Gleanings in the Psalms

(Psalm 28)

This is another of those "Songs of the Night" of which the pen of David was so prolific. The thorn at the breast of the nightingale was said by the old naturalists to make it sing: David's griefs make him eloquent in holy psalmody.

C.H.S.

Verse 1. "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord MY ROCK …" When asked how he fared as he lay on his deathbed, the godly William Evans had one sure foundation: "I am weakness itself," he told his enquirer, "but I am on the ROCK. I do not experience those transports which some have expressed in the view of death," he said, "but my dependence is on the mercy of God in Christ. Here my religion began, and here it must end."

Verses 1 and 2. A Sermon on Prayer.

The NATURE of Prayer – it is a "cry": "Unto thee will I CRY …" A cry is – (i) The sign of life; (ii) The expression of pain: (iii) The plea of need.
The OBJECT of Prayer – it is the Lord our Rock: "O Lord my rock." (i) a rock as a foundation; (ii) A rock as a refuge.
The REASON for Prayer – to receive an answer: "HEAR the voice of my supplication …" (i) a speedy answer; (ii) A suitable answer; (iii) An effectual answer.
The MEDIUM of Prayer … Christ our Mediator: "I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle." (i) Christ the Mercy Seat; (ii) Christ the Intercessor.

Hints to the Village Preacher

Verse 3. "Draw me not away with the wicked … which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts." Many are like Joab: "He took Amasa by the beard to kiss him, and he smote him with his sword in the fifth rib, that he died." All is not gold that glitters! There are some that pretend much kindness, but they are like great veins which have little blood.

Thomas Watson

Verse 4. "Give them according to their deeds …" The Egyptians killed the Hebrew male children, and God smote the firstborn of Egypt. SISERA, who thought to destroy Israel with his iron chariots, was himself killed with an iron nail, struck through his temples. ABIMELECH slew seventy sons of Gideon upon one stone, and his own head was broken by a piece of millstone thrown by a woman. JEROBOAM stretched out his hand to destroy the alter of the Lord, and that hand was withered. HAMAN built a gallows for Mordecai, and was hung there himself. "Give them according to their deeds …"

G. S. Bowes

Verse 4. "… render unto them their deserts. Meditate on God's righteousness, that it is not only His will, but His NATURE to punish sin. Impress much upon thine heart that "must": God can only hate sin, because He is Holy; and He can only punish sin, because he is Righteous.

Christopher Fowler

Verse 6. "Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications." Saints are full of benedictions; they are a blessed people and a blessing people. Our psalm was prayer up to this point, and now it turns to praise. They who pray well, will soon praise well: prayer and praise are the two lips of the soul; two bells to ring out sweet and acceptable music in the ears of God; two angels to climb Jacob's ladder; two of Solomon's lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh; they are two young roes that are twins, feeding upon the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.

C. H. Spurgeon

Verse 7. "The Lord is my strength and my shield." Inwardly, He is my "strength"; outwardly, He is my "shield". Faith finds both of these in Jehovah, and not the one without the other; for what is a shield without strength, or strength without a shield?

W. Wilson

Verse 8. "The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed." Not only "my" strength, says David, but the strength of every believer, and He is the strength of every believer, because He is "the saving strength of his anointed." (1) The saving strength of David, His anointed, as the type. (2) The saving strength of Christ, His Anointed, the antitype; for God qualified Him for His undertaking, and carried Him through it.

Matthew Henry

Verse 9. The Concluding Note - "Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up for ever."