Catholic Commentary on Psalm 5

"Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me." (Psalm 5:8)

The Morning Offering

Psalm 5 is a morning prayer, and it begins with the characteristic urgency of someone who arrives early at the house of the Lord: In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. The structure of the morning prayer is given here: present your petition, then wait. Not the anxious waiting of someone who doubts the answer, but the expectant waiting of someone who knows the God to whom they are speaking.

David's petition arises in the context of threat from those who speak what is false, who are deceitful and bloodthirsty. He is surrounded by people whose words cannot be trusted. His refuge is the house of God, where the wicked cannot come: you hate all who do wrong, you destroy those who tell lies. The holiness of God is not a gentle indifference. It is an active incompatibility with all that is deceitful and corrupt. To enter the presence of God is to leave falsehood behind.

The Holy Temple

David approaches God's house with reverence: But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple. The posture is everything: he comes not by his own merit but by God's love, and he bows. The Catholic instinct to genuflect before the tabernacle, to bow at the name of Jesus, to kneel in adoration, flows from this deep Scriptural pattern. The creature bows before the Creator, not because it is required but because it is true. The bow names the reality of who God is and who we are.

The Catechism teaches that adoration is the fundamental attitude of the person who recognises God as God, the creature before the Creator (CCC 2628). Morning prayer that begins with adoration rather than petition is prayer that has its priorities in order. Lead me in your righteousness, says David, only after he has bowed.

Refuge and Gladness

The psalm ends with a great widening of focus: not just David's protection but the protection of all who take refuge in God. But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. The personal distress has opened onto the communal joy. The individual who prays in the morning joins a great company of those who have taken refuge in the same God throughout all of history.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, the practice of Psalm 5 is the practice of the morning offering: give God your day before the day begins, lay your requests before him and wait expectantly, bow in adoration before you ask for anything. Five minutes of this before the demands of the day take over is worth more than an hour of anxious prayer at the end of a day that has been given to everything else.

Prayer

Lord God, in the morning I come to you with my voice and my petition. Lead me in your righteousness. Make straight the path before me. Let me take refuge in you and be glad, singing for joy under your protection all the day long. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

5
Give Ear to My Words
For the choirmaster, to be accompanied by flutes. A Psalm of David.
 
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD;
consider my groaning.
2 Attend to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to You I pray.
 
3 In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice;
at daybreak I lay my plea before You
and wait in expectation.
 
4 For You are not a God who delights in wickedness;
no evil can dwell with You.
5 The boastful cannot stand in Your presence;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You destroy those who tell lies;
the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
 
7 But I will enter Your house
by the abundance of Your loving devotion;* 5:7 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.
in reverence I will bow down
toward Your holy temple.
 
8 Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make straight Your way before me.
9 For not a word they speak can be trusted;
destruction lies within them.
Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.† 5:9 Or flattery; cited in Romans 3:13
 
10 Declare them guilty, O God;
let them fall by their own devices.
Drive them out for their many transgressions,
for they have rebelled against You.
 
11 But let all who take refuge in You rejoice;
let them ever shout for joy.
May You shelter them,
that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
12 For surely You, O LORD, bless the righteous;
You surround them with the shield of Your favor.

*5:7 5:7 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.

†5:9 5:9 Or flattery; cited in Romans 3:13

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