Bird's-eye view
In this section of his morning prayer, David moves from petitioning for personal guidance to diagnosing the terminal condition of his enemies. This is not a shift into petty grievance; it is a crucial part of righteous prayer. Before you can pray rightly about the wicked, you must first see them as God sees them. David, under the inspiration of the Spirit, provides a spiritual autopsy of the ungodly man. The corruption is total, running from the mouth to the heart to the throat. Their words are not just misleading; they are instruments of death. This diagnosis then forms the basis for the imprecation that follows. Because the wicked are what they are, and because they do what they do in rebellion against God Himself, David calls upon God to do what a righteous judge must do: condemn them. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a Spirit-led plea for God to vindicate His own name and His own justice in the world. It is a prayer that God would be God.
The passage is a stark reminder that sin is not a surface-level problem. It is a deep, internal putrefaction that manifests itself in destructive speech and open rebellion. The prayer for judgment, therefore, is not a prayer for God to be mean, but a prayer for God to be just. It is a prayer for the establishment of righteousness, which necessarily involves the removal of the unrighteous who refuse to repent. For the Christian, this psalm is prayed in the knowledge that the ultimate judgment fell upon Christ at the cross, and that He is the one who ultimately defeats all the flattering, death-dealing words of the serpent and his offspring.
Outline
- 1. The Anatomy of the Ungodly (Ps 5:9-10)
- a. The Diagnosis of Total Corruption (Ps 5:9)
- i. The Unreliable Mouth (Ps 5:9a)
- ii. The Destructive Heart (Ps 5:9b)
- iii. The Death-Dealing Throat (Ps 5:9c)
- iv. The Treacherous Tongue (Ps 5:9d)
- b. The Prayer for Divine Judgment (Ps 5:10)
- i. The Formal Charge: Hold Them Guilty (Ps 5:10a)
- ii. The Poetic Justice: Fall by Their Own Counsel (Ps 5:10b)
- iii. The Final Sentence: Banishment for Rebellion (Ps 5:10c)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 5 is a morning prayer, a cry to God at the beginning of the day (v. 3). David is keenly aware of the presence of his enemies and the stark contrast between their character and the character of God. In the preceding verses, David establishes that God is holy and takes no pleasure in wickedness (vv. 4-6). The boastful, the workers of iniquity, liars, and the bloodthirsty have no place with Him. Having laid this theological foundation of God's righteous character, David then pivots in our text to apply this truth to his immediate situation. The description of the wicked in verse 9 is not an abstract complaint but a specific outworking of the principles laid down in verses 4-6. The imprecation in verse 10 is the logical and righteous request that follows. If God truly hates evil, then He must act against those who embody it. The psalm concludes with a joyful confidence in the protection and blessing God provides for the righteous (vv. 11-12), setting up a final, sharp contrast between the destiny of the wicked and the destiny of those who trust in the Lord.
Key Issues
- The Doctrine of Total Depravity
- The Connection Between Heart and Speech
- The Nature of Flattery
- The Righteousness of Imprecatory Prayer
- Corporate and Covenantal Rebellion
- The Justice of God in Judgment
The Stench of the Tomb
The Apostle Paul quotes this very passage in Romans 3 to build his airtight case for the universal sinfulness of man. "Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they have practiced deceit" (Rom 3:13). This is not just David complaining about his personal enemies; it is the Holy Spirit providing a definitive statement on the nature of fallen humanity apart from grace. The imagery is potent and stomach-turning. An open grave is not a pleasant thing. It is a hole in the ground that stinks of death and decay. This is what the speech of the ungodly is like. It is not just that they tell lies. It is that their very words issue forth from a place of death. Their communication is fundamentally corrupt because their hearts are corrupt. The flattery, the unreliability, the deceit, it is all the stench of the tomb, the exhalation of a soul that is dead in trespasses and sins.
Understanding this is crucial for understanding the prayer that follows. When David calls for judgment, he is not asking God to swat a few annoying flies. He is asking God to deal with the source of a deadly pestilence. He is asking the God of life to act against the agents of death. This is not about settling personal scores; it is about cosmic hygiene. The rebellion of the wicked is a stench in the nostrils of a holy God, and it is right to pray for Him to clear the air.
Verse by Verse Commentary
9 There is nothing reliable in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue.
David begins his diagnosis with the mouth, because the mouth is the overflow valve of the heart. Nothing reliable comes out. The word can mean faithfulness or steadfastness. Their speech has no integrity, no firm foundation. You cannot build anything on their promises; you cannot rest in their assurances. Why? Because their inward part is destruction itself. The problem is not a slip of the tongue; the problem is the very nature of their soul. The Hebrew word for destruction here is the word for a yawning chasm or abyss. Their heart is a pit of ruin, and so only ruin can come out of it. Their throat, the passageway from the heart to the mouth, is therefore an open grave. What comes out smells like death, because it comes from a place of death. And the final manifestation of this is flattery. They use smooth words, not to build up, but to entrap. Flattery is the bait on the hook of destruction. It is a lie dressed up in fine clothes, designed to make the victim feel good right before the trap is sprung. It is the most insidious form of verbal poison.
10 Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the abundance of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.
Having given the diagnosis, David now writes the prescription, which is a prayer for judgment. This is an imprecatory prayer, and it is thoroughly righteous. First, he asks God to hold them guilty. This is a legal term. He is asking God, the judge, to formally declare their guilt and not let them be acquitted. Do not treat them as innocent. The basis for this is their own character and actions. Second, he prays for poetic justice: By their own devices let them fall! Let the traps they set for others be the very traps that catch them. Let their clever schemes and counsels backfire spectacularly. This is a common theme in Scripture; Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai. This is not a prayer for disproportionate revenge, but for a perfectly fitting justice. Third, he prays for their expulsion. In the abundance of their transgressions thrust them out. Their sins are not few; they are abundant, a great heap of rebellion. The prayer is that they would be cast out from the presence of the righteous and from the land of the living. And the ultimate reason for all this is stated plainly at the end: For they are rebellious against You. This is the critical point. David’s enemies are not just his enemies. Their rebellion is ultimately against God Himself. David is on God's side, and he is asking God to act in defense of His own honor and His own covenant. This is not personal pique; it is zeal for the glory of God.
Application
We live in a sentimental age that has a hard time with passages like this. We prefer a God who is always nice, always affirming, and never judgmental. But the God of the Bible is holy, and His holiness means He has a settled and eternal opposition to all that is corrupt, deceitful, and rebellious. This passage forces us to take sin seriously, especially the sin of the tongue. Our words matter. They reveal the state of our hearts. Do our mouths bring forth reliability and life, or do they emit the stench of the grave through gossip, slander, and flattery?
We must also learn to pray like David. This does not mean we keep a list of personal enemies and pray for their cars to break down. It means we learn to hate what God hates. We see the destructive rebellion at work in the world, the celebration of perversion, the murder of the unborn, the assault on God's created order, and we pray for God's justice to be done. We pray, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The establishment of that kingdom necessarily means the downfall of other, rebellious kingdoms. We pray for the schemes of the wicked to fail. We pray for God to vindicate His righteousness.
And supremely, we see the gospel here. We were the ones whose throats were open graves. We were the ones full of destruction and rebellion. And the judgment we deserved, the guilt that was ours, was taken by Jesus Christ. He entered the grave for us, so that our graves might be closed forever. He took the curse so that we might receive the blessing. And now, having been justified by His blood, we can stand with David, on God's side, and pray with clean hearts for the triumph of His righteousness in all the earth.