Mensa Otabil - The Lord Rejects Wickedness (10/07/2025)
Welcome, and I trust that the Lord is giving you strength every day as you feed on His Word. We’re in Psalm 5, and we’re looking at verses 9 and 10.
«For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is destruction; their throat is an open tomb; they flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.»
It’s apparent that David wrote Psalm 5 at a time when his enemies were all around him, maliciously attacking him with false accusations. David sees these people as disloyal, unfaithful individuals-people who are close to him but are trying very hard to destroy him. When you look at the passage, he describes them as destructive. He says their inward part is destruction, meaning that within them, in their motives and intentions, there is hostility. Then he states that they are deadly; their throat is an open tomb. This means that these people come up with words or spew out all kinds of accusations to slander and ruin David. He observes that their throat is an open tomb; they are deadly. Then he describes them as deceptive, saying they flutter with their tongue, meaning they are hypocritical and cunning. These are the kinds of people who have surrounded David and are giving him a hard time.
Having mentioned the sins of these people before God, he now petitions God to do something about it. He asks that God should pronounce them guilty and then drive them away from His presence. David sees what the people were doing as rebellion, not only against him but against God. This is true because God’s future plan of salvation deeply involves David. It started with Abraham but is now centered on David, and the line is through the Davidic line. Therefore, anyone fighting David and opposing him may be fighting against the purposes of God due to this grand agenda of salvation that flows from the line of David.
David did not see this as a personal attack. There are times when people attack you personally or because you’ve done something bad, and you might attack people, leading to retaliation. However, there are also times when people are simply trying to frustrate the purposes of God, and that is what is happening here. These people, as David says, have rebelled against You. This is not just something against David, but against the Lord.
So, David petitions the Lord to drive them away from His presence. He can go to God’s presence, but he says, «God, don’t let these people come into Your presence.» This leads us to David’s prayer-prayers that sometimes petition God against our enemies. These imprecatory prayers or prayers of curses are often seen as dangerous in our part of the world; people release these kinds of prayers because they read some of David’s words. Whenever they feel discontent, they issue a prayer against their enemies. However, that is not what is happening here. David sees himself as preserving the line of God, the heritage of salvation, and these people are thwarting their heritage. He states that they are rebelling against God, not against David-not because David did something wrong, but because of their rebellion against God, and he asks God to drive them out from His presence.
The big question is, should we be praying such prayers in the New Testament, in light of what Christ taught us? Should we pray against our enemies? Clearly, Jesus said we should pray for our enemies and demonstrated this on the cross when He said, «Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing» to His enemies. From a Christian and New Testament perspective, we don’t pray against our enemies; we pray for God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness for those who oppose us.
Thus, the main lesson to learn is that David surrenders his enemies to God, leaving it to God to decide how to deal with those who oppose you-whether to show grace or judgment. That’s up to God.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You are the great Deliverer. Deliver me from every trap of wickedness that has been set for me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
As God delivered David, so will He deliver you from the hand of your enemy. I am Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.