⁴ For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil dwells with You.
⁵ The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.
⁶ You destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
⁷ But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house,
At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.

⁸ O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;
Make Your way straight before me.
⁹ There is nothing reliable in what they say;
Their inward part is destruction itself.
Their throat is an open grave;
They flatter with their tongue.
¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God;
By their own devices let them fall!
In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out,
For they are rebellious against You.

¹¹ 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 exult in You.
¹² For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield.

Psalm 5 is commonly thought of as a prayer of protection, which it is, but I think there is more to it.  Before seeking protection, the heart of surrender must reveal itself.  Psalm 5 starts out with David groaning, petitioning the Lord to hear Him.  Then he makes a strong statement of faith in verse 3, “in the morning I will pray and eagerly watch.”  This expresses a confidence that the Lord will honor his prayer, firm in faith without doubting (James 1:6).  He then affirms who God is (v. 4-7).  I think this is hugely important for our prayer life because knowing God, His attributes and His character should give us peace to stand in the midst of trials.  When we pray with doubt, we are really sinning, because doubt questions God’s goodness, His providence, His word and His ability.  This level of faith produces the peace that is beyond human reason (Philippians 4:7) and it allows us to abide in Sovereign grace.  We may not always get the answer to prayer that we hope for, but we do get the peace to endure and that grows our faith to a deeper realization that God is working out His plan in your life.

I love verse 7 because David acknowledges God’s mercy and demonstrates a proper understanding of himself.  It is only “by Your abundant lovingkindness that I will enter Your house” and in complete humility “I will bow in reverence to You.”  This is David’s point of surrender, his giving up of dependence on himself in submission to God.  The rest of the chapter is a contract between unbelievers and believers, but it concludes with verse 12 in the recognition that it is ultimately God who blesses and protects those who are made righteous by God (verse 8).  This is a short chapter, but within these 12 verses we find the Sovereignty of God, the Providence of God, the attributes of God and man’s proper understanding of himself and attitude towards God.