Discipleship in the Psalms: Among Evil People
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
February 08, 2024
Fourth in a series.
As a kid, I loved baseball and basketball. But by the end of my eighth-grade year, my interest in ball sports waned, and I suspect that my sanctification may be stunted because of it. I was tired of the scene—coaches who smoked, players who talked trash, and petty arguments about calls or whatever. From that point on, I turned to swimming, cycling, and triathlon, sports with few opportunities for playing dirty or getting blown calls.
But now as an adult, when I watch ball sports or play them, a competitive beast rises up within me, and I am ready, at least emotionally, to respond to fouls with fouls, cheating with cheating, and just generally do whatever it takes to win. I sometimes wish I had stuck it out and learned how to better deal with the unsanctified that I came across in my younger days.
Similarly, I think we Christians are tempted to take this same aggressive attitude in the culture war. If those we consider to be our enemies fight dirty, we think that we should take the gloves off and beat them senseless (at least metaphorically).
But I think King David would have words for us. In the Psalms, David is frequently preoccupied with his enemies. David’s encounters with them give him insight into what evil people are like, and his instinct to turn to the Lord in worship gives us the key to unlock moral clarity in our own encounters with those who fight dirty. Rather than take cues from his enemies about how to behave, David cultivates a hunger for God and his righteousness.
This insight comes as we observe the structure of Psalm 5.
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.
2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.
This psalm alternates between David seeking the Lord in worship and his reflections on the wickedness around him. I observe five different sections, distinguished by the major characters involved:
A – David cries out to God to answer his prayer and sacrifice (vv. 1–3). Characters: David and God
B – Reason (Hebrew: kî): God hates evil, deceit, and violence (vv. 4–6). Characters: Wicked people and God
A’ – David seeks God’s presence in the temple and his leading in the right way (vv. 7–8). Characters: David and God (and one mention of enemies)
B’ – Reason (Hebrew: kî): Those who rebel against God speak death and invite disaster (vv. 9–10). Characters: Wicked people and God
A’’ – David invites us to rejoice in God as our protector (vv. 11–12). Characters: The righteous and God
Notice that the reflection sections (B and B’) both begin with a Hebrew word, kî, which can mean several things. It can emphasize the truth of something (“surely”), but it can also introduce a reason or cause. I think the latter meaning is more likely here (hence, ESV translates “for”). David’s virtue lies in his putting his relationship with God first. This commitment has two key dimensions.
First, he prays with confidence that God will answer him and deliver him (hence the joy in vv. 11–12) because he knows God hates evil (v. 4) and evildoers (v. 5). They cannot endure his presence (vv. 4–5; cf. Psa. 1:6). Indeed, God “abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (v. 6). That alone should throw icy water on our hot-headed responses to our cultural foes and give us hope in God’s deliverance.
Second, in the presence of God, David finds guidance in God’s way. He seeks guidance because of his enemies. In contrast to those who lie and scheme their way to power, David turns to God in the temple. But his petition here is not for deliverance (which is present in vv. 11–12 and clearly his concern elsewhere, such as in Psa. 27:4–5) but rather for leading (v. 8). In light of the pressure from his enemies, he needs God to lead him in the right way. How easy it is, when people treat us badly, to respond in kind. In fact, the hardest thing to do is to follow God’s way, to love our enemies, and to speak truthfully and act graciously. Only the sanctifying presence and power of God can achieve that in us, so we must come to him.
But David doesn’t stop there in his reflections on evil. Verses 9–10 consider the end of evil. It is the grave (v. 9), and it is God-directed, self-inflicted disaster (v. 10). Think for a moment about how knowing God’s attitude toward evil directs our moral compass. The end of wickedness is disaster and death. Why would we follow the lead of those who rebel against God?
Finally, the psalm ends with an invitation for us to take refuge in God and to rejoice in his protection (vv. 11–12). The psalm began with desperate cries, and it ends in joy. There is nothing like worship to galvanize us to respond to evil with a no-holds-barred pursuit of refuge and righteousness in the presence of God.
Daniel Owens, PhD, is NCC’s pastor of discipleship. Go to the NCC Blog for the previous posts in this series.
1The temple had not yet been built in David’s day, so this seems a strange thing for him to say. Although some scholars use this as evidence that David is not behind this psalm, Derek Kidner suggests the text may have been updated for use by later worshipers when a temple had been built (Psalms 1-72, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973], 75).
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