Psalm 28: Prayer Transformed to Praise

I'm Lydia Goerner from Christ Church RPCNA in Utica, NY. I'm excited to be the newest author of Selah and to be able to share what God is teaching me through the marvelous book of Psalms. Recently, I've been meditating on Psalm 28, so without further ado, here are my thoughts. Let me know why you love Psalm 28 in the comments!

To you, Lord, I call;
you are my Rock,
do not turn a deaf ear to me,
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who go down to the pit.

It is futile to call to rocks for deliverance, but our Rock will save us and give us peace. It is vain to rely on words to rescue us from judgment, but the eternal Word died so that we could have eternal life. We can call on our Rock: a steady, immovable deliverance. This verse starts on a desperate note, pleading with God to hear and answer the Psalmist’s prayer. If God remains silent, if he does not answer our prayers and cries for mercy, we will be no better off than those who are dead. Spurgeon said of this verse, “We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own elect to perish.” 

Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.

The Psalmist is distraught and fervently petitions God to be his salvation. Many of us can probably relate to these desperate cries for mercy in times of illness or despair. When hard times hit, it's crucial to turn to the only thing that can deliver us. Nothing else can fully answer our calls for help. At these times, we can beseechingly lift up our empty hands to God our refuge. 

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 Lord
and what his hands have done,
he will tear them down
and never build them up again.

God is just and will repay men for the evil things they have done; justice will be done to the men who “speak cordially with their neighbors” and wear a mask of righteousness while their hearts are full of malice. God sees the hearts of men and no thought, word, or deed escapes his omnipresent gaze. Even if the wicked seem to prosper in this life, God will deal justly with them in the life that is to come. He won’t reward them for their cordial speech but according to their evil thoughts and deeds. They have no regard for the works that God has done, so He will have no regard for their work, but will make it futile. It's probably not news to many that we live in an evil and perverse generation. Psalm 28 is a prayer that we would not be like those who go down to the pit but that we would be spared from being judged along with the wicked. 

Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me,
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

The Psalm of prayer turns to praise, illustrating the Puritan William Jenkyn’s words: “Praise shall conclude that work which prayer began.” The trusting, reliant soul will find an answer and be lead to joyfully worship God for His marvelous provision. We can be certain that if we pray fervently and unceasingly now, joyous and unending praise will follow, if not in this sin cursed world then throughout eternity. God heard the prayers of Jesus Christ, and we have assurance that He hears our prayers as well if we are God's anointed. Psalm 34:15 confirms: "The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry." Our Rock will hear us and deliver us from His and our enemies.

The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.

God grants to His people these two main things: salvation and blessing. He saves us from death and our sin and blesses us by making our lives and labors fruitful. The answer to this prayer is fully answered in the ministry of the good shepherd. Christ shepherds, teaches, and guides us as God protects and makes our labors flourish. We also learn that we shouldn't just pray that God will bless us and our personal life, but all His people—the church militant. Spurgeon said of this verse’s petition: “Carry them in thine arms on earth, and then lift them into thy bosom in heaven. Elevate their minds and thoughts, spiritualise their affections, make them heavenly, Christlike, and full of God. O Lord, answer this our petition, for Jesus' sake.”
This one brief verse in a relatively short Psalm holds enough promise and hope for a lifetime- even for an eternity. I pray that God will continue to carry us forever, guiding us constantly even to death (Psalm 48:14).


Resource: The Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon. 

The Psalms Have No Joy

¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!
² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
³ They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
⁴ You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
⁶ Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.
⁷ I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
⁸ I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

Psalm 119:1-8 (NKJV)

When singing praises to God, we would all like to experience joy and excitement for what Christ has done. Some would argue that the Psalms simply do not convey joy as effectively as praise songs and hymns, and this type of thinking fueled the church at large to drift away from the singing of the Psalms during the 18^th century. Many Christians focus on the emotion evoked by the song rather than the meaning of the words sung to God; however, could it be that this thinking is backwards?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16

Notice that in Colossians, the Psalms instruct and fill us with wisdom which leads to holy emotion, emotions set apart for the praise of God through singing. The Bible does not simply give instruction concerning our actions but also our thoughts and emotions, and these thoughts and emotions always tie into truths established by the Bible. In Psalm 51, God calls us to be contrite and completely dependent upon His mercy when repenting for our sin; God commands us to be forgiving and slow to quarrel, since He has forgiven us of our sins, in Proverbs and the Lord’s Prayer. Our lives in thought, word, and deed have been set apart as holy (1 Peter 2), and thus how much more should our worship of God be guided and set apart by His word! The Psalms have been set apart for the praise of God, and each Psalm contains both infallible truth and our response as Christians. David, in Psalm 119:1-8, starts by declaring the truths of God (vs. 1-3) and then continues by uttering his longing to obey and seek God with his whole heart (vs. 4-8). 

¹Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!
² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
³ They also do no iniquity;

They walk in His ways.

In the first verses of Psalm 119, David proclaims who is truly blessed: the one who is not ruled by sin, walks in the law of God, and seeks Him with the whole heart. We can clearly see that this person is the one who puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and diligently seeks to bring his or her own life into accordance with Christ’s teaching and example here on earth (Romans 12:1-2). Only through Christ can anyone reject sin and seek after God, and we can claim these truths for ourselves and look forward to heaven where we will be perfected and blessed in all fullness (Revelations 21:22-27). How wonderful are the truths of God!

⁴ You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
⁵ Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
⁶ Then I would not be ashamed,

When I look into all Your commandments.

          The truth of the blessed man permeates throughout the entire book of Psalms since it is our proper and intended relationship and standing with God. Psalm 1 reveals that the blessed man is like a tree well planted by water; the blessed man is the one who brings forth spiritual fruit and prospers in all he does. Yet after proclaiming the truth of such a desirable state, David then turns these truths unto himself with some amount of sorrow and longing, but not without hope.

The word in verse four that sticks to me the most is the word diligently. I can with reasonable confidence say that I pursue my academics diligently. I can with even more confidence confirm that I diligently seek sleep after a long day, yet often I find that I have not diligently sought to keep God’s precepts. At best I am often half-hearted and lax concerning God’s commandments. David also felt his own weakness and immediately cries out to God to aid him in his obedience.  “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!” is the prayer David lifted up, a prayer we should constantly lift up since we are yet weak here on earth. Notice that this is not a completely happy prayer; David admits to having felt shame when reading through the word of God. Many Christians today only want to sing about joy, but this is not a very accurate or realistic view of the Christian life. We often fail. We undergo trials. Enemies of God rise up, and for all of these, joy by itself is not always appropriate. Yet the Psalms provide a comprehensive selection of songs which covers the entirety of the Christian life. Psalms 119 gives me the words to voice the desires and frustrations that I undergo every day, and I am comforted that these prayers are founded in the truth of the scriptures and voiced in the Word of God, as opposed to being merely written by the hand of men.

⁷ I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
⁸ I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

After meditating on the requirements for blessedness and the shortcomings in his life, David makes a resolution. He resolves in verse eight to keep God’s statues, and we must, as David did, set in our hearts to keep God’s commandments diligently and pray to God that this would be so. However, we must not have confidence in our own strength, but instead we must cry out to God to not forsake us and realize that “it is God who works in you both to will and do His own good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)  David could look back with sorrow at the times he ignored God and trusted in himself. An important distinction must also be made. David could not lose his salvation but could still displease God through his actions. An unbeliever on the other hand cannot please God and needs redemption through Jesus Christ. We must first be saved, and after that, God and His saving grace are our only source of personal obedience. The words of Psalm 119 are not to be sung or said lightly, yet the prayer for obedience is the proper response to the truths laid out in the beginning of the Psalm. The benefit of obedience is great: to be able to praise God joyfully with an upright heart.

Maybe when singing to God we would like to feel a sense of peace or raw joy, or maybe we search for an experience while singing to boost our spiritual life. However, let not these emotions be stirred by any hand but by the hand of God. Psalm 119 leads me to self-reflection, dependence on God, and resolution to obey Him, and as the word of God itself, Psalm 119 does this through and only by the truths of God. I thank God that He reveals how we are to live through the Bible, and in particular, how we are to worship Him through the holy act of singing both through truth and emotion, hardship and joy.

“Prayer and praise and all sorts of devotional acts and feelings gleam through the verses like beams of sunlight through an olive grove. You are not only instructed, but influenced to holy emotion, and helped to express the same.”

Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalm 119 

Learning What to Pray For though Psalm 86:8-17

     God has impressed upon me the content of Psalm 86 through recent bible studies and sermons. I see the almighty attributes of God proclaimed in every sermon, while the prayer for wisdom sits at the heart of a Bible study on proverbs. Moreover, without the guidance of the scripture, my prayers mainly contain earthly requests: Lord, please heal this person, help me pass that test, etc. It is not wrong or improper to lay up these requests, yet the prayers in the Bible have a strikingly different overall focus. Specifically in Psalm 86, David praises and gives glory to God throughout by making predominantly spiritual requests. These prayers that David offers up are so pervasive and recurring throughout the Bible that Psalm 86 can probably be considered a model prayer. The scope does not quite cover that of the Lord’s Prayer, but I find Psalm 86 very helpful when coming before God in times of need and daily meditation.

 8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;

Nor are there any works like Your works.

9 All nations whom You have made

Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
    10 And shall glorify Your name.

For You are great, and do wondrous things;

You alone are God.

    David launches into pure adoration of God without any petitions. We often give God praise for the things He has done for us, but is God only great because of His mercy shown to us individually? On the contrary, David proclaims that God is great in His very being and goes on to praise God for revealing His power through mighty works and establishing a sure kingdom.

1)   God is alone in His omnipotence; there is no one that compares to Him.

2)   God’s works are great and wondrous, and He alone does great things.

3)   All nations will bow before Him, for He has made them. We can also see with absolute confidence that God will expand His kingdom.

We can often praise God Himself without acknowledging His works and vice versa. These three verses taught me to praise God for simply being God and to then acknowledge His works and kingdom.

11 Teach me Your way, O Lord;

I will walk in Your truth;

Unite my heart to fear Your name.

   David here asks God for spiritual wisdom. Three important aspects of wisdom are prayed for; wisdom is only from God, results in a lifestyle after God, and originates from the fear of the Lord.

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to

you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

Ephesians 1:17

18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,

That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know what makes them stumble.

Proverbs 4:18-19

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

The understanding of God’s truths, which leads to obedience throughout life and the fear of Him, is the wisdom given by God. This longing for wisdom is an excellent God-centered prayer since our obedience brings glory to God. I pray that God will help me obey Him more faithfully every day, and this Psalm reminds me that wisdom/obedience is only from God and not from my own strength.

12 I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,

And I will glorify Your name forevermore.

13 For great is Your mercy toward me,

And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

   Again we see the recurring pattern of praising God and praying with faith and boldness. Right after praying for spiritual wisdom, David praises God recognizing that God has already graced him with a measure of spiritual wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,” (Proverbs 14:27) David recognizes that he has already obtained wisdom and salvation from God. Without wisdom, which gives a new understanding and direction in life, we do not inherit salvation. Thus all of us who have obtained salvation through Christ have the same prerogative to praise God, for we must always strive to acknowledge and thank God for what He has already done.

14 O God, the proud have risen against me,

And a mob of violent men have sought my life,

And have not set You before them.

15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,

Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

   Sometimes our shortsighted minds discover what to be thankful for with difficulty. In such times, it is often helpful to compare things relative to each other, and David composes the most extreme comparison possible, comparing evil men to God. David’s enemies were proud, violent, and most importantly, ungodly. God on the other hand is reiterated to be full of compassion and abundant in truth, attributes that David himself testifies from experience.

I have learned to implement comparison in order to gain proper perspective of my life through prayer. In my personal prayers, I try to compare what I know of God, to myself, opponents of God, and worldly goals. Can I claim that I have been longsuffering toward other people as God has been to me? Do the enemies of God appear to be abundant in mercy and truth? Can the benefits of worldly gain compare to an eternity in heaven? Any Christian should know the answer to these questions, but without God’s help through prayer, we often forget the majesty of God and the consequences of sin.  

16 Oh turn to me, and have mercy on me!

Give Your strength to Your servant,

And save the son of Your maidservant.

17 Show me a sign for good,

That those who hate me may see it and be ashamed,

Because You, Lord, have helped me and comfort me.

The comparison indeed seems to have cleared David’s mind. After meditating on God’s goodness, David again cries out for mercy. After recognizing that his own enemies are also against God, David asks God to make them ashamed.

Psalm 86 is a powerful prayer, since it rests in and focuses on the omnipotent God. Many of the requests and praises of David have become an integral part of my own private prayers, and I hope God continues to edify my prayer life through the examples given in the Bible.

Psalm 86:1-7 "Learning How to Pray through Psalm 86"

Through the Psalms, God has recently been teaching me how to pray according to His will and not my own. When praying according to my own will, I always focus on my own concerns and pursuits through my own perspective of the world, namely that of a weak human being. However, the Bible, as the revealed will of God, provides both the concerns and pursuits we are to have as His servants, and also the manner in which we are to petition God.

Psalm 86 is a personal prayer of David, the type of prayer that he probably prayed all the time. Yet even David’s personal prayer exhibits an utter lack of worldly or trivial requests, and in the first seven verses of Psalm 86, David prays for mercy on his soul with a spirit of humility and dependence on God. What strikes me most about David’s prayer is that he prays humbly yet boldly, dependently yet with confidence that God will answer.

1 Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.

David does not appear to be thinking of any particular persecution while writing these first few verses. Instead, David is crying out for God to be merciful on his poor and needy soul, and we must always come before God humbly recognizing the sad condition of our souls without the Lord’s grace. The imagery evoked is that of God stooping down to us, and other Psalms such as Psalm 104 and 139 expound the greatness of God through His creative works and omniscience. The thought of coming before such a great God sometimes fills me with misgiving, but the next verse demonstrates that we do not pray in vain.

2 Preserve my life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!

Psalm 86 is a prayer with hope, for David immediately turns to God for salvation after admitting his helplessness. We receive Christ’s righteousness through believing, trusting, and embracing Christ as our God, and through Christ we pursue and receive preservation unto eternal life. This verse reminds me that all of my prayers are based on my salvation in Christ, and thus all of my prayers are to be poor and needy and with hope. “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:18

3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long.

We should pray with perseverance. How often do you cry out to God for mercy? Once a week? Never? David felt the need to plead mercy “all day long”. Our prayers for mercy concerning our souls should be so persistent, that we can say to God, “Lord, I am grieved by my sin and lack of spiritual growth. I think on and pray about my soul constantly. You are the only one able to answer my prayer, so I will call upon you all day long.”

4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant,
For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,
And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

David asks for mercy, and then praises God for being abundantly merciful to His people. He asks for forgiveness, and then extols God’s goodness and readiness to forgive. We do not pray to a harsh and unforgiving God but to an abundantly merciful and good God. Our prayers can thus be made in faith, and I have experienced, as David certainly had, that God is truly good to His prayerful servants.

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
And attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You,
For You will answer me.

Praying confidently means that we can know that God will answer our prayers. If this prayer was anywhere else but in the Bible, we would say the prayer to be presumptuous. Yet Jesus commands us to pray in the same way.

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

John 14:12-14

We can learn from the first seven verses of Psalm 86 that God will not ignore our humble cries for forgiveness and mercy on our souls since He cannot deny Himself. Psalm 86 clearly shows that the state of our souls, and thus our ability to glorify God on earth, is a request made in Christ’s name. David understood that he was praying God’s will which allowed him to pray in a humble yet confident manner, a manner of prayer we all should strive to achieve. 

Resource: Ryle, J.C. Practical Religion