Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 28:1
[A Psalm] of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
1. Render with R.V.,
Unto thee, O Lord, will I call;
My rock, be not thou deaf unto me.
He appeals to Jehovah as his rock, the ground of his confidence. See Psa 18:2 (note), 31.
be not silent unto me ] Lit. from me; and similarly in the next line. The rendering be not silent may stand, as in Psa 35:22; Psa 39:12; or we may render with R.V., be not thou deaf. The sense is, ‘Turn not away from me as though thou didst not hear, lest if thou turn away in unregarding silence, I become’ &c. like them that go down to the pit ] i.e. the dying or the dead. The pit is the grave or Sheol. Cp. Psa 22:29; Psa 88:4; Pro 1:12. How natural a prayer if people were dying of pestilence all round him! The last line recurs in Psa 143:7.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1, 2. Introductory appeal for a hearing, emphasising the urgency of the need.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Unto thee will I cry – That is, under the consciousness of the danger to which I am exposed – the danger of being drawn away into the society of the wicked. In such circumstances his reliance was not on his own strength; or on his own resolutions; on his own heart; or on his fellowmen. He felt that he was safe only in God, and he appeals to Him, therefore, in this earnest manner, to save him.
O Lord my rock – See the notes at Psa 18:2.
Be not silent to me – Margin, from me. So the Hebrew. The idea is that of one who will not speak to us, or who will not attend to us. We pray, and we look for an answer to our prayers, or, as it were, we expect God to speak to us; to utter words of kindness; to assure us of His favor; to declare our sins forgiven.
Lest, if thou be silent to me – If thou dost not answer my supplications.
I become like unto them that go down into the pit – Like those who die; or, lest I be crushed by anxiety and distress, and die. The word pit here refers to the grave. So it is used in Psa 30:3; Psa 88:4; Isa 38:18; Isa 14:15, Isa 14:19. The meaning is, that if he did not obtain help from God he despaired of life. His troubles would overwhelm and crush him. He could not bear up under them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 28:1-7
Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my Rock.
The prayer of a saint in distress
I. He prays that God would graciously hear and answer him now that, in his distress, he called upon him (Psa 28:1-2). Observe–
1. His faith in prayer. O Lord, my rock.
2. His fervency in prayer. Unto Thee will I cry–as one in earnest, being ready to sink unless Thou come in with seasonable succour.
3. How solicitous he is to obtain an answer. Be not silent to me.
4. His plea.
(1) The sad despair he should be in if God slighted him. If Thou be silent to me, etc. If God be not my friend, appear not to me, and appear not for me, my hope and my help is perished.
(2) The good hopes he had that God would favour him. I lift up my hands, etc. The most holy place, within the veil, is here called the oracle. That was a type of Christ; and it is to Him that we must lift up our eyes and hands, for through Him all good comes from God to us. It was also a figure of heaven (Heb 9:24); and from God, as our Father in heaven, we are taught to expect answers to prayer.
II. he deprecates the doom of wicked people (Psa 28:3).
1. Save me from being entangled in the snares they have laid for me.
2. Save me from being infected with their sins, and from doing as they do.
3. Save me from being involved in their doom.
III. he deprecates the just judgments of God upon the workers of iniquity (Psa 28:4). This is not the language of passion or revenge; nor is it inconsistent with the duty of praying for our enemies. But–
1. Thus he would show how far he was from complying with the workers of iniquity.
2. Thus he would express his zeal for the honour of Gods justice in governing the world.
3. This prayer is a prophecy that God will, sooner or later, render to all impenitent sinners according to their deserts. Observe, he foretells that God will reward them, not only according to their deeds, but according to the wickedness of their endeavours; for sinners shall be reckoned with, not only for the mischief they have done, but for the mischief they would have done, which they designed, and did what they could to effect. And if God go by this rule in dealing with the wicked, sure He will do so in dealing with the righteous, and will reward them, not only for the good they have done, but for the good they endeavoured to do, though they could not compass it.
IV. he foretells their destruction for their contempt of God and his hand (Psa 28:5). Why do men question the Being or attributes of God but because they do not duly regard His handi-works which declare His glory, and in which the invisible things of Him are clearly seen? Why do men forget God, and live without Him–nay, affront God, and live in rebellion against Him, but because they consider not the instances of that wrath of His which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and Unrighteousness of men? Why do the enemies of Gods people hats and persecute them, and devise mischief against them, but because they regard not the works God has wrought for His Church, by which He has made it appear how dear it is to Him? (Isa 5:12). (M. Henry, D. D.)
A cry for help
1. To the right person.
2. At the right time.
3. With the right motives.
4. In the right way. (J. E. Scott.)
The instincts of the heart
I. the sense of dependence upon God. How sweet it is to say unto God, My Rock. This gives confidence in life and in death. Said a dying saint (the Rev. John Rees), Christ in His person, Christ in the love of His heart, and Christ in the power of His arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now (reclining his head gently on the pillow), Death, strike.
II. craving for fellowship with God.
1. God s silence deprecated as the greatest evil.
2. Gods fellowship sought as the greatest good:
(1) Humbly.
(2) Earnestly.
(3) Importunately.
(4) Through faith in the mercy of God.
III. confidence in the eternal justice of God.
1. Deliverance sought from the doom of the wicked.
2. Retribution craved.
IV. gratitude foe the goodness of God.
1. For answered prayers.
2. For assistance in time of need.
3. For assurance of hope.
V. exulting joy in the saving strength of God.
VI. trust in the ultimate triumph and blessedness of Gods people. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)
A supplication metaphorically expressed
I. The object of prayer is here given in metaphor.
1. His nature. Rock. What so immutable, abiding?
(1) Deep in the nature of every man is the desire for some object on which to settle its confidence and its love.
(2) The human spirit, without a fixed centre, is like the sea–never at rest.
(3) All outside the soul is unsettled and shifting as the clouds. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away; friends drop into the grave. The soul wants a Rock amidst this surging sea.
2. His attitude. Silent. Even Christ on the cross exclaimed, My God, etc. Does not this prove mans intuitive belief in the fact that fellowship with the Great Father is happiness? Whatever may be mans theoretical credenda concerning the Eternal, his primitive faith is, that happiness is attained only by close communion with Him.
3. His salvation. Lest I be like them who go down into the pit. From what a pit does the great God deliver His people–
(1) The pit of uncorrectable depravity.
(2) The pit of unpardonable guilt.
(3) The pit of unrelievable despair.
II. The nature of the prayer is here given in metaphor.
1. Prayer has respect to a special manifestation of God. Toward Thy holy oracle. What the Mercy Seat was to the Jew, Christ is to humanity in these last times–the Temple in which God is to be met, and where the Shekinah radiates–Emmanuel–God with us. Man in prayer requires that his Deity should appear as a local personality.
2. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. I lift up my hands. The lifting up of the hands symbolizes the lifting up of the heart. (Homilist.)
Be not silent to me, lest if Thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit.
The Silences of God
The instinct of religion is to cry to God. The personal providence of God is the reason of prayer. The psalmist is in trouble, and as he prays his imagination suggests what it would be if God were silent to him.
I. Is God silent to our prayers? We pray expecting His answer. Prayer is not the mere utterance of surcharged hearts, like Lears raving to the winds. There is moral benefit in simple desire, and that desire grows by utterance. The Rock may not speak to us, but we can lean against it and find shelter under it. But the idea of God speaking to us is as essential for prayer as our speaking to Him. We ask for response, not merely that He would listen. In what sense may God be silent to a praying man? It is a possibility, and as such it is deprecated. Perhaps David was impatient because the answer did not at once come. Sometimes the answer may follow at once, as the thunder-clap the lightning. I will, be thou clean, was the instant answer to the lepers cry. But the answer to the Syro-Phoenician, to the centurion, to the disciples in the storm, to the sisters of Lazarus, were purposely delayed. The long winter is not a capricious delay of spring; it prepares for a fuller, a more luxuriant life. Surely was not the Father, in this sense, silent to the well-beloved Son Himself when He prayed in His agony, thrice, Father, if it be possible. His cup might not pass, but He was heard in that He feared. Our hasty desires are often not wise. The thing demanded might send leanness into our souls.
II. there are other silences that perplex us. What is the meaning of many of Gods laws–the economy of violence, of death, of death as the condition of life? Why are the secrets of Nature so hidden? Why did not God tell at the first what powerful generations have just discovered? Wherefore do the wicked prosper? Why is God silent when His people are wronged with impunity and success? No doubt, much that we call Gods silence is speech that is unheard. It is not His silence, but only our deafness. Christianity has taught us how to regard suffering itself as a gospel.
III. concerning his kingdom we are perplexed. Lord, are there few that be saved? He is silent to our curiosity even when prompted by benevolence.
IV. in spiritual things, again, we often think, in our obtuseness, that God is silent. We do not always hear Gods voice in our own souls. The Babel voices of passion drown it. He that will do the will of God shall know of the doctrine. Some men see and hear God everywhere; others never see or hear Him at all. To the spiritual soul Gods world is a whispering gallery–dead stones speak.
V. to such a soul the thought that God may be silent to him is intolerable. He would be as those who perish. Every delay was painful. The Divine Fatherhood has such meaning to us that we cannot bear the hiding of Gods face. This is the meaning of all the great yearnings after God with which the Psalms are full. To be thrown upon the mystery and sin and trouble of life, all the burden and the mystery of this unintelligible world, without God is, to a religious soul, intolerable. How terrible to think of men to whom God is always silent, who are spiritually so deaf that they cannot hear, and to whom, if they could hear, God has no words that He could speak but of rebuke. There are men who all their lives have been saying prayers but have never prayed, and to whom God has never spoken. What if the silence should never be broken? (H. Allen, D. D.)
The silence of God
I shall treat the subject mainly from the standpoint of those to whom the silence of God is a burden, more or less perplexing, mysterious.
I. while complaining of Gods silence, are you really so certain that he is silent? What if God has been speaking distinctly and repeatedly, while from faults of your own you have not heard Him? There are two pre-requisites to the catching of Gods voice! Listen for it in the proper quarter. Many miss the Divine message because they fail to realize how often it comes to us in the ordinary and the commonplace. Where is the Christ? do you ask?–the Christ that I need to save me, to guide me? Why, in the weekly sermons you hear, in the daily Scriptures you read, in the temporal experiences that befall you, in the spiritual aspirations that stir in you. Lay your ear to the things that are close to you: customary ordinances, customary providences, as well as your yearnings and anxieties for a better life. Christ is speaking in these.
2. Listen for it with the necessary sympathy. Otherwise, though close to the sphere where God speaks, with His messages ringing all round about you, you may miss or mistake their meaning; they will be no real messages to you. Who are those that appreciate the poets message? Only such as have a portion of the poets soul. Who are those that appreciate the musicians message? Only such as have a portion of the musicians taste. And who are those that appreciate the Divine message? Only such as have an element of the Divine character, that raises you to the knowledge of the Divine, instals you into fellowship with the Divine.
II. in complaining of Gods silence, are you sure that his silence will continue? Remember the Syro-Phoenician woman. If your prayer be a prayer for simple relief, cud if you are careful to ask for it in the right spirit, willing to wait for it till the right time, you need not lose heart, though Christ at the outset be silent. The speaking will surely follow. And meanwhile through the very silence Christ may work by blessing as well as by speech. He may keep you waiting for a time that faith may be strengthened, that hope may be fanned, that love may be refined, that patience may be perfected, that desire may be purified.
III. in complaining of Gods silence, are you sure it would be good for you if he spoke? (Joh 16:12). He meets many a question that goes up to Him about concealed things in life and doctrine with a shake of the head, the attitude of reticence and of reserve. And the reason is this–the knowledge of such matters is meanwhile unsafe. A modern religious writer has beautifully said that the key to Gods silence on many points is to be found in the simple words, We shall be changed, and the fact that God waits till the change takes place.
IV. in complaining of Gods silence, are you sure you are not provoking him to keep silence? how? By sin that is wilfully indulged in, or sin that is insufficiently repented of-inadequately realized and confessed (Psa 66:18). But, you say, I have grieved over my iniquity. Yes, but there is grieving and grieving. Have you renounced it? Have you renounced the fruits of it? Have you gone to God with such an absence of self-justification and self-excuse as to say, I and not another have done this thing, and against Thee and not another has this thing been done? For if not, grieve as you may, plead as you may, be prepared for Gods silence.
V. in complaining of Gods silence, are you sure you are giving him the opportunity to speak? Truly, says the psalmist, my soul waiteth upon God. It ought rather to read, is silent to God. A friend told me some time ago that a Christian lady startled him with a question worth the repeating. She first asked, Do you pray? Yes. And how long do you remain on your knees, after you have prayed, waiting for an answer? Well, he said, it is strange; I never thought of doing that at all. We forget the duty of stillness, of quietness. We forget the duty of now and again being silent to God in the attitude of expectancy and recipiency. (W. A. Gray.)
The silence of God
I think it was Thomas Carlyle who used those pathetic words when speaking of the Deity: He does nothing. The world moved ever onwards; men and Women struggled and loved and hated; vice lifted its head unblushingly in our streets, and dishonesty and cruelty worked havoc in the peace of the universe. And yet the God of purity and of justice never seemed to interfere. The world ran riot, and He put not forth His lined; men cried to Him for help and deliverance, and He remained for ever silent. Now, this Eternal silence has had a twofold effect upon men. In one class it has given rise to defiance; in another it has given rise to despair. The unbeliever challenges the Divine interference, and when silence is the answer to his demand he denies the power of the Eternal Spirit; the man of faith appeals to God for light and leading, and the silence nearly drives him to desperation. There is nothing more trying to the faith of men than this silence, or seeming silence, on the part of God. Does God speak to you, or is He silent? Is the silence of the universe for you ever broken by the mysterious voice of an Unseen Being? Can you with the eye of sense look at the heavens above you, and with the eye of faith pierce the eternal blue, and believe that the God who lives in the universe is a Being who has ears but heareth not, who has eyes but seeth not, who has a heart but knows nothing of the wants and needs of that broken heart of yours? If prayer does nothing else for a man, it at least bears him up on the wings of faith, far from the vexing trifles of the present into the unknown region where the Father dwells; and no one can live for a moment in that holy place without hearing the voice of God. Prayer purifies, says Richter; and purity is the voice of God. Again, we may hear the Divine voice in Nature if we open our ears to its sound. That voice was for ever in the ears of the psalmist; he heard the voice of God in the hurricane and in the calm. And the reason why men to-day do not hear God speaking to them in Nature is simply that they allow the murmur of the world to stifle the whisper of heaven To hold silent communings with the silent God you must leave the bustle of the world behind you. It is not often that God speaks to a man through the noise of his hammer in the workshop, or the columns of his ledger in the office, or the pages of his bank-book. Leave these things behind and go away and seek Gods face in the lonely valley or on the silent, hillside. There you will discover the truest part of your manhood, you will see that the life of thought is the nearest akin to that of God, and in every blade of grass you will see the mystery of the Divine workmanship, in every peeping flower you will see the Eternal smile, in the murmur of the mountain streamlet you will hear the music of the angels, in the breeze which kisses your cheek you will feel the breath of God. We hear the voice of God also in the voice of conscience within us. If you stifle that voice it will become fainter day by day till it altogether dies away; if you listen to its appeal it will ultimately lead you to where you may see God face to face. Once more, the voice of God may come to you in the memory of the past. Your life must have been a very uneventful one if you cannot look back upon it and see many stages plainly marked which give the lie to the assertion of the silence of God, if you cannot point to many struggles, many victories, and also many defeats in your lifes history where you heard the voice of God breaking the silence around. But, above all, do we hear the voice of God in the memory of departed friends and comrades. There is a great deal more meaning than we think of in the words, He being dead yet speaketh. The memory of the departed lifts us up to higher things, and we hear their voices calling us to walk nobly and endure manfully. The memory of a dead parent often keeps a young mans feet from walking in the paths of sin; the memory of a dead friend stimulates us to a higher ideal and a nobler end. What man who has a dear child in the eternal kingdom does not feel better and purer and more Christ-like when he thinks of that angel face smiling upon him in tender affection? (A. Warr, M. A.)
The seeming silence of God
The seeming silence of God means human incapacity and dulness. This is the obstacle to hearing. There is an eternal reality corresponding with the ancient phrase, Communion with God. But this implies more than the existence of the Heavenly voice. It implies organs made sensitive to it. The material world is full of sounds which are constantly failing upon ears that are too dull or too deaf to hear them. We speak of the silence of the sea, of the silence of the night, of the silence of the mighty mountain. But to men with ears, to men not wanting in the vision and the faculty divine, these things are unceasingly eloquent with speech. To some God does not seem to speak because there has been no preparation for hearing. Where the soul is filled with the noise of mundane voices, the Divine voices which are resounding through its chambers cannot be distinguished. The man who cries despairingly to God, Be not silent to me, needs to remember that it is himself more than God that needs to be stirred. He must set himself to understand the language in which the Divine One is wont to communicate with the human spirit. Even among men the spoken and the written word are not the only methods of intercommunication. To the trained eye of friendship many an important message may be conveyed without the use of any audible or written word. We speak to God in a voice audible, but He may answer us in impressions, in impulses, and similar. And this language, the language of the spirit of the unseen God, cannot be understood without any instruction. The one who rushes into the Divine presence with petitions, his soul full of earths voices, having never learned even the alphabet of the spiritual world, cannot expect to understand the answer he may receive, any more than a man ignorant of the telegraph code could interpret the dots and dashes which he is given to understand are the reply to a communication which he has flashed along the speaking wires. To the aspiring, sensitive soul, God is never silent. (J. Hunter, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XXVIII
A righteous man in affliction makes supplication to God, and
complains of the malice of his enemies, 1-4;
whom he describes as impious, and whose destruction he
predicts, 5.
He blesses God for hearing his prayers, and for filling him
with consolation, 6, 7;
then prays for God’s people, 8, 9.
NOTES ON PSALM XXVIII
This Psalm is of the same complexion with the two preceding; and belongs most probably to the times of the captivity, though some have referred it to David in his persecutions. In the five first verses the author prays for support against his enemies, who appear to have acted treacherously against him. In the sixth and seventh he is supposed to have gained the victory, and returns with songs of triumph. The eighth is a chorus of the people sung to their conquering king. The ninth is the prayer of the king for his people.
Verse 1. O Lord my rock] tsuri not only means my rock, but my fountain, and the origin of all the good I possess.
If thou be silent] If thou do not answer in such a way as to leave no doubt that thou hast heard me, I shall be as a dead man. It is a modern refinement in theology which teaches that no man can know when God hears and answers his prayers, but by an induction of particulars, and by an inference from his promises. And, on this ground, how can any man fairly presume that he is heard or answered at all? May not his inductions be no other than the common occurrences of providence? And may not providence be no more than the necessary occurrence of events? And is it not possible, on this skeptic ground, that there is no God to hear or answer? 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Be not silent; be not deaf to my prayers, nor dumb as, to thy answers to them: lest I be in the like or same condition with them
that go down into the pit, i.e. a lost creature; as I shall certainly be, if thou dost not succour me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. my rock (Psa 18:2;Psa 18:31).
be not silent tomeliterally, “from me,” deaf or inattentive.
become like them,&c.share their fate.
go down into the pitor,”grave” (Ps 30:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Unto thee will I cry,…. This denotes the distress the psalmist was in, fervency and ardour in prayer, resolution to continue in it, and singularity with respect to the object of it; determining to cry to the Lord only; to which he was encouraged by what follows;
O Lord my rock; he being a strong tower and place of defence to him, in whom were all his safety, and his trust and confidence, and in whom he had an interest;
be not silent to me; or “deaf” q; persons that do not hear are silent, and make no answer; as the Lord seems to be, when he returns no answer to the cries of his people; when he does not arise and help them; when he seems not to take any notice of his and their enemies, but stands at a distance from them, and as if he had forsaken them; see
Ps 39:12; the words may be considered, as they are by some, as an address to Christ his rock, his advocate and intercessor; that he would not be silent, but speak for him, and present his supplications to God, with the much incense of his mediation; see 1Sa 7:8;
lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit; either like such that fall into a ditch, and cannot help themselves out, and they cry, and there is none to take them out from thence; or like such that die in battle, and are cast into a pit, and there buried in common with others; which David might fear would be his case, through Saul’s violent pursuit after him; or lest he should be like the dead, who are not regarded, and are remembered no more; or lest he should really die by the hands of his enemies, and so be laid in the grave, the pit of corruption; or be in such distress and despair as even the damned in hell be, the pit out of which there is no deliverance.
q “ne obsurdescas”, Vatablus, Tigurine version, Gejerus; so Ainsworth, Junius & Tremellius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This first half of the Psalm (Psa 28:1) is supplicatory. The preposition in connection with the verbs , to be deaf, dumb, and , to keep silence, is a pregnant form of expression denoting an aversion or turning away which does not deign to give the suppliant an answer. Jahve is his , his ground of confidence; but if He continues thus to keep silence, then he who confides in Him will become like those who are going down (Psa 22:30), or are gone down (Isa 14:19) to the pit. The participle of the past answers better to the situation of one already on the brink of the abyss. In the double sentence with , the chief accent falls upon the second clause, for which the first only paratactically opens up the way (cf. Isa 5:4; Isa 12:1); in Latin it would be ne, te mihi non respondente, similis fiam . Olshausen, and Baur with him, believes that because has not the accent on the ultima as being perf. consec ., it must be interpreted according to the accentuation thus, “in order that Thou mayst no longer keep silence, whilst I am already become like…” But this ought to be , or at least . And if were to be taken as a real perfect, it would then rather have to be rendered “and I should then be like.” But, notwithstanding is Milel, it is still perf. consecuticum (“and I am become like”); for if, in a sentence of more than one member following upon , the fut., as is usually the case (vid., on Psa 38:17), goes over into the perf., then the latter, in most instances, has the tone of the perf. consec . (Deu 4:19, Jdg 18:25, Pro 5:9-12, Mal 4:6), but not always. The penultima -accentuation is necessarily retained in connection with the two great pausal accents, Silluk and Athnach, Deu 8:12; Pro 30:9; in this passage in connection with Rebia mugrash, just as we may say, in general, the perf. consec. sometimes retains its penultima -accentuation in connection with distinctives instead of being accented on the ultima; e.g., in connection with Rebia mugrash, Pro 30:9; with Rebia, Pro 19:14 (cf. Pro 30:9 with Eze 14:17); with Zakeph. 1Sa 29:8; and even with Tiphcha Obad. Oba 1:10, Joe 3:21. The national grammarians are ignorant of any law on this subject.
(Note: Aben-Ezra ( Moznajim 36 b) explains the perfect accented on the penult. in Pro 30:9 from the conformity of sound, and Kimchi ( Michlol 6 b) simply records the phenomenon.)
The point towards which the psalmist stretches forth his hands in prayer is Jahve’s holy . Such is the word (after the form , , ) used only in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, with the exception of this passage, to denote the Holy of Holies, not as being (Aquila and Symmachus), or , oraculum (Jerome), as it were, Jahve’s audience chamber (Hengstenberg) – a meaning that is not in accordance with the formation of the word, – but as the hinder part of the tent, from , Arabic dabara , to be behind, whence dubr (Talmudic ), that which is behind (opp. kubl . kibal , that which is in the front), cf. Jesurun p. 87f. In Psa 28:3, Psa 28:4 the prayer is expanded. (instead of which we find in Psa 26:9), to draw any one down forcibly to destruction, or to drag him to the place of judgment, Eze 32:20, cf. Psa 10:8; Job 24:22. The delineation of the ungodly David borrows from his actual foes, Should he succumb to them, then his fate would be like that which awaits them, to whom he is conscious that he is radically unlike. He therefore prays that God’s recompensing justice may anticipate him, i.e., that He may requite them according to their desert, before he succumbs, to whom they have feigned , a good understanding, or being on good terms, whereas they cherished in their heart the that is now unmasked (cf. Jer 9:7). , used of an official adjudication, as in Hos 9:14; Jer 32:19. The epanaphora of is like Psa 27:14.
(Note: This repetition, at the end, of a significant word that has been used at the beginning of a verse, is a favourite custom of Isaiah’s ( Comment. S. 387; transl. ii. 134).)
The phrase ( ) , which occurs frequently in the prophets, signifies to recompense or repay to any one his accomplishing, his manifestation, that is to say, what he has done and merited; the thoughts and expression call to mind more particularly Isa 3:8-11; Isa 1:16. The right to pray for recompense (vengeance) is grounded, in Psa 28:5, upon their blindness to God’s just and merciful rule as it is to be seen in human history (cf. Isa 5:12; Isa 22:11). The contrast of and , to pull down (with a personal object, as in Exo 15:7), is like Jeremiah’s style (Psa 42:10, cf. 1:10; Psa 18:9, and frequently, Sir. 49:7). In Psa 28:5, the prominent thought in David’s mind is, that they shamefully fail to recognise how gloriously and graciously God has again and again acknowledged him as His anointed one. He has (2 Sam 7) received the promise, that God would build him a house, i.e., grant perpetual continuance to his kingship. The Absolomites are in the act of rebellion against this divine appointment. Hence they shall experience the very reverse of the divine promise given to David: Jahve will pull them down and not build them up, He will destroy, at its very commencement, this dynasty set up in opposition to God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Prayer for Deliverance. | |
A psalm of David.
1 Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. 4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. 5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
In these verses David is very earnest in prayer.
I. He prays that God would graciously hear and answer him, now that, in his distress, he called upon him, Psa 28:1; Psa 28:2. Observe his faith in prayer: O Lord, my rock, denoting his belief of God’s power (he is a rock) and his dependence upon that power–“He is my rock, on whom I build my hope.” Observe his fervency in prayer: “To thee will I cry, as one in earnest, being ready to sink, unless thou come in with seasonable succour.” And observe how solicitous he is to obtain an answer: “Be not silent to me, as one angry at my prayers, Ps. lxxx. 4. Lord, speak to me, answer me with good words and comfortable words (Zech. i. 13); though the thing I pray for has not been given me, yet let God speak to me joy and gladness, and make me to hear them. Lord, speak for me, in answer to my prayers, plead my cause, command deliverances for me, and thus hear and answer the voice of my supplications.” Two things he pleads:– 1. The sad despair he should be in if God slighted him: “If thou be silent to me, and I have not the tokens of thy favour, I am like those that go down into the pit (that is, I am a dead man, lost and undone); if God be not my friend, appear not to me and appear not for me, my hope and my help will have perished.” Nothing can be so cutting, so killing, to a gracious soul, as the want of God’s favour and the sense of his displeasure. I shall be like those that go down to hell (so some understand it); for what is the misery of the damned but this, that God is ever silent to them and deaf to their cry? Those are in some measure qualified for God’s favour, and may expect it, who are thus possessed with a dread of his wrath, and to whom his frowns are worse than death. 2. The good hopes he had that God would favour him: I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle, which denotes, not only an earnest desire, but an earnest expectation, thence to receive an answer of peace. The most holy place within the veil is here, as elsewhere, called the oracle; there the ark and the mercy-seat were, there God was said to dwell between the cherubim, and thence he spoke to his people, Num. vii. 89. That was a type of Christ, and it is to him that we must lift up our eyes and hands, for through him all good comes from God to us. It was also a figure of heaven (Heb. ix. 24); and from God as our Father in heaven we are taught to expect an answer to our prayers. The scriptures are called the oracles of God, and to them we must have an eye in our prayers and expectations. There is the word on which God hath caused and encouraged us to hope.
II. He deprecates the doom of wicked people, as before (Ps. xxvi. 9, “Gather not my soul with sinners): Lord, I attend thy holy oracle, draw me not away from that with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity,” v. 3. 1. “Save me from being entangled in the snares they have laid for me. They flatter and cajole me, and speak peace to me; but they have a design upon me, for mischief is in their heart; they aim to disturb me, nay, to destroy me. Lord, suffer me not to be drawn away and ruined by their cursed plots; for they have, can have, no power, no success, against me, except it be given them from above.” 2. “Save me from being infected with their sins and from doing as they do. Let me not be drawn away by their fallacious arguments, or their allurements, from the holy oracle (where I desire to dwell all the days of my life), to practise any wicked works;” see Ps. cxli. 4. “Lord, never leave me to myself, to use such arts of deceit and treachery for my safety as they use to my ruin. Let no event of Providence be an invincible temptation to me, to draw me either into the imitation or into the interest of wicked people.” Good men dread the way of sinners; the best are sensible of the danger they are in of being drawn aside into it; and therefore we should all pray earnestly to God for his grace to keep us in our integrity. 3. “Save me from being involved in their doom; let me not be led forth with the workers of iniquity, for I am not one of those that speak peace while war is in their hearts.” Note, Those that are careful not to partake with sinners in their sins have reason to hope that they shall not partake with them in their plagues, Rev. xviii. 4.
III. He imprecates the just judgments of God upon the workers of iniquity (v. 4): Give them according to their deeds. This is not the language of passion or revenge, nor is it inconsistent with the duty of praying for our enemies. But, 1. Thus he would show how far he was from complying with the workers of iniquity, and with what good reason he had begged not to be drawn away with them, because he was convinced that they could not be made more miserable then to be dealt with according to their deeds. 2. Thus he would express his zeal for the honour of God’s justice in the governing world. “Lord, they think all well that they do, and justify themselves in their wicked practices. Lord, give them after the work of their hands, and so undeceive those about them, who think there is no harm in what they do because it goes unpunished,” Psa 94:1; Psa 94:2. 3. This prayer is a prophecy that God will, sooner or later, render to all impenitent sinners according to their deserts. If what has been done amiss be not undone by repentance, there will certainly come a reckoning day, when God will render to every man who persists in his evil deeds according to them. It is a prophecy particularly of the destruction of destroyers: “They speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts; Lord, give them according to their deeds, let the spoilers be spoiled, and let those be treacherously dealt with who have thus dealt treacherously;” see Isa 33:1; Rev 18:6; Rev 13:10. Observe, He foretels that God will reward them, not only according to their deed, but according to the wickedness of their endeavours; for sinners shall be reckoned with, not only for the mischief they have done, but for the mischief they would have done, which they designed, and did what they could to effect. And, if God go by this rule in dealing with the wicked, surely he will do so in dealing with the righteous, and will reward them, not only for the good they have done, but for the good they have endeavoured to do, though they could not accomplish it.
IV. He foretels their destruction for their contempt of God and his hand (v. 5): “Because they regard not the works of the Lord and the operations of his hands, by which he manifests himself and speaks to the children of men, he will destroy them in this world and in the other, and not build them up.” Note, A stupid regardlessness of the works of God is the cause of their ruin. Why do men question the being or attributes of God, but because they do not duly regard his handiworks, which declare his glory, and in which the invisible things of him are clearly seen? Why do men forget God, and live without him, nay, affront God, and live in rebellion against him, but because they consider not the instances of that wrath of his which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? Why do the enemies of God’s people hate and persecute them, and devise mischief against them, but because they regard not the works God has wrought for his church, by which he has made it appear how dear it is to him? See Isa. v. 12.
In singing this we must arm ourselves against all temptations to join with the workers of iniquity, and animate ourselves against all the troubles we may be threatened with by the workers of iniquity.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 28
DAVID’S STRENGTH AT ABSALOMS REBELLION
Verses 1-9.
Verse 1 is a direct Davidic cry -to the Lord as his rock of immovable faithfulness or trust, Psa 18:2; Psa 19:14. He asks that the Lord be not silent or deaf to his petition, or silent, still, or unresponsive to his plea, lest without His help he would go down into the pit, fail of life, go into the reign of death, Isa 14:15; Isa 14:19; Psa 30:3.
Verse 2 continues to beseech the Lord to give attentive response to the vocal cry of David’s supplication, as he lifted up his hands toward His holy oracles, for supernatural help, from the most holy part of the tabernacle or temple, 1Ki 6:16-19. From there God responded first to Moses, later through the high priests, Exo 25:22; Num 7:8-9. See also Exo 9:29; 1Ti 2:8. As the whole tabernacle was the holy place for all the people, where God met all Israel, so the innermost chamber was His audience chamber, Exo 33:7; Psa 138:2.
Verse 3 asks that the Lord not permit him to be drawn away with the wicked and continual workers of iniquity, as one entrapped and drawn away in a net, Psa 26:9. He did not want to be consigned to the common destruction of and with the wicked, Job 21:33; Job 24:22; Eze 32:2; Psa 10:9; Gen 18:23. This wickedness was that of hypocritical dissemblers (trouble makers) who whispered peace to their neighbors but held destructive mischief in their hearts, like Absalom and his band, 2Sa 15:7-8; Psa 15:3.
Verse 4 is an imprecatory prayer that the Lord may grant these hypocrites judgment in harmony with, to the degree of, their premeditated murderous deeds, as they had plotted against him and others who were innocent, Mat 7:2; See the Haman case, Ezr 7:10. He desired that God vindicate him by rendering judgment-in-kind to his enemies, 2Ti 4:14; Rev 18:6; Gal 6:7-8.
Verse 5 adds that these ungodly traitors of David. Israel and God should be and would be destroyed, not built up; Because they had no regard for (respect for) the “works of the Lord” or “operation of his hands.” David prayed only for the kind of justice that God’s righteousness requires He execute upon those who despised His word and ways, as expressed Job 34:27; Psa 92:5-6; Isa 5:12; Rom 2:4-9; 2Th 1:7-9.
Verse 6 praises the Lord because He has heard the voice o’ David’s supplication, as in his prayer v.2. Note the inseparable connection between a proper prayer of faith and the certain answer, 1Jn 5:14.
Verse 7 continues the testimony of David that the Lord is (exists as) his strength and shield, as often stated Psa 18:2; Psa 19:14; Psa 46:1; Isa 12:2; Isa 45:24; Eph 6:10; he added that his heart trusted or confided in the Lord and he Was helped. Therefore he greatly rejoiced in heart, and praised the Lord in song for His help, protection and deliverance, Psa 13:5; Psa 22:4; Psa 32:10; Psa 56:3-4; Heb 11:39.
Verse 8 states that the Lord is the strength of the trusting soul, the saving, delivering strength of His anointed, David, His anointed King, and Israel His anointed nation, Pro 5:3-5. He is also the strength of His anointed and empowered church and people today, Act 1:8; Act 2:1-2; Luk 24:49; Joh 14:16-17. In saving His anointed king in Israel He was also saving His people over whom He had anointed David, Psa 18:50. It is also true that in saving our Lord from death and the grave our God preserved His New Covenant order of service and worship, even His church. Mat 16:18; Mat 28:18-20; Eph 3:21.
Verse 9 concludes “save thy people and bless thine inheritance,” even Israel, Deu 9:29; he asked the Lord to feed (or rule) them also and “lift them up forever,” in honor, on high, far above their enemies. Such would be to fulfill His promise as set forth, 2Sa 7:16; 2Sa 7:29; Ezr 3:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Unto thee, O Jehovah! will I cry. The Psalmist begins by declaring that he would betake himself to the help of God alone, which shows both his faith and his sincerity. Although men labor every where under a multitude of troubles, yet scarcely one in a hundred ever has recourse to God. Almost all having their consciences burdened with guilt, and having never experienced the power of divine grace which might lead them to betake themselves to it, either proudly gnaw the bit or fill the air with unavailing complaints, or, giving way to desperation, faint under their afflictions. By calling God his strength, David more fully shows that he confided in God’s assistance, not only when he was in the shade and in peace, but also when he was exposed to the severest temptations. In comparing himself to the dead, too, he intimates how great his straits were, although his object was not merely to point out the magnitude of his danger, but also to show that when he needed succor, he looked not here and there for it, but relied on God alone, without whose favor there remained no hope for him. It is, therefore, as if he had said, I am nothing if thou leavest me; if thou succourest me not, I perish. It is not enough for one who is in such a state of affliction to be sensible of his misery, unless, convinced of his inability to help himself, and renouncing all help from the world, he betake himself to God alone. And as the Scriptures inform us that God answers true believers when he shows by his operations that he regards their supplications, so the word silent is set in opposition to the sensible and present experience of his aid, when he appears, as it were, not to hear their prayers.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MESSIANIC SECTION
Psalms 26-31
IN the treatment of the chapters here named, we call attention to the unity of thought that binds them together. They are called, in the King James version, Psalms of David. The subject, however, of these Psalms is one and the same, namely, the Lord. That accounts for the fact that His Name appears in the first verse of each Psa 26:1, Judge me, O Lord; Psa 27:1, The Lord is my light and my salvation; Psa 28:1, Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord, my Rock; Psa 29:1, Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength; Psa 30:1, I will extol Thee, O Lord; Psa 31:1, In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.
Paradoxical as it may sound, the appeal is to the Lord, and the prophetical element looks also to the same Lord.
First, we have His Personal Integrity discussed, then His Perfect Trust, and finally, His Psalms of Praise.
HIS PERSONAL INTEGRITY
The subject of these Psalms seeks Gods judgment.
Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
For Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in Thy truth (Psa 26:1-3).
But this could hardly be David, for this language is necessarily Messianic. If it referred to David, it would poorly comport with the 51st Psalm, for instance. Job, the righteous man as he was, when he faced God had to forfeit his egoism, and, facing his own sinfulness, say, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6).
There has lived but one Man who could truthfully utter the above sentences, for the Man of Nazareth is the only Man that ever walked in His integrity, fully trusting in the Lord, and did not slide; the only Man who could be proved and tried, and by keeping Gods loving kindness before His eyes, walk in Gods truth. Of all others, these statements, if applied at all, would have to be qualified.
So the Psalmist anticipated the Christ, and spoke what the Spirit gave him concerning the coming One.
He disfellowships sinners.
I have not sat with vain persons; neither will I go in with dissemblers.
I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord:
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Thy wondrous works? (Psa 26:4-7).
Here again it stands alone. If one remind us that Christ was the Friend of sinners, we answer yes, that He was with them, but we still insist that He never participated in their spirit nor indulged their thoughts or ways. That was not true of David, but it was true of Davids greater Son.
He delighted in Gods house.
Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth.
Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.
But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.
My foot standeth in an even place: In the congregations will I bless the Lord (Psa 26:8-12).
Here again is the truth of the Lord. How many times He was found in the sanctuary on the Sabbath! How sacredly did He esteem that place! What pleasure He took in it, and with what jealousy He guarded it! Who will ever forget the day when He scourged sinners from the synagogue, because in their hands was mischief and in their right hands bribes? And who can forget how, while His feet stood in that very place, He honored God before the congregation?
Passing to the 27th chapter, note
HIS PERFECT TRUST
He knew Gods sufficiency.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple (Psa 27:1-4).
Was this boast made good by Jesus? Did He never reveal any fear? Did He never quail before His foes? Did His confidence stand Him always instead? Did the face of the Father always shine for Him? There seems to have been a brief time of exception. That was when on Calvarys Cross, He cried, My God; my God; why hast Thou forsaken Me? That moment compared unfavorably with His courage in Gethsemane, when at the sight of His face, the enemies and foes stumbled, fell, and fled; unfavorably with His courage when He faced the host that had come out against Him; unfavorably with that same courage when they were effecting a farce of trial.
We have a statement concerning the English language that the exception proves the rule. This exception, however, was not to that end, but rather that He might taste death for every man; that He might be tried in all points as we are; and as Joseph Parker put it, that for one brief moment He might know the meaning of infidelity and even atheism, and consequently how to sympathize with and succor those who should be badgered by unbelief.
He trusted in Gods strength.
For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I mil sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, mil I seek.
Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up (Psa 27:5-10).
There is a clear indication in this text that David foresaw the Lord whose time of trouble should come; whose hour of darkness should hang with heaviness; whose anguish cry, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?? would necessitate mercy toward even the sinless one; so that the face hidden from Him because the sins of man rested upon Him, should not continue to be clouded, but brighten again, and prove that the Father had not forsaken Him; and that when all earthly friends and even the relatives of the flesh had fled or become the subjects of infidelity, then the Lord would take Him up.
In all of these respects, the Saviour has marked the path for the saint. It is not probable that His people will pass through life without times of trouble, without the sight of multiplied enemies; without the necessity of mercy; without the blindness of momentary or even more prolonged unbelief; without the sense of desertion on the part of friends and kindred. How good to know that, in it all, He has been before!
He asks for assistance.
Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and had me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle.
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them, and not build them up.
Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications.
The Lord is my strength, and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him.
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 (Psa 27:11 to Psa 28:9).
It was Christ who said that man ought always to pray and not to faint. His example and His precept are always in accord. It was Christ who prayed often. How sacred an example! If He, who knew all things, looked to the Father for all needful help, how wicked and unwise is the prayerlessness of man and how inexcusable the intermittent appeals of professed saints! It is little wonder that we fall into the power of enemies; that we are defamed by false witnesses; that we are breathed upon by cruelty; that we faint in the way; that we go down into the pit; that we are drawn away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity. When we forget the great truth that the Lord hears the voice of supplication and is our strength, our shield, our help, how much we need to pray again even in the language of the text itself, Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever (Psa 28:9).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
Hitsig and others have assigned this psalm to Jeremiah, but there does not seem to be thy sufficient reason for questioning the traditional title which gives it to David. It may have been composed before he became king in Jerusalem, or at the time of Absaloms rebellion. It consists of two divisions. After earnestly entreating audience (Psa. 28:1-2), the psalmist prays that he may not be confounded with the wicked in their just punishment (Psa. 28:3-5). He then gives thanks for anticipated deliverance, and ends with a catholic prayer for the blessing of God upon all His people (Psa. 28:6-9). There are points of resemblance between this psalm and the two preceding.
THE INSTINCTS OF THE HEART
This psalm may be held to express the deepest feelings of the heart.
I. The sense of dependence upon God (Psa. 28:1). This cry is common. It expresses dependence. It is founded on the relation of the soul to God. The creature cries to the Creator, the subject cries to the sovereign, the sinner cries to the Saviour. In want and peril; when burdened with sorrow, and when bowed to the dust under the sense of sin and the fear of death, the soul instinctively, turns to God for relief.
My Rock (cf. Psa. 18:2; Psa. 31:2; Psa. 42:9). There is everything in God to meet the needs of His people. If they are weak, with Him is everlasting strength. If all things under the sun are liable to change, He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How sweet it is to say unto God my Rock. This gives confidence in life and in death. Said a dying saint (the Rev. John Rees), Christ in His person, Christ in the love of His heart, and Christ in the power of His arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now (reclining his head gently on the pillow), Death, strike.
II. Craving for fellowship with God.
The more we love a friend, the more strongly we seek his presence, and the more deeply do we deplore his estrangement and silence.
Here,
1. Gods silence is deprecated as the greatest evil. Many feel no concern whether their prayers are heard or not. Mere formalists. Not so the psalmist. For God to be silent to him, was terrible. It left him without resource and hope; it seemed the closing in upon him of the blackness of darkness, of the grave or of hell. He shrinks from such a doom, as an unspeakable horror. Hence his passionate cry, Be not silent to me, &c. (the pit cf. Psa. 22:29; Psa. 30:3; Isa. 14:19, Eze. 26:20).
2. Gods fellowship sought as the greatest good (Psa. 28:2). Humbly. The lifting up of the hands is the symbolism of prayer (Exo. 9:29, 1Ki. 8:22). It expresses the desire of the humble, the reaching forth of the heart to God. Earnestly. The earnestness of the cry is to be measured, not only by the greatness of the peril which is threatened, but by the faith which cleaves to God, knowing that in Him only is there help.Perowne. When I cry, that is now, at once, while I am speaking. Importunately. It is a matter of life and death. Supplications. This word, being in the plural, shows the persistence and constancy of the good in prayer. Through faith in the mercy of God. Holy Oracle, This is the Holy of Holies, where the mercy seat stood; for the Oracle is, in Hebrew, the spot where Jehovah spoke to men, referring probably to His promise in Exo. 25:22, There will I meet thee, and commune with thee.Bonar. To this, as the depositary of the ark and the earthly residence of God, the ancient saints looked, as we look now to Christ, in whom the idea of the Mosaic sanctuary has been realised.Alexander. We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy-seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells.Spurgeon. Gods fellowship is the life and joy of the soul. We want, not so much what He gives, as Himself.
III. Confidence in the eternal justice of God. This world is not left to chance, or blind fate, or mere arbitrary will. It is governed by a power that maketh for righteousness. This has been the faith of the good in all ages.
If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness,
And earths base built on stubble.Milton.
Hence, there is room for prayer (Psa. 28:3-5). First, deliverance is sought from the doom of the wicked. Draw me not away, i.e., to destruction with them (Exo. 32:20; Job. 24:22; Psa. 26:9). The wicked, the workers of iniquity, and the deceivers, are three terms for the unrighteous, referring to the heart, the hand, and the tongue.Murphy. The good man shrinks from such company. He appeals confidently to God, not to confound the just with the unjust. Next, Retribution is craved (Psa. 28:4). This implies their obstinate impenitency. Reason, conscience, and revelation proclaim that for such there can be no escape. There may be delay, there may be seeming inequality and failure, but retribution must come in the end, to the uttermost. The faith of the psalmist rises to prophetic certainty. There is nothing of mere human passion and animosity. The reason why Gods judgments should overtake the wicked, is not their malice against the psalmist, but their disregard of the Most High.Perowne.
IV. Gratitude for the Goodness of God. Prayer leads to praise. The full heart bursts into song. Blessed be the Lord! For answered prayers (Psa. 28:6). Perhaps the very thing asked was granted, or something better given instead. Answered prayers demand acknowledgment. For assistance in time of need (Psa. 28:7). My strength, internal. My shield, external. The former includes all needful grace to enlighten, renew, and sanctify. The latter implies help and defence against every foe. How complete is the security of the people of God!
For assurance of hope. The certainty that prayer is heard anticipates visible fulfilment.Perowne. My heart trusteth in Him. This flows from the strength, and wins the shield. Twice over he says my heart, not only showing the sincerity, but the strength and intensity of his gratitude. With (lit. out of) my song, the song being, as it were, the source and the occasion of his praise (Psa. 22:25). He who enjoys aught without thanksgiving, is as though he robbed God.Talmud.
V. Exulting Joy in the Saving Strength of God (Psa. 28:8). Every believer is, like Paul, a pattern. What God does for one, He is able to do for all. The attention is fixed upon Him as an Almighty and All-Merciful Saviour. The Lord is their strength, i.e., of yonder ones, of such as possess the character already described (cf. Psa. 119:9-11; Isa. 33:2).
He is the saving strength of His anointed. First the people, then Himself their monarch, but not David the man, but David the king as anointed of God, and chosen to feed His people.Perowne. Strength that is rightly used, to help and not to oppress, to save and not to destroy, commands admiration. Here is the glory of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. Christ came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
VI. Trust in the ultimate triumph and blessedness of Gods people (Psa. 28:9). It is impossible not to see, in these tender loving words, feed them, and bear them, the heart of the Shepherd-King. Feed them, O Thou true Shepherd of Israel (Psa. 80:1); bear them, carry them in Thine arms (Isa. 63:9; Isa. 40:11). Perhaps the reference may be to Deu. 1:31; Deu. 32:11.Perowne.
Mark, as to the good.
1. Their character. Thy people.
2. Their privilege. Thine inheritance (Deu. 4:20; Eph. 1:16).
3. Their destiny. Save from sin. Bless with the fruits of righteousness. Feed with the bread of life. Lift with the arm of the Lord to the dignity and blessedness of heaven. This prayer breathes throughout the most Catholic spirit. It is akin to that of Paul (Eph. 3:14-19).
This prayer expresses also the most delightful confidence. It looks to the future with hope. It sees a good time coming, and is glad, with foretaste of the joy. What an inspiration to all who pray and work.
Ah! when shall all mens good
Be each mans rule, and universal peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro all the circle of the golden year.
Tennyson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 28
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Prayer Turned into Praise.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 28:1-2, Prayer Boldly Pleads the Feared Result of Refusal to Answer. Stanza II., Psa. 28:3-4 (with addition, Psa. 28:5), Depicts the Character of the Lawless, and Imprecates their Punishment. Stanza III., Psa. 28:6-8, Praise for Deliverance. Refrain, Psa. 28:9, Invokes Jehovahs Blessing on his People.
(Lm.) By David.
1
Unto thee I call my Rock[283]
[283] M.T. adds: Jehovah.
do not turn silently from me;
Lest if thou turn silently from me
I be likened with them who are going down to the pit.
2
Hear the voice of my supplication
as I cry for help unto thee,
As I lift up my hands (O my God)[284]
[284] Not in M.T.
unto thy holy shrine.[285]
[285] ChancelDr.
3
Do not drag me away with the lawless
and with workers of iniquity,[286]
[286] NaughtinessDr.
Who are speaking peace with their neighbours
while wrong is in their heart.
4
Give them according to their deed
and according to the evil of their doings;
According to the work of their hands give them
bring back their dealings to themselves.
5
Because they heed not the deeds of Jehovah
nor the work[287] of his hands[288]
[287] Some cod. (w. Aram., Sep., Vul.): works (pl.)Gn.
[288] Cp. Isa. 5:12.
he will put them down and not build them.
6
Blessed be Jehovah
because he hath heard the voice of my supplication:
7
Jehovah my strength and my shield
in whom hath trusted my heart,
Since I have found help and my heart hath exulted
with my song will I thank him:
8
Jehovah a strength to his people[289]
[289] So it shd. beG. Intro., 143. And so it is in some cod. (w. Sep., Syr., Vul.). Cp. Psa. 29:11Gn.
and the all-saving stronghold[290] of his Anointed one is he!
[290] Ml.: the stronghold of the salvations (=great salvation, pl. intensive).
9
Oh save thy people and bless thine inheritance,
and shepherd them and carry them unto the ages![291]
[291] Ml.: unto the age: Heb. adh-ha olam.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 28
I plead with You to help me, Lord, for You are my Rock of safety. If you refuse to answer me, I might as well give up and die.
2 Lord, I lift my hands to heaven[292] and implore Your help. Oh, listen to my cry.
[292] Literally, Your innermost shrine, i.e., the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle.
3 Dont punish me with all the wicked ones who speak so sweetly to their neighbors while planning to murder them.
4 Give them the punishment they so richly deserve! Measure it out to them in proportion to their wickedness; pay them back for all their evil deeds.
5 They care nothing for God or what He has done or what He has made; therefore God will dismantle them like old buildings, never to be rebuilt again.
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6 Oh, praise the Lord, for He has listened to my pleadings!
7 He is my strength, my shield from every danger. I trusted in Him, and He helped me! Joy rises in my heart until I burst out in songs of praise to Him.
8 The Lord protects His people and gives victory to His anointed king.
9 Defend Your people, Lord; defend and bless Your chosen ones. Lead them like a shepherd and carry them forever in Your arms.
EXPOSITION
In this psalm prayer is prolonged; but praise, when it comes, is pronounced. The prayer is prompted by some unnamed peril, the continuance of which, it is feared, will cause death. We are struck with the terms in which the prayer is couched. God is so addressed by the term Rock as to make of this word a proper name, inasmuch as the figure of a rock as such disappears, since an entreaty to a rock to turn or not to turn is incongruous: thus showing that the application of the term to Jehovah has become so familiar that the appropriate imagery is forgotten. The Becoming One ( = Jehovah) is the Abiding One, the Changeless One (the Rock): the conception of immutability being retained, all else is let go. The Changeless in nature, is thought of as changing in attitude: turning towards in favour, ready to answer prayer; or turning away in silence, leaving the suppliants mind in painful suspense. The feeling for the personality of Jehovah is intense; and the sense of nearness to him is so vivid as to induce great boldness in supplication. The impression of this made by the first stanza is deep. Before leaving this stanza, we may recall the fact that the name Rock, is a favourite name for Jehovah, is found in Psalms closely bound up with Davids name; e.g. Psa. 18:2; Psa. 18:31; Psa. 18:46; Debir for shrine, as used of the holy of holies, is more closely associated with the Temple of Solomon (1Ki. 6:5 and onwards) than with the holy tent of Davids own day; but as names are often carried backwards it would be trifling to make of this an argument against the Davidic joint-authorship of this psalm. It is wonderful, however, to note how much Hezekiah found in David suited to his own case; and then further how brightly the image of Hezekiah himself is wont to shine out in the close of the psalms. There is, indeed, nothing in the third stanza (Psa. 28:6-8) which David could not have used; but a sense of enhanced fitness greets a reference to the unparalleled experience of the later monarch. At Psa. 28:6 Hezekiah adds his experience (cp. Isa. 38:10-20)Thirtle, O.T.P., 316.
With the reference to the lawless in Psa. 28:3, Psa. 9:17 and the note on lawless in Psa. 1:1 may be usefully compared.
The imprecations of Psa. 28:4-5 may serve to remind us of the instinctive passion with which injured human nature turns to the vindicatory righteousness of God (Intro., Chap. III., Righteousness); and that it is only in the strength of the highest manifestation of the Messianic Spirit that we can hope victoriously to exclaim, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. At the same time all persecutors would do well to beware of the Divine indignation which may necessarily alight on them in order that Jehovah may save his people, bless his inheritanceshepherd them also and carry them unto the ages.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
The Lord is our rockspecify two or three comparisons of Jehovah to a rock.
2.
If God is a loving Father, why is it necessary to plead with Him to do what we know He must do? Discuss.
3.
Vindictiveness seems to be a part of this psalmand of several othershow shall we understand this? There is an explanationDiscuss.
4.
Read these eight points of thought by W. G. Scroggie on the subject of The Imprecatory Psalms(p. 317 in PSALMS).
IMPRECATION is the invoking of evil upon others. Imprecations are found in a number of brief utterances, as in Psa. 40:14-16; Psa. 63:9; Psa. 104:35;Psa. 143:12; but statements of some length are found in Psa. 35:1-8; Psa. 35:26; Psa. 59:11-15; 59:2228; Psa. 109:6-20; and Psa. 139:19-22. These anathemas constitute a major moral problem, and, obviously, are contrary to the spirit of the New Testament (Mat. 5:43-48; Luk. 23:34; Act. 7:60). Such imprecations cannot be regarded
1
as referring, not to individuals, but to the moral enemies of the soul.(ARNOLD).
2
as predictions of a future yet to come, when all the unrepentant wicked shall be punished.(HORNE).
3
as curses, not of the Psalmist, but of his enemies; by supplying, for example, the word saying at the end of Psa. 109:5.
Towards an understanding of this problem the following points should be considered.
1
The writers lived in the dispensation of Law and not of Grace (Joh. 1:17).
2
The intense provocation to which the sufferers were subjected.
3
The utterances need not be regarded as expressions of personal vindictiveness.
4
The belief that Israels enemies were Gods enemies (Psa. 139:21-22).
5
The sharp distinction which we draw between the sinner and his sin, was not recognized by the Hebrews; they regarded them as identical.
6
The imprecations disclose a zeal for righteousness.
7
The unit of old was the family, not the individual, so that a mans fate was the fate of his family (Psa. 109:9-13).
8
The belief that the righteous must be rewarded and the wicked punished in this life, for there was then no revelation of a final Judgment.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) My rock.Heb., tsr, from a root implying bind together (Deu. 14:25), not necessarily therefore with sense of height, but with that of strength and solidity. Thus Tyre (or Tsr) is built on a broad shelf of rock. We see from Deu. 32:30-31; 1Sa. 2:2, that rock was a common metaphor for a tutelary deity, and it is adopted frequently for Jehovah in the Psalms and poetical books. Sometimes in the Authorised Version it is rendered strong (Psa. 60:9; Psa. 71:3; see margin). The LXX. (followed by Vulg.) here, as generally, apparently through timidity, suppresses the metaphor, and renders my God. In the song of Moses in Deuteronomy, the metaphor occurs nine times, and Stanley thinks it was derived from the granite peaks of Sinai (Jewish Church, p. 195).
Be not silent to me.Vulg. and margin, rightly, from me. The word rendered silent appears, like in Greek, to have the double meaning of deaf and dumb, and is apparently from an analogous derivation. (See Gesenius, Lex., sub voce.) Hence we might render, turn not a deaf ear to me, or turn not from me in silence.
Them that go down into the piti.e., the dead, or those just about to die (Psa. 30:3). In Psa. 88:4, the expression is parallel to My life draweth nigh unto the grave; pit (br) is either the sepulchre (as Isa. 14:19), or the world of the dead (Psa. 88:4). The two significations pass one into the other. This expression suggests that the psalmist was on a bed of sickness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. My rock My protection, defence, Deu 32:8. The Hebrew punctuation would make this the beginning of the second line thus:
Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call;
O my Rock, be not silent from me.
Silent to me Silent from me; that is, do not turn from me in silence.
Pit The grave, as Pro 28:17; Isa 38:18
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Psalmist Earnestly Calls On God To Hear His Prayer ( Psa 28:1-3 ).
In each of these two verses the ideas fall into an abbc pattern, with each central idea then being repeated in another form. Note the contrast between the two verses. In the first the Psalmist wishes to avoid what to him is virtually a living death, a silent YHWH. In the other He joyously looks to the living God within the inner Sanctuary, in full anticipation of response. Woe be to us also if God is silent in our lives.
But there is a great deal of difference between God being silent, and our having to go through the valley of thick darkness trusting God along the way (Psa 23:4). Sometimes we have to learn to trust God in the dark. It is not then that God is being silent, but that He is teaching us to trust Him even when the lights are off. We must not think that our spiritual lives are dependent on our feelings. They are dependent on the gracious activity of God. So even when our feelings are at a low point, we must continue to look to Him with trust and confidence. ‘In returning and rest you will be saved, in quietness and in confidence will be your strength’ (Isa 30:15). The valley will not turn out to be endless, and we will emerge from it the stronger.
Psa 28:1
‘To you, O YHWH, will I call,
O my rock, do not be deaf to me,
Lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down into the pit.’
He commences by calling on YHWH as his Rock. The idea of YHWH as a Rock is common in Scripture, especially as the rock on which we are founded so that nothing can move us (Psa 18:2; Psa 18:31; Psa 18:46; Psa 27:5; and often; Deu 32:4; Deu 32:18; 2Sa 22:2-3; 2Sa 22:32; 2Sa 22:47; 2Sa 23:3; etc), and therefore as the source of our strength. He is regularly described as the Rock of our salvation, and this is often connected with the idea of an impregnable fortress. It is in this Rock that we must put our confidence. What we have to do is ensure that we are ‘in Him’. And then we will be secure.
This idea of the Rock on which we are built is then also applied to Jesus Christ, where He describes Himself as the chief cornerstone of His church (Mar 12:10). Those who are founded on Him, and what He has done for them on the cross, and through the resurrection, will withstand every earthquake shock (1Co 3:11). Nothing will move them for they are founded on a rock.
For the rock in which we can find shelter from all that would get us down see Isa 32:2. For we must not only be founded on Him, but ‘in Him’. We must recognise that ‘we’ are dead and that our lives are hid with Christ in God (Col 3:3).
Note his fear that his Rock, even YHWH, may be deaf to him, and be silent towards him when he prays, for in his eyes that would simply result in a living death. To go down into the Pit is to enter Sheol, the grave world (compare Psa 88:3-4; Psa 143:7). It is the world of those who do not hear YHWH. And to him the thought of being out of touch with YHWH is unbearable. It would be like joining the living dead. And the test of that is not our feelings. It is the test of the genuineness of our hearts towards Him. 28:2
‘Hear the voice of my supplications,
When I cry to you,
When I lift up my hands,
Towards the innermost place in your sanctuary.’
But the thoughts of his heart are actually in a far different direction. They are directed towards the inner sanctuary in which is the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH, the earthly throne of the heavenly King, and it is to there that he cries out and lifts up his hands in prayer (a regular way of praying, compare Psa 63:4; 1Ti 2:8). And even while he does this he is aware that he is speaking to the One Whom even the heaven of heavens cannot contain (1Ki 8:27).
For us there is an even greater privilege, for our Lord Jesus Christ has made a way for us into God’s very presence, a new and living way established through Himself and the offering of Himself on our behalf, and we can ever therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, (the throne from which God reveals His compassion and lovingkindness) where we can obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 10:19; Heb 4:16)
Psa 28:3-5
He Prays That He Might Not Be Counted Among Those Who Go Astray After Their Own Ways ( Psa 28:3-5 ).
But those who would enter His presence and walk with Him, must also be careful of the company they keep (compare 1Co 5:11). And he especially has in mind here those who pretend to be one thing, while all the time having the intention in their hearts to be very different. On the one hand they speak peace with their neighbours, but on the other their intentions towards them are not for their good. And this is because they have no concern for YHWH and His works and ways. They are not out to love their neighbours as themselves, but rather to squeeze out of their neighbours as much as they can. They are selfish and concerned only for their own good.
But the problem with enjoying such company will be that we enjoy also their end when they receive their final deserts. And they will be broken down, rather than being built up.
Psa 28:3
‘Do not draw me away with the wicked,
And with the workers of iniquity,
Who speak peace with their neighbours,
But mischief is in their hearts.’
So the Psalmist does not want to be counted among those who are deliberately misleading or downright dishonest, those who are ‘workers of iniquity’, while all the time putting on the appearance of being the opposite. He does not want to, as it were, be arrested along with them and dragged off for sentence (‘drawn away’). For he does not approve of their ways. This is a warning that we should consider people’s motives and well as their outward actions before we involve ourselves with them. How easy it is to be led astray by those who outwardly appear only to be concerned for what is good, while having a hidden agenda in their hearts.
In this verse we have parallel ideas in the first two lines, the wicked and the workers of iniquity, followed by a contrast which is in a sense a test. They speak peace with their neighbours while their intention towards them is very different. Like him therefore we must always consider the genuineness of our thoughts and actions. We must ensure that our hearts are true.
Psa 28:4
‘Give them according to their work,
And according to the wickedness of their doings.’
Give them after the operation of their hands,
Render to them their desert.’
The Psalmist wants to have no time for such people. He agrees that they should receive their full deserts because of the ways in which they behave. Here we have an abba pattern. Centrally their doings are wicked, as are the operations of their hands, ideas which are contained within the envelope of giving them according to their works, and rendering to them what they deserve.
If we see this as harsh we must remember that these words are on the mouth of one who has been called to act as a judge in Israel. He has a responsibility for law and order. Thus it is a cry that God will enable him to ensure sound justice without fear or favour, and to remove criminals from the streets, while at the same time ensuring that he only gives them what they deserve. He is aware that he must ever remember that he is acting on behalf of God.
Psa 28:5
‘Because they do not regard the works of YHWH,
Nor the operation of his hands,
He will break them down,
And not build them up.’
In the end their behaviour is the result of the fact that they have no concern for YHWH, and are not interested in His doings. They are like the fool who says in his heart, ‘there is no God’ (Psa 14:1). And the result will be that they will be dismantled rather than being built up. Their lives will come to nothing. Note the contrast with Psa 28:4. The operation of their hands is precisely because they do not take notice of the operation of His hands. Their doings are wicked because they ignore His works. We can compare here Isa 1:16, ‘put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well ’. It is not that God has not given them a chance to repent. If they are willing to do so there is always a way back.
Note also the impact of the illustration taken from the idea of pulling down and erecting buildings. They have had no interest in what God is achieving, and act contrary to it, and so, although they may stand proud for a time, He will dismantle them and whatever they are achieving, for it is contrary to His ways. Rather than building them up and making them eternally useful, he will bring them crashing down. In the end their lives will count for nothing. Compare Psa 73:17, ‘until — I considered their latter end’. Many a building stands proud, tall and immovable, until the arrival of the demolition squad. We should look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2Co 4:18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 28
Theme – The Lord YHWH hears our cries when we pray, and He gives us strength to overcome.
Psa 28:1 (A Psalm of David.) Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Psa 28:1
Psa 28:1 “lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” – Comments Hell is a place where God no longer hears the cries of mankind. Yes, they cry out and scream for mercy for eternity, but there is none to hear, no one cares. As the rich man cried out for help in Luk 16:22-31, his prayers were denied.
Psa 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
Psa 28:2
[42] Jack Taylor, “Sermon Series on Praise,” Southcliff Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, September, 1982.
Psa 63:4, “Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”
Psa 119:48, “My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.”
Psa 134:2, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prayer and Comfort in Times of Rebellion.
v. 1. Unto Thee will I cry, v. 2. Hear the voice of my supplications, v. 3. Draw me not away, v. 4. Give them according to their deeds, v. 5. Because they regard not the works of the Lord, v. 6. Blessed be the Lord because He hath heard the voice of my supplications, v. 7. The Lord is my Strength, v. 8. The Lord is their Strength, v. 9. Save Thy people,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This short psalm consists of three parts:
(1) a prayer for succour (Psa 28:1, Psa 28:2);
(2) a denunciation of the wicked (Psa 28:3-5); and
(3) a thanksgiving for aid given, or regarded as certain to be given (Psa 28:6-9).
Metrically, it contains three strophes, corresponding to the three subjects, and respectively of two, three, and four verses, thus gradually increasing in length. There is no reason for doubting the assertion of the title, that it is “a Psalm of David,” but we cannot definitely assign it to any particular period of his life. It would suit almost any occasion when he was in danger or difficulty.
Psa 28:1
Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my Rock; be not silent to me; rather, as in the Revised Version, to thee, O Lord, will I call; my Rock, be not thou deaf unto me. “My Rock” belongs to the second clause. It is with David, in these early psalms, an epitheton usilatum (comp. Psa 18:2; Psa 27:5; Psa 31:2, Psa 31:3; Psa 40:3; Psa 61:2; Psa 62:2, etc.). The Hebrew term used is sometimes tsur, sometimes sela’, which call to our minds the two great rook-fortresses of Tyre and Petra. Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit; i.e. without hope, desperate.
Psa 28:2
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee. God is said to hear prayer when he grants it, to be deaf to prayer when he withholds the boon requested. The use of the expressions “voice” and “cry” marks the earnestness of the prayers offered. When I lift up my hands, The usual attitude of a Hebrew in prayer (see Exo 9:29; Exo 17:11, Exo 17:12; 1Ki 8:22, 1Ki 8:54; Psa 63:4; Psa 141:2; Lam 2:19; Lam 3:41). Originally, the idea probably was that the hands should be ready to receive the blessings which God would bestow. But, later on, the lifting up of the hands seems to have been regarded as symbolizing the lifting up of the heart (Lam 3:41). Towards thy holy oracle (see the comment on Psa 5:7).
Psa 28:3
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity (comp. Psa 26:9). The metaphor implied in “draw me not away “is that of a hunter, drawing prey of all kinds to him enclosed within a net. The psalmist prays that he may not share the fate of the workers of iniquity, over whom he seems to see some terrible judgment impending. Which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. (For extreme instances of this kind of wickedness, see 2Sa 3:27; 2Sa 20:9, 2Sa 20:10; and for the wide prevalence of such treacherous dealing, comp. Psa 4:1-8 :20, 21; Jer 9:8.)
Psa 28:4
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours. The feeling of righteous indignation, naturally implanted in us, causes us to desire the punishment of the wicked, quite apart from any wrong that they may have done to ourselves (Aristotle, ‘Rhet.,’ Psa 2:1, 3). Give them after the work of their hands: render to them their desert. Nothing satisfies our moral feelings but exact retribution , . David shows in both respects a moral nature uncorrupted by contact with the world of his day.
Psa 28:5
Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands. They do not note God’s providential workings. If they did, they would see that judgment falls upon the wicked, and, seeing this, they would fear and abstain from evil. But they take no noticeGod is not in all their thoughts. For this neglect and contempt of him, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
Psa 28:6-9
As, midway in Psa 27:1-14; the tone changed from jubilation to humble entreaty, so, midway in the present psalm, there is a change from plaintive and humble entreaty to rejoicing and thanksgiving. The cause of the change would seem to have been a confident assurance, arising out of the very act of prayer, that the prayer is heard and granted, so that the happy results prayed for are certain to follow. Such an assurance is certainly not attained by all those whose supplications are earnest and devout; but David appears to have enjoyed it not infrequently (see above, Psa 6:8-10; Psa 7:17, etc.).
Psa 28:6
Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications (comp. Psa 28:2, with which this is, of set purpose, made exactly to correspond).
Psa 28:7
The Lord is my Strength and my Shield (see Psa 18:1, Psa 18:2; Psa 119:114). My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. As far as feeling goes, David is already “helped.” He feels himself delivered out of his peril. Therefore, he says, my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my songliterally, out of my song, which is explained to mean “out of my store of song”will I praise him. He is ready to offer thanksgiving for a mercy not yet received.
Psa 28:8
The Lord is their Strength; i.e. the Strength, not of himself alone, but of the whole people. The deliverance will be as much for their sake as for his. And he is the saving strength of his anointedliterally, and a Stronghold of salvation to his anointed is HE. The welfare of David and that of the people are bound up together. God strengthens him for their sakes, that he may guide them aright and fight their battles, and give them dominion over their enemies. It was with this object that he chose him out of all Israel, and took him from the sheepfolds, and had him anointed kingthat he might “feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance” (Psa 78:71).
Psa 28:9
Save thy people, and bless thins inheritance. “In conclusion, the psalmist prays that the Lord would do eternally that which he had done now” (Hengstenberg)”save” and “bless” his peoplekeep them from evil, and give them all that is good. Feed them also. As a shepherd does his flock (comp. Psa 23:1, Psa 23:2, Isa 40:11). And lift them up for ever. Some explain the” lifting up” as carrying in his arms over rough placesa prolongation of the shepherd metaphor (Kay; ‘Speaker’s Commentary’); but, perhaps, the more ordinary meaning of the Hebrew word”exalt,” “lift up on high,” “raise above others”which is preferred by Bishop Horsley, Rosenmuller, and Hengstenberg, is intended.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 28:1-9
Providence and prayer.
The contents of this psalm are in some respects similar to the contents of others already noticed. But there is one peculiarity about it to which we here propose to devote special attention. It is seen in the psalmist’s prayer against his enemies. On account of such petitions, much reproach has been cast on the Bible itselfas if all the sixty-six books of which the Scriptures are composed were to be held responsible for the prayers and petitions of every Old Testament saint! No such absurdity could have root-hold if the actual state of the case were clearly understood. And we deem it to be of no small importance that where readers of the Bible find special difficulty, expounders thereof should put forth special strength, and by no means pass lightly over such passages, or leave them unaccounted for. This psalm is a reflection of varied scenes which may be witnessed in the worldof the known laws of God’s providence, of earnest desires which go up from the hearts of God’s people in prayer, and of grateful songs which go forth from their lips in praise. There is no reason for attributing the psalm to any one else than to David. Nor do we know of any times in the ancient history which the psalm more clearly reflects than those of the shepherd-king. Nor is there any Old Testament character who would be so likely to speak and write and pray in the style of the psalm before us. In dealing with it as a unity (which method alone falls in with the plan of this section of the Commentary), we have four lines of thought to unfold.
I. HERE IS A TWOFOLD OUTLOOK. The writer of this psalm was the anointed of the Lord (Psa 28:8). He was Israel’s king; and was withal encompassed by foes. Not only were there those who were the people of God, his inheritance (Psa 28:9), but there were also those who regarded not God, and who cared not for man (Psa 28:3, Psa 28:5). And the time has not come when such a double outlook has ceased. The righteous, the wickedtares and wheatboth are still on “the field of the world,” growing together until the harvest.
II. HERE IS A TWOFOLD YEARNING OF THE PSALMIST.
1. For the righteous. (Psa 28:9.) “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance.” Put the emphasis on “thy,’ “thine;” herein lies the force of the praying one’s tender pleading with God “Feed them;” i.e. tend them, rule them; let them find thee all that thou art as their Shepherd. “Lift them up,” equivalent to “bear them up,” carry them in thine arms (Isa 63:9; Isa 40:11; Deu 1:31; Deu 32:11; see Perowne hereon).
2. Against the wicked. (Psa 28:4. ) It is here that so many have found a difficulty. We acknowledge that there would be a difficulty if these were the words of God to man; but as they are the words of man to God, why should there be any difficulty at all? Is any one bound to defend every word that any saint ever offered in prayer? Surely not. It is, however, only fair to the writer to bear in mind:
(1) That he does not pray against the wicked with personal vindictiveness, but regards them as the enemies of God (Psa 28:5), and of society likewise (Psa 28:3).
(2) No saint’s prayers ever could go beyond the limits of the inspiration and revelation which were granted to him. No one even now can pray beyond the limits of his own knowledge. In the Old Testament times the all-conquering love of God had not been revealed as it has been to us, and so could not yield fuel for prayer.
(3) That such a prayer as this is an historical representation of the petitions of saints in the psalmist’s time, and is no absolute model for our time, with our larger and warmer light-beams from on high. At the same time, we are bound also to remember that we ought not to cherish the like feelings towards the wicked that we do towards the righteous. Yea, if we are righteous, we cannot. And while we plead with God to build up those who are pure and true, we ought to plead with him to frustrate the designs of unreasonable and wicked men, and to arise and vindicate the great cause of righteousness and truth. And this we may do, while leaving it absolutely with God to deal with wicked people as he sees fit. The Judge of all the earth will do right, and we surely can leave the matter there. “Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord.” Job’s words are better than any prayers for vengeance: ” I know that my Vindicator liveth.” There let us rest. For we have to recognize
III. A TWOFOLD ACTION OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE. He builds up the righteous, but disconcerts the schemes of the wicked. So the experience of life shows us, and so this psalm indicates.
1. To the righteous. God is
(1) their Strength;
(2) their Shield;
(3) the Stronghold of salvation for them and for their anointed king.
This may be applied in the highest sense (cf. Rom 8:28; Heb 2:10).
2. To the wicked. (Verse 5.) “He shall break them down, and not build them up” (cf. Psa 18:25, Psa 18:26; Psa 37:35; Psa 73:18-20). God will seem to men according to what they are. If they follow his commandments, peace will attend their steps. If they violate them, all nature will be full of detectives, whips, and stings.
IV. A TWOFOLD ACT TOWARDS GOD.
1. Prayer. “Hear when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle;” i.e. towards the “mercy-seat” (verse 2). Although he was not selfish enough to cramp his desires within the limits of his own personal need, yet he was not unnatural enough to leave himself out. In fact, God was so much to him that his very life seemed bound up in God and his loving-kindness; the lack of a message from God to his spirit would almost drive him to despair (verses 1, 2). But, as is so often the case, the very psalms which begin with the deepest sighing end with the most joyous shouting. Hence, following on prayer, there is:
2. Praise. (Verse 6.) The lower God takes us down in the valley of humiliation, the higher will he take us up on the mount of exultation (Isa 41:16). And those who spend most time with God in weeping and supplication will have the loudest and sweetest strains to raise over the wonders of delivering grace. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” This is as true of prayer as it is of work.
Note: Making all allowance for the difference of tone in the two dispensations, the Hebrew and the Christian, yet throughout both the same laws hold good.
1. That prayer is one of the forces by means of which God sways the world.
2. That his people have for thousands of years been praying to him to bring in righteousness and to put down wrong of every kind.
3. That it is more certain these prayers will be answered than that the sun will rise to-morrow.
4. And, consequently, it is for men to decide whether to their life there shall attach the privilege of being borne upon the hearts of all God’s saints in prayer, or the peril of being surrounded with petitions that they may ultimately be put to shame.C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 28:1-9
Man’s cry and God’s response.
In this psalm we find
I. MAN‘S CRY TO GOD. (Psa 28:1-5.) Prayer is an instinct of the heart. Man cries to man. There is a bond of brotherhood between all men. The simple fact that a brother is in need gives him a claim to help. Friend cries to friend. The nearer our relationships, the deeper our obligations. The child cries to its lather. Whatever may be the conduct of others, we are sure that parents will do what they can for their children. With how much more reason and confidence may we cry to God! He is ever near. He is always pitiful. He will surely help all those who cry to him. It is true we may be tried, sorely tried. Distresses may multiply. Our fears may magnify our danger. We may tremble as on the verge of the gulf. But let us not despair. Bartimaeus was not answered at the first, but he cried again. The Syro-Phoenician woman seemed at first to be met with repulse and refusal, but she pleaded the more earnestly. The sisters of Bethany were left for three whole days in their woe; but the Saviour came in his good time, brining light and joy. So let us learn to pray and wait. Daniel took comfort by looking toward Jerusalem; let us look above, to Jesus, “the Author and Finisher of our faith.”
II. GOD‘S RESPONSE TO MAN‘S CRY. (Verses 6-9.) In the deepest sense, God’s response to man’s cry is Christ. In him God has come to us in human form, brining salvation. Through him God is ever with us, to hear the prayer of the sinner and to satisfy the desires of his saints. When we pray it may be that the answer is delayed. As Joseph spoke roughly to his brethren, though love and kindness were in his heart all the time, so God may seem for a while to close his ear, and suffer us to struggle and cry in vain; but we are sure that his love does not change. He is not like Baal (1Ki 18:27) or the god of Ekron (2Ki 1:2). If he delays it is because this is needful. It is part of his discipline; it is necessary for the full accomplishment of his purposes. It may be also that God will answer our prayers in a way different from what we expected. We are weak and ignorant. Our minds are clouded, our hearts are confused. We are harassed and distressed by the things which press most closely upon us. We are not fit judges as to what is best. Let us confide in God. He knows what we are and what we need. His way is always the best way. Paul, hard pressed by the thorn in the flesh, besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him. But he erred. It had been sent as a preventative, “lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations;” and it had not yet served its full purpose. God did not cause it to depart, but he did what was far better. He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” And Paul, now better taught, cries, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2Co 12:7-9). Baxter’s rule is good, “As thou wilt, when thou wilt, and where thou wilt.” But many times God is pleased to answer the prayers of his people by granting their requests. We ask light, and he gives light. We seek pardon, and he says, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” We crave help in trouble, and he sends forth his angels for our comfort and deliverance. God’s response to our cry calls for thanksgiving. Thus prayer ends in praise (verses 6, 7). There is gratitude for deliverance. Faith is strengthened, hope is revived, and love breaks forth into joyful songs of victory.
“I’ll praise my Maker with my breath,
And when my voice is lost in death
Praise shall employ my nobler powers.
My days of praise shall ne’er be past
While life and thought and being last,
And immortality endures.”
W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 28:1-9
The oppressed righteous king.
It is the king who speaks, whose cause is identical with that of the people. Difference between this and the twenty-sixth psalm. The ground-thought of both is that God will not involve in the same outward fate those who are inwardly different; and that the lot of the wicked cannot be the same as that of the righteous. But there it is the oppressed individual righteous man that speaks; here it is the oppressed righteous king speaking for himself and his people.
I. THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE. (Psa 28:1-3.) Arguments of the psalmist why God should answer him.
1. The certain, firm faithfulness of God. “God was his Rock.” God and he were friends, and he could not but listen to the cry of a friend for help. Besides, God has promised to deliver the righteous out of his troubles. We have this assurance in the gospel. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
2. If God did not answer him, he would soon be past deliverance. “Like them that go down to the dead.” No human help could avail him; no operation of mere natural law. God’s arm must interpose for him. All real answers to prayer are supernaturalsomething above naturefrom the realm of spirit.
3. He lifted his hands to the place where God speaks with his people. (See Exo 25:22.) That is, he puts himself into the divinely appointed way of being heardpraying towards the mercy-seat between the cherubim. Did all he knew and could do for being answered. Have we done that?
4. God was too just to involve him in a common fate with wicked and deceitful men. (Psa 28:3.) “Draw me not away,” etc. That would not be just. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
II. A PRAYER THAT THE WICKED MAY NOT GO UNPUNISHED. (Psa 28:4, Psa 28:5.) Particularly his enemies. The prayer might not have been prompted by malignity. For:
1. Their frustration might have been necessary to his deliverance. If so, he was only crying for justice, such as we often invoke upon those guilty of injustice. “Give them according to their deeds,” and let them not continue in their unrighteous courses.
2. The prayer is followed by a prophecy of their assured doom. Because they do not study God’s righteous judgments, they fall into increasing wickedness, and make sure of being destroyed.
III. PRAYER ANSWERED IS FOLLOWED BY CONFIDENCE AND THANKSGIVING.
1. The struggles of his soul have brought victory, praise, and joy. (Psa 28:6-8.)
2. The psalmist prays that the Lord would do eternally that which he had now done. (Psa 28:9.) Would continue to do for ever the same as he had now done for him and his people.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 28.
David prayeth [or prophesieth] earnestly against his enemies: he blesseth God; he prayeth for the people.
A Psalm of David.
Title. ledavid. This Psalm, as well as the foregoing, is supposed to have been written by David towards the latter end of his reign; at a time when, his wars being almost finished, some of his own subjects, probably those of Sheba’s party, mentioned 2 Samuel 20 took an opportunity to give him some disturbance. This Psalm, says Mudge, has several states. In the first five verses the author prays for support against his enemies, who seem to have acted treacherously: in the 6th and 7th he has gained the victory, and returns triumphant with songs: the 8th is a chorus of people, or priests, echoing back the words of the preceding verse: the last verse seems to be a prayer of the king for the people, in return to their acclamations for him.
Psa 28:1. Be not silent to me Do not keep off from me. Mudge. Compare Psa 35:22.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 28
A Psalm of David
1Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock;
Be not silent to me:
Lest, if thou be silent to me,
I become like them that go down into the pit.
2Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee,
When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
3Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity,
Which speak peace to their neighbors,
But mischief is in their hearts.
4Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours:
Give them after the work of their hands;
Render to them their desert.
5Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands,
He shall destroy them, and not build them up.
6Blessed be the Lord,
Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in him, and I am helped:
Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;
And with my song will I praise him.
8The Lord is their strength,
And he is the saving strength of his anointed.
9Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance:
Feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition. Although there are no individual historical features which are sharply and unmistakably prominent, yet this Psalm is not a mere Psalm of general lamentation (De Wette), composed by David for the Buffering and afflicted (Hengst.), or composed by a later poet for liturgical use for the people (Olsh.), as it is pretended with a superabundance in expression and rhythm, as is often the case in the later Psalms and Prophets, in connection with the heaping up of current phrases (Hupf.). We hear in this Psalm the voice of supplication, as it rises pressingly and earnestly, in peril of death, (Psa 28:1,) to Jehovah, the Holy One, imploring to be heard (Psa 28:2). It is from the mouth and heart of a man, who would not be swept away with evil doers and hypocrites (Psa 28:3); and he implores for them righteous recompense (Psa 28:4); and he founds this judgment on its necessity and describes it in its reliable workings (Psa 28:5), whilst he himself in the certainty of being heard and of the constant protection of Jehovah, praises Him (Psa 28:6), and furthermore will praise Him thankfully in songs (Psa 28:7); for Jehovah is the Protector and Deliverer of His people and His anointed (Psa 28:8). Finally he prays for continual blessings for the peoplethey are the property of Jehovah (Psa 28:9). These last two verses must then be regarded as the words of the anointed himself unless we should regard them as an appendix of intercession for the king and the people (Hupf.), and there is no apparent occasion for uniting them with the preceding verses. It is then more appropriate to think of David as the author, in the time of the trouble with Absalom, although the longing turning towards the sanctuary (Delitzsch) is not very apparent. This is better than to think of Josiah (Ewald), or Jeremiah (Hitzig). There are frequent and evident resemblances to the preceding Psalm.
Str. I. [Psa 28:1. To Thee Jehovah, do I cry; My rock, be not silent from me, lest, if Thou be silent from me, I become like them that go down to the pit.The A. V. is not properly punctuated. My rock belongs to the second clause. For the meaning of rock vid.Psa 18:2. The preposition , from, is used with a pregnant meaning = Turn not away from me in silence, (De Wette, Moll. Perowne, et al ).10 The pit is the grave in its narrower and broader sense. Comp. Isa 14:15; Psa 30:4; Psa 88:6.
Psa 28:2. When I lift up my hands.11To lift up the hands and spread them out towards heaven was the usual posture of prayer with the Hebrews, (1Ki 8:22, Isa 1:15), so likewise among the Greeks and other ancient nations. And so also they were lifted up towards the sanctuary at Jerusalem, especially by the later Jews. So the Mahometans pray towards Mecca, and the Samaritans towards the holy place of Mt. Gerizim.C. A. B.]To Thy holy throne-hall.This is literally the back room as a local designation of the Most Holy place, (1Ki 6:5; 1Ki 6:16 sq., 1Ki 8:6; 1Ki 8:8), where was the throne of God (1Ki 8:30; 1Ki 8:39; 1Ki 8:43; 1Ki 8:49) in the temple (1Ki 8:30; Dan 6:11, Psa 5:7,) as in heaven (1Ki 8:22; 1Ki 8:54), to which the hands were lifted up (Psa 63:4; Psa 134:2; Psa 141:2; Lam 2:19), and spread out (Psa 143:6; Exo 9:29; Exo 9:33; 1Ki 8:22; 1Ki 8:38; 1Ki 8:54; Jos 1:15) corresponding with the lifting up of the heart (Psa 24:4; Lam 3:41). This meaning of debr is completely proved by comparing with the Arabic, comp. Delitzsch and Hupfeld in loco. This was first proved by C. B. Michaelis in 1735 in a dissertation (now printed in Potts. sylloge V. 131 sq). then first by Conrad Iken 1748 in his Diss. Phil. Theol. I. 214 sq. In accordance with the derivation from dibber = speak, which Hengstenberg again justifies, the ancient interpreters thought of an audience-room and parlor, and translated it by oraculum,, . Luther translates, chor. [A. V holy oracle].12
[Str. II. Psa 28:3. Draw me not away, e.g., to destruction, vid.Psa 26:9; Eze 32:20; Job 24:22.Who speak peace.They make peaceful and friendly professions whilst plotting mischief and war, hypocrites, dissemblers, frequently alluded to in the Psalms.C. A. B.]
[Str. III. Psa 28:4. Render to them their desert.Delitzsch: This phrase , which is frequently used by the prophets, means to recompense, or repay to any one what he has performed or rendered, likewise what he has committed or deserved. The thought and its expression remind us of Isa 3:8-11; Isa 1:16.
Psa 28:5. Because they regard not.Delitzsch: The propriety of prayer for recompense is derived from their blindness towards the righteous and gracious government of God in human history (comp. Isa 5:12; Isa 22:11).The contrast of , build, with , tear down is in the style of Jeremiah (Jer 42:10, comp. Jer 1:10, Psa 18:9, et al.C. A. B.]
[Str. IV. Psa 28:6. Because He hath heard,Hupfeld: This is not a praising God because He has actually heard, this being presupposed in the perfect, as Psa 6:9 sq.; Psa 20:7; Psa 26:12; Psa 31:22 sq.; nor as if he had, in the mean time, received an answer from the sanctuary (Psa 28:2) as Hengstenberg supposes; but in the confidence of faith.C. A. B.]
[Str. V. Psa 28:7. With my song will I praise Him.The Vulgate has a different reading here, following the Sept. [It reads my flesh (caro mea, ) for my heart in the third clause, and my will (ex voluntate mea, ) for my song, in the fourth clause.Delitzsch: In the song is regarded as the source of the . From his sorrows springs the song, and from the song springs the praise of Him who has taken these sorrows away.C. A. B.]
Str. VI. Psa 28:8. Jehovah is protection for them.This turns the glance upon the true members of the people whose fortune the Psalmist bears upon his heart together with his own, although they have not been mentioned before. Hitzig and Delitzsch very properly reject the correction of , which all codd. have, into that is, for his people, however appropriate this might be.And He is the saving defence of His anointed.This is literally, the defence of deliverance. [Delitzsch: Jehovah is then because He mightily preserves them from the destruction into which they themselves would fall or be plunged by others; and He is the of His anointed because He surrounds him as an inaccessible place of refuge; which secures him salvation in its fulness, instead of the ruin contemplated.C. A. B.]
Psa 28:9. Feed them and bear them forever.This reminds us of Deu 1:31; Deu 32:11, Isa 63:9 and the conclusion itself of Psalms 3, 29. [Perowne: It is impossible not to see in these tender, loving words, feed them and bear them, the heart of the shepherd king. Feed them, O, Thou true Shepherd of Israel, (Psa 80:1): bear them, carry them in Thine arms (Isa 63:9; Isa 40:11).C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. If God could be deaf and dumb to the supplications of His servant, there could be neither comfort nor hope for him. And if God should turn away from him, his ruin would be certain. But then the servant of God would share the fate of the wicked. This however is impossible, so long as the servant of God is neither unfaithful nor a hypocrite. If he can really establish himself on God as his rock, when he lifts up his hands and heart in faith (Psa 28:7), to the God enthroned in the Holiest of All, then he will experience, that even on the brink of an abyss there is a way of escape and he will not be drawn down into its depths with the ungodly. For God is just, and shows Himself in His unchangeable faithfulness and truth as a rock, to those who trust in Him and abide by Him. Moreover when threatened with ruin, all depends on this alone, his showing himself by his conduct as standing on this rock and fortifying himself there by his actions.
2. If we not only set before our eyes the judgments of God, but likewise establish ourselves near to God and on His side, then there arises partly a feeling of security in the protection of God, which discloses itself at once as the assurance of being heard in prayer, partly a strong feeling of the contrast between ourselves and ungodly and hypocritical oppressors. This feeling looks at their conduct as they sin against God and their neighbors, and sees that it will be doubly punished, and it discloses itself in appealing to God to execute His judgments. Under such circumstances and feelings it is possible to pray; recompense them, without sinning.
3. The characteristics of the ungodly, and the indications of their swift ruin, are their not observing the doings and actions of God, which are exactly opposed to their own. God will be constantly less intelligible and conceivable to them whilst they blind themselves in such a manner that they fancy that they can not only deceive men by their hypocrisy, but likewise can escape the judgment of God by not observing the Divine government. But the less attention they give to these things, the deeper they involve themselves in wicked plans, and the more surely they fall when they least expect it, into the recompensing hand of God.
4. God is the Avenger and Deliverer, Defence and Helper, not only for His anointed, but likewise for His people. For He is not only their Lord who will not allow His property and inheritance to be taken from Him; but He is likewise their Shepherd who watches and protects, cares for and leads the people especially belonging to Him; He is their God and Father, who bears them in their weakness, at all times from of old, (Isa 63:9), as a man his son (Deu 1:31) and as an eagle her young (Deu 32:11) lifting them above all hindrances, and bearing them forth out of all dangers, and thus raising them above all present and all future enemies. (2Sa 5:12).To His work you must look if your work is to endure (P. Gerhardt).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
When trouble increases, trust in God must not decrease; our prayers must not be silent, though God for a while is silent.That prayers are not heard for a while, is no sign that God is angry, but that He would try our faith, and train us in patience.Great sufferings cannot choke the desire for prayer so long as the heart does not become faint-hearted.The confidence of the pious in Gods assistance against ungodly enemies, has its ground not in the feeling of personal worth, but in the assurance of Divine righteousness.Not to observe the Divine government, is a characteristic of the ungodly and the sign of their ruin.Many trouble themselves no more with Gods judgment than they do with His commandments; but he who transgresses the latter cannot escape the former.God recompenses justly; therefore fear His judgment, but trust in His righteousness.The innocent may suffer much and long; but they will not call upon God in vain, and even when they die they will not be swept away with the guilty.A pious king seeks not only his own deliverance, but the salvation of his people at the same time.He who trusts God, has built well.God not only protects His own children, in time, but He likewise blesses them for eternity.
Starke: O how sweet it is for the soul, when God hears it and it is sure of this in its inmost nature! but how painful it is when God is silent! and yet we must persevere in patience, until it shall please Him to hear our prayer.He who would not be carried away with the ungodly in the judgment of God, must be on his guard against their sins.To desire punishment for our enemies out of a spirit of revenge, is not Christian; but we may sigh to the righteous Judge against the enemies of God and His glory.If God were not the strength and protection of His Church, how could it endure the power of its enemies?If the Lord is our strength, why do we ever lament our weakness? Is that not perhaps a palliation of our indolence?Franke: In external trouble hypocrites and the ungodly go to God in order to be freed from them; but they do not think of being delivered from their troubles of sin, and therefore it is no wonder, that they are unable to speak of answers to prayer.Renschel: Although the pious dwell among the ungodly yet they are distinguished from them, 1) by their prayers; 2) by their life; 3) by their reward.Frisch: The help which God has postponed He has not refused.Herberger: Gods silence often brings the greatest sorrow; but God is often silent in order that He may hear thee with all the more love.Tholuck: He who keeps the Lord before him as the Mighty One, and can hope in His strength, is already helped.Taube: The prayer of the pious in trouble is an evidence that they have the refuge as well as need it.
[Matth. Henry: Nothing can be so cutting, so killing, to a gracious soul as the want of Gods favor, and the sense of His displeasure.Those who are careful not to partake with sinners in their sins have reason to hope that they shall not partake with them in their plagues, Rev 18:4.A stupid regardlessness of the works of God is the cause of the sin of sinners, and so becomes the cause of their ruin.The saints rejoice in their friends comforts as well as their own; for as we have no less benefit by the light of the sun, so neither by the light of Gods countenance, for others sharing therein; for we are sure there is enough for all, and enough for each.Those, and those only, whom God feeds and rules, that are willing to be taught and guided, and governed by Him, shall be saved, and blessed, and lifted up forever.Barnes: It is sufficient for us to feel that God hears us; for if this is so, we have the assurance that all is right. In this sense, certainly, it is right to look for an immediate answer to our prayers.Spurgeon: The thorn at the breast of the nightingale was said by the old naturalists to make it sing; Davids grief made him eloquent in holy psalmody.Gods voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but His silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close His ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, He will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers!We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy-seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells.The best of the wicked are dangerous company in time, and would make terrible companions for eternity; we must avoid them in their pleasures, if we would not be confounded with them in their miseries.It is a sure sign of baseness when the tongue and the heart do not ring to the same note. Deceitful men are more to be dreaded than wild beasts; it were better to be shut up in a pit with serpents than to be compelled to live with liars.Gods curse is positive and negative; His sword has two edges, and cuts right and left.They who pray well, will soon praise well; prayer and praise are the two lips of the soul.Heart work is sure work; heart trust is never disappointed. Faith must come before help, but help will never be long behindhand.When the heart is glowing, the lips should not be silent. When God blesses us, we should bless Him with all our heart.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[10][Alexander follows Hupfeld in rendering; lest Thou hold Thy peace from me, and I be made like those going down (into) the pit. The rendering in the text is better. It is that of De Wette, Ewald, Delitzsch, Moll, Perowne, et al.C. A. B.]
[11][So A. V., Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Perowne, et al. De Wette translates, because I cry, etc; Hitzig, since I cry, etc.; Moll and Alexander, in my crying, etc.C. A. B.]
[12][Delitzsch agree with Moll and translates, to Thy holy throne-hall; Hupfeld and Perowne, to the innermost place of Thy sanctuary; Ewald, to Thy holy chamber; Hitzig, to Thy holy unapproachable placeC. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here the same speaker, under situations not unsimilar, to what went before, in the preceding Psalm. The opening of this blessed scripture, is with prayer, and the close of it, with praise.
A Psalm of David.
Psa 28:1
It is well worthy our observation, that for the most part, in the several portions of this blessed book of the Psalms, the Holy Ghost, as if in order to lead to Christ, and that the church may not overlook him in the view of David, hath given some striking and luminous features of the Lord Jesus, by which the other characters of his person might be the easier discovered. Thus we find in the last verse but one of this Psalm, the arguments made use of for help in the former part of it, are assigned to have been because Jehovah is not only the strength of the people, but the saving strength also of his Messiah, his anointed One. Reader, I consider these lights, thrown here and there, as blessed things to guide us in our way, in our researches after Jesus. As a further confirmation, what is here said of going down into the pit, corresponds with what was prophetically spoken of the Lord Jesus elsewhere. Psa 22:15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 28:1 [A Psalm] of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Ver. 1. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock ] That thou mayest grant me what I begged so earnestly of thee in the former psalm especially, Psa 28:4 , “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after,” &c. For this psalm is of the same subject with that; and seemeth to have been made much about the same time, viz. after that David had twice spared Saul’s life, 1Sa 24:4-6 , &c.; 1Sa 26:12 ; 1Sa 26:21 . Only here he expresseth himself, not as if he had been a private person, and in daily danger of his life; but as destined and designed to the kingdom by Almighty God, to whom, therefore, he prayeth for himself and the people, and against their implacable enemies, with so great confidence, as that he presently praiseth him for his request obtained, Psa 28:6 .
Be not silent to me
Lest, if thou be silent, &c.
Like them that go down into the pit
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This is a still more distressful cry, and more judicial in experiencing what the ungodly are. “Of David.” Then comes the prophetic answer, on which they lay hold and rejoice.
These psalms (Pss. 29-31) fall fitly together; not only so, but the first of the three appears to be an answer to the call in Psa 28 .
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 28:1-5
1To You, O Lord, I call;
My rock, do not be deaf to me,
For if You are silent to me,
I will become like those who go down to the pit.
2Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help,
When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
3Do not drag me away with the wicked
And with those who work iniquity,
Who speak peace with their neighbors,
While evil is in their hearts.
4Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices;
Requite them according to the deeds of their hands;
Repay them their recompense.
5Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
Nor the deeds of His hands,
He will tear them down and not build them up.
Psa 28:1-5 There is some disagreement of how to divide the strophes in this Psalm (look at front page of this chapter). NASB has Psa 28:1-9, so I will use it. The first strophe is a lament and the second a psalm of thanksgiving.
The psalmist prays for
1. YHWH to hear him when he prays
2. YHWH not to drag him away like the wicked
In Psa 28:4 he uses three imperatives to describe what God should do to the wicked.
1. give them (BDB 678, KB 733, Qal imperative) according to their deeds (cf. Job 34:11; Psa 62:12; Pro 24:12; Ecc 12:14; Jer 17:10; Jer 32:19; Mat 16:27; Mat 25:31-46; Rom 2:6; Rom 14:12; 1Co 3:8; 2Co 5:10; Gal 6:7-10; 2Ti 4:14; 1Pe 1:17; Rev 2:23; Rev 20:12; Rev 22:12)
2. give them according to their evil practices (verb assumed from #1)
3. give them (same verb as #1) according to their actions (lit. work of their hands)
4. reward (BDB 996, KB 1427, Hiphil imperative) them dire reward (lit. dealings, BDB 168)
Psa 28:1 My rock This imagery speaks of permanence, strength, stability, protection (see full note at Psa 18:2).
do not. . . These are two imperfects used in a jussive sense.
1. Psa 28:1 do not be deaf, BDB 361 II, cf. Psa 35:22; Psa 39:12; Psa 83:1; Psa 109:1 (parallel to silent, BDB 364)
2. Psa 28:2 do not drag me away, BDB 604 (i.e., possibly like an animal or a prisoner of war)
the pit The term (BDB 92, cf. Psa 88:4; Psa 143:7; Pro 28:17) is a synonym for Sheol. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? . It probably related to
1. a dug grave (cf. Isa 14:9; Eze 32:25)
2. a hole in the hill for burial
3. an opening which goes into Sheol (cf. Psa 30:3; Pro 1:12; Isa 14:15; Isa 38:18; Eze 26:20)
Psa 28:2 When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary This gesture has several connotations.
1. an act of blessing after a sacrifice by a priest Lev 9:22 (i.e., some sacrifices were lifted up to YHWH)
2. an act on the part of a worshiper after a sacrifice of incense Psa 141:2
3. a gesture toward the sanctuary Psa 134:2
4. a posture of prayer, hands raised, cf. Exo 9:29 (Moses); 1Ki 8:22 (Solomon); Lam 2:19; Lam 3:41 (Israel); Luk 24:50 (Jesus); 1Ti 2:8 (believers)
5. a posture for praise, adoration, or public confession Psa 63:4
6. a way to show YHWH’s power as His staff was lifted up in Moses’ hands (cf. Exo 17:8-12)
Here it is meant to symbolize a clean life (cf. 1Ti 2:8), open to God and a life that recognizes its need to receive from God (see negative usage in Psa 44:20).
NASBtoward Your holy sanctuary
NASB margin,
NRSV footnotethe innermost place
NJBHoly of Holies
JPSOAinner sanctuary
LXXcourt
REBshrine
This Hebrew term (BDB 184 I) basically means back part, innermost. In 1Ki 6:16; 1Ki 6:19-23; 1Ki 6:31; 1Ki 7:49; 1Ki 8:6; 1Ki 8:8 it refers to the Holy of Holies (cf. Exo 26:31-35), where the ark of the covenant stood between Solomon’s giant cherubim.
Faithful followers in the Old Covenant faced the temple (cf. 1 Kings 8, Solomon’s great prayer at the dedication of the Temple) when they prayed because it was there that YHWH dwelt between the wings of the cherubim. It was where heaven and earth met. The ark of the covenant was YHWH’s footstool.
However, in the New Covenant, God is present in all places (cf. Joh 4:20-24). The new temple is Jesus (cf. Joh 2:19; Joh 2:21)!
Psa 28:3; Psa 28:5 Because. . . Psa 28:3; Psa 28:5 list the activities and attitudes of the wicked (i.e., practical atheists).
1. who work iniquity, Psa 28:3
2. who speak peace to their neighbor but have evil in their hearts (see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART )
3. who do not regard the works of God, Psa 28:5 (God’s people must regard who He is by what He has done, cf. Deu 32:7; Psa 107:43; Hos 14:9)
4. who do not regard the deeds of God (parallel), Psa 28:5, cf. Isa 5:12
Psa 28:5 The last line of Psa 28:5 tells what God will do to them (compare Jer 1:10).
1. tear them down BDB 248, KB 256, Qal imperfect, Psa 28:5
2. not build them up BDB 124, KB 139, Qal imperfect, negated, Psa 28:5
The three imperfects of Psa 28:5 denote the continuous actions of the wicked. Their lives are characterized by ignoring God and hurting others, therefore, God’s judgments are also ongoing (i.e., perennial destruction, cf. Isa 6:9-10; Jer 1:10).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. A Psalm. App-65.
of David = by David, or relating to the true David. The Psalm is a continuation of Psalm 27, and stands in relation to Psalm 18.
LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4. In Psalm 28 and Psalm 29 thereare twenty verses, and Jehovah occurs twenty times.
rock. Heb. zur See note on Psa 18:1-2 and compare Psa 27:5. The reference is to Psalm 18.
not silent = not deaf, and so dumb. Heb. harash.
be silent = be quiet, or silent. Hebrew. hashah.
the pit. Hebrew bor, a sepulchre, as hewn (Gen 21:19).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 28:1-9
Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent, I become like those that have gone down into the pit. Hear my voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle ( Psa 28:1-2 ).
So David in his prayer had those times when he lifted up his hands towards God.
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give to them according to their deeds, according to their wickedness in their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render them their just desserts. Because they did not regard the works of the LORD, nor the operation of your hands, you will destroy them and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my prayers. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him. The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless your inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever ( Psa 28:3-9 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 28:1. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock: be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Oh! if God did not hear prayer, we should become like dead men ay, like lost men. Our fall or despair would be terrible indeed. Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become Like them that go down into the pit.
Psa 28:2. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
Is that the way you pray, dear friend? I know there are some that, if they have uttered certain good words got through a form of prayer are perfectly satisfied. As to whether God hears them or not, that does not trouble them. But if you are a true child of God, it will be your main thought in prayer, Will he hear me? Will he hear me? Will he answer me. And you will think nothing of a prayer at all unless you have the comfortable, believing persuasion that yore prayer has reached the car and heart of God. Oh! believe us, for some of us do know, by experience, that prayer is a real thing. It is no repetition of words. It really is the heart speaking into the ear of God; and God does graciously respond when prayer is truly offered.
Psa 28:3. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
We are often afraid lest we should get numbered with them.
Oh! were it not for grace divine,
Their fate so dreadful had been mine.
Gather not my soul with sinners, is the prayer of many a godly man. When he looks within and sees the sin that is there, and what he deserves from the hand of God, apart from the blood and righteousness of Christ, he begins, indeed, to pray, Draw me not away with the wicked. O Lord, do not let me wander into doctrinal error or into errors of life, or into laxity of behavior, or into backslidings, but keep me fast, for unless thou hold me fast:
I feel I must, I shall, decline,
And prove like them at last.
Draw me not away with the wicked.
Psa 28:4. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
And a just mind feels that such ought to be the case. God is a judge, and he will punish sin, and gracious men do not wish that it should be otherwise. Even to that terrible side of Gods character, which is seen in his vengeance upon the ungodly, the Christian trains the loving eye. He is not reconciled to half a God, or to a God with half the attributes of God, namely, love and tenderness: but he loves God as he finds him. He loves that. God who is a consuming fire. I should be afraid if I could not love God under any aspect in which he is presented to me, because just as I should feel that I did net love a man truly if I said, In such a character I cannot endure him, I should feel that there was some difference between him and me. We must love God in every character upon the throne of justice, as well as upon the seat of love.
Psa 28:5-6. Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
Can you say this? Excuse me putting the question again and again to all now present, for it is a very vital question. If you never knew what answered prayer means, God help you to begin to pray, Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
This exposition consisted of readings from Colossians 3; Col 4:1-4. Psa 28:1-6.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 28:1
AN ANSWERED PRAYER
Of many excellent titles which have been suggested by writers, we have chosen this one by Kyle Yates.
The organization of the psalm is simple. There are just two divisions: (1) The Prayer (Psa 28:1-5); and (2) The Answer (Psa 28:6-9).
The ancient title which has come down to us identifies this as “A Psalm of David”; and Barnes assures us that, “There is no need for doubting the correctness of the inscription.
Delitzsch identified the occasion for this psalm as that of the rebellion of Absalom, calling it, along with Psalms 26, 27, “The third psalm belonging to the time of the persecution by Absalom.
Psa 28:1
“Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I call.
My rock, be not thou deaf unto me;
Lest if thou be silent unto me,
I become like them that go down into the pit.”
“My rock, be not thou deaf unto me” (Psa 28:1). The use of the term `Rock’ as a name for God, “Occurs thirty-three times in the Old Testament and is expressive of the support and strength which the Lord supplies for those who seek him.
“Them that go down into the pit” (Psa 28:1). The word `pit’ here, “Is frequently a metaphor for death and is often the equivalent of `Sheol.’ The appearance of this kind of terminology here indicates that David indeed was fearful of losing his life. If Absalom had succeeded in his efforts to wrest the throne of Israel away from his father David, there can be no doubt whatever that David would have been executed.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 28:1. Cry is a strong word for pray, and David was earnest in his prayer to God. Be not silent does not mean that he expected an audible voice from God. It means for God not to overlook his cry. Down into the pit means down to a state of great depression and forgetfulness.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The affinity between this psalm and the previous one is evident and its placing by the editor here was in all likelihood due to that fact. In Psa 27:1-14, in true order, praise prepares for, and issues in, prayer, the whole ending in an appeal to “wait on Jehovah.” The next psalm opens-Unto Thee, O Jehovah, will I call.
This is not to suggest that the song was written by the same person or immediately. It rather affords an illustration of a song written by one who acted on the principle enjoined. The cry of need is very urgent. The peril is so great that death threatens. Unless Jehovah help there is no help. That the danger arose from enemies is evident from the psalmist’s cry to Jehovah for justice.
Suddenly the prayer becomes a song of praise, an act of adoration. The prayer is heard, help is granted, the song begins. That this psalm, with its inverted order of prayer and praise, follows closely that in which the order is praise and prayer is encouraging. The true order is praise and prayer. If the heart is not strong enough for this, let it learn how to praise by speaking first in prayer of its sorrow. The one thing impossible in worship is to compress it within the narrow limits of stated formulas.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Prayer and Its Answer
Psa 28:1-9
This psalm also probably belongs to the time of Absaloms rebellion. Psa 28:2-3 resemble Psa 26:8-9.
God is silent sometimes because He loves us unspeakably, Zep 3:17, r.v., margin; sometimes to test our faith, Mat 15:23; sometimes because He has already spoken and we have not listened, Mat 26:62. But let us never go elsewhere for help, 1Sa 28:6-7. Let us wait and pray, lifting up our hands in the dark to touch His hands.
These prayers for the punishment of the wicked should be read as predictions. Do not be afraid of evil or of evil-doers. God is a consuming fire and destroys all evil. He causes the enemy to be still as a stone until His redeemed have passed over. Therefore there breaks in on the psalmist the ray of hope which finds expression in Psa 28:6-7. Faith cries, I am helped! Let us rejoice even before the jailer comes to tell us that we are free, Act 16:25; and let us send out our prayers for all the Church, Psa 28:9.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
In the 28th Psalm we have Gods remnant people celebrating known deliverance. They had been in difficulty, in trial, and God had intervened, and now they are praising Him for it and crying to Him that nothing might arise to hide His face, to make them insensible to His voice, that sin might not come in to mar their fellowship and communion with Him.
Notice the opening verse, Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. What does the Psalmist mean when he says, Be not silent to me? It is as though he said, O God, do not let me be in a condition of soul where I cannot hear Thy voice. God is always speaking, but sometimes we become deaf to His voice, and so He seems to be silent to us. It is a solemn thing when a child of God can go on through this world day after day without ever hearing His voice. Have you heard it today? Has He spoken to you today?
We have a great movement sweeping parts of Great Britain, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States and Canada, sometimes called the Oxford Group Movement. It is rather strange that it should be called by that name because it began in America. A certain pastor launched it some years ago on the eastern coast. This movement particularly emphasizes the importance of divine guidance. Unfortunately it lays no stress whatever on the importance of a second birth. Apparently it has nothing to say about redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ but a great deal about life changing and about confession and about listening to the voice of God. These terms sound very good, and they find answering assent in the hearts of many of Gods beloved people. We are told that if we want to know whether there is a living God or not we should sit down quietly in the morning and try to let our mind become an absolute blank and then listen and let God speak. Whatever He tells you, as you hear the inward voice, do that thing.
It is a very unsafe thing for anybody to act on a principle like that. You say, well, what do you mean when you talk about hearing the voice of God? God speaks to us through His Word. If you want to hear the voice of God, sit down over your Bible and say, Blessed Lord, as I read Thy Word let me hear Thee speaking to me. And if you know of anything in your life that is hindering fellowship with God, as the Spirit of God brings to your mind any unconfessed sin, any unjudged evil, you confess it, deal with that in the presence of God and remember, it is written, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me (Psa 66:18). Now with everything put away as far as you know, turn to His Word and read it in dependence upon His Holy Spirit and if He does not speak, there is something wrong with you still.
David says, Be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. He would never go down into the pit, for he was saved from that; but he says as it were, The thing that I dread is that if I am not in living touch with Thee, if I am not hearing Thy voice day by day, I know I will become just like the world around. A Christian out of fellowship with God does not cease to be a Christian, but he is not walking as a Christian should walk and so becomes like them that go down into the pit.
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle. And now we get a suggestion here of the difference between Old Testament worship and New Testament worship. The Old Testament saint knew nothing of what you and I through grace should know and understand. In all of the Old Testament dispensation God was hidden behind a heavy veil. He dwelt in the thick darkness and only the high priest could push that aside and enter once a year, bearing the blood of atonement. But now it is altogether different. The Old Testament saint said, I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle. But what about the New Testament saint? Look at Heb 10:19-22 and see how different our position is, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, or with the water of purification, referring to the nineteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, undoubtedly. Look at the difference. The Old Testament saint was truly a child of God, truly forgiven, but he knew nothing of immediate access into the holiest because the veil was not yet rent. The precious blood of Christ had not yet been shed, and so these Psalms do not rise to the full height of New Testament worship. That is one reason why we need to be careful when we try to use them as vehicles of Christian praise, testimony, and adoration. The tone of worship never rises to New Testament heights until we enter into the holiest through the value of the precious blood of Jesus. The Old Testament saint says, I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle. Suppose I were to try to sing that today. I will not do anything of the kind. The oracle was the holiest of all. I belong in the holiest of all. I enter, in all the infinite value of the precious atoning blood of Christ. On the other hand, a great many of the Psalms are beautiful expressions of praise and worship, but they all reach just a certain height. You get the full height of Christian worship in Revelation where we read, Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever (Rev 1:5-6). I wish I could write music. I would like to write an anthem on those words, for that is what we are going to sing in Heaven.
The Psalmist recognizes that he is in the midst of enemies, and every believer must see that, and so David prays that he might not learn their ways-Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. You never saw anybody like that, did you? You never saw a person like that in your mirror, did you? We can be so soft and sweet and nice, and all the time mischief is in the heart. David says, I do not want to be like that. And then judgment is called down upon them. We would not call down judgment because we are living in the dispensation of grace; but this was in the dispensation of law.
In the latter part of the Psalm, Davids heart goes out in thanksgiving and praise for deliverance. Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Can you say that? The Lord is my strength and my shield? My strength to enable me to do the things that ordinarily I could not do; my shield to protect me from my foes. My conflict is not now with flesh and blood but with wicked spirits in heavenly places, and I need such a shield as this. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him. The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed. That is, His Messiah. Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Psa 28:1
I. The Psalmist used the words of the text in what we may describe as their lowest, their least alarming, sense. His fears extended only to a temporary, an apparent, silence, to a want of comfort and of happiness, rather than an actual withdrawal of God’s love and grace. To be incapable of entering into the feeling expressed in the text-the dread of being deserted even temporarily by Him in whom the soul lives, and moves, and has its being-implies that God is not as yet the object of all our affections, the centre of all our interests. If there are things which we dread more than God’s silence, there must be things which we desire more than the sound of His voice.
II. If God is sometimes silent to a true Christian, what is He to others? Are there any to whom He is always silent? Absolutely silent indeed He is to no man. Outwardly His voice reaches all of us in His word, all men everywhere in His works. Inwardly, too, in conscience, He speaks to all. Thoughts accusing or else excusing-these too are of Him. But all these may be, and yet God, in the most serious and awful sense, may still be silent to us, and this in more ways than one. (1) A man may pray because it is his duty, but all the time he is silent to God, and God to him. His heart was silent, his spirit was silent, while his lips were uttering the words of prayer; and therefore God, who looks on the heart and answers with His blessing no other prayer than that there uttered, heard no sound, and gave no response. (2) There is such a thing as a penal silence, a condition in which for our sins God has ceased to speak to us. (3) There is a silence which can never be broken, a silence which is the last, the eternal, punishment of sin, a silence which is itself the very pain and misery of hell.
C. J. Vaughan, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 283.
References: Psa 28:1.-Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 118; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 185. Psa 28:7.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1423. Psa 28:9.-Ibid., vol. xiii., No. 768; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 106. Psa 29:1.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v., p. 310. Psa 29:2.-A. Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 329; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 229. Psa 29:5.-R. Roberts, My Late Ministry, p. 238. Psa 29:9, Psa 29:10.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 124; C. J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 209.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 28
Prayer For Judgment and Praise For the Answer
1. Prayer for judgment (Psa 28:1-5)
2. Praise for the answer (Psa 28:6-9)
Psa 28:1-5. Their cry now increaseth because of their enemies, the enemies of Israel in the last days. They breathe out cruelty to them (Psa 27:12). They pass through the valley of the shadow of death and if He does not answer and remains silent they be like those that go down to the pit. Hence the imprecatory prayer, Give them according to their deeds, etc. (Psa 28:4)
Psa 28:6-9. In faith the answer is anticipated and praise is given for it. The Psalm ends with a prayer. Save Thy people (Israel), and bless Thine inheritance, and lift them up forever. The next Psalms bring the answer.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Unto: Psa 3:4, Psa 5:2, Psa 22:2, Psa 77:1, Psa 142:1
O: Psa 18:2, Psa 42:9, Isa 26:4, *marg.
be: Psa 35:22, Psa 83:1
to: Heb. from
I become: Psa 30:9, Psa 69:15, Psa 88:4-6, Psa 143:7, Job 33:28, Pro 1:12, Isa 38:18, Rev 20:3
Reciprocal: Job 33:26 – pray Psa 18:3 – I will Psa 26:9 – Gather not Psa 30:3 – down Psa 55:1 – hide Psa 109:1 – Hold Psa 140:6 – hear Son 1:7 – for Son 5:6 – I sought Eze 26:20 – I shall bring Eze 28:8 – shall bring Mat 15:23 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A SILENT GOD
Be not silent to me.
Psa 28:1
I. The Psalmist used the words of the text in what we may describe as their lowest, their least alarming, sense.His fears extended only to a temporary, an apparent, silence, to a want of comfort and of happiness, rather than an actual withdrawal of Gods love and grace. To be incapable of entering into the feeling expressed in the textthe dread of being deserted even temporarily by Him in Whom the soul lives, and moves, and has its beingimplies that God is not as yet the object of all our affections, the centre of all our interests. If there are things which we dread more than Gods silence, there must be things which we desire more than the sound of His voice.
II. If God is sometimes silent to a true Christian, what is He to others?Are there any to whom He is always silent? Absolutely silent indeed He is to no man. Outwardly His voice reaches all of us in His word, all men everywhere in His works. Inwardly, too, in conscience, He speaks to all. Thoughts accusing or else excusingthese too are of Him. But all these may be, and yet God, in the most serious and awful sense, may still be silent to us, and this in more ways than one. (1) A man may pray because it is his duty, but all the time he is silent to God, and God to him. His heart was silent, his spirit was silent, while his lips were uttering the words of prayer; and therefore God, Who looks on the heart and answers with His blessing no other prayer than that there uttered, heard no sound, and gave no response. (2) There is such a thing as a penal silence, a condition in which for our sins God has ceased to speak to us. (3) There is a silence which can never be broken, a silence which is the last, the eternal, punishment of sin, a silence which is itself the very pain and misery of hell.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration
The silences of God have been the problem of devout hearts in all ages. But silence is not denial; silence is not disregard; silence is not a sign of lack in love. God waits that He may be gracious. He is silent until the golden moment comes when He can speak with best effect. During the long spell of silence, which appears as though it would never be broken, He pours in His grace and help, that the expectant soul may be able still to endure.
There is another side, however, to Gods silence. We remember that Jesus said, If it were not so, I would have told you. From this we may gather that sometimes Gods silence is a tacit consent. When the great deep of the heart is broken up, and the instinctive yearnings of our nature assert themselves, crying for immortality; for the restoration of broken ties the other side of death; for the recognition of loved ones in the world to come; for the adjustment of injustice and misrule in the worldthe fact that no answer comes from the infinite and unseen God may indicate that He will not fail to gratify the instincts which He Himself has implanted.
The psalm clears itself. Blessedness already steals into the singers soul. He says softly: I am helped; God hath heard; my heart greatly rejoiceth.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
The test of experience.
[A psalm] of David.
We have now in the fourth psalm of this series the ground of experience itself: “I trusted in Him and am helped”; a good argument in its place, and the necessary result of a life lived with God. How can we ignore all that has been gained in this way of practical acquaintance with Him? The richer we are in such experiences the brighter our lives will be, the more energetic, and the more fruitful. In the nature of things experience cannot be the first foundation; and it does not come in that place here.
1. The circumstances are still those of the last days, in which enemies and evil-doers surround the righteous. Jehovah is their one resource: if He interfere not, they will be like those going down to the pit. The psalmist cannot say that he will be among those going down to the pit, but like them. Yet the shadow of death is upon their souls: they fear it. The national deliverance looked for is, of course, not the other side of death, -not out of it, but from it. Death would, of course, end for the individual all hopes of this, though God will, in fact, for those who endure martyrdom, reserve a better place -a place with the heavenly saints of the first resurrection. (Rev 20:5-6.) But this does not come into view here. The “pit,” however, is for that reason more than the grave, though in the imagery of it. Confidence is based upon the Unchangeable God, and the dependence itself which the needy one has on Him. The prayer of Solomon for all those that pray towards the temple is remembered here, and made a ground of hope (1Ki 8:30). The mercy of the Lord is ever toward those that fear Him, and toward those that hope in His mercy, which He cannot deny; for He cannot deny Himself.
2. But the judgment of the world is come, and only by judgment can the deliverance of Israel be effected: so again we have the remnant’s prayer for the destruction of the wicked. Evil has come to its height, and, in that which threatens because of it, it might well seem that none could at all escape, but that evil and just would alike be swallowed up in undistinguishing ruin. We can well understand, therefore, the cry, “Draw me not away with the wicked!” with whom the smoothness of the outside only disguises the treachery of their hearts. Their works testify against them; their reward, in contrast with the grace to the righteous, is prayed to be according to their works.
3. This is their character manward; but the fountain of all the evil is in their thorough ignorance of Jehovah. His works are before them; the operations of His hands are all around them: ignorance means only alienation from Him; moral incapacity to discern what is of Him is just the sign of the inveteracy of the evil, and which, because incurable, must be extirpated with the sharpest surgery in very mercy to mankind. The prayer changes therefore here to prophecy: he who does discern what God is, has the surest ground for anticipating the future of these stubborn sinners.
4. We have now the experience which works hope: along the way, before the end has come, Jehovah yet manifests Himself in signal interventions, which are the anticipation of the full deliverance to come. How blessed are the foretokens of the dawn, though it has not come. How good the help by the way, sent from Him who awaits us at the end of the way!
So here, Jehovah has heard and helped; Jehovah has shown Himself both strength and shield; prayer has been answered, and praise follows it.
5. But more: the heart is led on to realize the security of the abiding blessing, the necessary issue of what God is to His anointed. He upon whom, because of what He is, the Spirit rests in His fullness (Mat 3:16-17) is the One who enlists all the power of God in His behalf, in the conflict between good and evil that must last as long as evil lasts upon the earth. “A stronghold of salvation to His Anointed He!” Thus to be under Him is to find deliverance assured. He is the “Captain of salvation,” saving to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Thus at the close of the psalm faith in the remnant, soon to be the nation, turns to Him, to put the burden of Israel’s need upon His strong shoulder. It is a suited close to the series of psalms we have been considering; for the next psalm, though the final one, is in many respects different. Saviour and Shepherd they own Him now, themselves His people and His inheritance: for the lost sheep recovered, the place is upon His shoulder, according to the tender picture which He has Himself drawn. Once again it will be said, in view of this part of their history, -and they will be made to know it too, as never yet, -“He bare them and carried them all the days of old.”
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 28:1. Be not silent to me Hebrew, , al techeresh mimmenni, be not deaf to me, that is, to my prayers; do not act as if thou didst not hear, or didst disregard my prayers; lest, if thou be silent to me And return no answer to my petitions; I become like them that go down to the pit That is, lest I be in the same condition with them, a dead, lost, undone creature, as I certainly shall be if thou do not succour me. If God be not my friend, and appear not for me, my help and hope are perished. Nothing can be so distressing to a gracious soul as the want of Gods favour and the sense of his displeasure. Or, as some understand it, lest I be like those that go down to hell; for what is the misery of the damned but this, that God is for ever silent to them, and deaf to their cry?
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 28:5. He shall destroy them, and not build them up. David often foresaw that Sauls army and party would perish in war. This prayer, Psa 28:4-5, is in unison with the forms of prayer used in christian churches for their sovereigns in times of war and danger; giving him the victory over all his enemies. Yet we are not allowed to pray against but for our opposers.
Psa 28:8. The Lord is their strength. The LXX, the strength of his people.
REFLECTIONS.
This prayer of David was uttered under some new excitement of the Benjamites. They had flattered him with fair speeches, having mischief in their hearts. Therefore he saw that God would not establish their houses, as princes and nobles in the land. Let us trace the designations of providence, that we may revere and follow them. Many live in constant forgetfulness of God, because they regard not his works. This is the cause why so many that know God, in works deny him and rebel against him; they overlook the majesty of his power, and the displays of his wrath against sinners. Let it therefore be our resolution, that we will meditate on his works, and consider the operation of his hands.
Let us learn from hence to cultivate a deep concern for the good of the public, and to offer fervent prayers for its prosperity. That is a short, excellent, and comprehensive prayer in the conclusion of the psalm, which we should improve; that God would save his people, and bless his inheritance, those who profess his pure religion and are devoted to his service; that he would save them from their enemies, and bless them with victory and prosperity; feed them with plenty of earthly and spiritual blessings, lift them out of their troubles into a state of security and triumph, and do it for ever for his people, through all succeeding generations. This is a very proper prayer for our country at all times, and should be offered up with great earnestness; then may we hope that God will be the strength of his people, and the saving strength of his anointed; that the king may reign in righteousness, and princes decree justice.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XXVIII. Prayer for deliverance from godless Jews, and for vengeance upon them. The Ps. ends with thanksgiving and prayer for ruler and people.
Psa 28:2. Read mg.
Psa 28:4. Yahwehs anointed may be either a king or a high priest.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 28
The desire of the believer to be kept in separation from a world that is going on to judgment.
(vv. 1-3) In the midst of a wicked nation that is going down to the pit, the godly Jew appeals to the Lord to hear his cry that he may not be drawn away with the wicked, or deceived by the fair show they may make – speaking peace to their neighbours, but with mischief in their hearts.
(vv. 4-5) The godly Jew looks for judgment on the wicked. This judgment will fall, first, because of their sins – the works of their hands; and, secondly, because they slight the works of the Lord.
These are the abiding principles of God’s ways in judgment. God cannot pass over sin, but God has made provision in the death of Christ to put away sin. If men neglect God’s provision in grace they will fall under God’s hand in judgment. This judgment, however, is not only on account of their sin, but also because of their neglect of Christ (Heb 2:3).
(vv. 6-8) The godly soul has the consciousness that the Lord has heard his cry. He trusted, was helped, and rejoices. The ground of his confidence is Christ, for he can say that the Lord is not only the strength of the godly, but He is the saving strength of his anointed one (JND). Thus the godly avail themselves of God’s provision in grace and plead the Anointed One – Christ – who has intervened and suffered on their behalf, and was saved out of all His sufferings (Psa 22:21).
(v. 9) If the Anointed One has been saved out of His sufferings, those for whom He suffered will be saved. Therefore the psalmist can with confidence say to God, Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance. Though for a time they may have to pass through suffering, and appear to be cast down, yet, even so, God will feed them and finally lift them up for ever, in contrast to those who go down to the pit (v. 1).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Psalms 28
This psalm is similar to Psalms 26, except that in this one, David’s distress was imminent. He believed God would not punish him with the wicked, and he asked Him to save and shepherd His people. The combination of confidence in Yahweh and prayer to Yahweh, that appears in Psalms 27, appears again here but in reverse order. Psa 28:1-5 are lament, and Psa 28:6-9 are thanksgiving.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Urgent petition for deliverance 28:1-4
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
David cried out in prayer for the Lord’s deliverance from his enemies so he would not die. The "pit" refers to the grave.
"Prayer is an expression of sole dependence on the Lord for help." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 249.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 28:1-9
THE unquestionable resemblances to Psa 26:1-12 scarcely require that this should be considered its companion. The differences are as obvious as the likenesses. While the prayer “Draw me not away with the wicked” and the characterisation of these are alike in both, the further emphatic prayer for retribution here and the closing half of this psalm have nothing corresponding to them in the other. This psalm is built on the familiar plan of groups of two verses each, with the exception that the prayer, which is its centre, runs over into three. The course of thought is as familiar as the structure. Invocation is followed by petition, and that by exultant anticipation of the answer as already given; and all closes with wider petitions for the whole people.
Psa 28:1-2 are a prelude to the prayer proper, bespeaking the Divine acceptance of it, on the double ground of the psalmists helplessness apart from Gods help and of his outstretched hands appealing to God enthroned above the mercy seat. He is in such straits that, unless his prayer brings an answer in act, he must sink into the pit of Sheol, and be made like those that lie huddled there in its darkness. On the edge of the slippery slope, he stretches out his hands toward the innermost sanctuary (for so the word rendered, by a mistaken etymology, “oracle” means). He beseeches God to hear, and blends the two figures of deafness and silence as both meaning the withholding of help. Jehovah seems deaf when prayer is unanswered, and is silent when He does not speak in deliverance. This prelude of invocation throbs with earnestness, and sets the pattern for suppliants, teaching them bow to quicken their own desires as well as how to appeal to God by breathing to Him their consciousness that only His hand can keep them from sliding down into death.
The prayer itself (Psa 28:3-5) touches lightly on the petition that the psalmist may be delivered from the fate of the wicked, and then launches out into indignant description of their practices and solemn invocation of retribution upon them. “Drag away” is parallel with, but stronger than, “Gather not” in Psa 26:9. Commentators quote Job 24:22, where the word is used of Gods dragging the mighty out of life by His power, as a struggling criminal is haled to the scaffold. The shuddering recoil from the fate of the wicked is accompanied with vehement loathing of their practices. A man who keeps his heart in touch with God cannot but shrink, as from a pestilence, from complicity with evil. and the depth of his hearty hatred of it is the measure of his right to ask that he may not share in the ruin it must bring, since God is righteous. One type of evildoers is the object of the psalmists special abhorrence: false friends with smooth tongues and daggers in their sleeves, the “dissemblers” of Psa 26:1-12; but he passes to the more general characterisation of the class, in his terrible prayer for retribution, in Psa 28:4-5. The sin of sins, from which all specific acts of evil flow, is blindness to Gods “deeds” and to “the work of His hands,” His acts both of mercy and of judgment. Practical atheism, the indifference which looks upon nature, history, and self, and sees no signs of a mighty hand tender, pure, and strong, ever active in them all, will surely lead the purblind “Agnostics” to do “works of their hands” which, for lack of reference to Him, fail to conform to the highest ideal and draw down righteous judgment. But the blindness to Gods work here meant is that of an averted will rather than that of mistaken understanding, and from the stem of such a thorn the grapes of holy living cannot be gathered. Therefore the psalmist is but putting into words the necessary result of such lives when from suppliant he becomes prophet, and declares that “He shall cast them down, and not build them up.” The stern tone of this prayer marks it as belonging to the older type of religion, and its dissimilarity to the New Testament teaching is not to be slurred over. No doubt the element of personal enmity is all but absent, but it is not the prayer which those who have heard “Father, forgive them,” are to copy. Yet, on the other hand, the wholesome abhorrence of evil, the solemn certitude that sin is death, the desire that it may cease from the world, and the lowly petition that it may not drag us into fatal associations are all to be preserved in Christian feeling, while softened by the light that falls from Calvary.
As in many psalms, the faith which prays passes at once into the faith which possesses. This man, when he “stood praying, believed that he had what he asked,” and, so believing, had it. There was no change in circumstances, but he was changed. There is no fear of going down into the pit now, and the rabble of evil-doers have disappeared. This is the blessing which every true suppliant may bear away from the throne, the peace which passeth understanding, the sure pledge of the Divine act which answers prayer. It is the first gentle ripple of the incoming tide; high water is sure to come at the due hour. So the psalmist is exuberant and happily tautological in telling how his trusting heart has become a leaping heart, and help has been flashed back from heaven as swiftly as his prayer had travelled thither.
The closing strophe (Psa 28:8-9) is but loosely connected with the body of the psalm except on one supposition. What if the singer were king over Israel, and if the dangers threatening him were public perils? That would explain the else singular attachment of intercession for Israel to so intensely personal a supplication. It is most natural that Gods “anointed” who has been asking deliverance for himself, should widen his petitions to take in that flock of which he was but the under-shepherd, and should devolve the shepherding and carrying of it on the Divine Shepherd King, of whom he was the shadowy representative. The addition of one letter changes “their” in Psa 28:8 into “to His people” a reading which has the support of the LXX and of some manuscripts and versions and is recommended by its congruity with the context. Cheynes suggestion that “His anointed” is the high priest is only conjecture. The reference of the expression to the king who is also the psalmist preserves the unity of the psalm. The Christian reader cannot but think of the true King and Intercessor, whose great prayer before His passion began, like our psalm, with petitions for Himself, but passed into supplication for His little flock and for all the unnumbered millions “who should believe on” Him “through their word.”