Psalms 28: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

In this psalm, David calls out to the LORD for help, asking God not to stay silent and not to sweep him away along with people who talk peace but plan harm. He asks God to pay those people back for what they have done, and says God will tear them down because they pay no attention to what God has done. Then the psalm turns to thanks: the LORD has heard, and he is strength and shield. It closes with a prayer for God to save and care for his people.

Claim by Claim

1. 28:1
   • This psalm is David's.
   • The speaker says he will call to the LORD.
   • The speaker calls the LORD his rock.
   • The speaker asks the LORD not to be deaf or silent toward him.
   • The speaker says that if the LORD stays silent toward him, he will become like those who go down to the pit.
2. 28:2
   • The speaker asks the LORD to hear the voice of his pleas for mercy.
   • The speaker says he cries out to the LORD for help.
   • The speaker says he lifts up his hands toward the LORD's holy inner sanctuary.
3. 28:3
   • The speaker asks not to be dragged away along with the wicked.
   • The speaker asks not to be dragged away along with those who do iniquity.
   • Those workers of iniquity speak peace to their neighbors.
   • Evil is in the hearts of those workers of iniquity.
4. 28:4
   • The speaker asks the LORD to give them according to their deeds.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to give them according to the evil of their doings.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to give them according to the work of their hands.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to return to them what they have earned.
5. 28:5
   • They do not consider the deeds of the LORD.
   • They do not consider the work of the LORD's hands.
   • The LORD will tear them down.
   • The LORD will not build them up.
6. 28:6
   • The LORD is blessed.
   • The LORD has heard the voice of the speaker's pleas for mercy.
7. 28:7
   • The LORD is the speaker's strength.
   • The LORD is the speaker's shield.
   • The speaker's heart trusted in the LORD.
   • The speaker was helped.
   • The speaker's heart exults.
   • The speaker will give thanks to the LORD with his song.
8. 28:8
   • The LORD is strength for them.
   • The LORD is the stronghold of salvation for his anointed one.
9. 28:9
   • The speaker asks the LORD to save his people.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to bless his inheritance.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to shepherd them.
   • The speaker asks the LORD to carry them up forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

28:1

"The pit" is a standard Hebrew term for the grave and the realm of the dead. To "go down into the pit" is to be dead and beyond the reach of help; the speaker fears that God's silence would leave him in that condition. "Rock" is a common image for a place of refuge, the crags and cliffs where a hunted person could hide and not be reached.

28:2

Lifting the hands, palms open and raised toward the temple, was the ordinary posture of prayer in ancient Israel, as kneeling or folding the hands is in some traditions today. The King James "oracle" does not mean a message or a prophet: it translates a word for the innermost room of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and worshipers who could not enter it prayed facing toward it.

28:3

"Speak peace" translates the ordinary Hebrew greeting, *shalom*, the everyday words neighbors exchanged, roughly "all is well with you." The complaint is that the greeting is a mask.

28:4

"Desert" here is the old English noun meaning what a person deserves (as still preserved in the phrase "just deserts"); it has nothing to do with a dry wasteland. "Endeavours" simply means what they set out to do.

28:6

"Blessed be the LORD" does not mean the psalmist is handing God a favor. When people bless God the word means to praise and thank him; when God blesses people it means he gives them good. It is the same verb pointing in opposite directions, and English has no single word that covers both.

28:7

In Hebrew the heart stands for the whole inner person, the mind and the will as much as the feelings. "My heart trusted in him" is closer to "I made up my mind to trust him" than to a rush of emotion. The shield in question is the ordinary soldier's shield, the thing a man puts between himself and a blade.

28:8

"His anointed" refers to Israel's king, who was installed by having olive oil poured over his head, the ceremony that marked him out as chosen for the office. The Hebrew word is *mashiach*, from which English gets "messiah."

28:9

"Inheritance" is a legal image: when Israel divided the land, each family received a permanent allotted portion that could not simply be sold off. The people are spoken of as the LORD's own allotted portion in that sense. The King James "feed them" translates a verb meaning to shepherd a flock (pasture it, guide it and guard it) and "lift them up" pictures a shepherd carrying an animal that cannot walk.