Commentary - Psalm 5:7-8

Bird's-eye view

In these two verses, David pivots from his description of the wicked who are barred from God's presence to his own confident access. This is not a pivot based on his own merit, but rather a sharp contrast grounded entirely in the character of God. The foundation for David's entry into worship is the "abundance of Your lovingkindness." This is covenant language. It is God's steadfast, loyal love, His hesed, that opens the door. This access results in a specific kind of worship: worship "in fear of You." This is not the terror of the guilty, but the reverent awe of a son before a holy and loving Father. Having established the basis and manner of his worship, David then prays for practical, moment-by-moment guidance. He asks to be led in God's righteousness, not his own, precisely because he is surrounded by foes. The path forward must be God's path, made straight and plain, so that he might walk without stumbling and so bring no reproach upon the God who graciously allows him into His house.

This passage, then, is a beautiful summary of the gospel life. We enter God's presence not because we are good, but because He is gracious. Our worship is not casual familiarity, but holy fear. And our daily walk through a hostile world is not dependent on our own wisdom, but on God's clear, righteous guidance. It is a movement from divine grace to reverent worship to dependent obedience.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 5 is a morning prayer of David. It begins with an appeal for God to hear his cry (vv. 1-3). David sets the stage by contrasting the character of the wicked with the character of God. God takes no pleasure in wickedness; the boastful and the evildoer cannot stand in His presence (vv. 4-6). It is immediately after this stark description of those who are excluded that we find our text. David's declaration, "But as for me," creates a powerful antithesis. His confidence is not in his own righteousness, which would place him among the excluded, but in a different principle altogether: God's lovingkindness. The psalm concludes with a prayer for the destruction of the wicked (vv. 9-10) and a blessing upon the righteous who take refuge in God (vv. 11-12). Our passage is therefore the hinge of the psalm, connecting the reality of divine judgment on sin with the believer's confident access and plea for guidance.

Key Issues

Grace, Fear, and a Straight Path

There is a profound theological progression in these two verses that outlines the entire Christian life. It all begins with grace. David says, "But as for me..." This is the great pivot of salvation. The world goes one way, the way of pride, deceit, and ruin, a way that ends with being shut out from the presence of God. But the believer, by grace, is turned to go another way. And what is the basis of this turning? It is not because David is intrinsically better than the liars and men of blood he just described. The basis is the "abundance of Your lovingkindness." This is God's covenant loyalty, His steadfast love that is not conditioned on our performance. It is an ocean of grace, and it is this ocean that carries us into the house of God.

But this grace does not produce casual, back-slapping familiarity. It produces fear. Not the cowering fear of a slave before a tyrant, but the awesome, trembling, joyful reverence of a creature before his glorious and holy Creator, who is also his Redeemer. Grace teaches us to fear. And this reverent worship then flows out into the mud and grit of everyday life. Because we are surrounded by enemies, both spiritual and physical, we need a guide. We need a path that is not crooked, not of our own making. And so we pray, "Lead me...make Your way straight before me." The grace that brings us in is the grace that leads us on.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 But as for me, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will worship in fear of You.

David begins with a glorious contrast. Having just detailed the character of the wicked whom God hates and bars from His presence, he sets himself apart. "But as for me." This is the great Christian distinction. And the ground of this distinction is not in David, but in God. He does not say, "because of my superior morals" or "because of my diligent quiet times." He says he will enter because of the abundance of Your lovingkindness. The Hebrew is hesed, that rich word signifying God's covenant faithfulness, His loyal, unrelenting, gracious love. It is not a trickle; it is an abundance, a multitude, a great heap of grace. This is the only basis upon which any sinner can approach a holy God. It is this lovingkindness, fulfilled and demonstrated perfectly at the cross of Christ, that swings open the doors to God's house. And what is the response? Worship. A bowing down toward His holy temple. This is not just a physical posture but an orientation of the soul. And it is done in the fear of You. The same grace that invites us also instructs us in the holiness of the one we are approaching. True worship is always a blend of intimacy and awe, of gratitude and reverence.

8 O Yahweh, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.

Having entered the house through grace, David now prays for his walk outside the house. The worship on Sunday must translate to the walk on Monday. He asks Yahweh to lead him. This is the cry of a sheep who knows he is prone to wander and needs his Shepherd. And the path he wants to be led on is the path of "Your righteousness." He is not asking to be led in a way that will vindicate his own righteousness. He knows his own righteousness is a dead end. He is asking to be shown how to walk in a way that reflects God's righteous character. The motivation here is intensely practical: "because of my foes." David was surrounded by enemies, men who were watching him, waiting for him to slip up. A crooked walk on his part would bring reproach not just on himself, but on his God. It would give the enemy an occasion to blaspheme. Therefore, he prays, "Make Your way straight before me." He needs a clear, plain, unambiguous path to walk on. He is asking God to remove the obstacles, to clarify the moral choices, to make the path of obedience so obvious that even a simple man cannot mistake it. This is a prayer for moral clarity in a world of moral confusion, a necessary prayer for any believer who lives among wolves.

Application

First, we must ground our entire Christian life in the abundance of God's lovingkindness. We do not come to church, we do not pray, we do not read our Bibles because we are good, but because He is good. If you are feeling unworthy to approach God, you are thinking correctly about yourself, but you are not yet thinking correctly about His grace. His grace is for the unworthy. Our access is purchased not by our performance, but by Christ's blood. Let this truth liberate you from performance-based religion and usher you into a relationship of grateful love.

Second, let that grace produce in you a holy fear. Our worship has become far too casual, too much like a TED talk or a rock concert. We are coming into the presence of the God before whom angels hide their faces. He is our Father, yes, but He is our Father in heaven. Our worship should be joyful, but it should be a reverent joy. It should be heartfelt, but it should be a holy-heartedness. We should cultivate a sense of awe in our corporate worship and in our private devotions. This is the fear that drives out all other fears.

Finally, we must depend utterly on God for daily guidance. We live in a crooked and perverse generation, and we have enemies who would love to see us fall. We cannot navigate this world on our own wisdom. We must pray constantly, as David did, for God to make His way straight before us. This means we must be in His Word, for that is the lamp to our feet. It means we must be in prayer, asking for wisdom. And it means we must be willing to walk when He shows us the way, even when it is hard. The straight path is rarely the easy path, but it is the only path that leads to life and honors the God whose lovingkindness first brought us into His house.