This is the first of the imprecatory psalms, one in which the author seeks the destruction of his foes. But can we pray the same prayers in this dispensation of Grace? Should a Christian pray for vengeance, like Old Testament Saints? This is no doubt, a controversial petition which Carl addresses directly, in this insightful broadcast. This psalm was penned during a time of great duress for King David, as his son Absalom sought to deceitfully usurp his throne. Carl shares personal anecdotes regarding opportunities to take vengeance, so you don’t want to miss out on this one. Tune in now…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, we continue our exposition of the Psalms, and next upon the menu is Psalm 5, a very interesting psalm, one authored by David, certainly. And in this psalm, we see the expectation of a rebellion or rather battle, which probably came from his own house. And when David penned these words in Psalm 5, it was in the days most likely prior to Absalom’s rebellion. David was approaching one of the darkest hours of his life. There was a gathering uprising, an insurrection from his own son, politically and probably militarily. And it is during this backdrop that the psalm was penned with flute. And the actual term here used for the instrument is nehiloth, which is a Hebrew term referring to a flute that David would have played while he was reciting this psalm. And it also contains the first recorded imprecatory command by David, which is seeking to destroy his enemies, which some consider to be harsh. And we have to remember that at this time, David was under the law. He was not under grace.
We have a different viewpoint, and I will discuss that as we read the psalm together, that the Christian can’t be praying for his enemies to be destroyed in this dispensation, as we’d most like. But those prayers will occur again in the tribulation period, friend. But let me start out with verse one, “Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee will I pray. My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto you, and will look up.” And certainly there are several passages in Scripture where David’s prayer time is in the early morning. If we consider Psalm 57, it says David awakens early to the music of the harp and psaltery. And again, in Psalm 63, it says he seeks God early because of his hunger and thirst after him. And of course, you’d have to ask yourself, are you a morning person, friend? Well, when I was younger, I was, but the older I get, it’s harder to get up at the early hours.
Some people are permitted to do that, getting up at four, five, six in the morning. And I’m up by six, certainly with young children, that would be a lion. But, you know, it doesn’t matter the time of the day. What matters is that you pursue God and make time for him. And that can be the evening. Certainly, it does not have to be the morning. However, the advantage of being the morning, seeking God, is he can direct your day before it starts. But I know that Brother Hagen would often seek God at night. So, it’s really a personal preference thing. But the most important thing is that you hunger and thirst after him. Verse five, “for you are not a God that has pleasure and wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with you. The foolish shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy, and in your fear will I worship toward your holy temple.” And of course, at this juncture, the temple was not built. The temple would be built by Solomon later.
So in many ways, David was speaking prophetically when he penned these words. Another translation says, for you are not a God whom wickedness can please. The evil man cannot dwell with you. The arrogant shall not dare to stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You will destroy them that speak lies. The man of blood and deceit, Jehovah abhors. As for me, through your great mercy will I enter your house. I will fall down facing your holy temple in fear. This is the comfort of the godly friend. When you look about today, there’s so much evil prevalent in the earth and the wickedness is on the rise just in line with scripture as it would predict. Wickedness does prosper for a season, friend. There’s no doubt about that. But in time, ultimately, God will judge it all. And there is a reference in verse six to the term leasing, which is not something we would use today, but it really speaks of deceitfulness. It’s a false pretense of those who feign loyalty to leadership but actually are working against. And of course, the party in question here is Absalom and his insurrection against his father. And in many ways, David was reaping the sin with Bathsheba.
He was reaping in his household, the sowing to the sin and reaping the whirlwind in the sense that Amnon, his eldest son, and then Absalom were warring against each other. And then he had rape in his family and it just spiraled and spiraled. And David had a really tough time. But it shows you how sin can affect your lineage. Verse eight, lead me, “O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. And we want the way of the Lord,” friend. That’s what we’re seeking in our workplace. I used to be an engineer. I had to get up very early, had a long commute, and I had to make major decisions and they were difficult. And I can think of times when I really leaned on God’s wisdom and sometimes even took decisions. I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable myself in my own flesh, but they were the right decisions because I prayed over them.
Verse nine, “for there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They flatter with their tongue.” Speaking of those who are deceitful, who are plotting against David behind his back. It has to be said that a throat that is an open sepulcher is a metaphor for negative words of the wicked being like an open grave leading to death. And in fact, Christ compared the Pharisees to white sepulchers full of dead men’s bones. And this is that negative spirit that starts in leadership, that turns against the leader through slander, whatever means or mechanism, strife, and can totally overthrow the chain of authority. And that’s what Absalom did. He stood at the city gates and started speaking against his father. And I’m sure you know the story yourself. I’m not going to go into detail particularly there. But David discovers that the righteousness he possesses being inhabited by God’s spirit leads to God’s favor. And part of that favor is protection. Absalom paid lip service to David, but he was not loyal to him. Verse 10, “destroy them. Oh God, let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions for they have rebelled against you.” And this is the first example in scripture recorded of an imprecatory request, which if you would look that word up in the dictionary, it would be cursing your enemy or invoking evil on your enemy. And that is not something, of course, that we should be doing. We should be walking in love.
In contrast, Matthew 5:44 says, “but I say unto you, this is Jesus speaking, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” This is difficult to do, friend. In Romans 12:19, we’re told, “dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay.” And certainly think of the difficulty. David’s heart was wrenched. His enemies were in his own household. His own son had turned against him. And this is a very sad thing, friend. But it’s during this period that David cried out to God and God had a plan for David. And he promised protection, which he fulfilled, as you know, from the biblical narrative. David ultimately understood that the rebellion was not against him, but it was against Christ himself. And this spirit was at work in the lineage of Israel, of course, and Jeroboam fell years later and the kingdom was split between Judah and Israel and both kingdoms went into captivity, which is sad, but it’s testimony to what happens when we turn from God. Verse 11, “but let all those that put their trust in you rejoice.”
Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let them also that love your name, be joyful in you. And I remember, you know, this is just a small matter that came to mind, but I had a guy one time, he came and fixed my dishwasher, charged me hundreds of dollars, said, everything’s good, boss. You know, I’ve done this, I’ve replaced that, I’ve replaced this and walked off. And I’m thinking, okay, wonderful. And we turned the dishwasher on, it still wouldn’t work. And, you know, we had to contest that. We could have gone to small claims court, that was an option. And this was, of course, after finding out, hired somebody else, they came and said, oh man, this guy’s lying to you. He hasn’t replaced anything. Here’s the video. Let me show you. And my flesh, man, got upset as anybody would. And, you know, a bit of the Welsh wanted to come out there. And, you know, my wife’s like, you know what, let’s, if someone’s desperate enough to do that, let’s pray for them. Let’s believe that God will bless them. And that goes against our nature, right? You’re not going to think like that in the natural realm. Let’s pray for someone who robbed from you. But we did that, friend. We just gave it up to God. We made sure we didn’t have any unforgiveness in our heart.
And then we just released it. And there was just a feeling of joy when I did that. I haven’t caught up with this guy. I could have reported him to the Better Business Bureau. I could have written customer reviews all over every website and Facebook and everywhere saying this guy is a you know what, but we didn’t choose to do that. We took the high road, as they say in Scotland. You can take the high road or the low road. And the metaphor there is taking the high road is walking in love and taking the low road is, you know, acting like a tribal member of the Connor clan and hacking them apart as they would back there in the 13th century. Amen. But that’s not the way that Christ wants us to act. And so, David had opportunity many times to get in the flesh. And, you know, from Scripture, he didn’t do that with King Saul. He spared his life at least twice, and God blessed him for that. And I’m reminded of Brother Hagin. Many times people would slander Brother Hagin. They would write things against him. They would criticize him, and he would not get in the flesh. He knew that if he went into the flesh and started retaliating, he would be taking the bait of And there would be consequences of sowing that way and reaping.
And Hagin wanted the blessing from God. He didn’t want to be shut down by getting into the flesh, friend. And the question is, what is banging at your door this day? Something is irritating you. You have the opportunity to get into the flesh, or you can take the high road of Matthew chapter 5 verse 44. Read it again in your own time. Bless those that despitefully persecute you. Flesh. It’s sizzling. My flesh is sizzling. Ow, you just treading on my toes right now. My flesh is sizzling. Yes. It’s another aspect of death, dying to your own flesh and choosing the way of the Spirit. God will bless those who live righteously. Psalm 11, Psalm 33, Psalm 45, and Psalm 146, and even in other places are corollary places where God speaks of blessing the righteous friend. It’s an act of faith to do that. Proverbs 10:22 says, “the blessing of the Lord, it makes rich and he adds no sorrow to it.” Friend, let me share with you now a whimsical and somewhat tragic anecdote.
You know, being a pastor in Denver, you can have a few stories to tell. And I think it was a Wednesday evening after a service, this gentleman expressed that he would like to receive prayer. He had a terminal disease in his body. And sure enough, I was ready with anointing oil and had James chapter 5 open. You know, is any among you sick? Call the elders of the church, anoint them with oil. And if they’ve committed sins, they shall be forgiven. But then friend, this guy started to tell me about how he prayed vengeance upon his enemies and how successful he was at it and bringing the wrath of God, quote unquote, down on his ex-wife. And I actually started laughing because I thought it was a joke, but sure enough, it was not. This man was deadly serious. And he described how basically he was, I mean, not by the spirit of God, but he was effectively cursing these people and bad things were happening to them. And that’s a form of witchcraft friend, whether you realize it or not. So I was adamant that I wasn’t going to pray for this man unless he submitted to the word of God and actually, you know, did what the word said.
And sure enough, he turned around and stormed out and I never saw him again. And friend, I’d be amazed if he’s alive today because of the progression of the disease in his body at the time. But this is a very serious business, this taking vengeance into your own hands. Allow the Lord to do it for you. Let him settle the accounts. If you’ve been wronged, let the Lord settle the account for you, friend. Let vengeance be taken in his time and in his way. All right. God bless.
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/psalm-2-end-of-globalism/
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-5/
Title: Psalm 5: Vengeance is Mine
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