A Fortress of Salvation. Psalm 28:1-9

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1 1 Commentary by Clyde M. Miller Questions by John C. Sewell A Fortress of Salvation Psalm 28:1-9

2 2 Text: Psalm 28:1-9, A Fortress of Salvation Commentary by Clyde M. Miller 1. To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. 2. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. 3. 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. 4. Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve. 5. Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again. 6. Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy. 7. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. 8. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. 9. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever. (NIV) Introduction: I. It is remarkable how similar are the structure and content of Psalms 26, 27 and 28.

3 3 A. All three contain fervent prayer for deliverance from trouble and/or danger. B. They all express extreme trust in God s willingness to answer their petitions. C. They all express confidence in a happy outcome to their troubles. D. And, they all describe God is glowing terms. II. Psalm 28, however, contains two significant distinctive features. (NIV) A. First, the reference to God s anointed one (8b) probably indicates royal authorship or a reference about the king. 1. For the meaning and application of the term anointed, see the notes on Psalm 20:6-9. B. Second, the expressed desire for vengeance on his enemies (4-5) is only implied in Psalms 26 and Psalm 28:4, 5, Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve. Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again. (NIV) III. For the varied possible meanings of the phrase Of David in the title, see the notes in the introduction to Psalm 19.

4 4 A. The famous second king could be the author of most of the psalms that bear this phrase in the title, but not necessarily so. B. King Hezekiah could possibly be the author of Psalm 28. C. The psalm compares in some respects to Hezekiah s penitent prayer for deliverance from the Assyrian horde and God s response in Isaiah 37: Isaiah 37:14-38, Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God." Sennacherib's Fall Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: "The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have heaped in-

5 5 sults on the Lord. And you have said, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.' "Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. "But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came. "This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: "This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. "Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city," declares the LORD. "I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!" Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five

6 6 Commentary: thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king. (NIV) A Prayer for Vindication Psalm 28:1-4, To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. 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 upon them what they deserve. (NIV) I. Each verse in verses 1-4 is written in external parallelism with four lines to a unit. A. Each succeeding line adds something to the preceding line or lines. B. Internal variations will be indicated in the notes. C. Lines three and four of verse 1 state the consequence of God s not answering favorably the petition of lines one and two.

7 7 II. God is designated as a rock more than twenty times in the book of Psalms. A. The metaphor refers to a secure foundation. 1. It is often coupled with refuge and/or Savior. B. The phrase a deaf ear is a metaphor referring to a failure to heed, as remain silent in the third line indicates. C. The pit here and often refers to death or the grave (Ps. 30:3). 1. Psalm 30:3, O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. (NIV) D. For the varied meanings of a cry for mercy, see the notes on Psalm 27:7. 1. Psalm 27:7, Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. (NIV) I. A prayer offered toward the temple was thought to be as affective as one uttered at the temple, as Solomon s dedication of the temple indicates (1 Kings 8:22-53). A. 1 Kings 8:22-53, Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven and said: "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have kept your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have

8 8 fulfilled it as it is today. "Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before me as you have done.' And now, O God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true. "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, 'My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. "When a man wrongs his neighbor and is required to take an oath and he comes and swears the oath before your altar in this temple, then hear from heaven and act. Judge between your servants, condemning the guilty and bringing down on his own head what he has done. Declare the innocent not guilty, and so establish his innocence. "When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers. "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land

9 9 you gave your people for an inheritance. "When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple- then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. "As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name- for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name. "When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you send them, and when they pray to the LORD toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. "When they sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to his own land, far away or near; and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their conquerors and say, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly'; and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the land you gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built for your Name; then from

10 10 heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their conquerors to show them mercy; for they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of that iron-smelting furnace. "May your eyes be open to your servant's plea and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they cry out to you. For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to be your own inheritance, just as you declared through your servant Moses when you, O Sovereign LORD, brought our fathers out of Egypt." (NIV) II. Lifting up the hands was one of several familiar positions in offering prayer in the Old Testament. Psalm 28:3, 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. (NIV) I. These wicked people flatter their neighbors with deceitful words, for they harbor malice in their hearts. A. They thus unintentionally reveal themselves as hypocrites (26:4). 1. Psalm 26:4, I do not sit with deceitful men, nor do I consort with hypocrites; (NIV) Psalm 28:4, Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve. (NIV) I. The first three lines inform the reader by means of similar terms of the characteristic evil machinations of these evil people.

11 11 A. What they deserve indicates that the apparent cry for vengeance is actually a plea for justice to be rendered. B. These sentiments are in keeping with God s declarations in the Pentateuch, and the principle applied to Israel as well as their enemies (Deut. 28:15-68). 1. Deuteronomy 28:15-68, However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the

12 12 earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you. You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. The sights you see will drive you mad. The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you. You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your coun-

13 13 try but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no com-

14 14 passion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. The most gentle and sensitive woman among you so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities. If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name the LORD your God- the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in

15 15 constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"-because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. (NIV) Praise to God for Answered Prayer Psalm 28:5-8, Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again. 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 I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. (NIV) Psalm 28:5, Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again. (NIV) I. This verse is structured in two synonymous couplets. A. The last two lines describe the divine consequences of the godless pursuits of the wicked. B. Since these evildoers show no regard for God s past judgments, He will demonstrate the righteousness of his decrees by destroying them. Psalm 28:6, Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy. (NIV)

16 16 I. This couplet states the reason for his praising God. A. This confident declaration of trust enables the psalmist to praise God for His mercy. B. It is unclear whether the deliverance is now accomplished or still something for which he hopes. C. In either case, the deed is done in the mind of the psalmist. Psalm 28:7, The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. (NIV) I. The first line of this four-line unit is the heart of the passage, and the other three lines describe the outcome of his recognition of the personality of the LORD. A. God is the sufficient source of his spiritual strength that finds expression in his physical valor against his enemies. B. The psalmists were fond of describing God as their strength (18:1; 22:19; 28:7; 59:9, 17; 118:14). 1. Psalm 18:1, I love you, O LORD, my strength. (NIV) 2. Psalm 22:19, But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. (NIV) 3. Psalm 28:7, The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. (NIV)

17 Psalm 59:9, 17, O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God. (NIV) 5. Psalm 118:14, The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. (NIV) C. The shield was the warrior s major protective armor against his enemies. D. That concept could be extended to include protection of every sort of barrier to fellowship with God. E. Infinite trust leads to joy expressed as a song of thanksgiving. 1. Verses 2 and 7 suggest a worship setting. 2. Leaps for joy alludes to the frolicking of an animal confronted with a felicitous experience (Mal. 4:2). a. Malachi 4:2, But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. (NIV) Psalm 28:8, The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. (NIV) I. This couplet extends the concept of divine strength in the use of the term fortress that renders ma)z. A. The Hebrew word refers to an enclosed area that provides a defensive refuge.

18 18 B. Salvation in this context refers to physical deliverance from his enemies. C. The phrases his people and his anointed reduce the concept of community solidarity to that of the nation s protective leader. Prayer for National Deliverance I. The Davidic kingdom was ultimately the Lord s. A. They were His purchased people whom He had delivered from Egyptian bondage and made His own inheritance (Deut. 4:20,29; Micah 7:14, 18). 1. Deuteronomy 4:20, 29, But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (NIV) 2. Micah 7:14, 18, Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. (NIV) B. The word for inheritance is nachalah, possession. 1. The action of God as their shepherd is appropriate.

19 Carry them paints the picture of the shepherd carrying his lamb in his arms (Isa. 40:11). C. Forever, Ud-haU)lam is a metaphor of long duration or constancy. Application I. Every positive answer to a fervent prayer should be followed with a sincere song of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. II. Otherwise, the heart of God is sadly disappointed. A. This fact is well illustrated in the story of the ten lepers (Luke 17:12-17). 1. Luke 17:12-17, As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. e threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? (NIV)

20 20 Questions Psalm 28:1-9 (Questions based on NIV text.) 1. In prayer the psalmist said, O my ; do not turn a to me. For if you I will be like those who have gone to the. 2. What is the significance/meaning of the terms rock, deaf ear, remain silent, cry for mercy and pit in verses 1 and 2? 3. my for as I call to you for, as I toward you. 4. Did the psalmist ask for justice?... that to which he was rightly entitled? If not, why not? 5. What is the purpose of lifting up hands in worship?

21 Define Most Holy Place. Was prayer more likely to be granted if it were offered in or toward the Holy Place? 7. How does the psalmist describe the wicked? Describe their actions and character. 8. The psalmist asked for God s mercy for himself and that God would bring upon certain others what they deserve. Is this consistent? Does God have a double standard? 9. Why did the psalmist praise the Lord?

22 The is my and my ; my in him, and I am. My for and I will to him in. 11. The is the of his, a of for his. 12. Who is the Lord s anointed one? 13. your and your ; be their and them. 14. What two distinctive features does Psalm 28 have in comparison to Psalms 56 and 27? 15. Who wrote Psalm 28? Give reasons for your answer.

23 In addition to lifting up the hands what other familiar positions were used in offering prayers in the Old Testament? 17. Certain wicked people flatter their neighbors with deceitful words while harboring malice in their hearts toward them. Give several Bible examples of this type hypocrisy. 18. How is Deuteronomy 28:15-68 applicable to what is said in Psalm 28? 19. What is the significance of the psalmist s referring to the Lord as his shield and fortress?

24 Every to a should be followed with a of and to the. Extra credit question: How does the story of the ten lepers illustrate the truth of question 20?