Psalm 28

What a marvelous Song of David to be prayed in an increasingly corrupt, immoral and decaying world.  Life here becomes quite depressing for many saints because they do not pray such a prayer as David prayed here.  Others tend to retreat from the world, going into hiding rather than being the open testimony God has left us here to be, because they do not have the faith of David expressed in this Psalm.  

The situation in which David found himself was desperate.  There was no one around who could reverse the terrible situation.  He himself felt hopeless.  Thus he turned to his “Rock” (Heb. tsuwr, the solid rock on which to stand).  The idea that God is a Rock on which to stand comes from The Song of Moses, Deut. 32.  Hear the word of the LORD!

For I proclaim the name of the LORD;

Ascribe greatness to our God.

He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

(Deut. 32:3-4)

This is the One to whom David prays and says, “If You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.”  David recognizes only one Hope!  As Deut. 32 went on to predict, there would come a time when Israel’s enemies would each be able to chase a thousand, two of them would be able to chase ten thousand (Deut. 32:30).  The reason would be because they would come to “scornfully esteem” the Rock of their salvation (32:15) and to be unmindful and forget the Rock who begot them (32:18).  David would have none of that!  He prayed to his Rock, knowing that there is no rock like the Rock of Israel (32:31).  Thus he turned toward the sanctuary, lifted his hands and cried to the LORD.

What exactly was the situation in David’s world?  I would suggest it is no different than today.  We may think we are in a terrible situation unlike any time in history.  But how different is it than one where wickedness is rampant around us, being fomented by “engineers” of evil, so to speak (Ps. 28:3)?  Do we not live in a world like David’s, where men speak peace but with hypocritical, evil hearts?  As in David’s situation people do not “regard the works of the LORD, nor the operations of His hands” (v5).  

Notice the play on words in vs. 3-5.  The “workers” of iniquity do “deeds” worthy of judgment because they do not regard the “works” of the LORD.  Likewise the “work of their hands” (a term in Hebrew that indicates an action that has been produced by planning and preparation) is worthy of judgment because they have disregarded the “operation (same Hebrew word) of His hands.”  Such is our world.  Such was David’s world.  And we can pray as David did, that God will enact His “law of the harvest” and give them what they deserve.  As the LORD Himself would say through Jeremiah, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer. 17:10).  This is the truth that encourages the saints when the foundations are crumbling around them.  God does not miss a thing.  The LORD will judge with perfect justice.

Because David gives this to his Rock, in the midst of his prayer he comes to be at peace (v6-7).  Because he truly trusts in the LORD, his strength and shield, he is able to lift his heart in joyful praise.  And so will saints today.  We do not need to remain in fear or despair about what we see around us.  But we will if we do not come to our Rock and remember that He will answer the prayer that trusts in Him as the God who judges righteously.

But David is not done.  The Song closes with the Messiah!  David, as the King and the Shepherd of Israel, recognizes that what the LORD does for him as King will affect the people of God who are in his care.  Not only is the LORD David’s strength and shield; He is the strength and saving refuge of His Anointed (Heb. messiah).  Thus God’s answer for David will result in a blessing on His inheritance.  

Perhaps this is all that David had in mind.  Or perhaps not.  The “Song of Moses” predicts a time in Israel’s future when she will fall away from trusting her Rock and will be sorely tested because of it.  Certainly David knew this earlier Song because it was given to Moses to teach to Israel.  David is praying that this terrible time will not come in his reign as God’s anointed.  But the time will come.  And at that time the shepherds of Israel will fail miserably.  They will in fact be the “workers of iniquity”.  God will judge those shepherds and will then Himself become their Shepherd, through the future “Son of David”, the Messiah.  All of this is the subject of Ezekiel 34.  The assurance God gives to David is also for the time when his greatest Son Jesus returns to the worst of all worlds and Shepherds God’s inheritance.

What more needs to be said?  Let us not wallow in discouragement over the world in which we live.  Let us not retreat from the command to go into that world with the gospel of Christ.  May our hearts trust in Him so that our hearts can rejoice greatly in praise!