Psa 5:11 | KingComments | STEP | In , David, as the king of his people, speaks to God about “all who take refuge in You”. He asks for them if God will make them glad by the exercise of His righteousness in the extermination of the wicked. It concerns those who follow him in his rejection and share in his reproach. Those who seek protection from God thereby indicate that they “love” the “name” of the LORD (cf. ). The “name” points to the covenant. To “love” His “name” means that they seek protection on the basis of the covenant. Trusting God and loving Him go together. Love trusts in protection. Whoever loves the Name, loves the Person because of His features, because of all that He is and does. The Name is everything in which He reveals Himself to man, what He shows to man in His features of Himself. David asks God to allow those who trust and love Him and therefore seek protection from Him to share in exuberant joy. He speaks of being “glad”, “ever sing for joy”, and “exult in You”. This is a huge contrast to the judgment he asked for the disobedient in . What David asks for his faithful followers, he asks on the basis of what he knows of God. This is evident from the word “for” ( ). By this he is saying that God is undeniably so. It is He “who blesses the righteous man”. God has great pleasure in everyone who lives as a righteous person. This righteous may be surrounded by enemies, but they cannot do anything to him, because God surrounds him “with favor as with a shield”. Whoever wants to harm the righteous will have to penetrate that shield. Any attempt to do so is futile and doomed to failure, for it is the shield of God.

‏ Psalms 5:11

Those Who Love the Name

In Psa 5:11, David, as the king of his people, speaks to God about “all who take refuge in You”. He asks for them if God will make them glad by the exercise of His righteousness in the extermination of the wicked. It concerns those who follow him in his rejection and share in his reproach. Those who seek protection from God thereby indicate that they “love” the “name” of the LORD (cf. Pro 18:10). The “name” points to the covenant. To “love” His “name” means that they seek protection on the basis of the covenant.

Trusting God and loving Him go together. Love trusts in protection. Whoever loves the Name, loves the Person because of His features, because of all that He is and does. The Name is everything in which He reveals Himself to man, what He shows to man in His features of Himself.

David asks God to allow those who trust and love Him and therefore seek protection from Him to share in exuberant joy. He speaks of being “glad”, “ever sing for joy”, and “exult in You”. This is a huge contrast to the judgment he asked for the disobedient in Psa 5:10.

What David asks for his faithful followers, he asks on the basis of what he knows of God. This is evident from the word “for” (Psa 5:12). By this he is saying that God is undeniably so. It is He “who blesses the righteous man”. God has great pleasure in everyone who lives as a righteous person.

This righteous may be surrounded by enemies, but they cannot do anything to him, because God surrounds him “with favor as with a shield”. Whoever wants to harm the righteous will have to penetrate that shield. Any attempt to do so is futile and doomed to failure, for it is the shield of God.