Today’s Passage: Psalm 28
This is a psalm of David, and it begins as a plea not to be met with silence. If God stays quiet, he says, he will be like those who go down to the Pit. Then, with no scene set between the asking and the answer, everything turns: He has heard. The LORD is my strength and my shield.
As you read, hold this: Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
Psalm 28:1-2 (BSB)
Of David. ¹ To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit. ² Hear my cry for mercy when I call to You for help, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
He asks God not to be deaf to him, and he calls Him his Rock. If the LORD stays silent, he says, he will be like those going down to the Pit, for the silence of God is set here beside death itself. So he pleads for his cry for mercy to be heard, and he lifts up his hands toward the holy sanctuary as he prays.
Psalm 28:3-5 (BSB)
³ Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts. ⁴ Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve. ⁵ Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.
He asks not to be dragged away with the wicked, the ones who speak peace to their neighbors while malice sits in their hearts. Then come the hard words: repay them, bring back on them what they deserve. Read the line honestly. This is not revenge dressed up in holy clothes, and it is not to be softened into a vague and pious mood. David does not lift his own hand against them; he hands the repayment over to God. These are people who show no regard for the works of the LORD, and so, the psalm says, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.
Study notes Peace on the lips
Paul warns the church about the same pleasant speech.
"For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive." Romans 16:18 (BSB)
It is smooth talk with malice underneath, not open hostility but a neighbor’s peace that is not really peace at all.
Psalm 28:6-7 (BSB)
⁶ Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy. ⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.
Context The turn
Nothing in the text explains what happened between verse 5 and verse 6. The plea is still hanging in the air, and then, all at once, He has heard. The psalm does not wait for the scene to visibly change before it blesses Him. Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is his strength and his shield, and his heart trusts in Him and finds itself helped. And because he is helped, his heart rejoices, and he gives thanks to God with his song.
Psalm 28:8-9 (BSB)
⁸ The LORD is the strength of His people, a stronghold of salvation for His anointed. ⁹ Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; shepherd them and carry them forever.
At the end the asking widens out beyond himself. Save Your people, he prays, and bless Your inheritance; shepherd them, and nasa, pronounced nah-SAH. Strong's H5375, to lift, raise, carry, bear. It is the same root as the hands lifted up in worship earlier in the psalm, but here the direction reverses. It is no longer our hands reaching toward Him; it is His hands underneath His people, holding them up. Shepherd them, the psalm prays, and carry them forever. them forever. Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.