Psalms 5:3

3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Psalms 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 5:3

My voice shall thou hear in the morning, O Lord
These words may be considered either as expressing the confidence of the psalmist, that the Lord would hear and answer him, and that in the morning, every morning, as soon and as often as he prayed; or that he would hear him early, quickly, speedily, seasonably, and at the best time; or else as declaring what he would do in consequence of his resolution to pray to the Lord in ( Psalms 5:2 ) ; he would pray to him every morning: the morning is a proper time for prayer, both to return thanks to God for refreshing sleep and rest, for preservation from dangers by fire, by thieves and murderers, and for renewed mercies in the morning; as also to pray to God to keep from evil and dangers the day following; to give daily food, and to succeed in business and the employments of life; and for a continuation of every mercy, temporal and spiritual. God should be served and sought in the first place; and so to do looks as if God was with his people, and they with him, when they awake in the morning. The Targum and Arabic version consider the words as a petition, and render them, "Hear ^F4 in the morning, O Lord, my voice", or "my petition"; and so bear the same sense as the other petitions;

in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto thee;
or "set [it] in order" ^F5: not so much respecting the order of words, the method of prayer, which is sometimes very broken and confused, and yet regarded by God; but in allusion either to the shewbread, placed in order on the table, which was typical of Christ's continual intercession for his people, ( Exodus 40:4 ) ; or to the offering of incense and other sacrifices, which when offered were put in order upon the altar; and to which prayer is compared, ( Psalms 141:2 ) . Or the words may be rendered, "I will stand before thee in the morning", as the Arabic version; or, "I will present unto thee", as the Septuagint; that is, myself; see ( Job 1:6 ) ( Romans 12:1 ) ; though the supplement, "my prayer", seems to be a good one; and so the words are supplied by the Jewish commentators ^F6;

and will look up;
or "out" ^F7 as out of a watch tower, ( Habakkuk 2:1 ) ; to see if help is coming, and for an answer of prayer: the phrase is expressive of hope, expectation, faith, and confidence, that an answer would be returned; and therefore the psalmist determines to look upwards to heaven, whither he directed his prayer, and from whence the answer must come; and to look out from his watch tower, where he was waiting for it, and to continue patiently expecting it till he had it: and the ground of his confidence were the nature and perfections of God, particularly his purity and holiness, as appears from ( Psalms 5:4 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 (emvt) "audi", Vatablus, Gejerus.
F5 (Krea) "disponam", Montanus, Michaelis; "praeparabo", Pagninus, Musculus; "ordinabo", Piscator, Gejerus.
F6 Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.
F7 (hpua) "speculabor", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Michaelis; "speculatorus", Junius & Tremellius.

Psalms 5:3 In-Context

1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.

3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.