Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Psalms · About this commentary
Yahweh Is My Strength and Shield
Psalms 28:1-9
1 By David. To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit. · WEB
A man begs not to be met with silence, and the psalm turns on the discovery that he has been heard.
To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don't be deaf to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit Psalms 28:1.
The fear named is not danger but silence. What the psalmist dreads is being answered by nothing, and the consequence he draws is that he would become like the dead — which in this collection means unable to praise, since the dead don't praise Yah Psalms 115:17.
When I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place Psalms 28:2. The gesture is the standard posture of prayer in the Old Testament, and the direction is the inner room of the sanctuary, where the ark stood behind the veil.
Don't draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts Psalms 28:3.
The description is precise and it is the same complaint the twelfth psalm made. These men are not open enemies; they say peace. What makes them dangerous is the gap between the mouth and the heart, and the psalm's request is simply not to be classified with them.
Give them according to their work... Bring back on them what they deserve Psalms 28:4.
One of the collection's harder prayers, and the shape of it is worth stating exactly. It asks God to act, not the speaker; it asks for a proportion — according to their work — rather than for a maximum; and the reason given is not personal injury but indifference to God: because they don't respect the works of Yahweh, nor the operation of his hands Psalms 28:5. The psalm is asking that people who have decided nothing they do matters should discover that it does.
Blessed be Yahweh, because he has heard the voice of my petitions Psalms 28:6.
The turn, and it comes on the one thing the psalm asked for in verse one. He was afraid of silence; the silence has broken. Nothing else is said to have changed, and nothing else needed to.
Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices Psalms 28:7.
The sequence in that verse is exact: trusted, helped, rejoices. The order is not accidental and the middle term is the one usually skipped.
Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever Psalms 28:9.
The psalm ends by widening from me to your people, which is the ordinary movement of these prayers. A man who has just been heard immediately asks the same for everyone else, and the last two images are the shepherd of the twenty-third psalm and a father carrying a child.
settled What this mark means