“Prayers of Confession”

Sunday, June 30, 2019 — Rev. Douglas J. Kortyna, Pastor

Sermon Text: Psalm 5

Worship Theme: “The Covenant Community continually confesses their sin before the Lord.”

Opening

This morning’s text is going to take some time to get through. Therefore, I want to keep my opening short. But, I want us as a congregation to realize that this text has to do primarily with words. How we choose them, how we direct our words to God in worship, and the judgment that will occur for our words spoken in this life. Would you please turn with me to Psalm 5?

TEXT

SECTION I (Call to Worship)

5:0 - 5:1 – Psalm of singing. This would have been sung in the congregation, historically. Nothing needs to be said further. We first have a command or request directed towards the Lord.1 One of the things that has stood out to me thus far, when reading through the Psalter, is requests to the Lord are commands. This implies the language is stronger than “O, Lord please do this or that.” The Psalms are not polite prayers like we often pray. It is more like “Lord do this or that.” I think there is more urgency in the text. Thus we should pray this way, too! The commands issued towards the Lord are to “hear” and “consider.” Psalm 5 implies the person is overwhelmed with emotion. Perhaps even to the point of not being able to pray. But the Lord will answer the petitions of the covenant community who is inwardly groaning and unable to express themselves adequately.2

5:2 – We have a declarative statement of who the Psalmist is praying to. I want to again point our attention to Psalm 2. This is the Lord who sits above everyone else. In today’s text, notice the personal quality of God. The pronoun “my” is used in reference to king and God. Israel is

1 The verb is causative (Hitpael) in the imperative state (command/request). See Beckman, John C. and Ronald J. Williams. Williams Hebrew Syntax, Third Edition. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Pp. 62-80. 2 Craigie, Peter C. World Biblical Commentary: Psalms 1-50. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2004. p. 86.

- 1 - always called to worship a God who is “other worldly,” but also near. Furthermore God hears the cry of the faithful covenant community.

5:3 – I think the mention of the sacrifice is with words and not animals. Therefore, the Psalm encourages the readers or singers to wake up in the morning and to pray and wait on the response of the Lord.

SECTION II (Prayers of Confession)

5:4 – We now have a shift in focus. We are told that God does not delight in wickedness and evil may not dwell with Him. I think the Psalter is recognizing the fallenness of human beings. Remember, this is a song with preparation to worship. The psalmist understands that human beings cannot enter into the presence of God without acknowledging their sinfulness. Notice we have this in our Reformed worship each and every week. We need to constantly be reminded that we cannot enter into the presence of God without acknowledging our sinfulness and our need for a savior. The “Confessions of Sin” each and every week is to remind us that this is true and has testimony for our practice in Scripture. We find this idea in Psalm 5 this morning.

5:5 – The text now shifts towards speech. Notice how Scripture loves to address speech. I find this issue coming up again and again while reading through the Bible closely as your preacher. God does not like the boastful. In fact, they are not allowed to stand before His eyes. Anyone here this morning think we live in a world where boasting is a problem? I do. Just take one scroll through your social media accounts!

5:6 - The text goes on to state that the Lord hates those who speak lies and abhors the deceitful person. Does anyone believe we have a problem with this in our current climate? I sure think we do with the proliferation of false information, false testimony, and many other falsehoods always circulating around us. Notice the Lord’s judgment rests upon those who continue to lie so much they cannot separate fact from fiction.

SECTION III (Reverence/Entering God’s Presence/Christ as Mediator)

5:7 – The text switches back to reverence towards God. Humans come into God’s presence through the acknowledgment of sin and judgment. Moreover, it is only through God’s covenant love and faithfulness to His people that they are able to come into His house to worship Him. Notice the end of this verse. The word choice is “fear.” How could you not fear the Lord after reading Psalm 2? But it is His loyal love, or steadfast love, that allows worshippers to come into His presence. The intimacy portrayed in this verse is that the worshipper can come into the holiest part of God’s temple and experience His presence.

5:8 – The plea continues. The prayer/song is to make the path straight before the face of the worshipper. Does this sound similar? Remember Jesus speaks about the straight path and so does

- 2 - his cousin John. Remember their worshiping imagination was shaped by the Book of the Psalms. Therefore, ours should be too!

SECTION IV (Depravity of Speech)

5:9-11 – Notice the text shifts to the specifics of speech again. The Bible says a ton about words and speech. Notice the phrases that are used “no truth in their mouth” and “throat is an open grave.” Paul quotes this section in Romans 3:10-18. Notice the judgment that ensues for this people. They will receive judgment for their words of destruction. Again, think back to Psalm 2. All these texts that we are encountering week after week go together as one unit.

SECTION V (Benediction)

5:12-13 – Notice the imagery that is used for those who truly worship the Lord. God spreads His wings over them like a hen does to its chicks. Moreover, those who take their refuge in the Lord are covered with His shield.

Application

Notice how today’s text is very similar to our version of Reformed worship here at RPC. I did, however, want to point out two important things from this morning’s text:

1) Sinful Speech- Sections 5:4-6 and 5:7-8 speak about the fallen nature of the tongue. Just spending a few minutes on social media will allow you to see the fallenness of speech in full display. I think Facebook, in particular, is getting worse and worse. I have spent some time talking about Christians being a prophetic witness in the world they find themselves located in. The best way for us to be a prophetic witness in today’s current climate is repenting of sinful speech in the social media realm, or when talking to others. Know who you represent. People are watching you very closely. Marriage, in particular, has taught me the importance of confessing sinful speech and putting it to death in my Christian walk. Please, do the same with social media usage and interacting with others. Those who do not repent and place their trust in Christ will be judged for their words. Jesus states in Matthew 12:36-37 ESV (True Fruit):

36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

I also think that we, as Christians, will be judged for eternal rewards, too. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:10 states:

- 3 - For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

And many of us, myself included (teachers are judged harsher in James 3:1), might lose out on some of our eternal rewards based on our inability to bridle the tongue.3

2) Psalm 5 Christologically – The good news is that coming into God’s presence on the Lord’s Day for worship or personal devotion does not hinge on our good works. In particular, Psalm 5:7-8 this morning speaks about coming into God’s presence. But how is this accomplished? Again, back to words. Why do we say “in Jesus name” at the end of a prayer? Because we are acknowledging that we can only come into God’s presence through the mediator Jesus Christ. Jesus, throughout His earthly ministry, continually repeats the statement “tear down this temple and three days it will rise again.” Stop and think for a moment about this statement. It’s crazy. God’s presence is only accessible through the person and work of Jesus Christ (John 14:6). For example, we do not get to come into God’s presence because we are clean people who speak properly. We come into God’s presence because of what Christ has done. We plead for God’s mercy, in Christ, for our inability to praise God through our speech and even for our lack of zeal to speak to God through prayer.

Conclusion

As you go about your week, think about the role speech plays in worship, prayers, and sin. I would also include one of the defining marks of us as being made in the image of God is the complexity of our ability as humans to speak (I fully know some animals have their own language).The Bible constantly talks about speech. Ask the Lord to work in your heart and give you the ability to be a person whose speech is graceful like Jesus. Ask the Lord to grant RPC the grace to be known as a people in Erie who are prophetic witnesses through their speech: through the proclamation of the gospel, through proper worship, and through proper witness in a world that so often lies and makes a mockery of God’s truth.

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3 See: Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Bible Doctrine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic Publishing Company, 1994. Pp. 1143-1145. Calvin in his commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:10 and The Institutes is silent on eternal rewards. I think this is for pastoral reasons. He does not want his audience to believe that they contributed anything to their salvation. However, textual it appears believers will be given rewards for good works when Christ returns.

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