he says. You discontented grumblers, come out of that hole and enter the palace of the King. Quit your dunghill and ascend the throne to rejoice in God. Self-pity is a sin. Doubt and discouragement is a sin. And the sooner we realize that, the sooner we'll be out of those messes and walk consistently with Christ and seek Him and rejoice in all circumstances. Joy. A promise of rejoicing, but that promise is in the midst of a life of prayer. Now let me close. This prayer in Psalm 5 ends in verse 12 with an exceeding great and precious promise. For you blessed the righteous, O Lord. You cover him with favor as with a shield. Does that make your heart glad? That's true if you're a Christian of view. It's just a fact. About a month ago, five weeks ago, I flew to another state to be with a family for five days. And I was going to help them and minister to them. And that week before going, I read Psalm 5 in my morning readings. And I came to this end of this psalm, and it just came alive because I saw that the great need for them was for God to spread His protection all around them. Bad counsel coming in. Lying voices to them. wrong viewpoints by others shaping these people's lives. And I saw, Lord, if You don't spread Your protection over them, and if You don't surround them with favor as a shield, this trip is a waste. So I prayed that over them. God gave that to me that morning for them. And I got there, and from the moment I got there, it was glorious and wonderful. Open hearts. Teachable spirit. Fruitful visits. And it was a marvelous thing. These exceeding great and precious promises of God. You bless the righteous and You cover them with a shield, with favors with a shield. What a morning prayer. Do you pray that for yourself as you go forth in the morning? Do you pray that for your children? Lord, surround us. Spread Your protection all around us. Spread Your protection around those in our church. Spread Your protection around Your servants, our pastors and elders. Lord, cover us all today and cover my children with favor as with a shield. Glory to God that His mercies are new every what? Morning. What a morning prayer this is. Let's pray together. Father, this morning and these days together, we ask You for Your attention. We ask You, Lord, to come. We ask You to give ear to our cries. Lord, we want You. We want Your presence. We want Your Spirit's ministry deeper. Lord, we want You afresh Surround us with Your protection. We want You in a new, fresh way to cover us with Your favor. Lord, we pray that You'd look upon us and have mercy upon us. Give ear to our words, O Lord. Consider our meditation, our King and our God. To You do we pray, O Lord, this morning. You hear our voice, and we direct our prayer to You, and we look up. Father, in Your kindness, we expect You to bless us, and we thank You that we can come. In Jesus' name, Amen.