Psalms 5 KJV
A Prayer for Guidance
About This Psalm
A morning prayer asking God to lead through a world full of deception. Starting the day by asking for divine guidance through difficult people.
1ive ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.
10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
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Did You Know?
Psalm 5 is quoted in Romans 3:13, where Paul draws on verse 9's description of the wicked's throat as an open sepulchre to demonstrate universal human sinfulness under the law.
The superscription's rare term Nehiloth appears nowhere else in the Bible and may denote either flutes or a reference to inheritances, suggesting the psalm was composed for a distinctive wind-instrument setting in temple liturgy.
Verse 5's declaration that God hates all workers of iniquity employs the verb ลฤnฤสพ in a direct divine sense that is unusually strong and personal compared with most Old Testament portrayals of God's response to evil.
The psalmist's reference to preparing prayer 'in the morning' (verse 3) deliberately aligns private devotion with the timing of the daily Tamid offering, implying that individual intercession participates in the sanctuary's continual rhythm of atonement.
The petition 'lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness' (verse 8) employs the hiphil of nฤแธฅรข, a verb that elsewhere describes God's shepherd-like guidance of Israel through the wilderness, here applied to moral protection amid deceitful enemies.