Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 28:8
The LORD [is] their strength, and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed.
8. their strength ] Their must refer to the people. But there is no antecedent for the pronoun, and it is best to follow a few Heb. MSS., the LXX, Vulg., and Syr., in reading, a strength unto his people. Cp. Psa 29:11.
and he is &c.] R.V., and he is a strong hold of salvation to his anointed. Cp. Psa 27:1. Salvation is lit. salvations, great and manifold deliverance. Cp. Psa 18:50; Psa 20:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8, 9. Concluding intercession for the people. Cf. Psa 3:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord is their strength – Margin, his strength. The Hebrew is, their strength, or strength to them. The allusion is to the people of God. The course of thought seems to be, that the psalmist, having derived in his own case assistance from God, or having found God a strength to him, his mind turns from this fact to the general idea that God was the strength of all who were in similar circumstancaes; or that all His people might confide in Him as he had done.
And he is the saving strength – Margin, as in Hebrew, strength of salvations. That is, In Him is found the strength which produces salvation. See the notes at Psa 27:1.
Of his anointed – See Psa 2:2, note; Psa 20:6, note. The primary reference here is doubtless to the psalmist himself, as one who had been annointed or set apaart to the kingly office; but the connection shows that he intended to include all the people of God, as those whom He had consecrated or set apart to His service. See 1Pe 2:5, 1Pe 2:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 28:8
Draw me not away with the wicked.
A prayer against identification with ungodly men
I. the character Of ungodly society.
1. Apostates–gone away from truth, virtue, God.
2. Rebels–wrong in relation to their own nature, society, God.
3. Hypocrites.
II. the attractiveness of ungodly society.
1. In its numerical force. As the little spring from the mountain is drawn to the river, individuals are drawn to the multitude.
2. In its social resources. It has the prizes of fortune and the delights of pleasure at its disposal. All this is attractive. Why should these things be attractive to a good man? Simply, because his goodness is not perfect; remnants of depravity are still in his heart, and these incline him thitherward. To a thoroughly pure soul the power of ungodly society is repulsion, not attraction.
III. the banefulness of ungodly society.
1. Detrimental to the higher interests of human nature. It cannot appease a guilty conscience, or cleanse a polluted heart.
2. Doomed to ruin.
(1) By the moral constitution of the universe.
(2) By the express Word of God, (Homilist.)
Unhook from wicked men
A guards van, attached to some loaded coal trucks, was shunted down an incline towards a siding. On the way, the guard was dismayed to find that the brake in his van was not able to lessen the speed at which they were going. He and his companion mounted the next truck, and tried to let down the brake there, but found that impossible. The guard then proposed to jump off, but his companion thought that that would be certain death. I know what to do! the guard exclaimed, and he seized a huge coal hammer which lay on the truck, went back to the van, and, smashing through the end, lie unhooked the couplings. The van soon stopped, and the two men saw the rest of the train run at great speed into the siding, and the trucks dashed into a shapeless mass. So with bad companions. Unless you throw them off and have nought to do with them they will carry you to the same destruction to which they themselves are hastening.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psa 28:8
My heart trusted in Him; and I am helped.
The earlier and the later song
There are two actions of the heart–prophecy and memory. In the morning of life I look forward, my heart trusted; in the afternoon I look back, my heart rejoiceth. The morning trust comes before help; it is the prospect of the West seen from the crimson dawn. The afternoon joy follows help: it is the memory of the East seen from the setting sun. My heart is like the migration of the swallows. Every swallow makes its first migration in faith; but at the second its prophecy is turned into a memory. It is no more the heart trusting, but the heart rejoicing. My soul, which of thy migrations is the nobler? Is it the trusting or the rejoicing, the prophecy or the memory, thy journey from East to West, or thy travelling from West to East? The psalmist prefers Shy evening song–the song of memory. It is the swallow after migration. It is a song in spite of storm. It is a praise of life as it is. Faith may sing of the rose behind the thorn; but love sits upon the rose bush and smiles back upon the thorn. Faith journeys from Egypt to seek the promised land; love rests in the promised land, and blesses the journey from Egypt. Faith vows all worship if it shall come without pain to the Fathers house; love reposes in the Fathers house and says: It was good for me to have been afflicted. The song of memory is a song of praise. (G. Matheson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. The Lord is their strength] Instead of lamo, to them, eight MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have leammo, to his people; and this reading is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This makes the passage more precise and intelligible; and of the truth of the reading there can be no reasonable doubt. “The Lord is the strength of his PEOPLE, and the saving strength of his anointed.” Both king and people are protected, upheld, and saved by him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Their strength, i.e. the strength of his people, mentioned in the next verse; the relative being put before the antecedent, which is left to be gathered out of the following matter, as it is Num 24:17; Psa 87:1. Or, his strength; for the Hebrew affix mo, which commonly is plural, is sometimes taken singularly; of which see my Latin Synopsis here, and on Isa 53:8. And his, i.e. of his anointed, as the next clause explains it. Or the words may be thus rendered, Strength is or belongs to thee Lord. Heb. The Lord, strength is his, or to him. It is a Hebrew pleonasm.
The saving strength, Heb. the strength of the preservations, or deliverances, or victories, or salvations, i.e. he by whose strength alone he hath got these victories, &c.
Of his anointed, i.e. of me, whom he hath anointed to be king, whom therefore he will defend; he speaks of himself in the third person, which is usual in the Hebrew tongue.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. The distinction made betweenthe people.
their strengthand theanointedmay indicate Absalom’s rebellion as the occasion.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord [is] their strength,…. The strength of his people, mentioned in Ps 28:9; not only the strength of David in particular, but of all his people in general; see Ps 37:39;
and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed; meaning either himself, as before, who was anointed by Samuel king of Israel, and therefore had not invaded and thrust himself into an office he had no call and right unto; or the Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed, whom he heard, helped, and strengthened in the day of salvation, and delivered him from the power of death and the grave, and raised him from thence, and gave him glory; see Ps 20:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. Jehovah is their strength. By way of explanation, he repeats what he had said before, that God had been his strength; namely, because he had blessed his armies. David had indeed employed the hand and labor of men, but to God alone he ascribes the victory. As he knew that whatever help he had obtained from men proceeded from God, and that his prosperous success flowed likewise from his gratuitous favor, he discerned his hand in these means, as palpably as if it had been stretched forth from heaven. And surely it is passing shameful, that human means, which are only the instruments of God’s power, should obscure his glory; although there is no sin more common. It is a manner of speaking which has great weight, when, speaking of his soldiers, he uses only the pronoun their, as if he pointed to them with the finger. The second clause assigns the reason of the other. He declares that himself and his whole army were endued with victorious valor from heaven, because he fought under the standard of God. This is the meaning of the word anointed; for, had not God appointed him king, and freely adopted him, he would not have favored him any more than he did Saul. By this means, in extolling solely the power of God which advanced him to the kingdom, he attributes nothing to his own policy or power. In the meantime, we may learn, that when one is satisfied of the lawfulness of his calling, this doctrine encourages him to entertain good hope with respect to the prosperous issue of his affairs. In particular, it is to be observed, as we have briefly noticed in another place, that the fountain whence all the blessings God bestows upon us flows is, that he hath chosen us in Christ. David employs salvations or deliverances in the plural number, because he had been often and in various ways preserved. The meaning, therefore, is, that from the time when God had anointed him by the hand of Samuel, he never ceased to help him, but delivered him in innumerable ways, until he had accomplished the work of his grace in him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Their strengthi.e., the strength of His people, who are throughout in the poets thought, even if it is the individual and not the community that speaks. The LXX. and Vulg. read (comp. Psa. 29:11) to his people.
Saving strength.Better, stronghold of salvation. (See margin.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Their strength The pronoun, which may be either singular or plural, should be here rendered singular, as it corresponds with anointed (that is, the king) in the parallel line, which should read:
“Jehovah is his strength,
Even the strength of the salvations of his Anointed is he.”
He Rejoices Because He Knows That YHWH Will Be The Protector Of All His People ( Psa 28:8-9 ).
But the Psalmist is not only concerned for himself. His concern is for all God’s people. And he rejoices because what God is for him, He also is for them. He has now become one of God’s intercessors. This was in fact one of the king’s privileges. He could approach God on behalf of his people because he was a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (Psa 110:4). But that is also our privilege too, for we have become sons of the King, called upon to reign with Him (Rev 5:10; Rev 20:4; 1Co 4:8).
Psa 28:8
‘YHWH is their strength,
And he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.’
Note the change to ‘their’. What YHWH has been for him (his strength and shield,) He is also for His people. He is their strength and their stronghold, the strength on which they can constantly draw, the stronghold into which they can enter in order to be saved. He is a strong refuge (Psa 71:7; Psa 61:3). The righteous run into it and are safe (Pro 18:10).
‘To His anointed.’ This may refer to the king as the anointed of YHWH and the representative of his people (Psa 2:2; Psa 18:50; Psa 20:6; 2Sa 22:51; 2Sa 23:1; etc), or to the people themselves, whom God has set apart for Himself under the shelter of His Name. Our blessing too comes because we are sheltered under the Name of His Anointed, even Jesus in Whom we trust.
Psa 28:9
Save your people,
And bless your inheritance,
Be their shepherd also,
And bear them up for ever.’
So he finishes by calling on God to save His people and bless His inheritance. They are not only His people but of value to Him as well (compare Exo 19:5-6). And they are something for which He has a responsibility. Thus he asks Him also to be their shepherd and to uphold His people for ever, bearing them up in His arms (compare Isa 40:11).
But David could never have dreamed that one day this very Shepherd would come down from above to be the good Shepherd Who would die for His sheep, so that they might follow Him and be given eternal life and total security (Joh 10:11; Joh 10:17-18; Joh 10:27-28). How much more then should we praise the Name of Him When we consider how much He has done for us.
Psa 28:8. The Lord is their strength The Lord is his guard; even he himself is the triumphant guard of his anointed. So Mudge; who observes, that the words are evidently spoken by the people, or priests, returning the words which the king had just before used. Houbigant renders it, The Lord is the strength of his people; and indeed our translation, as it now stands, plainly refers to the people in the next verse.
DISCOURSE: 540 Psa 28:8-9. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up for ever!
IN the Psalms of David we observe many rapid transitions from the depth of sorrow to very exalted joy. In the psalm before us, this is very remarkable; insomuch, that commentators are altogether at a loss to determine whether it was written under a state of deep affliction, out of which he anticipates a joyful issue, or after a deliverance from affliction, combining with his expressions of gratitude a retrospective view of his preceding trouble. Of these two explications, I much prefer the latter; though I think even that far from satisfactory. I conceive that the suddenness of Gods answers to prayer, and of the changes wrought thereby upon the feelings of his people, is here marked with very peculiar force and beauty. God has said, Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear [Note: Isa 65:24.]: and thus it was in this case. The Psalmist began in a state of extreme dejection; but, in a moment, his light rose in obscurity, and his darkness became as the noon-day [Note: Isa 58:10.]. The Psalmist elsewhere says, Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing [Note: Psa 30:11.]: and thus we see it here realized; Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. Then, after returning thanks to his great Deliverer, he proclaims, to the honour of God, what he will be to all his believing people; and he implores from God the same blessings in their behalf. Let us now consider,
I.
His testimony for God
He himself was Gods anointed. But of himself he had spoken in the preceding verse: The Lord is my strength. Now, therefore, he speaks of Gods peculiar people, even to the end of time. These all are partakers of the Spirit of Him who was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows [Note: Psa 45:7.]. Even under the Jewish dispensation, his people were a kingdom of priests [Note: Exo 19:6.]: but, under the Christian dispensation, all the saints are a royal priesthood [Note: 1Pe 2:9.], and have the privilege of being made kings and priests unto God and the Father [Note: Rev 1:6.]: and as all kings and priests under the Law were consecrated with oil, so are these anointed of the Lord [Note: 2Co 1:21.]: and they shall all find God to be their strength, their saving strength. Now this is,
1.
A true testimony
[Search the records of the Bible in every age, and see whether so much as one of the Lords anointed was not strengthened by him to do and suffer his holy will Or say, whether many of you, my Brethren, are not able to attest the same, from your own experience; and to declare, that out of weakness you have been made strong [Note: Heb 11:34.], and that God has been ever ready to perfect his own strength in your weakness [Note: 2Co 12:9.]? ]
2.
An encouraging testimony
[There is not a man upon earth that has any strength in himself; no, not so much as even to think a good thought [Note: 2Co 3:5.]. Yet, through the grace of Christ strengthening us, the weakest babe in the universe is able to do all things [Note: Php 4:13.]. Our duties are arduous, our enemies mighty, our sufferings great: yet are we eventually made more than conquerors, through Him who loved, us [Note: Rom 8:37.]. There is nothing, then, that we may not readily undertake for God, since with Him there is everlasting strength [Note: Isa 26:4.]; and we are authorized to expect, under all possible circumstances, that the grace of Christ shall be sufficient for us ]
Persuaded of this blessed truth, let us mark,
II.
His intercession, founded upon it
Let us mark,
1.
The copiousness of it
[His heart was full: and just views of God invariably produce in us a measure of the same feelings towards man. The Lords anointed are his people and his inheritance [Note: 1Ki 8:51; 1Ki 8:53.]: and if we love God, we cannot but love those who are begotten of him: and in proportion as we feel our own obligations to God, will our hearts be enlarged in prayer for those who are dear unto him ]
2.
The order of it
[He begins with imploring their salvation from all guilt and danger. He then begs of God to load them with all blessings through this dreary wilderness. He entreats that they may be fed, and governed, and protected, as sheep by a careful shepherd, or as a faithful people by a wise and powerful Prince [Note: In the Te Deum the words are quoted in this sense. See also Eze 34:23-24.]. And, lastly, he desires that they may be exalted to happiness and glory in a better world. Thus does he implore of God to confer on them all that they can ever need, giving them grace and glory, and withholding from them nothing that can by any means conduce to their welfare [Note: Psa 84:11.].]
3.
The extent of it
[He desires these things for all, without exception. There is not one so good or great, but that he needs all these things at the hands of God; nor one so mean, but that he may expect of God a supply of all these things, in answer to the prayers thus offered for him.] 1.
Your duty
[God commands that we make our intercession for all men. And, if we have any just knowledge of God, we shall improve our interest with him for the benefit of our fellow-creatures. Say not, I know not how to pray. Well I know that this is a common complaint; but I am perfectly assured, that the straitness of which we complain, and perhaps justly complain, arises, in a very great measure, from our ignorance of God, and of the divine life. If we spread more our own wants before God, and obtained answers to our prayers, as David did, we should, like David, become intercessors for others, and find at the throne of grace a liberty of which we have at present but little conception ]
2.
Your privilege
[Are you to ask all these things for others; and shall you want them yourselves? No, Brethren; you may ask salvation from all the penal effects of sin: you may ask for blessings, even all that a fallen creature can by any means want: you may ask for provision and protection to the utmost extent of your necessities: yea, you may ask for all the glory and felicity of heaven; and God will bestow it all. Open your mouth ever so wide, he will fill it; yea, he will do exceeding abundantly for you above all that you can ask or think.]
Psa 28:8 The LORD [is] their strength, and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed.
Ver. 8. The Lord is their strength ] Not mine only, as Psa 28:7 , but the strength of all and every one of the holy community, of true Christians, partakers of Christ’s unction, of his Spirit.
their = [strength] to His People. The letter Aleph being interchangeable with Ayin. This orthography is attested by some codices, and by Septuagint and Syriac. Thus agreeing with Psa 29:11.
saving strength = great saving strength. Hebrew “strength of salvations”. Plural of majesty.
of = to.
His anointed = His Messiah, as in Psa 2:2.
Psa 28:8-9
Psa 28:8-9
“Jehovah is their strength, and he is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance:
Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever”
“Stronghold … to his anointed” (Psa 28:8). Addis stated that “anointed” in this passage may refer, “Either to the king or to the high priests. This is true enough, of course; but as Dahood noted, in this passage, “The reference is to the King.”
“Here David builds upon the fact that he is God’s anointed, that he is more than a private citizen. As the Lord’s anointed (a term that grew into the Messiah), he stood for his people, and God’s grace must be meant for them as well as for himself.
Being assured that God has indeed answered his prayer, David here takes courage and asks for the deliverance of all Israel.
“As God’s anointed here, David realizes that the fortunes of the people rise and fall with him.” From this, there springs at once this fervent prayer for the welfare of all of God’s people, even the nation of Israel. The sudden outcropping of the Shepherd metaphor in the last line is another mark of the Davidic authorship.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 28:8. The antecedent of their is indicated by the last word of the verse. His anointed refers to the people whom God had chosen.
Psa 28:9. Save thy people should not be interpreted as an indication of partiality. It is true that David prayed only for the Lord’s people to be saved for no others have the promise of salvation. But the subject will appear clear and just when we remember that all people have the opportunity of being among God’s people as far as personal salvation is concerned. David prayed that all of them should be fed and lifted up, which meant they were to be taught and upheld.
their: or, his
saving strength: Heb. strength of salvations
his: Psa 2:2, Psa 20:6, 1Sa 16:13, Isa 61:1
Reciprocal: Gen 49:24 – his bow Exo 15:2 – strength 1Sa 2:10 – anointed 2Sa 22:33 – strength 1Ch 16:27 – strength 1Ch 29:12 – give strength Neh 8:10 – the joy Psa 18:1 – my Psa 27:1 – strength Psa 28:7 – strength Psa 29:11 – give Psa 84:5 – strength Psa 86:16 – give Psa 140:7 – the strength Isa 33:6 – strength Eph 3:16 – to be
Psa 28:8. The Lord is their strength That is, the strength of his people, mentioned in the next verse. He is the saving strength Hebrews , the strength of the preservations, deliverances, or salvations; of his anointed Of me, whom he hath anointed to be king, and whom therefore he will defend. He signifies that it was by Gods strength alone that his victories, deliverances, and preservations were wrought.
28:8 The LORD [is] {g} their strength, and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed.
(g) Meaning his soldiers who were means by which God declared his power.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
GOD OUR SAVING STRENGTH
Behold, then, Brethren,
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes