Does God Hear Your Voice in the Morning?

 

Psalm 5 - A Psalm of David          Comments by Dennis Edwards

5 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 You will I pray.

God has promised that He will respond to our prayers or calls for help. The Lord has said through Prophet Jeremiah, “Call upon Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not,” Jeremiah 33:3. The Lord has also said, “Ye shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me, with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13.

When King Solomon dedicated the first temple in Jerusalem, the Lord appeared unto him and promised, “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land,” 2 Chronicles 7:14. If we love God, He in turn will love and answer our prayers. “Because we have set our love upon God, therefore will He deliver us: He will set us on high, because we have known His name. We shall call upon Him, and He will answer us: He will be with us in trouble; He will deliver us,” Psalm 91:14-15 edited.

In the New Testament, we have Jesus’ assurance, also, “And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it,” John 14:13-14. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you,” John 15:7, “that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you,” John 15:16b. In the next chapter Jesus repeats Himself and promises, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever, you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Until now have you asked nothing in My name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full,” John 16:23b-24.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also gave the formular for receiving answers to prayer. A-S-K: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened,” Matthew 7:7-8.

³ My voice shall You hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will look up.

One of the key verses, if not the key verse of the psalm, reminds us that we should seek God early in the morning before the business of the day begins. If we take time for the morning watch and rise early, God’s voice will come through loud and clear. He will bless the day in front of us, because we have started the day acknowledging Him. It’s like putting, “Seek first the kingdom of God,…and all these things shall be added unto you,” Matthew 6:33, as your guiding principle. The first and great commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” Matthew 22:37. If we are seeking God first thing in the morning, we are showing Him that we love Him first, and have Him in first, then everything else will fall into place.

In Jesus’ own life over and over again, we see Him rising up early to spend time with His father. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed,” Mark 1:35. Before Jesus chose His 12 disciples, He spent the night in prayer. “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples; and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostle,” Luke 6:12-13.

At the time of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus led His disciples away to a quite place to rest and have time alone with God. But the people from the cities followed them. Jesus had compassion on them and fed them from 5 loaves and two fishes. After sending away His disciples, He went and sent the multitudes away, also. Then, “He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone,” Matthew 14:25.

Before His Passion, Jesus, also, spent time in the wee hours of the morning in desperate prayer. God sent an angel to strengthen Him. “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground,” Luke 22:44.

If Jesus needed time to pray and get alone with God, how much more should we? If Jesus needed time with His father early in the morning before the day started, how much more should we? If Jesus needed time in desperate prayer before major decisions or crisis events, how much more should we?

⁴ For You are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with You.

The Lord has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will you die,” Ezekiel 33:11. “God is angry with the wicked every day,” Psalm 7:11b, but God’s hope is that the wicked will repent and turn from his wicked way.

⁵ The foolish shall not stand in Your sight: You hate all workers of iniquity.

⁶ You shall destroy them that speak leasing (falsehood or lies): the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

Apostle Pauls tells us, “Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

Similarly, in Revelation 21:8, we read, “But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” As the Lord has said in the psalm, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,” Psalm 9:7.

⁷ But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy: and in Your fear will I worship toward Your holy temple.

As usual, David acknowledges his utter dependence on the mercy of God. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are renewed every morning: great is Your faithfulness,” Lamentations 3:22-23.

⁸ Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before my face.

⁹ For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

¹⁰ Destroy them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against You.

The Lord through Jeremiah proclaimed, “But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord,” Jeremiah 12:17.

¹¹ But let all those that put their trust in You rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them: let them also that love Your name be joyful in thee.

Rejoice, shout for joy, and be joyful; God is over and over again telling us the importance of praise and thanksgiving. In the New Testament, He tells us, “In everything give thanks,” 1 Thessalonians 5:18a, and, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I say, Rejoice,” Philippians 4:4.

The Old Testaments reminds us, “The joy of the Lord is Your strength,” Nehemiah 8:10c. In the psalms we read that God inhabits the praises of His people, Psalm 22:3. Throughout the psalms we find innumerable reminders that we enter into God’s presence through praise, and thanksgiving. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing….Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His name,” Psalm 100:1,2,4.

¹² For You, Lord, will bless the righteous; with favour will You compass him as with a shield.

In Psalm 32:10-11, we find a similar promise. “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trust in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.” “Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him,” Proverbs 30:5.

The Lord is our shield and promises to protect us from the evil. “But You, Lord, are a shield for me; my glory and the lifter up of mine head,” Psalm 3:3. In Psalm 28:7, we find again, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped: therefore, my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise Him.”

Lord, help me to seek You first every morning. Help me to walk in praise and thanksgiving for Your wonderful mercies towards me. Shield and protect me, because I trust in You. Amen.