Free Access

Where do you turn for help? These days, even a call to a company’s so-called customer service department can be a frustrating experience. You call, and the first thing that you have to navigate is the disturbingly long list of numerical options to press, in order to access the right individual. And then once the list has been recited, you have to remember which number it was that you were supposed to press. And if you try to circumvent the process just by pressing zero so that you can immediately talk to a human, you usually are scolded with a message like, that is not a valid response. Just like that old game of chutes and ladders, you have to go back to the very beginning and listen to the entire option list all over again.

And of course, there are also in-person customer experiences that prompt us at times to ask to speak to the manager, associate behind the counter, a person not even a third your age, is always thrilled with such a request. As they begin to interrogate you, is there something first that I could do to resolve your concern? May I tell the manager the reason that you would like to speak with her? If you insist on waiting to speak to the manager, it becomes even more uncomfortable. With a look of disappointment, the person asks, may I ask your name?

And with that, it’s certain that you have now been identified as one of them, one of those customers. It’s one thing if this is a fast food joint, but it’s even more frustrating when we have the same trouble with some of the most crucial, most important matters with which we deal.

Insurance, lawyers, even the medical community, who, by the way, have, ironically, taken a sworn oath to care for their patients. And it’s no surprise that government agencies, from the DMV to the IRS, are the worst of the worst. You’re not likely to ever speak to a human in the IRS, let alone someone in charge. I remember President Ronald Reagan once said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the government and I’m here to help. nothing short of exasperating to seek help in almost any arena of life.

But over the course of my lifetime, I have had a few occasions where I’ve actually had the opportunity to speak not just to the person in charge, a manager, but to the actual owner of a business or a company. My concerns were never more graciously received or more fully resolved than when I was able to go straight to the top.

That’s what we want. We don’t want to just talk to someone in charge. Certainly not the bright-eyed, purple-haired teenager behind the counter. But the one with whom the buck stops. The owner of the company. How do we talk to him? What if I told you I have his number? And he’s not just the chief CEO, the president, or even the founder of a company. This is the one who controls and directs all things. And I have his number. The reality is if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you have his number as well. And you don’t have to complete an eye-straining form, or wait weeks for some kind of communication, or slog through layers and layers of red tape. You don’t need to begin by talking to his surrogates.

You can go straight to the top, to the Almighty Himself. It’s precisely the number that our psalmist provides us in Psalm 5. with the Lord’s people turned there now. Psalm five. I suppose I could have titled this psalm real customer service, but I’ve titled it free access.

We don’t have to wait on the phone. We don’t have to be put on hold. We don’t have to cross our fingers and hope that one day somebody will pick up We can go straight to God. We can go straight into his throne room. And when we get there, we’re welcome.

Psalm 5, would you follow along as I read? Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God. For to you I pray. “‘In the morning, O Lord, you will hear my voice. “‘In the morning, I will order my prayer to you “‘and eagerly watch.

“‘For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. “‘No evil dwells with you. “‘The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. “‘You hate all who do iniquity. “‘You destroy those who speak falsehood. “‘The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

But as for me, by your abundant, loving kindness, I will enter your house. At your holy temple, I will bow in reverence for you. O Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes. Make your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God. By their own devices let them fall. In the multitude of their transgressions, thrust them out, for they are rebellious against you.

But let all who take refuge in you be glad. let them ever sing for joy and may you shelter them that those who love your name may exalt in you for it is you who blesses the righteous man oh lord you surround him with favor as with a shield amazingly here in this psalm david actually encourages us to skip all of those preliminaries The phone prompts, the forms, the helpless agents and associates. He tells us to go straight to the top, to God himself. Psalm 5 is a rich and encouraging psalm that encourages us to do as the writer of Hebrews encourages, to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.

As this psalm was likely set to music, It must have been a delicate and soothing psalm, not loud or forceful. And I say that because it was to be sung with the accompaniment of a flute. Not loudly, not with an entire band, but with joy and reflection and reverence. It’s also a structurally simple psalm.

It really only has two major sections, verses one through seven, and verses eight through 12. And in this psalm, David provides believers with two strong encouragements for approaching the very throne of God. Would you track back to verse one? Free access, where David here gives us two encouragements for approaching God’s throne. The first of which, it is a welcome that is enabled by God’s mercy. A welcome that is enabled by God’s mercy.

Now, as I just mentioned, there are two sections. They’re very similar. And one commentator surprisingly suggested that all the writer does here in the second section is reiterate what he said in the first section. a little overly simplistic, and I think unfair. In both sections, truly, David is clearly discussing the matter of prayer. In both sections, he contrasts the believer with the unbeliever. In both sections, he makes a request of God. But the encouragements mentioned in the two sections are very different. In the first, the encouragement is to approaching, the encouragement to approaching God’s throne is predicated on God’s mercy.

Mercy is God’s benevolent goodness, and it is completely undeserved to even the best of people. This we see in verse seven, if you’d glance down there, it’s that familiar and routinely translated word, loving kindness. This is a word that is overwhelmingly used in the Psalms. We recently heard, it was a line in Psalm 107 that’s repeated six times. It’s kind of a chorus, if you will. His loving kindness is everlasting. There is surety.

There is commitment, there is a covenant element to this mercy. This is God locked onto us, not out of any obligation on his part, but purely out of his mercy. In and of himself, David has no business drawing near to God and to his throne, but because of God’s mercy, which he has already received, He is led, prompted, motivated to communion with God in prayer. Drawing on the undeserved mercy that he’s already received, David begins his prayer in verse one. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help. For to you I pray. Not only three different kinds of prayer, but he refers to God by three different terms. Lord, in verse one, my king, and my God, in verse two.

David doesn’t just aimlessly call out into the atmosphere. David knows to whom he prays. And this is not just any conversation. This is communion between the believer and God, prayer. Even at the opening of his mouth, his confidence in the one to whom he prays begins to swell. In his three requests, David essentially captures, as I said, three different kinds of prayer. When he says my words, he speaks of a more formal occasion of prayer, articulated audibly, even if only in God’s hearing. He also asked God to, secondly, consider his groaning.

This word has drawn many and varied translations over the years. Meditation, dove-like mourning, sighing, earnest desires. That same word is used in Isaiah 38, 14. I mourn like a dove. It surely refers to those moments of prayer, which we all know, deeply troubling occasions, when a trial is so severe that words seem to fail us. We don’t even know what to say. We bow our heads with the desire and intent to pray, but we can’t even formulate words in our mouth.

Every Christian knows these occasions. The Apostle Paul acknowledges this when he admits that there are times, times of weakness when we do not know how to pray as we should. In those moments, he says the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, Romans 8. The third form of prayer that David mentions here is a cry for help. A sudden, loud plea for God to intervene on our behalf.

God receives all of these kinds of prayer and more. After all, he’s already shown us mercy, as Paul says later in Romans 8, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also freely give us all things? It would be absurd and completely out of character for God to withhold some lesser gift after he’s already given his own son. As Jesus himself taught, if a child asks his father for bread or a fish, he will not give him a stone or a snake, neither will our Heavenly Father. Jesus spent a great deal, a great deal of time teaching his disciples about prayer.

Pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5, 44. When you pray, not if, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, to be seen by men. Matthew 6, 5. Do not use meaningless repetition, Matthew 6, 7. And then he issues a model prayer, our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. Our prayer, Jesus says, is not to be empty or insincere, mere words regurgitated into the air. We’re not to pray empty, ineffective, aimless prayers as if we’re just going through the motions. Nor are we to gauge our prayers by the many words rambling on as if to impress God himself. but we are to come humbly before our benevolent Lord, our King, our God, with our needs and concerns. We can be very detailed with our very specific requests.

So, in David’s case, because of the mercy that he’s already received, David confidently looks to God and even makes a commitment to communion with him. Glance, if you would, at verse three. In the morning, O Lord, you will hear my voice. In the morning, I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch.

First, when David says in the morning, he isn’t limiting his prayer time to the early hours of the day. Rather, he’s suggesting that this is only the beginning of his prayerful communion with God. The morning is a great time to pray, and it establishes a line of communication that should be used throughout the day and into the night. Prayer isn’t just for the morning hours, and yet the psalmist here emphasizes the morning by repeating it. And that speaks to the regularity of the communion with God to which he dedicates himself. morning after morning, day after day. And the ordering of his prayers, that word was used of the stacking carefully the firewood beneath the altar of sacrifice.

I will order my prayer, no doubt refers to the attempt to organize our thoughts into an intelligent interaction with God. But note this, Regardless of the particular form that his prayers take, articulate and audible, groaning without even articulated words, or a sharp and sudden cry for help, regardless of the specific time that he prays, morning, noon, or night, once he has prayed, he says he eagerly watches.

He prays expectantly. watching for the answer and the gracious provision of his prayer. We do exactly the same thing when we’re waiting for a reply, a letter, an email, a text. We watch, we wait. Prophet Habakkuk, once he had finished his own appeal to God, took this posture. In chapter two, verse one, I will stand on my guard and station myself on the rampart and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me. That’s what we should do.

When we pray, when we ask, I even think that it’s not a bad thing to keep notes on our prayer. How have we prayed? How has God answered? That’s a thrilling feature of praying to God. And so should the prayerful saint. Keep watch. This watchfulness is a hopeful and a trustful waiting. It’s not from an impatient or demanding spirit. It emerges from an attitude of faith. We’re trusting God to move. We don’t know exactly how. We don’t know that he will exactly, according to our prayer, provide an answer, but we know he’s going to move. And so this free access to God, to his throne, is a welcome that is established by God’s mercy, which leads the believer to communion in prayer with God.

The psalmist introduces a contrast with those who have not sought God’s mercy, verses four through six. You’re not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. No evil dwells with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood.

The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. It’s a very stark contrast. He articulates the disparity between those who have sought and received mercy from those who have not. They are referred to here in this section in seven different ways. Those who take pleasure in wickedness, verse four. Those who are boastful and do iniquity, verse five. Those who speak falsehood, men of bloodshed and deceit, verse six.

These are the unregenerate people of the world, unrepentant sinners who do not see their need of God’s mercy. Therefore, they do not seek it. Note what strong language David uses here of God’s opinion of sin and sinners. He takes no pleasure in their wickedness. Evil has no residence in God. The boastful, those who think they do not need God, shall not stand in his presence. He hates, abhors, and ultimately destroys workers of iniquity, speakers of falsehood, violent, deceitful men.

This sorted list of sins and vices serves as a reminder of the reason that we ourselves sought God’s mercy. God showed us our sin. We repented. And he showed us mercy. This list also provides us the motivation to continue to pursue sanctification. to bring about a complete eradication of these kinds of things from our lives. David prays for protection from such people and from the sinful practices in which they are immersed. Both are dangerous. Well, to make his point, David provides the balance to this contrast, the believer’s response to God’s mercy.

You see, to the Christian who has experienced God’s overwhelming and quite undeserved mercy, there is confidence. Glance briefly at verse seven. But as for me, by your abundant, loving kindness, I will enter your house. At your holy temple, I will bow in reverence for you. When David exclaims here, but as for me, he completes the differentiation from sinners and himself. David is not boasting over them.

The only reason for the difference between him and them is God’s mercy. It’s a plain acknowledgement that he desperately needed, urgently sought, and marvelously received the mercy he so desperately needed. Having received God’s benevolent mercy, he must come into communion and fellowship with Him. For him, as for all believers, God’s mercy produces a transformation, a changed life with different priorities, different practices, and different habits. David attributes this change to one thing, abundant loving kindness. Some or even all of the sins mentioned in verses four through six were true of David and true of us. But having recognized our need and found God’s mercy, our lives are changed.

David makes a commitment to communing and worshiping God, I will enter your house whether the temple or the closet or the church. I will bow in reverence for you. This is an articulation of the heart of worship brought about by God’s mercy. So David initially here is stirred to approach the throne of God because of the mercy that he has received. Every child of God knows this sentiment. to suddenly discover that God is our loving and approachable Heavenly Father, who not only shows us saving mercy, but to a repentant sinner, He bids to come, to come to Him with our needs, to ask, seek, and knock, as Jesus instructed. But, Though God’s mercy is the initial motivation to commune with God in prayer, it is not the only encouragement.

In the second section of his prayer, David provides a second reason to make our appeals to God. That second section begins in verse eight and courses down through verse 12. We have free access to God Almighty. And David provides, as I said, two encouragements to approaching God’s throne.

It’s not only a welcome that is enabled by God’s mercy, but secondly, it is a welcome invigorated by God’s grace. Would you look at verse eight to begin with? O Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes. Make your way straight before me. We’re encouraged to approach God’s throne, not only because of his saving mercy, but we are also invigorated to approach his throne because of his sustaining grace.

And we find this second quality all the way at the end of the psalm, verse 12. You look there. He blesses the righteous man. He surrounds him with favor as with a shield. That word favor to which I would draw your attention, but this word favor Almost sounds like it’s something that we’ve earned. We did God a good turn and now he’s going to return the favor. Kind of how we use that word. Something that God owes us. It isn’t that at all.

If mercy is God withholding of deserved punishment for sin, favor or grace is the bestowal of undeserved kindness. This word is used more than 50 times in the Old Testament, 13 of which are in the Psalms. In the sense that it’s used here in Psalm 5, it speaks of the sustaining grace that God shows towards his children. It’s his generous goodness, which, like his mercy, is quite undeserved.

Listen to just a few. His anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Psalm 30, verse 5. Psalm 89, verse 17, by your favor our horn is exalted. All the blessings of God flow purely because of his grace. Psalm 106, four, remember me, O Lord, in your favor toward your people. According to the most basic definition of this word, grace is undeserved favor. God gives not out of obligation or debt, but as an expression of his sovereign grace and goodness. We deserve none of it. That’s what makes it grace.

David says that the second great encouragement to approaching God’s throne for communion with him in prayer is the endless supply of grace that is available to his children. At times we will pray, and if we’re careful, we make note of that prayer, specifically what we asked. It’s astounding and encouraging when we see our prayer answered, even as I acknowledged a few moments ago. And that should make us eager to pray for new and greater things, shouldn’t it? Verse eight, would you glance there? It gives us an example of an appeal by one who knows by experience God’s ever available grace. Here in verse eight, the particular angle of David’s appeal is that of standing. Reputation, if you will.

Not his own standing, but God’s. It’s because David’s foes are watching carefully. scrutinizing his every move, looking for something for which to criticize him or the God he loves. And so he pleads, lead me in your righteousness. Thomas acknowledges the obvious, that he has no righteousness of his own. We can only function by the provision of God’s righteousness, which we have as a gift of faith in Christ. As believers, we are in full and constant display before the world. They essentially lie in wait for the slightest flip.

David prays effectively, grant me the needed grace that I would not grievously sin and shame God. Second line is an echo of the first, make your way straight before me, David, like any believer, had to come to the place where he no longer wanted his way, but God’s. We desire God’s way. And the idea of making his way straight is the path of righteousness which God clears through the wilderness of iniquity.

Again, David pleads, by your grace, make it abundantly clear what your righteous standards are, and then give me the necessary grace to live accordingly. He did in the first section, David again draws a contrast between the child of God and the unbeliever. This is what we have in verses 9 through 10.

There is nothing reliable in what they say. Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God. By their own devices let them fall. In the multitude of their transgressions, thrust them out, for they are rebellious against you. Just as verse eight seems to anticipate the concern for what David’s foes might say about him and about his God, he focuses here on slanderous words. Nothing reliable in what they say. Their throat is an open grave, rotting and putrid. They flatter insincerely with their tongues. Men of the world are given over to cutting and destructive speech. David pleads for protection.

That description of the unbeliever serves as a backdrop for the completed comparison with the believer in God. The believer who has experienced God’s mercy, invigorated by his grace, comes before him to plead for more fruit of God’s grace. What the psalmist says here is gladness, spiritual happiness, joyful singing, a celebration in song, shelter from trouble and troublesome people, as well as exaltation, worship. These are the things that David seeks from God in his sustaining grace. All of them are spiritual provisions. When David speaks of God here as a refuge, he employs an image that he personally uses nearly 40 times in the Psalms.

He knew well what it was to be pursued and harassed by an enemy. He often had to seek a place to hide, a refuge. Speaks of God as that fortified stronghold. The greatest fortress is none other than God. In the Lord I take refuge, Psalm 111. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge. You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress. God was David’s safe house. God is not only a refuge for David when facing a violent enemy, God is a refuge for all believers. Listen again from the Psalms. Psalm 212, how blessed are all who take refuge in him. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him, Psalm 1830. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him, Psalm 3422.

God is a refuge for us, Psalm 62.8.

The righteous man will be glad in the Lord and will take refuge in him, Psalm 64.10. When we are troubled by the world or even by ourselves and the decisions we’ve made, we must seek refuge in God alone. So when David pleads in verse 11, that God would make glad all who take refuge in Him.

He simply is asking for God by His Holy Spirit to so reign in their hearts that His fruit would be produced in their lives. As Paul said in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. If In this life, we rejoice even in our trials, as we’re commanded to do. How much greater will be our gladness in glory? That spiritual happiness of heart naturally comes to the surface in joyful singing. He also asks for shelter from trouble, especially from troublesome people, and all of this produces this exuberant celebration, exaltation, worship. All of this is the result of God’s grace in the believer.

Those who David identifies as all who take refuge in God, who love his name, The fullness of his character and nature will forever drink from the inexhaustible fountain of grace. One pastor said long ago, innumerable are the ways which Jehovah can fulfill this gracious promise to his people. Just listen. Innumerous are the ways in which Jehovah can fulfill this gracious promise to his people in their lot in life. in their basket, in their store, in their bodies and souls, in their frames of mind, in their relations with the world, in their joys and sorrows, in life and death, in time and eternity. God’s resources and his resource of grace is inexhaustible. Forever and eternity, God will bless the ones he has declared righteous, surrounded with an impenetrable shield of God’s grace. Charles Spurgeon said it so well and so clearly when he said, Jehovah has ordained his people to be the heirs of blessedness, and nothing shall rob them of their inheritance. With all the fullness of his power, he will bless them. and all his attributes shall unite to satiate them with divine contentment. This is a promise of infinite length, of unbounded breadth, and of unutterable preciousness.

Would you humble yourself before such a merciful and gracious God? Oh Lord God, we do humble ourselves in your presence. And we thank you that with all the frustration of the world and trying to seek out help from time to time. What a comfort. What a joy it is to realize that we can bow before you anytime that we have free access to your glorious throne. That we can come into your presence and unburden our hearts. Even just to commune with you just. to say good morning, just to plea for some kindness, some favor, some mercy. Lord, we thank you that these are not only great encouragement, these are the greatest encouragement for us to come before you in prayer, that you have moved in our hearts mercifully to save us, and you continue to lavish your grace upon us.

Lord God, we pray for any who do not know our Savior. For them, our hearts are broken. They are caught up in all of the evil and trouble that besets our race. Lord, we plead with you to open their eyes Spiritually. Show them their need of a Savior. Show them their sin. And let them come to hate their sin. And then, whether in a moment or over the course of a great length of time, show them the Savior who paid for that sin. Show them the Savior who would liberate them from that sin. Show them the Savior that desires to grant them abundant mercy and perpetual grace.

Lord, we who know that mercy and know that grace, we pray that you would stir our hearts anew to look to you in prayer, to bring before you the burdens of our heart, Lord, we thank you for David’s work in the psalm. We thank you for how it touches and finds a place in each of our hearts and lives. We pray that you would use it accordingly for your glory. We lay these things before you and we pray them in Jesus’ name.