The Path to Worship in a Crooked World Text: Psalm 5:7-8
Introduction: The Great Contrast
The book of Psalms is the prayer book of the saints, and it is therefore a book of stark contrasts. It is a book that teaches us to see the world as God sees it, which is to say, in black and white. The modern world, and tragically much of the modern church, is terrified of sharp lines and clear distinctions. We live in an age of gray, an age of compromise, an age that wants to blur every antithesis that God has hardwired into the creation. But David, here in Psalm 5, will have none of it. He has just spent the previous verses describing the wicked, those who cannot stand in God's presence. They are boastful, they are workers of iniquity, they speak falsehood, and they are men of bloodshed and deceit. God hates their deeds, and He abhors them. There is no middle ground.
But then, in our text, David pivots. He begins with that glorious, adversative conjunction: "But as for me..." This is the great pivot of the Christian life. The world is going one way, full tilt, down the broad path that leads to destruction. "But as for me..." This is the declaration of every man who has been apprehended by grace. It is the great turning point. David sets himself in direct opposition to the entire course of this fallen world, and he shows us the only way for a sinner to approach a holy God. And what is that way? It is not the way of personal merit, or superior insight, or moral effort. It is the way of covenant mercy, reverent worship, and dependent obedience. In these two verses, David gives us a compact theology of worship, a roadmap for how to walk with God when the world around us is filled with enemies and crooked paths.
We live in a time when worship is often defined by our subjective feelings, our preferences, our entertainment, or our therapeutic needs. But David anchors our approach to God in something far more substantial. He grounds it in the objective character of God, the covenant love of God, and the righteous ways of God. This is a lesson we desperately need to recover. If we are to stand against the tide, we must know how to stand before our God.
The Text
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.
O Yahweh, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;
Make Your way straight before me.
(Psalm 5:7-8 LSB)
The Ground of Our Approach (v. 7a)
David begins by establishing the only possible foundation for a sinner to enter the presence of God.
"But as for me, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness I will enter Your house..." (Psalm 5:7a)
Notice the glorious contrast. The wicked, the boastful, cannot stand before God. They are barred from His presence by their sin. But David, a man who knew his own sin intimately, declares his intention to walk right in. What gives him this confidence? It is not his own righteousness. It is not his resume as king. It is not his track record. It is one thing and one thing only: the abundance of God's lovingkindness.
The word here for lovingkindness is that great covenantal word, hesed. This is not a vague, sentimental affection. Hesed is stubborn, loyal, unrelenting, covenant-keeping love. It is God's promise to be our God and for us to be His people, a promise that He maintains even when we are faithless. David is not saying he will enter God's house because God is generally a nice fellow. He is saying he has a right to enter because God has made a covenant promise, and God's character is staked on that promise. He is not presuming on a vague benevolence; he is standing on a blood-sealed oath.
And it is not a trickle of hesed. It is an "abundance" of it. A multitude. A great heap. David sees God's covenant love not as a small gate he might just squeeze through, but as a vast, wide-open door. He is not coming to God's house hoping to find a scrap of mercy. He is coming because he is drowning in a sea of it. This is the bedrock of all true worship. We do not come to God on the basis of our performance. We come on the basis of His promise. We do not come because we are good, but because He is good, and His hesed endures forever.
For us, this points directly to the finished work of Jesus Christ. How do we, who are sinners, dare to enter the house of a holy God? Because of the abundance of His hesed demonstrated at the cross. Christ is the ultimate expression of God's covenant faithfulness. He is the promise fulfilled. We do not tiptoe into God's presence; we come with boldness, because the blood of Jesus has opened the way.
The Posture of Our Worship (v. 7b)
Having established the ground of his approach, David now describes the manner of it.
"At Your holy temple I will worship in fear of You." (Psalm 5:7b)
This is the great paradox of Christian worship. We enter in the full confidence of God's abundant mercy, and yet we bow in holy fear. The modern mind cannot hold these two things together. We think that if God is loving, there is no room for fear. And if God is to be feared, there is no room for love. This is utter nonsense. The Bible knows nothing of this false dichotomy. The saints are those who have learned to rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11).
The fear David speaks of is not the cowering terror of a slave before a tyrant. That is the fear the wicked should have. This is the reverential awe of a son before a holy and glorious Father. It is the fear that comes from understanding who God is. He is transcendent, holy, all-powerful, a consuming fire. His mercy does not make Him tame; it makes Him all the more awesome. That a God like this would show hesed to creatures like us should not make us casual and flippant in His presence. It should make us fall on our faces.
Worship, the word here means to bow down, to prostrate oneself. It is an act of submission and adoration. David's confidence in God's hesed does not lead to a casual, back-slapping familiarity. It leads to profound reverence. The closer we get to the light, the more aware we are of its brilliance. The more we understand the cross, the more we should be filled with awe that such a price was required. Our worship services should be characterized by this. There should be a palpable sense that we are in the presence of the holy God. Joy, yes. Celebration, absolutely. But it must be a joy and celebration shot through with the golden thread of reverential fear.
The Substance of Our Prayer (v. 8)
From the place of worship, grounded in mercy and offered in fear, flows the necessary petition for the Christian life.
"O Yahweh, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me." (Psalm 5:8)
David understands that worship in the temple must translate to a walk in the world. And the world is a dangerous place. He is surrounded by foes, by enemies who are watching him, waiting for him to slip up. These are not just personal enemies; they are enemies of God's anointed king, and therefore enemies of God Himself. Their desire is to see David fall and, in his falling, to see God's name dishonored.
What is his prayer in this situation? "Lord, lead me in Your righteousness." He does not pray, "Lead me in my righteousness." He knows his own righteousness is a filthy rag. He does not pray for clever strategies or political maneuvering. He prays for God's own righteousness to be the path he walks on. He is asking God to mark out a way of life for him that is consistent with God's own character.
And notice the reason: "because of my foes." This is brilliant. David's concern is not primarily his own safety or reputation. His concern is the name of God. He is saying, "Lord, my enemies are watching. They want to see me fail so they can mock You. Therefore, for the sake of Your own glory, make Your path so plain, so straight, that even a fool like me cannot miss it. Let my obedience be a testimony that shuts their mouths." The presence of enemies should drive us not to fear or compromise, but to a radical pursuit of holiness for the sake of God's reputation.
He asks God to make His way "straight before me." The world offers a thousand crooked paths. Our own hearts invent a thousand more. The enemy specializes in subtle detours and plausible-looking shortcuts. David's prayer is for a clear, unambiguous, divinely-revealed path. He wants God to bulldoze the obstacles, fill in the potholes, and draw a straight line from where he is to where God wants him to be. This is a prayer for moral clarity in a world of moral confusion. It is a prayer of utter dependence on God for guidance.
Conclusion: The Path is a Person
So what does this mean for us? This psalm lays out the fundamental pattern of the Christian life. We are surrounded by a hostile world, a culture that is increasingly crooked and filled with foes of the gospel. How are we to live?
First, we must know the ground of our access. We can only approach God because of the super-abundant, covenant-keeping love, the hesed, that was poured out for us at the cross of Jesus Christ. That is our only standing. We must never forget that we are beggars who have been invited to a feast.
Second, we must cultivate the posture of our worship. Our confidence in Christ must lead us to reverential awe. We must not treat the holy things of God with a cheap, consumeristic casualness. We are to be a people marked by a glad and trembling joy, who know that our God is a consuming fire.
And last, we must pray the prayer of dependence. "Lord, lead me." We must recognize that we are in a spiritual war, and our enemies are watching. Our greatest witness in this crooked generation is a straight life. We must plead with God daily to lead us in His righteousness, to make His way plain before us, so that our lives might bring glory to His name and put His enemies to shame.
Ultimately, we know that the "way" David prayed for has a name. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). When we pray for God to make His way straight before us, we are praying for more of Christ. He is the path of righteousness. To be led in God's righteousness is to be conformed to the image of His Son. So let us come to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit. Let us enter His house by His abundant mercy, worship Him in holy fear, and walk in the world on the straight path that He has made for us, for His name's sake.