Scripture Daily

Context No. 1590 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 28:1-9: in context

1To you, LORD, 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. 2Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. 3Don’t draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. 4Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve. 5Because they don’t respect the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up. 6Blessed be the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my petitions. 7The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him. 8The LORD is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed. 9Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.

This psalm moves from anxious plea to confident joy. To you I call, LORD, my rock, it begins; do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. Hear my cry as I lift my hands toward your Most Holy Place. The psalmist prays for deliverance from the wicked. And then the turn: blessed be the LORD, for he has heard the voice of my supplications. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I give thanks.

The psalm traces a movement worth following, from the fear of God's silence to the joy of being heard. It begins in anxiety: do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent, I am as good as dead. The psalmist's deepest fear is not his enemies but God's silence; to cry out and be met with no answer would be to sink into the pit. That fear of unanswered prayer, of crying to God and hearing nothing, is one many have felt. But the psalm does not stay there. It turns, and the turn is marked by a burst of praise: blessed be the LORD, for he has heard. The God the psalmist feared might be silent has heard his cry, and everything changes. The LORD is my strength and my shield, he says now; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped; therefore my heart rejoices. The anxious plea has become confident, singing joy, because God heard. There is a pattern here for our own prayer. We often begin, as this psalm does, in anxiety, afraid our cry will go unheard, that God will be silent while we sink. But the God we cry to is not deaf; he hears the voice of our supplications, and the discovery that he has heard turns fear into trust and trust into joy. My heart trusted in him, and I am helped: that is the movement, from the fearful cry to the trusting, rejoicing heart, and it turns on the truth that God hears. The rock we feared might be silent is our strength and our shield, and he does not fail to hear those who call.

When I cry to God in anxiety, afraid my prayer will meet only silence, can I move, as this psalm does, from that fear to trust and joy, on the truth that God is not deaf but hears the voice of my supplications and is my strength and shield?

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