Psalm 5: In the Morning

"Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." "Direct" ('erekh) is the word for setting out wood on an altar or arranging a legal case.

"For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity… the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple."

"Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies… For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels."

"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy… For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield."

Morning prayer and sacrifice

The morning burnt offering (Exodus 29:38–42) began the temple day; Psalm 5's "in the morning will I direct" may borrow the language of arranging that offering. Synagogue and church practice later fixed morning prayer as a daily office.

Toward the temple

"I will worship toward thy holy temple" (hekhal qodshekha) assumes a sanctuary; Solomon's prayer speaks of praying "toward this house" (1 Kings 8:29–30). Hekhal can mean a palace or the temple's main hall.

The title

"To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth": nehilot may mean flutes (from halil, "pipe") or be the name of a tune. The Greek understood "for the one who inherits" (hyper tēs klēronomousēs), reading the word as from nahal, "inherit"; the Vulgate follows: "pro ea quae hereditatem consequitur." A clear example of the ancient translators guessing at an obscure musical term.

Romans 3

Paul quotes 5:9 ("their throat is an open sepulchre") in Romans 3:13, in a chain of verses from Psalms and Isaiah about universal sin. Later copyists inserted that whole chain into the Greek and Latin of Psalm 14 (see Psalm 14).