It Starts Small

David does not identify his enemies in this psalm, but he does describe their character and destiny. He says they are wicked, workers of evil, deceptive, and unbelieving. They are destined to go down to the pit—a metaphor for death and eternal ruin. David begins this psalm with an urgent plea for the Lord to hear his cry. He calls the Lord his rock. If the Lord does not answer his prayer, he believes his fate is like that of those whose destiny is death and destruction.

Asking to be heard by God.

¹ Lord, I call to you;
my rock, do not be deaf to me.
If you remain silent to me,
I will be like those going down to the Pit.
² Listen to the sound of my pleading
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your holy sanctuary.

Psalm 28:1-2

Lord, I call to you;my rock, do not be deaf to me.: With this opening to the psalm, David was both trusting and hopeful. In faith he gave God the title he longed for Him to fulfill: to be David’s Rock in the present season of difficulty. David said this also in hope, because at the moment he felt God to be silent to him. David said that the LORD was his Rock – his foundation, his stability, his security.

If you remain silent to me,I will be like those going down to the Pit.: In his trouble, David felt the grave was near – and if God did not intervene he would not live long. The response and intervention of God (opposite of being silent) was what David needed and longed for. The situation is probably illness or deep despair, and the fear is not a dread of death as such, but of death with unmerited disgrace. To avoid this disgrace, David needed God to hear him, to no longer be silent. Jehovah seems deaf when prayer is unanswered, and is silent when He does not speak in deliverance.

 Listen to the sound of my pleadingwhen I cry to you for help,when I lift up my handstoward your holy sanctuary: David used the poetic techniques of repetition and parallelism to say essentially the same thing in two ways. His prayer was a cry to God, and his body was set in the traditional posture of prayer (I lift up my hands).

As he continues, David uses phrasing that is both a request and a statement, combined. David is confident that he doesn’t share in wicked actions, so he is confident God will not “drag him off” when judging sinners. David describes evil people, in part, as those deceptively speaking politely, while planning to do evil. He prays the Lord will judge depraved people in proportion to their sins. (Psalm 28:3–4).

Asking to be spared the fate of the wicked.

³ Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with the evildoers,
who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors
while malice is in their hearts.
⁴ Repay them according to what they have done—
according to the evil of their deeds.
Repay them according to the work of their hands;
give them back what they deserve.
⁵ Because they do not consider
what the Lord has done
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and not rebuild them.

Psalm 28:3-6

Do not drag me away with the wicked: David happily knew that his life was different than the workers of iniquity, and he asked that God would treat him differently than the wicked.

with the evildoers, who speak in friendly ways with their neighbors
while malice is in their hearts: When David thought to describe the wicked, he began noting that they were false in their words, hiding the evil in their hearts. Soft words, oily with pretended love, are the deceitful meshes of the infernal net in which Satan catches the precious life; many of his children are learned in his abominable craft, and fish with their father’s nets, almost as cunningly as he himself could do it.

Repay them according to the work of their hands; give them back what they deserve: In his own seasons of sin, David cast himself upon the mercy of God and asked to be forgiven for his sinful deeds. Here, he prayed for a harsh judgment to be applied to the wicked, that God would deal with them according to their wicked deeds.

To emphasize the point, David repeated the same idea in four different phrases:

·According to their evil deeds

The wickedness of their endeavors.

The work of their hands.

What they deserve.

Remember, these verses are not simply vindictive, but put into words the protest of any healthy conscience at the wrongs of the present order, and the conviction that a day of judgment is a moral necessity.

 Because they do not consider what the Lord has done or the work of his hands: When David considered the wicked deeds of the ungodly, he also considered that they ignored the creative work of God. To David, this was evidence of one being sinful and ripe for judgment. Paul expressed the same idea:

²⁰ For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. ²¹ For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:20-21

The acts of the Lord in creation, redemption, and Yahweh’s rule through David reveal the wonder of God’s purpose. The history of redemption condemns the wicked.

he will tear them down and not rebuild them: The wicked forget about God, but He does not forget about them. God promises to give those who reject Him what they deserve. David points out that the wicked ignore and reject the Lord’s works. Despite all that God has shown, in nature and by miracles, those who reject Him refuse to see the truth. David prays that the Lord will repay them for their evil; he knows those who turn away from God will suffer eternal loss (Psalm 28:5).

The prayer of praise, happy in the answer to prayer.

Praising the LORD who hears prayer.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord,
for he has heard the sound of my pleading.
⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
Therefore my heart celebrates,
and I give thanks to him with my song.

Psalm 28:6-7

Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleading: In his trouble, David cried out to God. Now he praises the God who heard and answered his prayer, becoming David’s strength and shield. Suddenly the prayer becomes a song of praise, an act of adoration.

This praise was founded on a reason, indicated by the word because. Real praise is established upon sufficient and constraining reasons; it is not irrational emotion, but rises, like a pure spring, from the deeps of experience. It’s a beautiful thing to say, “my strength” and “my shield.” Some have a theoretical knowledge of God as a strength or shield, without knowing the goodness of it in their individual lives.

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped: David here adds his voice to the testimony of countless others who have found help as their heart trusted in God. This brought great rejoicing and singing to David. David knew that God answered his prayer, perhaps even before the answer was in hand. It is a modern refinement in theology which teaches that no man can know when God hears and answers his prayers…. True religion knows nothing of these abominations; it teaches its votaries to pray to God, to expect an answer from him, and to look for the Holy Spirit to bear witness with their spirits that they are the sons and daughters of God.

The psalm concludes with praise that God has answered David’s prayer. David was a warrior who knew the value of a shield. God provided David with both protection and a sense of confidence. David applies this same idea to God’s protection of His people, most especially God’s plan to bring Messiah into the world. David was also a shepherd (1 Samuel 17:34), and he uses shepherding terminology to speak about the Lord’s guiding security (Psalm 28:6–9).

Praising the LORD who is the strength of His people.

⁸ The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is a stronghold of salvation for his anointed.
⁹ Save your people, bless your possession,
shepherd them, and carry them forever.

Psalm 28:8-9

The Lord is the strength of his people; he is a stronghold of salvation for his anointed: This is the blessing given to the heart that trusts God; God becomes their strength. He doesn’t merely give strength; He is their strength, and the refuge of His anointed. The word anointed (mashiach) reminds us of the ultimate Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah. His anointed ones are secure in the Messiah, and therefore strong and safe.

Save your people, bless your possession,shepherd them, and carry them forever: David concludes this psalm with a series of short prayers asking God to bring His people what they need and long for.

The psalm started with a plea for personal help and rescue, but by the end of the psalm, David’s concern is for the LORD’s people as a whole. Whatever is dear to the loved one is dear to the lover. You cannot love the pastor without taking a keen interest in all that interests him, and especially in the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his hand. Hence when you are nearest the Lord, you are almost certain to begin pleading for his inheritance, and saying: Save thy people; bless them, feed them, and lift them up forever.

Save: God’s people need to be rescued and they look to God for it.

Bless: God’s people need His blessing and favor, and they receive it by being His inheritance.

Shepherd: God’s people need His care and guidance as a shepherd guides his flock. Raah [shepherd] signifies both to feed and to govern. Feed them, as a shepherd does his flock; rule them, as a father does his children.

· Bear them up: God’s people need God’s constant, sustaining presence – and they need it forever.

Jesus does not simply lead us to green pastures and still waters…He bears us up, and He does so for ever. Never tiring, though He imparts infinite rest; never ceasing for a moment his shepherd-care.