Psalms 28

Psalms 28As in the preceding psalm, a righteous sufferer prays that he may not be confounded with the wicked whom his soul abhors, so here a like prayer is offered by the Anointed of Jehovah. He first prays in general for audience and acceptance, without which he must quickly perish, Psalms 28:1-2. He then asks to be distinguished from the wicked in the infliction of God’s judgments, Psalms 28:3-5. He then gives thanks for the anticipated answer to his prayer, Psalms 28:6-8, and implores an extension of the blessing to all God’s people at all times, Psalms 28:9. The collocation of the psalm is clearly not fortuitous, but founded on its close resemblance to the one before it.

1. (Psalms 28:1) By David. Unto thee, Jehovah, will I call; my rock, be not silent from me, lest thou hold thy peace from me, and I be made like to those going down (into) the pit. My rock, the immoveable foundation of my hope and object of my trust. See above, on Psalms 18:3; Psalms 18:32 (2, 31), Psalms 19:15 (14). That God is such affords a sufficient reason for the importunate demands which follow. It is inconsistent with the relation he sustains to those who trust him, that he should be silent when they pray, i.e. refuse to answer.

The ideas of distance and estrangement are really implied in being silent, and suggested by the pregnant construction silent from. The meaning of the last clause is correctly given, with a change of idiom, in the English version, lest, if thou be silent, etc. The passive verb does not merely mean to be like, but to be made like, assimilated, confounded. The pit, the grave, both in its narrower and wider sense. (Compare Isaiah 14:15; Isaiah 14:19.) Those going down into the pit is a common description of the dead. See Psalms 30:4 (8), Psalms 88:5 (4), and compare Psalms 22:30 (29). 2. (Psalms 28:2) Hear the voice of my supplications, in my crying unto thee (for help); in my lifting up my hands to thy holy oracle. In my crying, in my lifting, i.e. at the time of my so doing, when I am in the very act. The lifting up of the hands is a natural symbol of the raising of the heart or the desires to God, and is therefore often mentioned in connection with the act of prayer. Exodus 9:29; Exodus 17:11-12, 1 Kings 8:22; 1 Kings 8:54, Lamentations 2:19, iii. 41, Psalms 63:5 (4).— The Sword translated oracle is derived from the verb to speak, and seems to mean a place of speaking or conversation, like the English parlour from the French parler. Now we learn from Exodus 25:22, Numbers 7:89, that the place whence God talked with Moses was the inner apartment of the tabernacle; and from 1 Kings 6:19, that the corresponding part of the temple bore the name here used. To this, as the depository 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. See above, on Ps. 5:8 (7). 3. (Psalms 28:3) Draw me not away with wicked (men), and with workers of iniquity, speaking peace with their neighbours, and evil (is) in their heart. This is the prayer for which he bespeaks audience and acceptance in the foregoing verse. Draw me not away, i.e. to punishment or out of life. Compare Ps. 26:9, where the parallel expression is gather me not. In both cases he prays that he may not be confounded in his death with those whose life he abhors. The last clause exhibits a particular trait in the character of the wicked men and evil doers of the other clause. This trait is hypocritical dissimulation, the pretence of friendship as a mask to hatred. The simple construction with the copulative and is equivalent to our expressions, but, though, while, etc. 4. (Psalms 28:4) Give to them according to their act, and according to the evil of their deeds, according to the work of their hands give thou to them; return their treatment to them. Having prayed that he may not share the destruction of the wicked, he now prays that they may not escape it. But as this is merely asking God to act as a just and holy being must act, the charge of vindictive ruelty is not merely groundless, but absurd.— The evil of their deeds is a phrase borrowed from Moses (Deut. xxviii. 20), and often repeated by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 23:2; Jeremiah 23:22; Jeremiah 26:3; Jeremiah 44:22). The same prophet has combined two of the phrases here employed in Jeremiah 25:14, and Lamentations 3:64. The word translated treatment is a participle meaning that which is done by one person to another, whether good or evil. See above, on Psalms 7:5 (4). 5. (Psalms 28:5) Because they will not attend to the acts of Jehovah and to the doing of his hands, he will pull them down and will not build them up. Having appealed to the divine justice for a righteous recompence of these offenders, he now shews what they have deserved and must experience, by shewing what they have done, or rather not done. The acts of Jehovah and the works of his hands are common expressions for his penal judgments. See Psalms 64:10 (9), Psalms 92:5 (4), Isaiah 5:12; Isaiah 28:21; Isaiah 29:23.—Pull down and not build up, is an idiomatic combination of positive and negative terms to express the same idea.— Build, therefore, does not mean rebuild, but is simply the negative or opposite of pull down. The form of expression is copied repeatedly by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:28; Jeremiah 42:10; Jeremiah 45:4.) See also Job 12:14. 6. (Psalms 28:6) Blessed (be) Jehovah, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. What he asked in Psalms 28:2 he has now obtained, or at least the assurance of a favourable answer, in the confident anticipation of which he begins already to bless God. The word translated supplications means, according to its etymology, prayers for grace or mercy. 7. (Psalms 28:7) Jehovah, my strength and my shield! In him has my heart trusted, and I have been helped, and my heart shall exult, and by my song I will thank (or praise) him. The construction of the first clause as a proposition, by supplying the substantive verb, Jehovah (is) my strength and my shield, is unnecessary, and neither so simple nor so strong as that which makes it a grateful and admiring exclamation.— My heart is twice used in this sentence to express the deep and cordial nature of the exercises which he is describing. The same heart that trusted now rejoices. As he believed with all his heart, so now he rejoices in like manner.— By my song, literally from or out of it, as the source and the occasion of his praise. Compare Psalms 22:26 (25). 8. (Psalms 28:8) Jehovah (is) strength to them, and a stronghold of salvation (to) his Anointed (is) He. The Psalmist having spoken hitherto not only for him- self but for the people, here insensibly substitutes the third person plural for the first person singular. In the last clause he reverts to himself, but with the use of an expression which discloses his relation to the people, of which he was not only a member but the delegated head, the Anointed of Jehovah. See above, on Psalms 2:2. A stronghold. See above on Psalms 27:1.— Salvations, full salvation. See above on Psalms 18:50 (49). The personal pronoun at the end of the sentence is emphatic, and intended to concentrate the attention upon one great object. 9. (Psalms 28:9) Oh save thy people, and bless thy heritage, and feed them, and carry (or exalt them) even to eternity! The whole psalm closes with a prayer that the relation now subsisting between God and his people may continue for ever. Thy heritage, thy peculiar people, whom thou dost preserve and treat as such from generation to generation. The idea and expression are Mosaic. See Deuteronomy 9:29, and compare Psalms 33:12; Psalms 68:10 (9), Psalms 94:5. The image then merges into that of a shepherd and his flock, a favourite one with David and throughout the later scriptures.

See above, on Psalms 23:1. — Feed them, not only in the strict sense, but in that of doing the whole duty of a shepherd. The next verb is by some translated carry them, in which sense the primitive is elsewhere used in speaking of a shepherd (Isaiah 40:11), and this very form appears to have the same sense in Isaiah 63:9, while in 2 Samuel 5:12 it is applied to the exaltation of David himself as a theocratic sovereign.