David's Psalm 28

After spending time with a friend in Psalms 2 and 3 over a cup of tea in a hotel lounge, we were wondering how to approach the Psalms.  How do we "study" another man's prayer, his struggles and the joys of his heart?

Should we try to discern a pattern in the Psalms?  Should we list God's characteristic or the situations, etc.?

I think David usually links his particular situation with God's character.  There is much more I would like to learn about the Psalms.

In the mean time, we are reading them in our Two Year Bible Reading Plan.  Today is Day 28, so it is Psalm 28 to take to heart.

Here are a few notes on David's Psalm 28:

1) Don't ignore me, My LORD, my Rock!

Verse 1 O Lord, to You I call. O my Rock, listen to me. 
If You will not hear me, I will be like those who have gone down to the grave.
2 Hear my cry for loving-kindness as I call to You for help, 
and when I lift up my hands to Your holy place.

• Here David cries out to God in His crisis: don’t ignore me!  
• Most of the time Christians tend to present themselves as “so together.” 
• We can see David’s struggle. He is real - and so can and should we be too.
• His faith is on trail, but David knows who his  God is.
• He knows God is strong, that God loves Him and that God will not change.
• Psalm 28 gives us a peek inside David’s heart.  Compare Psalm 102 the prayer of a unnamed afflicted man.  See verses 9-12. See the honesty of his heart.  See him cling to his immovable Rock!

2)   Answered Prayer

Psalm 28:6 May honor and thanks be given to the Lord, because He has heard my prayer.The Lord is my strength and my safe cover, He is a safe place.My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. So my heart is full of joy. I will thank Him with my song. 

Hearts can confidently trust this true, hearing, enabling and protective God and sing gratitude!

Psalm 13: But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.

3)    Who carries whom?

Do worshipers carry their gods to whom they entrust their lives? (In Isaiah 46:1-2)
or 

Psalm 28: 9 Save Your people and bring good to what is Yours. Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Isaiah 46

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
    all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth, 
and have carried since you were born.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 63:9

In all their affliction he was afflicted……..
  
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

4) Who are the evil doers and how could we pray for them?

Back to Psalm 28:2-5

The psalmist calls on God to judge the evildoers according to their deeds.

This kind of retribution is commonly expressed in the Psalms especially Proverbs.

 Do not drag me away with the wicked,with those who do evil,who speak cordially with their neighbors, but harbor malice in their hearts. Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work;

repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.
Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lordand what his hands have done,he will tear them down and never build them up again.

How could we pray for our enemies while leaving revenge to God

•  for God's mercy on them and they will repent and turn to Him.
•  that God will break the power of the abuser, oppressor and despotic rulers.
•  that God will diminish the influence of those how have no regard of the Lord.

THE WICKED as described in Psalm 28:

• They are two-faced and deceptive in their relations to others.
• They express a concern for others’ well being, while actually harbouring resentments and malice towards them.
• These inner attitudes are invisible to others.
• There is an inner lack of integrity.
• Such deception undermines the closeness in relationships.
• They cloak inner thoughts and feelings behind a deceptive exterior.
• Human beings can succeed in hiding their true selves and motivations., the God who looks on the heart is not deceived.
• Malice would ultimately inform what the hands would do.
• The enemies “do evil”
• They allow their true nature to work themselves out in their deeds. 
• They have no respect for what God is about.
• God’s work of restoring relationships is diametrically opposed to the enemy’s deception.