Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

In Psalm 5, David, the king, calls God his king. It's an act of humility and worship to recognize that

even though he is the ruler of a nation,

he's still subordinate to God.

In verse 7, after pointing out that evil won't dwell in God's house,

he recognizes that the only reason he gets to be in God's presence

is not because he himself is good, but because God is good.

He says, I, through the abundance of your steadfast love will enter your house. David knows his own wickedness. He hasn't forgotten. He doesn't

think he's perfect. He just knows he's been forgiven for it because of his relationship with God.

And again, his fear of God draws him nearer to God,

doesn't push him away. In verse 10, when David asked God to punish his enemies, he doesn't ask God to do it

in response to their evil against him, but in response to their evil against God. He says,

cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. David's love for justice is

adjacent to his love for God. Psalm 38 really endears me to David. We've probably all experienced

some situation like this before. David is enduring all kinds of pain and suffering simultaneously, physical,

emotional, spiritual, relational, and he knows it's the result of his own sin and foolishness.

He repents of his sin and accepts that these are his consequences, but he asks God to bring him

relief and specifically relief in the form of his nearness and salvation. Because when

you've known the nearness of God like David has, then feeling distant from him is far more painful

than any other kind of suffering. In the last verse, he says, do not forsake me, oh Lord, oh my God,

be not far from me.

David opens Psalm 41 with an interesting line.

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