Psalm 28

Shall we read Psalm 28? I believe it was a prayer of David, the 28th Psalm, beginning at verse 1. Under 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 to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplication, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked, 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 endeavors. Give them after the work of their hands, rendered to them their dessert. 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 trusteth 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 forever. What a lovely little psalm. David of course wrote many psalms that are given to him by the heading, and others we are not sure of, but when we think of him writing the 23rd psalm, evidence that there was a day in his life when he came to know the Lord as his own shepherd.

That likely was in the earlier part of his life. Now whatever his age at the time of writing this psalm, I would not wish to say. We do not know.

But it begins with a desire from his own heart, and it ends with the thoughts of blessing for the Lord's people and preservation. And so I'm thinking tonight, as expressed several times already by our brethren in prayer, that indeed we might hear the shepherd's voice. David begins with his own longing.

He says in verse 1, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. How good it is in the mercy of God that we were placed upon that sure foundation, the rock of our souls, the Lord Jesus. And to recognize that this is where we stand as before God, accepted in the beloved, in the very one in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace.

But David is recognizing personally a desire that the Lord might speak to him. When we think of the Savior, John chapter 10, he says, My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. And thus he's given us his word, which brought us to understand not only the finished work of Calvary, but the ongoing work that he's doing for you and I as believers, as the great shepherd of the sheep, interested in our well-being and care.

But David recognizes that if he does not hear the voice of the Lord, and he turns, as it were, his ears away from truth that would preserve him, he recognizes the danger, the end of verse 1, he says, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the pit. And our thinking of our position in Christ, now in the church age, as David and those of that time look forward to the work of the Savior, yet to realize a deliverance that only the Lord could bring to pass, whether then or now, enlarge, to bring us to know God. But he's fearful, lest he follow in a distance or get away, I become like them that go down to the pit.

We'll never be in hell, we've been delivered from the penitent of sin, but we know that is the Lord's desire, and this would be our prayer as we think of the conference and the meetings before us. He says in verse 2, hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy circle. And so he's spreading out his own personal desires as to recognizing the need of drawing near, and the Lord drawing near to him.

Verse 3 seems to show again the desire of his heart not to be led astray. Draw me not away with the wicked. I think all of us understand the righteous and the wicked of the Old Testament are the saved and the unsaved of the new.

And so we can see the end of those that turn away and refuse to bow to the Lord. They have mischief in their hearts, and God will deal with them. Verse 5 answers, because they regard not the works of the Lord.

And so David, he has a desire not to be drawn as into their thinking and attitude in regard to his own preservation. We realize this, that the Lord will give to every man according to whatsoever he soweth, that shall he reap. There's salvation for any sinner, as we've been reminded, and we'll be right to the closing moments of his earthly sojourn, if he's willing, the moment to give ear to the gospel and to trust the Savior.

As David thinks of them, he comes back to his own realization. Verse 6, blessed be the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication. I'm thinking that David recognizes if he hears the voice of the Lord, and what a privilege we have the holy scriptures in our hand, and the truth of God in our souls through the person of Christ.

So when you come down to the last verses, that's the ones that led me to this psalm. The circle of those whiter, he speaks of those that are the anointed of the Lord, verse 8. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. He even refers in verse 7 to his confidence in the Lord.

He is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and this causes a note of thanksgiving, and with my song will I praise him. But I had in my mind the ninth verse, and there it seems a circle widens to all of God's people.

Whenever I note this ninth verse, I think back of a conference, I believe it would have been in the late 1950s, at Garneville, Iowa. The brethren had not put in air conditioning in the high school as they had done in recent years. It was in the month of June, it was hot, and it was on a Saturday afternoon, about the second or third speaker, and a man by the name of George Chivas, a few older ones here would remember him, he was a Canadian, he got up and read the ninth verse.

He woke us up, save thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed them also, lift them up forever. A four-fold exhortation, that I am thinking would be so wise and expressions of our own hearts and desires, that it might be true in view of the conference meetings as we think of them all in the next day. Save thy people.

I looked up this morning again in the concordance, the word save here entails preservation, deliverance, and protection. It's not our salvation as to our eternal destiny. David is thinking of the people of God.

We became children of God the moment that we trusted Christ. And thus it is the Lord's interest that our lives now be useful for him, and to honor the Savior, not only in personal lives, but collectively as well. And this is the point of conferences.

We've enjoyed the conferences these fall seasons. How quickly the weeks come and go. I was here, my first conference as a Christian, it was Labor Day weekend, your conferences, back in those years, in September of 1950.

So whatever conference year that was, it's the first conference that I enjoyed as a Christian. We'd been to many conferences as a boy. But it wasn't of any interest, you know, we were there, we'd sleep with the other young fellows that needed Christ like ourselves, sitting in the sidelines.

But to sit down and to listen to the scriptures. Mr. John Gray was at that conference, his first time on the cross, and he had hair as black as coal, but he says, I've been gray all my life. Well that was his last name, Gray.

But anyway, memories go back, and when you think of the saints coming together, and there's still a conference here, and the need is a fresh need that is acknowledged. And so the desire of David is, save thy people. A people purchased by purchased blood.

A people belonging to the Lord, Romans 14. Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. But there's the enemies, the world out there.

The devil himself, though he's a defeated foe, he wants to rob us of joy, he wants to rob us of peace, if he can. And then there's the flesh within us, the threefold enemy. But we need and can and enjoy, as David thought of, the needs of the people of God.

Save thy people. How good it is to be linked with collective testimony. Coming back to that first conference, that was the first Lord's Day as a Christian.

We sat, of course, in the seat of the unlearned. Lawrence Larson ushered, I think it was four of us boys had come up from Iowa. I've said, we were on the front seat or the back seat, as far as the Lord's Day morning.

But for the first time, I entered into what was going on as far as the brethren rising to offer praise to the Savior. Some weeks later, I'd be baptized and eventually came into fellowship where we were there in Iowa. But his prayer is, save thy people.

Then he says a second one, expression, bless thine inheritance. What's the inheritance? I was thinking of Romans 8. As to the saints of God, we're heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. God is going to share in the Lord Jesus, all of the glory, when you and I say by his grace.

What an inheritance, it cost the Savior's life. But he rose in triumph as a living Christ. And so he's saying, bless thine inheritance.

That's our little expression here, feed them also. I hope that's been our exercise in coming along to the conference, speaker included. We need food for our souls.

I've related this at times. I worked for a Christian in the local assembly for five years, living there in Waterloo, Iowa. His father, an unsaved man, was out in one of the local hospitals.

So I walked into the waiting room. And here, sitting there in one of the chairs, was one of the older sisters in the assembly. And I went over and greeted her.

Grandma Arnholz was her name. And she popped me a question that closed my mouth. Robert, did you read this morning? I says, Mrs. Arnholz, we're a little late getting up.

I rushed through breakfast. I said to my wife, we'll read as our normal reading tonight when I get home from work, when I come back to the house. And so I had to say, I hadn't read this morning.

I've thought of that. You know, that still sticks in my memory. God arranged that just for my own good.

Now whether you're able to join with a family in the morning, or whether it's at night, it's a different age, work circumstances. But nevertheless, every believer should have not only his own reading personally, but I trust reading with a family. I remember two boys saying, years ago, over in Minnesota, talking about their mother.

Really, it was their grandmother, because their mother wasn't saved at that time. Grandma used to read with us. She doesn't do it anymore.

Well, we all need to be fed. That was the words of the Lord to Peter. Feed my lambs.

Feed my sheep. And preserve and help them. And so we're looking to the Lord that we might hear his voice.

And that we might be helped in our pathway. And thus, he has provided us with the Holy Scriptures. The truth of God.

How wonderful, not only to know him as Savior, but to acknowledge that when you and I trusted Christ, he became our Lord. Do we recognize it? Lordship in life has to path that are pleasing to him. There's so much that, as we think of that, which would turn us aside.

But then the last one, lift them up forever. As he thinks of the saints. You know, it's nice to be lifted up.

You know, life is filled with ups and downs. You've heard the expression, the last one will be up, though. As far as we think of that which is ahead.

It's a prospect. Heaven and home. We can live in anticipation of it.

His return at any moment. On the other hand, it's the thought of lifting up the saints. Amidst all the discouragement and troubles and cares and responsibilities.

That to recognize the Lord withdrawn here. Peter thinks of the Lord, he expresses, casting all your cares upon him. For he careth for you.

So, we think of the conference before us. And we've started now. We trust that these words will be true of our time together.

Save thy people. Bless thine inheritance. Feed them.

And lift them up forever. For his name's sake.