Psalm 5
O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. ~Psalm 5:3 (ESV)
Read Psalm 5. Grab your own copy of Scripture or use one of these links: ESV, NASB, NIV.
If you haven’t already heard me work this psalm into one of our conversations, we must not talk very often. My own counselor gave me a great gift by referencing this psalm one day. David addresses one of the concerns most often brought forth in counseling—God doesn’t hear me. If you’ve read Psalms 1–4, you know that God hears you when you cry to him. This is an absolute truth, a concept we can rely on no matter what we feel.
In verse 3, David prepares his prayer to God in the morning. He wants to start and order his day by making his worship and petitions known to his great God. David, as we’ve seen in the other psalms, has his share of adversaries—they just keep coming for him. David prepares his prayer the way the priests prepare a sacrifice—in order. There was an order to every sacrifice made by the priests. David reminds us that even though prayer doesn’t have to be formal, it also shouldn’t be flippant. We offer our sacrifice of prayer to the Most High God, the Creator God, the Savior God. While we certainly do this in relationship, we also must do it in reverence.
The end of this verse is the part that stunned me. Look again. David calls out to God in the morning, he prepares a sacrifice of an orderly and reverent prayer, and then what? He watches. Other translations use phrases like “. . . and wait in expectation” or “. . . and I wait for your answer.” David was so confident in hearing from God that he was watching and waiting.
When I first considered this verse, I was ashamed to say that I rarely brought my petition before God and then waited in expectation for his answer. Maybe in a few, big-deal situations I’d anticipate a reply from God, but not every day. This verse, among others, made me realize that I can expect to hear from God every single time and that I should live in a posture of expectation. That’s not to say God will reply “yes” to all our requests or that we will receive an answer quickly. But we should adopt a posture of watching for how God will use our sacrifice of prayer.
If you don’t already do so, consider the discipline of starting your day with prayer. What will you bring before the Lord tomorrow morning? How will you wait in expectation for his response? How will you be patient as you wait?