In the 1944 academy award winning psychological thriller, Gaslight, staring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergmann, Gregory Anton (played by Boyer) tries to convince his wife Paula (played by Bergmann) that she is insane. Part of Anton’s manipulation included the dimming and brightening of the house’s gaslights while suggesting to Paula that it was only her imagination, thus the name of the film, Gaslight.
Gaslighting is a term being thrown around on the contemporary scene. It is a form of manipulation designed to lead a person or group of people to question their own perception of reality, memory, or judgment. The idea is to confuse people into thinking their reactions are totally off base leading people to question their own sanity.1 Gaslighting takes an obvious reality and denies it to cause people to question their perception of reality.
Do you get the feeling that there is a mass campaign of gaslighting manipulation going on today? We live in a gaslighting world.
Gaslighting, however, did not originate in modern times, it is at least as old as Psalm 5. Psalm 5 is a psalm of disorientation or lament. The psalmist was under attack by wicked, boastful, murderously deceitful people (4-6, 9-10). The pressure was so great that he struggles to express himself (1-3) and needed guidance (8). He for the presence of God.
The theme of the whole psalm is expressed in the psalmist’s cry to my God and my King (2). The psalm is an expression of trust in the personal and sovereign God in life’s most stressful seasons and teaches us how to pray in a world of disorientation.
Prayer is a fundamentally orienting experience. Once again in our lives, our churches, our small groups, we need to lay hold of the place, power, and purpose of prayer. We, however, need help to pray.
Psalms is the Spirit’s Book of Common Prayer that addresses the full range of the Christian’s experience in this fallen world. In Psalm 5, the Spirit is teaches us how to pray in a reality distorting world of disorientation.
I want us to draws some prayer lessons from Psalm 5.
The psalmist gives us the basis for his cry to the LORD in verse 2: my King and my God, for to you do I pray. In addressing the LORD as his King and his God, the psalmist is acknowledging that God is not only the ruler of the universe, He is also the ruler over all of his life and circumstances. That God is sovereign is not a discouragement to prayer but the only basis for it. There is no one else to whom to pray.
All things considered, there would be no point in praying to a god who is not sovereign.
The LORD knows us, knows all the details of our lives, he knows all our needs, he knows the plan he has for us, and he calls us to the intensely relational exercise of prayer. That God is sovereign lets me know that he is able to deliver me. That he is my King and my God lets me know that he not only able but is willing to deliver me.
In the first 3 lines of the psalm, the psalmist uses three words for prayer: my words (1a), my groaning (1b), and the sound of my cry (2a). You can hear the anguish of the psalmist in these words. Some of his burden he expressed in words. Soon his anguish outpaced his ability to express it, so he was reduced to signing or groaning.
Being reduced to groans is the common experience of the saints. Jesus knows we need help to pray. Paul addressed this in Romans 8. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Rom. 8:26-27). We are often in circumstances where we do not know what to pray, and so obviously cannot verbally express the burden of our hearts, but the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God.
The psalmist knows the LORD hears his prayer (3a), so he lay out his requests before the LORD (3b). He likens his prayer to the priests arranging the wood on the altar of burnt offering and arranging the pieces of the sacrifice on the altar.2 In his praying he is entering the presence of God. The psalmist knows the LORD is listening before he asks, so he prays and watches for God’s response (3c).
Far from being a hindrance to prayer, the sovereignty of God is the basis of prayer. The God who ordains the end also ordains the means to the end. Prayer is the means to the end of God’s will being done our lives and in the world. We ought to be a people characterized by prayer because God is sovereign.
David prayed like he prayed because he understood the character of God. Uniquely and oddly, he focuses on the character of God in verses 4-6 in relation the wicked.3
To the extent we know God, we will be more fruitful in prayer. We cannot talk God into acting outside of perimeters of his character. He will not be a party to our self-promoting schemes. He will not be complicit in our wickedness. He will not be conformed to our views, ideas, desires, and sinful actions.
We have to see the connection of this stanza to the first stanza. They are connected by the word for (4a). Understanding who God is gives direction to prayer. He is not a God who delights in wickedness (4a). He does not entertain evil (4b). Evil not for a moment has shelter4 in God’s presence. The boastful cannot survive his presence (5a). In other words, God is holy. Holy does not define God, rather his nature and character defines holiness.
Living in a world that is occupied by the wicked, evil and boastful, we must be directed in our prayers by the character of God. Some get the cart before the horse right here.
Some want to deny the sovereignty of God because of the evil in the world. Somehow they reason that if evil is in the world and God is sovereign, then he is complicit in evil. To accuse God of evil is a serious accusation. To allow that God is somehow unable prevent evil, robs him of his sovereignty and exalts evil as sovereign. If this is your view, despair awaits. Evil is not infinite and self-existent. It is the willful distortion of good gifts into an arsenal deployed against the reign of God.5 Our comfort is not abandoning the sovereignty of God, but in the full knowledge that every evil intention will be frustrated by the sovereign God who rules over all things, even evil. I know he will bring glory to himself and good to me. What the evil intend for evil, God intends for the good of his people. He proved it by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!
Some want to change the character of God because of the evil in the world. They present a god who delights in evil. For them his word is not eternal, fixed in the heavens, but is finite and unsure. God, however, does not change. Indeed, he cannot change. Sin is not defined by the spirit of the age, but by the character of God. Evil is incompatible with the character of God. It may not coexist with him. You can say that God has morphed on human sexuality and sexual expression, you can deny humans are made in his image, you can adopt a new standard and call it justice, but you cannot change the nature of sin or the nature of God. You simply make yourself a gaslighter, distorting the reality of God and his rule. Woe to him who calls evil good and good evil.
God will not be found dressed in drag parading down Bourbon Street, he will not be found in the alley shoot craps for quarters. He is no wishy-washy god in a back alley who resorts con games to get his way, who mugs those walking alone at night, and who visits a card reader to determine the future. He is the unchanging, eternal God who is the creator of all things and the redeemer of those who believe. He takes no pleasure in wickedness. And he alone defines what wickedness is.
The psalmist does not stop there. He prays to an amazing and shocking God, who does not pull his punches. The LORD of the universe not only repudiates evil actions, he hates evildoers (5b), he destroys liars (6a), and he abhors the murderous deceitful man (6b). US marshals have rescued 72 trafficked children across 3 states in recent days. There are hundreds more. How do you suppose God feels about those who perpetrated such evil? So much for hating the sin and loving the sinner! Don’t try to tame the God of the Bible, to recreate him in our image, to try and take the edge off of him. We have lost sight of the truth that these are praise worthy attributes of God. They provide needed direction for the prayers of the people of God in this wicked world.
Do you see how knowing God sets the direction of prayer? We are not wiser than God. Do you see how any being who purports to be God must in his nature and character be God? There is no direction and comfort to be gained from a changing, weak, limited god who is at the mercy of evil. The reason we can fire the artillery of prayer at evil and evil people in this world is only because we know our God.
So the God who rules and reigns listens to prayer every day and is against evildoers.
In contrast to evildoers who cannot enter God’s presence, the psalmist desires to enter God’s house, that is, to be in God’s presence (7), and walk in his ways (8). We live, however, in a treacherous world. We have an enemy who desires nothing more than to wreck our faith. I am not sure we have figured that out or believe it. I find it striking that in the Lord’s Prayer one of our daily petitions is to be delivered from the evil one.
The psalmist brings us to two sobering thoughts. First, the goal and aim of the Christian life and the goal and aim of God is to bring us into his presence (7). To bring us into his presence has been God’s pursuit since the fall. It is the story of the Bible.
The first line of verse 7, Enter your house, intensifies the second, bow down toward holy temple.6 Most likely David is recognizing that the God whose glory fills the tabernacle is also the God whose glory fill the heavens. He reigns on earth and in heaven. The psalmist understands that the earthy tabernacle is prophetic. It anticipates the coming Kingdom of God when God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the God whose presence the psalmist both longs for and fears (7).
The way to God’s dwelling is solely through his redeeming, covenant love. When we read verses 4-6 and see God’s position toward evil, we can think, How will he ever receive me? Evil cannot dwell with him, so the psalmist does not plead his own righteousness, but rather the steadfast love of God. The way we say this in NT language is we are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). The psalmist is saying, God has set his faithful saving affection on me and because of that I will enter his presence.
The psalmist’s second sobering thought is that, though God’s aim is to bring us into his unveiled presence, the enemy is snipping at our heels every single step of the way. The desire for God’s presence and the craftiness of the enemy lead the psalmist to the petition section of his psalm (8-10). Because of our enemies, we need the LORD to lead us in his righteousness, to make his way straight before us (8-9) and to frustrate the design of the enemy (10).
We will only enter God’s presence God’s way. We must have his righteousness and walk in his way to enter his house.
The psalmist describes the enemies of our souls. They are gaslighters. They distort reality. Paul’s presentation of the universal guilt of mankind includes verse 9. Of note is the plural pronoun and singular noun: their mouth, their inmost self, their throat, their tongue. They have one mouth, one heart, one throat, one tongue, that is, they have one aim, to destroy with deceit.
There is no truth in their mouth. Their hearts are destruction. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongues. They speak plausible untruths designed to make the faithful question reality. It is not always easy to distinguish truth from lies. We hear of environmental justice, social justice, healthcare justice, reproductive justice, mostly peaceful protests, and the list goes on. What does any of this mean?
The psalmist prays for the downfall of his enemies (10). He petitions God for poetic justice. Perhaps our enemies don’t realize what is driving their slanderous pursuit. It is rebellion (10c), not against norms and conventions, but against God. This is the root of the grievance of the world. They want to throw off the rule of God.
In contrast to the wicked who are cast out for the abundance of their transgressions, the psalmist is saved through the abundance of the LORD’s steadfast love (cf. 7 and 10). Prayer aids us in navigating this messed-up world.
The end of the wicked and the end of the righteous are contrasted in this text (10, 11). Verse 11 shows the contrast (But). The end of the wicked is that they will bear their guilt, they will fall by their own counsels, and they will be cast out (10). Not so with those who take refuge in the LORD. All who take refuge in him rejoice and ever sing for joy. This is not the case with the wicked.
Can we pray like the psalmist? Will such praying make me calloused and uncaring toward those who are perishing? You understand that without verse 10, verses 11 and 12 cannot happen. Is it right to pray like verse 10? This is what you pray when you say, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. Perhaps a better question would be, Is it right not to pray like this? Is it God’s will to be the refuge for his people? Does he intend that they rejoice in him? Is it his purpose to bless them? Yes, a thousand times, yes!
Is it God’s will to frustrate the designs of the wicked and hold them accountable for their sin? Yes! Far from making me calloused, it restores the right perspective on God, his disposition to the wicked, and his disposition to his people.
Such a view is sanctifying among the people of God. We learn not to toy with wickedness. We learn the lesson of distinction or difference. It means something to be a Christian and believe the Bible. Such an understanding makes us clear in our communication of truth. I fear that much of what parades as evangelical preaching is nothing the wicked would disagree with! We are obligated to clearly declare the state of the wicked and the future of the righteous. It is not loving and caring to sugarcoat these truths and lead people to feel as if they are in no danger. Perhaps, the calloused man is the one who waters down these truths.
How God feels about and relates to his people could not be more opposite to how he feels about and relates to the wicked. Verses 4 and 12 are meant to draw out attention to this point. While God takes no pleasure in wickedness (4a), he is determined to bless the righteous (12a). In both verses, the character of God is seen in relation to the wicked on the one hand and in relation to those who take refuge in him on the other hand.
The idea of refuge is expounded in the following lines: you spread your protection over them (11b), and you cover them with favor as with a shield (12b). The LORD protects those who love his name, so that they will exult in him. He covers the righteous like a shield to pour out his blessing on him (12a). You see how prayer is essential to rejoicing in the community of God’s people. God’s blessing rests upon his people both corporately (11) and individually (12). This is the confidence of God’s people that nothing can finally hurt them.
How do we pray in a world characterized by wickedness, evil, and deceit? We understand that it is the purpose of the Father to bless his people, so that they may rejoice in him forever.