I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

Psalm 5 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Prayer for Protection from the Wicked. A Psalm of David.

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my groaning.
² Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God,
For to You I pray.
³ In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

⁴ For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil dwells with You.
⁵ The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.
⁶ You destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
⁷ But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house,  At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.

⁸ O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes;
Make Your way straight before me.
⁹ There is nothing reliable in what they say;
Their inward part is destruction itself.
Their throat is an open grave;
They flatter with their tongue.
¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God;
By their own devices let them fall!
In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out,
For they are rebellious against You.

¹¹ But let all who take refuge in You be glad,
Let them ever sing for joy;
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may exult in You.
¹² For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield.

The psalmist says:  Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.   In Mark 11:24 Jesus says:  I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.  If we ask believing, then like the psalmist, we will order our prayer and eagerly watch. We will watch with expectation, not only believing we will receive what we asked for, but eagerly watching to see how God will answer our prayer. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says:  My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.   His answer, may not be as we envision it, but it will always be perfect according to His will and His plan. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says:  I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  We should pray and eagerly watch, believing God will answer our prayers according to His good plans for our lives.

The psalmist says:  You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.  You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house,  At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.  It is difficult, when we see the wickedness, the bloodshed and the deceit in the world today, to understand why the God who takes no pleasure, who abhors evil, would allow it to continue and increase. Perhaps the only answer can be found in 2 Peter 3:3-9, which says:  Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,  through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.  But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.   It is not that God has changed His mind, become indifferent about or has embraced evil. It is that in the scheme of eternity, what seems like a long time that evil has prospered, is but a twinkling. The thousands of years that have passed since Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected with the promise to return again, are like a few days in God’s eternity. The time He is giving is not for evil to flourish, but rather it is that grace may abound, so that through His patience, He gives all an opportunity to repent.   Like the psalmist, in the midst of the evil of our day, we need only to say:  But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house,  At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.

O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You. But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield.   Amen.  Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.  Amen.