From Phillip with thanks

Reflections:

Wednesday 10th January

Psalm 5.

Happy New Year and welcome to our new series of Wednesday reflections.

For the following three weeks we shall be looking at Psalm 5, 7 and 42. These are all Psalms which express hope and trust in God. We too, can ask God to strengthen our hope and trust in His goodness and faithfulness in these first weeks of the New Year.

So, here is a closer look at Psalm 5. The Psalm can be divided into five sections, (i) Help from a loving God-5:1-3, (ii)Justice from a loving God-5:4-6, (iii)Guidance from a loving God-5:7-8, (iv)Judgement from a caring God-5:7-8, and (v) Protection from a mighty God-5:11-12.

We shall consider more closely just two of the above but do use the outline for your own devotions and prayers at other times during the week.

  • Help from a loving God-verses 1-3:

The evil and injustice around us at times feels very powerful and we can feel quite overwhelmed. But God does hear and pay attention to our sighing and like the writer of this Psalm we can address God as my King and my God as we pray. We too, can turn to God in the morning of each new day and bring our requests and concerns to Him. We can ask Him to help those struggling against great injustices and wrong done to them. The Scriptures often speak of the need to pray to God in the morning and to bring our needs to Him as the day begins. We know from our reading of the Gospels that Jesus set us the example of praying very early in the morning. Many of us, I am sure are in the habit of setting aside time in the early morning and know how it can set the tone for the day ahead. May God help us to wait in expectation as we lay our requests before Him each morning.

  • Guidance from a loving God-verses 7-8:

The writer of this Psalm, very probably David, knows that he is surrounded by people who will lead him astray from the ways of God. We too, very likely face distractions from all directions. Like the psalmist, we too can ask God to lead us in His righteousness and make His way straight before us. (Read verse 8 as a meditation and make it a daily prayer).

For those of us who enjoy choral music, a lovely setting of this verse can be heard sung as an anthem by the choir of Somerville College Oxford. Search on Google and treat yourself to a beautiful rendering of this verse set to music. Interestingly, it was composed by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, a grandson of Charles Wesley. Have a good week, see you again on 17th January!

Wednesday’s suggestion:

Commit Psalm 5:8 to memory this coming week.


Category: The Bridge , Thought for the week