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Commentary on Psalms 5 verses 1–6
The title of this psalm has nothing in it peculiar but that it is said to be upon Nehiloth, a word nowhere else used. It is conjectured (and it is but a conjecture) that is signifies wind - instruments, with which this psalm was sung, as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed - instruments. In these verses David had an eye to God,
I. As a prayer-hearing God; such he has always been ever since men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and yet is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. Observe how David here styles him: O Lord (Psa 5:1, Psa 5:3), Jehovah, a self-existent, self-sufficient, Being, whom we are bound to adore, and, "my King and my God (Psa 5:2), whom I have avouched for my God, to whom I have sworn allegiance, and under whose protection I have put myself as my King." We believe that the God we pray to is a King, and a God. King of kings and God of gods; but that is not enough: the most commanding encouraging principle of prayer, and the most powerful or prevailing plea in prayer, is to look upon him as our King and our God, to whom we lie under peculiar obligations and from whom we have peculiar expectations. Now observe,
1.What David here prays for, which may encourage our faith and hopes in all our addresses to God. If we pray fervently, and in faith, we have reason to hope, (1.) That God will take cognizance of our case, the representation we make of it and the requests we make upon it; for so he prays here: Give ear to my words, O Lord! Though God is in heaven, he has an ear open to his people's prayers, and it is not heavy, that he cannot hear. Men perhaps will not or cannot hear us; our enemies are so haughty that they will not, our friends at such a distance that they cannot; but God, though high, though in heaven, can, and will. (2.) That he will take it into his wise and compassionate consideration, and will not slight it, or turn it off with a cursory answer; for so he prays: Consider my meditation. David's prayers were not his words only, but his meditations; as meditation is the best preparative for prayer, so prayer is the best issue of meditation. Meditation and prayer should go together, Psa 19:14. It is when we thus consider our prayers, and then only, that we may expect that God will consider them, and take that to his heart which comes from ours. (3.) That he will, in due time, return a gracious answer of peace; for so he prays (Psa 5:2): Hearken to the voice of my cry. His prayer was a cry; it was the voice of his cry, which denotes fervency of affection and importunity of expression; and such effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much and do wonders.
2.What David here promises, as the condition on his part to be performed, fulfilled, and kept, that he might obtain this gracious acceptance; this may guide and govern us in our addresses to God, that we may present them aright, for we ask, and have not, if we ask amiss. Four things David here promises, and so must we: - (1.) That he will pray, that he will make conscience of praying, and make a business of it: Unto thee will I pray. "Others live without prayer, but I will pray." Kings on their own thrones (so David was) must be beggars at God's throne. "Others pray to strange gods, and expect relief from them, but to thee, to thee only, will I pray." The assurances God has given us of his readiness to hear prayer should confirm our resolution to live and die praying. (2.) That he will pray in the morning. His praying voice shall be heard then, and then shall his prayer be directed; that shall be the date of his letters to heaven, not that only ("Morning, and evening, and at noon, will I pray, nay, seven times a day, will I praise thee"), but that certainly. Morning prayer is our duty; we are the fittest for prayer when we are in the most fresh, and lively, and composed frame, got clear of the slumbers of the night, revived by them, and not yet filled with the business of the day. We have then most need of prayer, considering the dangers and temptations of the day to which we are exposed, and against which we are concerned; by faith and prayer, to fetch in fresh supplies of grace. (3.) That he will have his eye single and his heart intent in the duty: I will direct my prayer, as a marksman directs his arrow to the white; with such a fixedness and steadiness of mind should we address ourselves to God. Or as we direct a letter to a friend at such a place so must we direct our prayers to God as our Father in heaven; and let us always send them by the Lord Jesus, the great Mediator, and then they will be sure not to miscarry. All our prayers must be directed to God; his honour and glory must be aimed at as our highest end in all our prayers. Let our first petition be, Hallowed, glorified, by thy name, and then we may be sure of the same gracious answer to it that was given to Christ himself: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again. (4.) That he will patiently wait for an answer of peace: "I will look up, will look after my prayers, and hear what God the Lord will speak (Psa 85:8; Hab 2:1), that, if he grant what I asked, I may be thankful - if he deny, I may be patient - if he defer, I may continue to pray and wait and may not faint." We must look up, or look out, as he that has shot an arrow looks to see how near it has come to the mark. We lose much of the comfort of our prayers for want of observing the returns of them. Thus praying, thus waiting, as the lame man looked stedfastly on Peter and John (Act 3:4), we may expect that God will give ear to our words and consider them, and to him we may refer ourselves, as David here, who does not pray, "Lord, do this, or the other, for me;" but, "Hearken to me, consider my case, and do in it as seemeth good unto thee."
II. As a sin-hating God, Psa 5:4-6. David takes notice of this, 1. As a warning to himself, and all other praying people, to remember that, as the God with whom we have to do is gracious and merciful, so he is pure and holy; though he is ready to hear prayer, yet, if we regard iniquity in our heart, he will not hear our prayers, Psa 66:18. 2. As an encouragement to his prayers against his enemies; they were wicked men, and therefore enemies to God, and such as he had not pleasure in. See here. (1.) The holiness of God's nature. When he says, Thou art not a God that has pleasure in wickedness, he means, "Thou art a God that hates it, as directly contrary to thy infinite purity and rectitude, and holy will." Though the workers of iniquity prosper, let none thence infer that God has pleasure in wickedness, no, not in that by which men pretend to honour him, as those do that hate their brethren, and cast them out, and say, Let the Lord be glorified. God has no pleasure in wickedness, though covered with a cloak of religion. Let those therefore who delight in sin know that God has no delight in them; nor let any say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God is not the author of sin, neither shall evil dwell with him, that is, it shall not always be countenanced and suffered to prosper. Dr. Hammond thinks this refers to that law of Moses which would not permit strangers, who persisted in their idolatry, to dwell in the land of Israel. (2.) The justice of his government. The foolish shall not stand in his sight, that is, shall not be smiled upon by him, nor admitted to attend upon him, nor shall they be acquitted in the judgment of the great day. The workers of iniquity are very foolish. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest of all fools; not fools of God's making (those are to be pitied), for he hates nothing that he has made, but fools of their own making, and those he hates. Wicked people hate God; justly therefore are they hated of him, and it will be their endless misery and ruin. "Those whom thou hatest thou shalt destroy;" particularly two sorts of sinners, who are here marked for destruction: - [1.] Those that are fools, that speak leasing or lying, and that are deceitful. There is a particular emphasis laid on these sinners (Rev 21:8), All liars, and (Psa 22:15), Whosoever loves and makes a lie; nothing is more contrary than this, and therefore nothing more hateful to the God of truth. [2.] Those that are cruel: Thou wilt abhor the bloody man; for inhumanity is no less contrary, no less hateful, to the God of mercy, whom mercy pleases. Liars and murderers are in a particular manner said to resemble the devil and to be his children, and therefore it may well be expected that God should abhor them. These were the characters of David's enemies; and such as these are still the enemies of Christ and his church, men perfectly lost to all virtue and honour; and the worse they are the surer we may be of their ruin in due time.
In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must engage and stir up ourselves to the duty of prayer, and encourage ourselves in it, because we shall not seek the Lord in vain; and must express our detestation of sin, and our awful expectation of that day of Christ's appearing which will be the day of the perdition of ungodly men.
Because of grace this hymn is sung, in behalf of the individual spirit or for the church called out for the divine inheritance, not a natural one but a spiritual one.
Who is she who is to obtain the inheritance? I believe it is the church, for it is the church who receives the inheritance.… David sings at the beginning that the church wins the inheritance at the end.… There are, however, several other interpretations. Many say that the psalm accords with the history of the people of Israel who long to return to Judea from Babylon, but they have failed to interpret “unto the end” and “for her that obtains the inheritance.” We, then, by “combining spiritual with spiritual” shall endeavor with the help of your prayers to consider this psalm as applying to the church.
What Scripture says in the words “you destroy all who speak falsehood” we should interpret as referring to heretics, both from the forward movement of the psalm and from the order within the movement itself. The doer of evil has, indeed, killed his own soul; but the heretic—the liar—has killed as many souls as he has seduced.… Every heretic is bloodthirsty, for every day he spills the blood of souls.… Deceitful is the right word. He is both a murderer and a practitioner of deceit. How is he deceitful? His words deliberately misrepresent the words of the Lord.… Just think of the condition of the heretic: the Lord abhors him!
There are many who insist that the titles do not belong to the psalms but who really do not know why they hold such a view. If the titles were not found in all the manuscripts—Hebrew, Greek and Latin—their position would be tenable. Since, however, there are titles in the Hebrew books, and this one in particular marks the fifth psalm, I am amazed at the implication that there can be anything in Scripture without reason. If it be true that “not one jot or one title shall be lost from the Law,” how much more shall not a word or a syllable be lost?
"You will destroy all that speak a lie." [Psalm 5:6] For this is the opposite to truth. But lest any one should suppose that any substance or nature is opposite to truth, let him understand that "a lie" has relation to that which is not, not to that which is. For if that which is be spoken, truth is spoken: but if that which is not be spoken, it is a lie. Therefore says he, "You will destroy all that speak a lie;" because drawing back from that which is, they turn aside to that which is not. Many lies indeed seem to be for some one's safety or advantage, spoken not in malice, but in kindness: such was that of those midwives in Exodus, [Exodus 1:19] who gave a false report to Pharaoh, to the end that the infants of the children of Israel might not be slain. But even these are praised not for the fact, but for the disposition shown; since those who only lie in this way, will attain in time to a freedom from all lying. For in those that are perfect, not even these lies are found. For to these it is said, "Let there be in your mouth, yea, yea; nay, nay; whatsoever is more, is of evil." [Matthew 5:37] Nor is it without reason written in another place, "The mouth that lies slays the soul:" [Wisdom 1:11] lest any should imagine that the perfect and spiritual man ought to lie for this temporal life, in the death of which no soul is slain, neither his own, nor another's. But since it is one thing to lie, another to conceal the truth (if indeed it be one thing to say what is false, another not to say what is true), if haply one does not wish to give a man up even to this visible death, he should be prepared to conceal what is true, not to say what is false; so that he may neither give him up, nor yet lie, lest he slay his own soul for another's body. But if he cannot yet do this, let him at all events admit only lies of such necessity, that he may attain to be freed even from these, if they alone remain, and receive the strength of the Holy Ghost, whereby he may despise all that must be suffered for the truth's sake. In fine, there are two kinds of lies, in which there is no great fault, and yet they are not without fault, either when we are in jest, or when we lie that we may do good. That first kind, in jest, is for this reason not very hurtful, because there is no deception. For he to whom it is said knows that it is said for the sake of the jest. But the second kind is for this reason the more inoffensive, because it carries with it some kindly intention. And to say truth, that which has no duplicity, cannot even be called a lie. As if, for example, a sword be entrusted to any one, and he promises to return it, when he who entrusted it to him shall demand it: if he chance to require his sword when in a fit of madness, it is clear it must not be returned then, lest he kill either himself or others, until soundness of mind be restored to him. Here then is no duplicity, because he, to whom the sword was entrusted, when he promised that he would return it at the other's demand, did not imagine that he could require it when in a fit of madness. But even the Lord concealed the truth, when He said to the disciples, not yet strong enough, "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now:" [John 16:12] and the Apostle Paul when he said, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." [1 Corinthians 3:1] Whence it is clear that it is not blamable, sometimes not to speak what is true. But to say what is false is not found to have been allowed to the perfect.
"For You are not a God who hast pleasure in iniquity. The malignant man shall not dwell near You, nor shall the unrighteous abide before Your eyes. You have hated all that work iniquity, You will destroy all that speak a lie. The man of blood, and the crafty man, the Lord will abominate" [Psalm 5:4-6]. Iniquity, malignity, lying, homicide, craft, and all the like, are the night of which we speak: on the passing away of which, the morning dawns, that God may be seen. He has unfolded the reason, then, why he will stand by in the morning, and see: "For," he says, "You are not a God who hast pleasure in iniquity." For if He were a God who had pleasure in iniquity, He could be seen even by the iniquitous, so that He would not be seen in the morning, that is, when the night of iniquity is over.
"The man of blood, and the crafty man, the Lord will abominate." What he said above, "You have hated all that work iniquity, You will destroy all that speak a lie," may well seem to be repeated here: so that one may refer "the man of blood" to "the worker of iniquity," and "the crafty man" to the "lie." For it is craft, when one thing is done, another pretended. He used an apt word too, when he said, "will abominate." For the disinherited are usually called abominated. Now this Psalm is, "for her who receives the inheritance."
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SUMMARY
Psalms 5:6 powerfully declares God's righteous character, revealing Him as a holy and just sovereign who actively opposes and condemns all forms of wickedness. It asserts that the Lord will ultimately destroy those who practice deceit and utterly abhors individuals characterized by violence and treachery. This verse serves as a foundational statement of divine justice, assuring the psalmist and all believers that God is not indifferent to evil but will execute perfect judgment against those who persist in sin.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 5:6 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its message. Foremost is Synonymous Parallelism, where the second half of the verse reiterates and intensifies the meaning of the first. "Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing" is paralleled by "the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man," with "destroy" and "abhor" expressing similar divine opposition, and "them that speak leasing" being a specific manifestation of the broader category of "bloody and deceitful man." This repetition serves to emphasize the certainty and comprehensiveness of God's judgment against wickedness. There is also a strong element of Figurative Language, particularly in the phrase "bloody and deceitful man," which uses concrete terms to describe abstract moral depravity. "Bloody" is a metonymy for violence and murder, while "deceitful" encapsulates treachery and fraud. The verse also implicitly uses Anthropomorphism in describing God's "abhorrence," attributing a human emotion (detestation) to God to help human readers grasp the intensity of His righteous indignation against sin, while maintaining His divine transcendence.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 5:6 profoundly underscores the biblical truth of God's absolute holiness and His unwavering commitment to justice. It reveals a God who is not apathetic to human sin but is actively and morally opposed to all forms of evil, particularly those that undermine truth and life. This verse serves as a crucial reminder that while God is merciful and gracious, His mercy does not negate His justice. He is a God of perfect moral order, and His character demands that sin be judged. This understanding of God's nature provides both comfort to the oppressed, knowing their cries for justice are heard, and a solemn warning to those who persist in wickedness. It highlights the inherent conflict between God's truth and human deception, His life-giving nature and human violence, affirming that ultimately, God's righteous order will prevail.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 5:6 offers profound comfort and a clear challenge for believers today. In a world often saturated with deceit, violence, and injustice, this verse assures us that God is neither blind nor indifferent to the suffering caused by such evils. We can find solace in knowing that our God is a God of perfect justice who will ultimately bring every hidden thing to light and every wrong to right. This truth should empower us to trust in His sovereign timing and righteous judgment, rather than succumbing to despair or seeking personal vengeance. Furthermore, this verse serves as a powerful call to integrity and truthfulness in our own lives. As followers of a God who abhors "leasing" and deceit, we are compelled to embody truth in our words and actions, reflecting His character in a world desperate for authenticity. Our lives should be marked by honesty, compassion, and a commitment to justice, standing in stark contrast to the "bloody and deceitful" ways of the world, and actively pursuing righteousness in all our dealings.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "leasing" mean in the King James Version of Psalms 5:6?
Answer: In the King James Version, "leasing" is an archaic term that translates the Hebrew word כָּזָב (kâzâb), meaning "lie," "falsehood," or "deception." Therefore, "them that speak leasing" refers to those who tell lies, spread falsehoods, or engage in deceptive practices. It highlights a character trait of dishonesty and treachery. Modern translations often render this as "liars" or "those who speak lies," making the meaning more accessible to contemporary readers. The verse emphasizes that God will ultimately destroy or bring judgment upon those whose lives are characterized by such deceit, as He is a God of truth and integrity who cannot tolerate falsehood.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 5:6, with its declaration of God's abhorrence for deceit and violence and His promise to destroy the wicked, finds its ultimate fulfillment and deepest meaning in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the embodiment of God's truth, declaring, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He consistently exposed and condemned hypocrisy and deceit, particularly among the religious leaders of His day, as seen in His scathing rebukes throughout Matthew 23. While God's judgment against sin is clear in the Old Testament, the New Testament reveals how this judgment was perfectly satisfied in Christ. On the cross, Jesus, who "knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore the full weight of God's righteous wrath against all "bloody and deceitful" acts, and against all "leasing," offering forgiveness and reconciliation to those who turn from their sin. Ultimately, Christ is also the one through whom God's final judgment will be executed, as He will return not only as Savior but also as the righteous Judge, bringing an end to all wickedness and establishing His eternal kingdom of truth and justice, as depicted in Revelation 19:11-16. Thus, Psalms 5:6 foreshadows the comprehensive victory of truth and righteousness achieved through Christ, inviting believers to live in the truth and love that He exemplifies and empowers through His Spirit, putting away falsehood and speaking truth, as exhorted in Ephesians 4:25.