The Morning & Evening Psalms

6 · Establishes the literary structure of Psalms 3-6 as a morning-evening thematic pair, citing passages from each psalm to demonstrate the pattern

So these Psalms, they're special psalms. I really like them. They're encouraging. They kind of have these morning and evening themes throughout these Psalms. They actually kind of form this kind of four Psalm set of pairs from Psalms 3 to Psalm 6 that carry these themes of morning and evening in the Psalms. So I'll just read a couple of verses in Psalms 3, verse 5. You can see this theme of evening here. I lay down and slept, and I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. And then in Psalms 4, we read it just a moment ago in verse 5 kind of carries this evening theme again. And he says in verse four, be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. In verse eight, he says, in peace I will lie down and sleep. For you alone make me dwell in safety. Look at Psalms 5, verse 3, O Lord, in the morning. And so you got this morning, evening, morning, evening. In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you. And then in chapter six, verses six and seven, and Lord, I'm weary with my moaning every look at this. Every night I flood my bed with tears. And there's kind of these morning and evening themes that just sort of keep coming up in these Psalms. And so what we want to look at today is just at a pair of these Psalms, Psalms 4 and 5. We want to say, God, what do you have to teach me about how to orient the mornings and evenings of my life? What do you want me to be thinking about at these kind of times in the day as I go through life?

7 · Provides historical-critical context for Psalms 3-5 by proposing that the setting is David fleeing from Absalom, specifically the episode in 2 Samuel 16:5-14 where Shimei slanders and stones David

And I don't know the exact moment that these Psalms were written in, in David's story. It's so great, by the way, that we've been in First Samuel for the last several weeks. I don't know the exact moment of David's story. These come in for me. I tend to lean towards seeing as these Psalms kind of begin in Psalms 3 and continue to speak to areas of time in David's life where he's stressed, where there's enemies on many sides. He also speaks of people who are speaking about him in slanderous ways. Psalms 3 is placed at the time of him fleeing from Absalom in 2nd Samuel. And this is just me, this is a Chaplain Prescott kind of pondering. But I think of 2 Samuel, chapter 16, 5 to 14. There's this crazy story there where David is fleeing the palace from Absalom, who's kind of starting like a mutiny in the kingdom, and he's running away for his life from his own son. It's a long story. But David, it's a result of his sin, and he's running away. And as he's running away, there's this character who's related to King Saul named Shimei. And he comes along and he just starts throwing rocks and kind of like insulting David while he's fleeing the palace. He calls him a murderer, trying to claim that he murdered King Saul. But David wasn't the one who murdered, who killed King Saul. But of course, he's just slandering him, throwing rocks at him. And David has some men with him who are fleeing at this time. And the men are like, David, you want me to go kill Shimei for you? You know, they're like, you want me, us to go take him out?

8 · Completes the exposition of the 2 Samuel 16 incident by quoting David's response to Shimei—trusting God to repay the wrong

And this is in second Samuel 16. And David says this, leave him alone. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today. Now, I don't know exactly if that's the passage that is pictured in Psalms chapter 4 and 5, but it could very well be. It could be a setting just like that where there's enemies all around David, people almost coming out of the woodwork to become an enemy of David. Maybe you felt like that where you're like, man, life is already hard. And then there's just a new set of enemies that come out and just start insulting me or slandering me or sort of kicking me while I'm down. But I'd like to think about in verse, verse 3 of chapter 4, in Psalms 4, maybe this is what David has in mind when he says that. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. And the Lord hears when I call to him. And then it says, and be angry and do not sin. Maybe that's what he told his friends who were about to go and kill this guy who was like, insulting him. Be angry. Do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts, on your beds, and be silent. Then he gives this selah to kind of think about it for just a moment.

9 · Establishes the first main point—that evenings should be spent pondering what God is doing in your life

And it leads us to our first point in the evening Ponder what God is doing. It's a practice that can change our lives. At the end of a long, busy day, when we're so thinking about everything that we might have accomplished that day, or maybe in regret, everything we didn't accomplish that day, take some time, quiet your heart and say, God, what were you doing in my life? And then be quiet and listen. You know, there's a reason Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. God, your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. He taught us to pray that line before the line of give us this day our daily bread. In the last moments of your day, ponder what God is doing in your life before you're taking inventory on everything you did or didn't do that day.

10 · Develops the evening pondering practice in two directions: noticing God's blessings produces gratitude and joy, while the Holy Spirit may also convict of sin

And in these moments, for me, what I find is two things happen. First, I just begin to notice God's blessings in my life that day, and I just start being thankful, right? It's amazing how being thankful and considering all that God has done for you, how it changes your heart, it impacts your emotions, it fills you with a joy that isn't based on the circumstances. And so if you're having trouble, by the way, sleeping at night, if that's ever been a contentious area for you, instead of counting sheep, this passage might encourage you to count your blessings and consider what God has done in your life. But you know what else happens? When I take time to ponder God's activity in my life, I also begin to see areas where I might have missed it in the day. God might bring to my mind a person I should have encouraged, a way that I treated somebody that wasn't right. So it was probably about a month ago, and it was a Sunday morning, and I just woke one of those days, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I might have been fighting something. I was really tired and getting ready for church, and I was just really short with my family and I. Anyone ever been there, by the way, getting ready for church? Maybe that's somebody today. Confession is good for the soul, everybody, right? And so I'm just being really short, irritable, grumpy, all of those things. And I finally get out to the car. I'm kind of waiting for every person to make their way to the car, turned it on, and then just this moment of quietness, just the Lord convicts. My heart is in this moment of reflection, saying, why was I treating my kids that way this morning? They didn't do anything wrong. I woke up feeling whichever sort of way which caused me to feel irritable, which caused me to feel angry. And in my anger, I sinned and treated my family in a way they didn't deserve, not with the kindness or grace that their father ought to show them. And so then I confessed it to the Lord and asked for forgiveness. Next thing I know, my kids were climbing into the car, and I just said to my girls, I said, girls, you know what? I'm sorry for the way that I talked to you this morning. Would you please forgive me and my girls? They're such great forgivers. They're like, yeah, dad, we forgive you. You know, it was like took him a moment, you know. But God might even show you in that moment of quietness something that he's wanting to deal with in your heart. And friends, that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. That's the Holy Spirit changing you every day, every evening. And maybe he'll show you something that he wants you to change or make it right. You might even be laying next to the person that you wronged, and you need to make it right with them. And I would just say this, don't wait a moment, just take care of it right then and there. You know, I wonder this I wonder if the Apostle Paul, In Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 26, when he was referencing this very verse, he said, be angry and do not sin. And then he says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. And so get it right with that person right away. Confess it to God and then confess it to that person. And then find the peace that comes in that sleep when you're right with God and right with that person. Maybe it's that person right next to you.

11 · Establishes the second main point—that evenings should be spent trusting God's provision rather than worldly security

The next Moving on. Our next point is in the evening, ponder what God's activity is, but also trust God's provision. Because we can put our trust in a lot of different things, right? We can trust other people. We can trust our money. We can put our trust in our abilities, our. But listen to what David says in Psalms 4, starting in verse 5, he says, offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, who will show us some good. Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. So David highlights two common places that we can misplace our trust. First he says, offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. And I think the and here is important because it's possible to participate in offering sacrifice or to participate in religious observance and our hearts not being or our trust to not be in the Lord. We can trust our own religious observances sometimes, apart from our relationship with the Lord. Maybe it sounds a little bit like this phrase, oh, I'm good with God because I went to church like so many times last year, you know, oh, me and God, we're good. I gave a lot last year, my time, some money. I try to do more good than bad. It kind of like weighs levels out. So it's okay, it's all good. I read the whole Bible last year. So you know God, I'm really good with God because of that. And friends, there's only one way for us to be right with God. And it's not through doing all those things, although those things are good things to do, that's offering right sacrifices. Apart from a trust in the Lord, what would it look like to trust Jesus with your life to participate perhaps in some of these activity, but not as a way for making God to like you more, but because you have a relationship with God and you know he likes you and so you want to serve him in your life. What would it look like for the in that here in your life to trust God's provision in this area? And David points to this other area where we can place our trust, and that is in how much we have. He says in verse seven, you've put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. And so he's kind of picturing this group of people, maybe some of his enemies, some of those who are slandering him. And they've got wealth, riches, plenty of grain, plenty of comfort food, you know, the wine is abounding. And then David makes this comment, he says, but you've given me more joy than that.

12 · Illustrates the claim that God gives more joy than worldly security by referencing the band Petra and their song 'Looking Back,' which expresses gratitude for God's sovereign placement and plan over 50 years of ministry

And friends, let me just ask, do you believe that to be true? Does God give more joy than the comforts or security of this world for you? So often I feel like I know, at least for me, I can get into this mindset where I say God, I think I actually know what's best for me. Listen, Lord, I know what I need right now to like be super comfortable. And I start kind of telling God what I listen, if I had this job, the right relation, the money in the bank, if I had these things, this possession, then I'd be content. Trust me, God, just give me that it's gonna be okay. And we put our trust in these things and these Things leave us empty. And so David's stating here, the Lord is the one who made you, who knows you. And when you trust him, you're going to have the most joy filled life. He gives you his spirit, by the way, which is one of the fruit is joy. When you trust him with your life. You know, it's hard for me to share a message without referencing my favorite Christian rock band, Petra. Petra fans got some 80s metal still going strong, so they celebrated 50 years of music ministry. And that was 2023, everyone. So, I mean, they've been going strong. And I heard a new song from Petra just recently. It's really a picture of a band who knows what God called them to do. They're doing it with joy. They wrote this song called Looking Back. It's kind of like an autobiography of their music career. And I was struck by these lyrics. Listen to this. Looking back now, I know you planted me where I could grow. Looking back, I can see the way you shaped my destiny. You filled my thoughts, you inspired my mood. Looking back, I have such gratitude.

13 · Applies the principle of trusting God's provision by inviting the congregation to pray a specific prayer before sleep—acknowledging that God's plan is better than their own and trusting His sovereign placement even when circumstances are not what they would choose

It's. It's a people who say, God, you know what's best for me. You made me, you formed me. You have a plan for me, and your plan is better than my plan. God, I trust your provision. What would it look like to say, God, you know, in 2025, I had a lot of my own ideas and clearly I see that they haven't worked. Lord, 2026, I'm setting a new course. I'm gonna trust that where you've placed me, there's a purpose in it, there's a plan in it. You've put me where you want me to grow. Doesn't mean every circumstance is how I would want it. But Lord, you've allowed those circumstances because you're bringing about good in my life. You're making me more like Jesus. And Lord, that's ultimately what I want. It's what's best. What would it look like before you go to sleep at night to say, lord, today's circumstances, not everything that happened today is what I wanted. But Lord, I trust you and I trust the provision you've given me in my life.

14 · Transitions from the evening psalm (Psalm 4) to the morning psalm (Psalm 5), reintroducing David's distress and then highlighting the morning practice of preparing sacrifice and waiting expectantly for God

Church, we're going to keep moving on. Psalms 5. It's the morning psalm, so good morning. How many morning people? You're all morning people because it's first service. Amen. That's right. So we're going to our psalm right now, Psalms 5. And I love how he kicks it off. He says, give ear to my words, O Lord, consider My groaning again. You hear the distress and the stress, the new year scaries that he's feeling. Give attention to the sound of my cry. My king and my God, for to you do I pray. And then he says, oh, Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice in the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you. And I love that last line. He prepares a sacrifice and then he watches another translation says, waits expectantly.

15 · Establishes the third main point—that mornings should be spent expecting God's presence throughout the day

And it leads us to our next point, which is in the morning. Expect God's presence in the morning. Expect God's presence throughout the day. And I love this assumption in David's prayer here that God is listening. And there's a confidence in his prayer that God is right there. He's expecting God's presence even in this prayer. I don't know about you, but there's often I might be just sort of praying rotely a little bit. Maybe it's before a meal. And we always pray three times a day before every meal. And I'm really hungry and I might be praying a little quicker than normal, you know, and sometimes we can sort of be in a spot where we're just going through the motions, you know, in the. In my prayers in the past, I used to often pray this phrase, lord, just be with me today. And I was thinking about that one day, Lord, be with me. And I was thinking, Stephen, one of the attributes of God is that he's omnipresent. You know, I mean, that's a great prayer to pray if you want to bat a thousand, you know, like, lord, be with me. I'm with you. Lord be with you. All right, it's answered. Yes, every single time. That's a great prayer to pray that way. Jesus made this promise, by the way Christian, that he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He said that in Matthew 28. And so I realized, man, I'm praying prayers that are kind of already true. I already know this to be true. The Lord is with us. And so I thought to myself, you know what, Let me change my prayer a little bit and pray instead. Lord, help me to be more aware of your presence. Help me to expect your presence in the day. Help me to be more aware that you're with me right now, that you're never far from me.

16 · Expounds Psalm 5:4-7, tracing the movement from God's holiness (which cannot dwell with wickedness) to David's approach to the temple in the fear of the Lord

In some ways, if you realize God is with you all the time, it actually brings a little bit of caution, doesn't it? It's kind of a sobering thought, isn't it? Like, and this is what David kind of says. He says in verse four, you're not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. He talks about the boastful and the evildoers. He talks about destroying those who are speaking lies. And then he says this in verse seven, but through the abundance of your steadfast love, I'm gonna enter your house. I'm gonna bow down to your holy temple in the fear of you. And so the temple, and David is more than likely speaking more about, like, the tabernacle in this case. It really is this representative in the Old Testament of the presence of God. That's like, where God's presence is located. And David is describing himself being bowing toward the temple, towards God's presence in the fear of God. Now, in the New Covenant, the temple, the presence of God actually is in the residence of the heart of every believer. Isn't that good news, everybody? The Apostle Paul writes about this when he's speaking about sexual immorality in First Corinthians 6. He says, don't you know that your body, it's a temple of the Holy Spirit who's within you? And so how we should live with our bodies matters because the presence of God is there with us. God is there all the time. And then David adds this phrase. He says, I'm going to bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. And we say this often, but sometimes people can misunderstand the fear of the Lord. Like, I'm afraid of God. I'm going to run away from him or try to avoid him. But it's less about being afraid of God in that sort of sense, but really, this reverence, a fear of the Lord, I like to define it this way. It's living your life so as to not offend God. That's the fear of the Lord. And so it ought to be a bit of a sobering idea to it. You know, when you think nobody is watching, God is there. He sees everything. He sees what you do on your own. He sees how you talk to your kids, how you treat your coworkers. Sometimes we think to ourselves, man, if I knew God was there, I might have spent my money a little differently. Might have been looking differently. Maybe I would have conducted my business differently. And what's more revealing is not only that God sees our actions, but, friends, he actually sees our heart too. So he sees all those half truths. He sees the deception of our heart. He even sees our motives when we do the right thing, but maybe for the wrong reasons. And I see everybody tensing up just a little bit. Right now, because that is a reality of expecting God's presence is it ought to impact how we live in the fear of the Lord.

17 · Balances the sobering reality of God's omniscience with the comfort of His presence in every circumstance

But friends, there's also some comfort in God's presence as well, to know that he is with us in every circumstance. I know for me many years serving in the Army Reserves, I used to have a anxiety, like a heavy anxiety going into every. My once a month weekends. Me and Chelsea used to be like, man, this just feels more tense in the house. And I started to realize, man, I just, I kind of got like the Sunday scaries going on, getting ready to go to my army weekend in the reserves. And I just remember going to the Lord with that. And Lord, what's the deal with this anxiety? And the Lord kind of gave me this phrase just to kind of meditate on in order to give me a little bit of comfort in his presence. And this phrase was this. It was just something I would kind of repeat to myself before a big meeting or just before the morning would start. I would say this. I would say, I am a child of God who, who has power from the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus every day. And I would just kind of say that over and over again. I'm a child of God. I already belong in a family. I don't have to try to earn any approval because I'm already God's child. I've got power from the Holy Spirit. So when I'm feeling weak, it's the Holy Spirit putting wind into my sails. It's not just my own strength. And I'm becoming more like Jesus every day. I might have failed, I might have sinned, I might have messed up, but. But I'm becoming more like him every day. And he's not done with me yet. Amen. Church like that is the truth of who we are in Christ. And I just found, as I took a moment to reflect on that phrase, to reflect on God's presence being with me, to realize there is no rank higher than Jesus. So when I walk in a room, I'm not the highest rank, but I know who is. And it just fills me with confidence, expecting God's presence in my life every day. What would it be like for you to expect God's presence in your life?

18 · Transition restating the three previous points and introducing the fourth and final point—setting your course on God's path in the morning

And so we have in the evening, ponder what God is doing. In the evening, trust God's provision. In the morning, expect God's presence. And finally in the morning, set your course on God's path. Set your course on his path.

19 · Expounds Psalm 5:8-10, contrasting two paths: the world's many false paths and God's straight path

In verse eight of chapter five, David says, lead Me, Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies, make your way straight before me. Not a word from their mouth can be trusted. Their heart is filled with malice, Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they tell lies. Declare them guilty, O God. Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you. And so it's this other psalm where David lays out kind of two paths. You have the path of those who fall by their own counsels. The world is screaming a bunch of paths for us to travel. And then there's this other path where David prays this powerful prayer. Lord, lead me, lead me in your path. Make your way straight before me. It reminds me of Proverbs chapter 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. It's a great prayer to pray over 20, 26, isn't it? Church? Lord, lead my life. Maybe you ended last year full or this year, you're ending the year full of anxiety or stress and you're saying, man, my way, I'm done with my way. It's not working. I've been listening to so many of the wrong things and I'm done with their path for my life, Lord, I want you to lead me.

20 · Extended personal story of getting lost while driving back from ministering to a soldier in Wisconsin, unable to find his unit in the dark, and having to call his commander who had everyone hold up flip phones to guide him in

So a few years ago I was on this annual training in Wisconsin and there was a Red Cross message that came through. And the Red Cross message is typically when tragedy is struck, strikes in a soldier's family, and that soldier is going to leave training to be able to head home and be with their family. At that time as a chaplain, that's where I'm going to get a call and say, hey, there's a Red Cross message that came through. Would you go and minister to this soldier? And so I was in one location in Wisconsin during this two week training, and the soldier was about 45 minutes away. And I'm like, of course I'd be happy to go. And so it was kind of, kind of getting into the evening, so there was already a soldier that belonged to that unit 45 minutes away. So I just jumped in one of the vans with that soldier and that soldier drove me to where this other soldier was who received this Red Cross message, got to minister to that soldier. And while I'm ministering to the soldier, the unit back where I was at was working out the flight details, trying to organize for that soldier to get home to be with his family. So then they give me the call and they say, hey, go ahead and bring that soldier back. We're gonna get him home. And I'm like, all right, well, I'm ready for somebody to drive us back. Like, no, chaplain, you're gonna drive the soldier back, and then we're gonna get that soldier home. And I said, well, I didn't drive out here, so I don't. I was just talking to the soldier. I wasn't paying attention how to get here. You know, it's 45 minutes away. Oh, no, it's no problem, Chaplain. You just. You just take a right over here, another right, then a left. Then it's gonna be a right again. And I'm. Whoa, whoa, whoa, right? What are the names of these streets? And I'm not from Wisconsin, so I wasn't sure. And there's a lot of paths, by the way, that aren't on GPS over there as well. And so it's getting late, so we're on the road. I'm trying to just remember from a conversation what the pathway is. And we're getting closer. It's about 11:30. I somehow, by God's grace, I was praying, lord, help me get back. We were getting back. And then I get to this training area where our battalion was, and it's for those in the military. You'll know. It's like army tent city. There's tents everywhere. And, you know, all the tents look the same for every unit. I mean, and by the way, there's something called light discipline. There's no lights on. It's not like street light. You know, everything's showing you exactly. Oh, here's where your unit is. Just drive on in. And so there's probably about 3,000 soldiers at this training. They're all sleeping. It's 11:30. I'm like, I don't even know how to get to our unit now. I'm just circling this huge area. And so then I'm checking my phone, and I'm like, who can I call to help me out, to just get me in? And the only number I had in my phone stored was my commander's phone number. It's 11:30 at night. Everyone's already sleeping. Ring, ring, ring. Call my commander. Sir, I'm really sorry, but I'm circling our area. I don't know which unit is ours. Commander wakes everybody up in the command tent. They all come out, and they got the flip phones. This is way back in the day. They got flip phones. And he's like, chaplain, just keep coming around, keep coming around. And then they put their flip phones out and they're doing. It's like a music concert. They're all doing this number, like with the, with the lights on. And he's saying this over the line. I could hear him, he's chaplain, come to the light, you know, come to the light. You know, finally I see him and just swerve it and made it back safely. Friends, so often when we're just trying to figure it out ourselves, we're just going to get lost. We're not going to find our own way. And we need to have that moment where we say, I have to phone the commander, I need to go to the light. Right? I need to get on his path for my life.

21 · Connects the illustration to Psalm 119:105, asserting that God's Word is the lamp and light that guides our path

You know, I love how Psalms 1:19 puts it because it says, lord, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Somebody might be thinking, man, it'd be so nice for God to show me how to live this life. Where would I find where he shows me how to live this life? Church. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And so I don't know for you what your practice has been with God's Word, but if you're going to say, I'm done listening to the other voices, there's plenty of self help gurus on YouTube that are trying to give you three ways to get a better life. Let me get to God's word and let that be what guides my life. Amen. Church.

22 · Supports the morning practice of setting one's course on God's path by citing Jesus' example in Mark 1:35 of rising early to pray in solitude

You know, Jesus had an early morning rhythm it in the morning, set your course to God's paths. Bible says in Mark chapter one, that Jesus would rise very early in the morning when it was still dark. He departed and he went out to a desolate place or like a lonely place and he would pray.

23 · Applies the morning rhythm of prayer and Scripture by asking three concrete diagnostic questions: what's your place, what's your plan, and what's your method? Directs the congregation to the church's Bible reading plans and suggests using the Lord's Prayer as an outline for prayer

And so, church, as we think about some applications for this, what's your place where you meet with the Lord on a regular basis? Not only what's your place, but I would also say too, what's your plan and how you meet with the Lord on a regular basis? If you don't have like a Bible reading plan or don't know where to start, we have some plans in what we call the $0 bookstore. I love the price. I mean, you can't beat that, right? You can get a plan for this new year to say, God, I'm gonna meet with you every day. And I love this. It says that Jesus would pray. What's your method in prayer? And this could be an entire teaching in and of itself. But I think Jesus Gives us a pretty good prayer method. If you're not sure how to pray. Nothing wrong with going to the way Jesus taught us to pray, which is the Lord's Prayer. And that isn't a prayer that you just kind of repeat verbatim, line for line, every single moment of every single day. But I really think of the Lord's Prayer more as like an outline in prayer. What would it look like to take the Lord's Prayer as like an outline and kind of to pray through that in your time talking to the Lord every day?

24 · Concludes by returning to the promises of Psalms 4 and 5—peace, safety, gladness, and joy for those who take refuge in God

I want to close with just highlighting the promise of these passages. In Psalms chapter 4, verse 8, the final verse, it says, in peace I will lie down and sleep for you alone. Lord, make me dwell in safety. And then in Psalms 5, verse 11, it says, Let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them sing for joy. Friends, if you're here today and you're dealing with New Year scaries, receive the peace and the joy of the Lord. It's not what the world gives. It only comes from Him. Reorient your evening. Reorient your mornings. And when you see your evening and morning change, maybe you'll see your days changed. Be marked with peace and joy. As you see your days change, you'll see your year changed. You'll see your life changed as you follow the Lord and live the plan that he has for you.

25 · Closing transition to prayer

Let's pray.