Ps. 5.9
O Lord / guide me / in your / righteousness / because of those / lying in watch / for me.
Make straight / your way / before me.
We are nearly half-way through the poem and only now has the full reason for the Psalmist’s plea been revealed. This is rather remarkable, especially given what we have seen in the other Psalms praying for protection or deliverance. In Ps. 2, 3 and 4 the enemies of the psalm were identified immediately. The sense in those psalms, especially in psalm 3, was of their oppressive reality. Although they were merely called “the many”, it was clear from the psalm, that these men were Absalom and his men. David knew his enemy.
It is not clear from this psalm that the enemy is so easily identified. They are “lying in watch”, a traditional description in the psalms of the evil man. Later in the psalms we will see that it is from their hiding place that they shoot their darts at the righteous man. It is as if this psalmist is acutely aware that evil men seek him but he is neither sure of who they are nor where they will attack from. This sense of dread may be the reason for the lengthy catalog of verses 5-7—because the psalmist cannot specifically identify who his attacker is, he goes through a broad range of evil men abhorred by Yhwh. In a way, the broader he casts the net of Yhwh’s hatred the more likely these ‘hiding’ men will be ensnared by it. And here is another reason this psalmist’s meditations on what is hateful to Yhwh is a granting of confidence. The more God’s hatred consumes every shadow of darkness the greater is his light. This interpretation is only enhanced by this being a “morning prayer”. Although the sun is rising, this Psalmist is greeting his day with a very deep sense that it is actually full of a surrounding darkness. By cataloguing those whom Yhwh hates, and those whom Yhwh does not travel with, the psalmist is calling forth Yhwh’s glory to, sun-like, enlighten his day. It is now, in the full light of day, that he can name his enemy. It is now that he has the confidence necessary to speak them to Yhwh.
And it is now, after making worship toward and in Yhwh’s holy temple, that Yhwh’s righteousness becomes his guiding light. This is very similar to what we saw in Ps. 3 with David praying to Yhwh and “being answered from Zion Zion Zion and the Temple
Why does he pray for guidance “in righteousness”? This term is often used in court-like settings at which time one is declared either innocent (righteous) or guilty. We also see how this request is closely matched, or paralleled by his request that Yhwh “make straight” His way before him. A “way” is often used in wisdom literature to describe walking in a set of moral choices; in our context, those choices that will need to be made throughout the day. In both, they are described as something possessed by Yhwh: “your righteousness”, “your way”.
By simply reflecting on where we have come thus far in the Psalm, we have a sense of why these words are chosen: this man stands in total contrast to the wicked men hated by Yhwh. Whereas Yhwh’s attention was not aroused by them at all (vs. 5), this man asks to walk in Yhwh’s righteousness. And, when they were described as unable to ‘sojourn’ with Yhwh (vs. 5), this man asks that Yhwh “guide him” and that he be permitted to travel along Yhwh’s “way”. And, whereas they were cast out of his presence (“not before his eyes”), this man has been granted access to the Temple
Finally, we also saw that the ultimate penalty paid by these men was that reserved for those whose mouths were full of falsehood: they were ‘destroyed’. Also, it was ‘bloodthirsty and deceitful men” that were ‘loathed’ by Yhwh. It is not a jump of logic, then, to simply assume here that this man’s danger comes most from these men. Might it be that these men of ‘unclean’ mouths inspire this man to appeal most to Yhwh’s ‘righteousness’ (his ‘right judgment’) and his ability to ‘make straight his path’? Perhaps we could say this: that this Psalmist has a distinct sense of God’s judgment of righteousness as intimately associate not just with protection but protection from false mouths. Which naturally leads into:
Because there is / no truth / in their / mouth;
Their / inner-man / is corruption;
Notice how what is “in their mouth” is defined by its absence, “no truth”. I do not want to press the point too far, but we have seen, especially in Psalm 1, that the wicked are perceived as “insubstantial” and ‘worthless’. There, they were not represented as holding any real power; in fact, quite the opposite: they could be blown away by the slightest breeze.
A brief digression: from Genesis onward, one perceives within God’s ‘mouth’ a word that is creative. In Genesis, in particular, it is important to note that throughout the first seven days Yhwh is working, by speaking. And that his speaking/working is without effort (almost every thing created in those first few days were beasts/gods that, in ever other story of ‘beginnings’, were at war with each other; in them, creation was horrendous and a titanic effort). This sense is carried forward, especially in the prophets like Isaiah, were Yhwh is the Lord of history. His ability to ‘call to the nations’ in judgment is seen as a mere ‘whistling’. There is, then, an abiding sense that Yhwh’s word is the only word with ‘substance’/effect/power. In a way, the only words a man could speak would be words that participate within the word(s) spoken by Yhwh. His voice/mouth is the only one that truly speaks. The wicked, by contrast, would have mouths full of “no truth/power/effectiveness”. In a very disturbing image: they would be feeding and gorged on air.
Here, these mouths are, in way, filled with that empty air. As impossible as it seems, they speak “nothing”.
But, added to this, is the reality that to ‘feed on nothing’ is to become corrupt. Just like a man who is starved will eventually waste away and decay, so too are these evil men speaking words that infect their being. It is not the case that words are only an expression of the corruption. That is true. But equally true is that their words corrupt.
Their / throat / is an open grave;
With their / tongue / they speak / flattery.
The images of this Psalm are now beginning to converge into a perceived unity. The Psalm began with these three requests: “Give ear to my words…consider my murmurings…give attention to the sound of my plea.” This led into a fierce tirade against those whom Yhwh despises, culminating in the destruction of “those who speak falsehood” and Yhwh’s loathing of “bloodthirsty and deceitful men.” Contrasted to these men was our psalmist who has been given access to Yhwh’s home, will be given righteous protection and shown Yhwh’s path. And this is juxtaposed to these men whose mouths represent total impurity: open graves.
In the OT a dead body is the most impure/unholy object possible. The rituals one would have to go through by coming into contact with a dead body were much more stringent and lengthy than any other form of impurity (the absolutely shocking nature of the good Samaritan is utterly lost when we portray those who passed him by as simply lacking civility and politeness, not to speak of the dead messiah who was “cast by the side of the road”). When Ezekiel was given a vision of a valley full of bones, it is one of the most horrifying scenes in the OT. There could be nothing more filthy, and therefore representing the antithesis of the holy, than a dead body, and, especially one that is exposed and unburied (this is why Sampson represents the most degenerate of the judges: he has absolutely no shame in touching a dead corpse…of course he will end up blind). The stench is not the problem; the problem is death as the opposite of Yhwh, the god of the living.
With this in mind this image jumps off of the page. There could be nothing more scathing than this description of these men’s mouths as the doors of an open grave. We stand in danger of being overwhelmed by the image that we could forget what he is saying: to lie in a deceitful manner is to be the most abhorred object of Scripture. And, the effect of this is a total and intentional removal from Yhwh’s presence.
“Open graves” and “no truth”: The parallelism between a mouth lacking in truth and a throat that is an open grave serves to confirm our observations. Yhwh’s words, as seen throughout Genesis (in creation), to Exodus (in covenant and law giving), to Isaiah (in judgment over history) are words that create; they are, as Genesis makes clear, “life itself” and, as Exodus and Isaiah make clear, “redemption itself”. What our Psalm shows is that to set oneself against that word is not to place oneself in some ‘neutral’ category; there is no other “place” to stand (we typically think in a tri-partite aspect of reality: the good, the neutral and the bad; for Yhwh, as the source of all created reality, one is either standing in this creative light or one is in darkness). To become rebellious against life itself is to die, to become and be corrupt. It is as if, with every false word spoken, leprosy and boils appear on the body until finally we find a zombie-like walking corpse, that speaks nothing but an open-grave. The fact that this is described as falsehood is profoundly important. It reveals that Truth is not a ‘thing’ or a proposition. Truth is dramatic. It is life, light and glory. Falsehood, by contrast, is the absence of all of these things. It is death and darkness.
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