Psalm 5
Song of the Clouded Dawn
For the Pure and Shining One
For her who receives the inheritance, by King David
Morning Watch
1 Listen, Yahweh, to my passionate prayer!
Can’t you hear my groaning?
2 Don’t you hear how I’m crying out to you?
2 Don’t you hear how I’m crying out to you?
My King and my God, consider my every word,
for I am calling out to you.
3 At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice
as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you.
Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar
and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.
Making It Right
4 I know that you, God, are never pleased with lawlessness,
Making It Right
4 I know that you, God, are never pleased with lawlessness,
and evil ones will never be invited as guests in your house.
5 Boasters collapse, unable to survive your scrutiny,
for your hatred of evildoers is clear.
6 You will make an end of all those who lie.
6 You will make an end of all those who lie.
How you hate their hypocrisy and despise all who love violence!
Multitude of Mercy
7 But I know that you will welcome me into your house,
for I am covered by your covenant of mercy and love.
So I come to your sanctuary with deepest awe
to bow in worship and adore you.
8 Yahweh, lead me in the pathways of your pleasure
8 Yahweh, lead me in the pathways of your pleasure
just like you promised me you would,
or else my enemies will conquer me.
Smooth out your road in front of me,
straight and level so that I will know where to walk.
Multitude of Sins
9 Their words are unreliable.
Multitude of Sins
9 Their words are unreliable.
Destruction is in their hearts,
drawing people into their darkness with their speeches.
They are smooth-tongued deceivers, flattering with their words.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their own schemes be their downfall!
Let the guilt of their sins collapse on top of them,
for they rebel against you.
Multitude of Blessings
11 But let them all be glad,
Multitude of Blessings
11 But let them all be glad,
those who turn aside to hide themselves in you.
May they keep shouting for joy forever!
Overshadow them in your presence as they sing and rejoice.
Then every lover of your name will burst forth with endless joy.
12 Lord, how wonderfully you bless the righteous.
12 Lord, how wonderfully you bless the righteous.
Your favor wraps around each one and covers them
under your canopy of kindness and joy.
There are so many great things in this psalm, but I’m going to focus on one single verse from it today! Literal sacrifice was a very real part of Jewish culture in David’s day. The act of sacrificing a burnt offering to God held a myriad of meaning, one of them being a beautiful metaphor, showing the transition from the earthly to the spiritual. Through the process, this sacrifice would first be prepared, then laid on the altar, and ultimately burned. At the beginning of this psalm, we hear David, again cry out to God in another very real and very raw way. And then he says, “At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.” Think about what it would have been like to present a sacrifice in the form of a burnt offering: the animal that was being sacrificed was first prepared, then it was laid upon the altar and burned until nothing was left, essentially returning it to dust. That return to dust and ash would have been important to the Israelites, as it symbolized the transition from the earthly, the temporal, to the spiritual. David wasn’t offering a burnt offering of anything external. Instead, David says he went through that same process with his heart every day, not just every day, but at every sunrise. Think about that, the King got up at sunrise every day and cried out to God as he prepared his sacrifice of himself and his heart for God. Every morning, David laid out the pieces of his life on the altar and waited for the fire to fall upon his heart. He brought all the parts and pieces of his life to the altar every morning. He laid them down and waited for God to burn away the earthly and return him to the spiritual.
Just this one verse has taught me so much about what it means to be a woman after God’s own heart--because isn’t that what David is seeking here? To have his heart burned away and replaced with God’s heart? To have his desires replaced with God’s desires? To have his flesh replaced with the Spirit? And, it takes conscious daily preparation and sacrifice to achieve these things. So often, I hear people questioning what it means to walk with God or to be a Christ-follower or to be a man or woman after God’s own heart, and I think David gives us the root of it here.
He got up every morning and sat still before God.
He prepared himself as a sacrifice every day through prayer.
He laid out the pieces, the details, of his life before God every single day.
He asked for God’s fire to fall upon his heart, to burn away his humanity and fill him with his Spirit.
Thankfully, we no longer live under the law and are bound by sacrifices and burnt offerings because Jesus came to be the final sacrifice for all of our sins. But, that doesn’t mean we should forsake the sacrifice, the offering our hearts and our lives as sacrifices to God, to allow him to burn away our humanity and fill us with his Spirit. During this season, we are constantly reminded of this sacrifice Christ made for us through our own sacrifices. Maybe, during these next 30 some days, we can all sacrifice our time in order to get up with the sunrise, prepare ourselves as a sacrifice through prayer, lay out the details of our lives before God, and ask God’s fire to burn away our humanity and fill us with his Spirit. How might our hearts and lives be different if we started everyday by sacrificing our own thoughts, our own plans, our own desires, our own shortcomings, our own anxieties, our own fears, our own weakness, our own arrogance, our own anger, our own strengths, our own callings, our own selves on the altar before our God and asking him to burn away anything that doesn’t belong there, to burn away everything that isn’t Spirit?
So, as you set your alarm tonight, maybe you can set it for 15 or even 30 minutes early, to get up with the sunrise or maybe even before the sunrise to sit still and offer your heart as a sacrifice to God.
There are so many great things in this psalm, but I’m going to focus on one single verse from it today! Literal sacrifice was a very real part of Jewish culture in David’s day. The act of sacrificing a burnt offering to God held a myriad of meaning, one of them being a beautiful metaphor, showing the transition from the earthly to the spiritual. Through the process, this sacrifice would first be prepared, then laid on the altar, and ultimately burned. At the beginning of this psalm, we hear David, again cry out to God in another very real and very raw way. And then he says, “At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.” Think about what it would have been like to present a sacrifice in the form of a burnt offering: the animal that was being sacrificed was first prepared, then it was laid upon the altar and burned until nothing was left, essentially returning it to dust. That return to dust and ash would have been important to the Israelites, as it symbolized the transition from the earthly, the temporal, to the spiritual. David wasn’t offering a burnt offering of anything external. Instead, David says he went through that same process with his heart every day, not just every day, but at every sunrise. Think about that, the King got up at sunrise every day and cried out to God as he prepared his sacrifice of himself and his heart for God. Every morning, David laid out the pieces of his life on the altar and waited for the fire to fall upon his heart. He brought all the parts and pieces of his life to the altar every morning. He laid them down and waited for God to burn away the earthly and return him to the spiritual.
Just this one verse has taught me so much about what it means to be a woman after God’s own heart--because isn’t that what David is seeking here? To have his heart burned away and replaced with God’s heart? To have his desires replaced with God’s desires? To have his flesh replaced with the Spirit? And, it takes conscious daily preparation and sacrifice to achieve these things. So often, I hear people questioning what it means to walk with God or to be a Christ-follower or to be a man or woman after God’s own heart, and I think David gives us the root of it here.
He got up every morning and sat still before God.
He prepared himself as a sacrifice every day through prayer.
He laid out the pieces, the details, of his life before God every single day.
He asked for God’s fire to fall upon his heart, to burn away his humanity and fill him with his Spirit.
Thankfully, we no longer live under the law and are bound by sacrifices and burnt offerings because Jesus came to be the final sacrifice for all of our sins. But, that doesn’t mean we should forsake the sacrifice, the offering our hearts and our lives as sacrifices to God, to allow him to burn away our humanity and fill us with his Spirit. During this season, we are constantly reminded of this sacrifice Christ made for us through our own sacrifices. Maybe, during these next 30 some days, we can all sacrifice our time in order to get up with the sunrise, prepare ourselves as a sacrifice through prayer, lay out the details of our lives before God, and ask God’s fire to burn away our humanity and fill us with his Spirit. How might our hearts and lives be different if we started everyday by sacrificing our own thoughts, our own plans, our own desires, our own shortcomings, our own anxieties, our own fears, our own weakness, our own arrogance, our own anger, our own strengths, our own callings, our own selves on the altar before our God and asking him to burn away anything that doesn’t belong there, to burn away everything that isn’t Spirit?
So, as you set your alarm tonight, maybe you can set it for 15 or even 30 minutes early, to get up with the sunrise or maybe even before the sunrise to sit still and offer your heart as a sacrifice to God.
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