Psalms 5

Wesley: Meditation—my prayer accompanied with deep thoughts and fervent affections of soul.

Shared plea—words and groaning brought before the LORD. Prayer is not bare speech; it joins thought and affection. Ask to be heard; bring the groan as well as the sentence.

Calvin: one request in varied forms marks strength of affection and long perseverance in prayer—neither cold nor few words. Groaning may be confused muttering when sorrow hinders clear speech; cry marks earnest desire. He does not fret only toward men; he directs the groan to God.

The psalmist’s cry is earnest and persevering. Language may fail; the heart still lays calamity before the King who hears.

Shared address—King and God, and prayer directed to him alone. The cry has a sound meant to be attended; the ground is that prayer is owed and offered to this King, not to rival helpers.

Calvin: calling God his King and his God stirs livelier hope for the issue of affliction. At the close he testifies he does not sullenly gnaw the bit as unbelievers do, but directs groaning to God—whoever call upon God in calamities never meet with a repulse from him.

Cry to the true King. Titles train familiarity with God and confidence that prayer to him is not wasted breath.

Wesley: Morning—every morning. As soon as I wake, I am still with thee (Ps 139:18). The first thing that I do is to pray to thee.

Shared discipline—morning voice, preparation, and watchful looking up. First thoughts turn to God; waiting follows the offering of the day.

Calvin: constrained by delay, he wishes deliverance hastened—as soon as I awaken this will be the first subject of my thoughts. To direct unto God means settled approach, not rambling after worldly helps. Watch conveys hope, patience, and anxiety—looking out as a sentinel until God has indeed heard.

Morning order and watchful hope. Faith’s settled path is straight to God; useless are prayers without the hope that elevates the mind into a watch-tower.

Wesley: Surely—thou dost not approve of, nor delight in them, or in their prayers. Dwelt—have any fellowship with thee.

Shared confession—God’s character bars wickedness from his pleasure and fellowship. Do not dress rebellion as prayer he must enjoy; evil has no dwelling with him.

Calvin: David makes enemies’ malice an argument for divine favor. Reasoning is grounded in God’s nature: righteousness is pleasing to him, so he will take vengeance on the unjust. There is no agreement between God and unrighteousness. Though he bear with the wicked for a time, he will ascend the judgment-seat as avenger and defender of his people.

God hates evil and will not leave it unpunished. Insolence that seems unbounded becomes ground for hope, not despair, because God is judge of the world.

Shared severity—boastful swagger does not stand before God’s eyes. Hatred of evildoers is moral, not mood; the hearer must refuse the boastful path that cannot abide his gaze.

Calvin: the foolish shall not stand in thy sight—those who, impelled by blind passion, rush into sin. Nothing is more foolish than casting away the fear of God. This truth comforts the godly and bridles hearers: God the avenger of wickedness restrains vain hope of escaping with impunity.

No standing for the boastful before holy eyes. God’s hatred of iniquity both consoles the oppressed and warns against sin’s false safety.

Shared verdict—lies meet destruction; bloodthirst and deceit meet the LORD’s abhorrence. False speech and violent craft are not minor flaws in a neutral God; they are what he destroys and abhors.

Calvin: God will destroy those who speak falsehood; Jehovah abominates the man of bloods and the deceitful. How can they escape unpunished, seeing he is judge of the world? Although God works by Satan and the ungodly for his judgments, he is not the author of sin nor pleased with it—he justly condemns those driven by mysterious providence where he pleases.

Destruction and abhorrence of liars and the violent-deceitful. Providence that uses wicked instruments still hates and judges their wickedness.

Wesley: Come—with holy boldness and confidence. Mercy—trusting only in thy great mercy. Fear—with an holy dread and reverence of thy majesty. Towards—looking towards it, when I cannot come to it.

Shared entrance—only by abundant steadfast love, with fear. Boldness trusts mercy alone, not self-desert; reverence keeps the bow from presumption. Look toward the temple when near approach is barred.

Calvin: I will come into thy temple in the multitude of thy mercy—kept in safety by God’s favor and bound to gratitude. Access to God is only through his goodness; no man prays aright but he who, having experienced grace, believes God will be merciful to him. Fear distinguishes genuine trust from vain confidence of the flesh; hypocrites’ thanks only profane his name.

He comes into God’s house by mercy and worships in fear. The ground of coming is God’s abundant goodness already tasted, not a claim first won by the worshiper’s worth.

Wesley: Righteousness—in thy righteous laws. Because—that I may give them no occasion of slandering me, or religion for my sake. The way—the way wherein thou wouldst have one walk. Plain—that I may clearly discern it, and readily walk in it.

Shared plea—lead and straighten the way. Ask clear sight of the path God wills, so enemies find no handle to slander the walk or the faith.

Calvin: lead me in thy righteousness because of adversaries—open a way of escape when snares surround. God’s righteousness here is his faithfulness and mercy in defending his people. Make thy way straight: deliver by God’s power from distresses that, to flesh, seem to leave no exit—wisdom and a path where no way appears.

He asks to be led because enemies are watching. The righteousness pleaded is God’s defending faithfulness that clears the path, not first a map of laws the pilgrim must invent alone.

Wesley: Throat—wide opened ready to devour all that come within their reach. A metaphor from wild beasts gaping for the prey.

Shared diagnosis—no truth in the mouth, destruction within, flattering tongue, throat as open grave. Flattery is predatory; do not trust smooth speech that hides a devouring gullet.

Calvin: no faithfulness in their mouth; inwardly full of iniquity; throat an open sepulcher—devouring gulfs, insatiable for blood; tongues dealing deceitfully. The more cruelty they show, the more confidently send groanings to heaven—God will not suffer their rage to the uttermost. Under David is described the church; Paul (Rom 3:13) applies the charge to the human family by nature.

Treachery from mouth to inmost part. Oppression that looks hopeless becomes ground to cry louder, because God brings malice to light.

Wesley: Destroy—condemn and punish them. Cast—out of thy land, and from among thy people.

Shared imprecation—guilt owned, counsels collapsing, casting out for abundant transgression and rebellion against God. The plea is moral justice, not private spite; rebellion against God is the charge.

Calvin: cause them to err; let them fall from their counsels—God deprive them of understanding so undertakings fail. He strikes with stupidity those wise to commit iniquity; Satan’s schemes dissipate by the breath of God’s mouth. Punish them as deserved: in wronging the innocent they rebel against God, who takes his servants’ cause as his own.

Guilt, falling counsels, casting out for rebellion. God himself frustrates crafty schemes and owns the cause of the uprightly oppressed.

Shared turn—from enemies to all who take refuge. Joy, song, protection, and exultation belong with loving God’s name. Refuge is to be taken; love of the name is lived allegiance that sings.

Calvin: if God delivers David, the fruit is common to all the godly—confirming faith and praise. Believers are ungrateful if neighbors’ blessings do not encourage them. True joy proceeds from God’s protection; those who trust in the Lord love his name—remembrance of God sweet after tasting his goodness.

One deliverance teaches the perpetuity of grace toward all who trust him.

Shared ground—the LORD blesses the righteous and covers with favor as a shield. Blessing and shielding answer those who take refuge and love his name (v. 11). Live under that favor; do not trade the shield for self-made cover.

Calvin: from one example judge the immutability of God’s grace toward all the godly. True joy derives from sense of God’s fatherly love. Righteous names all God’s servants—not for merit of works, but because after receiving them into favor by not imputing their sins, he accepts their upright endeavors for perfect righteousness. Favor as a shield: completely defended; God’s free goodwill is an invincible fortress.

God blesses the righteous and surrounds them with favor like a shield. The righteous are those God has received and covers—not a class that first earned the shield by perfect desert.