OF DAVID.
1To 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.
2Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.
3Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
4Repay 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.
5Since 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.
6Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
7The 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.
8The LORD is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
9Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.
THIS BRIEF PSALM of only nine verses is a plea for deliverance by someone suffering the malice of enemies. The psalmist feels close to death (28:1) and seeks retribution from God on those who attack (28:3–5). The final two verses reinterpret the individual expressions of the original psalm to the corporate needs of the community—probably an indication of the reuse of this composition among the exilic and postexilic Diaspora. The psalm shares numerous links with the preceding group of Psalms 23–27 (esp. 27) and concludes with a plea for Yahweh to be Israel’s “shepherd”—a plea that forms a sort of parenthesis around Psalms 23–28.1
The structure of the psalm exhibits four sections: an opening plea for deliverance (28:1–2), a call for retribution on the enemy (28:3–5), praise for deliverance (28:6–7), and a call for communal deliverance (28:8–9).
The Heading (28:0)
PSALM 28 IS the last in a series of four consecutive psalms (Pss. 25–28) that are simply attributed to David.2 No new terms are introduced in this heading.
Opening Plea for Deliverance (28:1–2)
DRAWING ON THE characteristic silence and lack of aural acuity associated with deafness, the psalmist entreats Yahweh not to “turn a deaf ear” to the psalmist’s cries. If God does “remain silent,” the psalmist will “be like” those who descend to death in Sheol. He entreats Yahweh as “my Rock” (28:1), a characterization that links back to 27:5 and the picture there of being placed “high upon a rock” for protection. God is the psalmist’s secure high place.
Hear my cry for mercy. Having established a context of need in verse 1, the psalmist proceeds to the plea proper in verse 2. The plea is for divine “favor”3 and for “help,” accompanied by a gesture of supplication—lifting up the hands4 toward the temple (28:2).5
DO NOT DRAG me away.6 from the wicked and to avoid the punishment he thinks they so richly deserve.7 The enemy are the “wicked” and “those who do evil,” who use a facade of cordiality to mask an inner attitude of malice.8 The lack of transparency exhibited by these opponents contrasts unfavorably with the expectation expressed for those who fear Yahweh in such passages as 17:3; 19:12–14; 26:2. God looks on the heart and expects one’s attitudes, desires, and commitment to reflect consistency with one’s outwardly observable actions.9
Repay them for their deeds. The psalmist is now free to call for divine judgment on the evildoers. In what is apparently an economic idiom, God is asked to (lit.) “pay them according to the work they have done.” Wages are tied to performance, and in this case we already know the quality of the work of the “evildoers.” The psalmist employs a chiastic construction surrounding an inner parenthetical expression that makes the evil character of the work explicit and the anticipated judgment clear.
Give-to-them | according-to-their-work |
(according to the perverseness of their deeds) | |
according-to-the-works-of-their-hands | give-to-them. |
The psalmist’s plea for retribution on the enemy concludes in 28:4d with a summation that parallels and balances 28:4a (lit.): “Cause their deeds to return upon them.”10
The justification for the psalmist’s request follows in 28:5 and demonstrates a remarkable parallel with the request itself. The evildoers are to be condemned not simply because of their evil works, but because they demonstrate utter disregard and appreciation for the works of Yahweh himself. The deeds of Yahweh that are ignored are described in terms immediately parallel to the description of the enemies’ evil works. They disregard the “works of the LORD” and ignore “what his hands have done” (lit., “the deeds of his hands”). As a consequence of their rejection of him, Yahweh will treat them like a conquering king treats a rebellious city: He will “tear them down” and will “never build them up again.”11
Praise for Deliverance (28:6–7)
THE PSALMIST EXPERIENCES the certainty that Yahweh has indeed heard his plea for divine favor. This certainty is expressed in words that almost exactly parallel the plea itself in 28:2. Because of this assurance he “blesses”12 Yahweh and promises to give praise in song (28:6–7).
The LORD is my strength and my shield. We have seen the ideas of Yahweh as “strength” and “shield” combined before (see 18:2). There, however, “my strength” was expressed by the less common Hebrew word ḥezeq13 rather than by ʿoz, as here.14 God is often acknowledged as the “shield” of the faithful in the psalms.15 The psalmist is aware of past experiences of Yahweh’s strengthening and protective presence that encourage continued trust—“my heart trusts in him” (28:7b). The verb “trust” (bṭḥ) is a perfect form that might better be rendered in this context “has trusted” or “has come to trust,” describing a completed event with effects remaining to the present. As a result of this confident trust, the psalmist finds help from Yahweh—a theme that connects Psalm 28 back to 27:9, where Yahweh is the psalmist’s “helper,” and forward to 30:10, where God is “my help.”
The psalmist’s “heart” not only trusts as a foundation of deliverance (28:7b) but also rejoices, exults, or “leaps for joy” as a consequence of that deliverance (28:7c). The joyful praise comes forth in the form of a song of thanksgiving, a motif that again links this psalm back to 27:6 and forward to 30:12. Since we know that the sacrifice of thanksgiving was often accompanied by a public recitation of a psalm of thanksgiving, it may well be that verses 6–7 encapsulate the intent and content of that public declaration. This may explain the shift into a third-person description of Yahweh instead of the direct address earlier in the psalm.
Call for Communal Deliverance (28:8–9)
PSALM 28, LIKE many individual psalms in the Psalter, exhibits at its end a shift from purely individual to more communal concerns. If one accepts the recommended emendation in BHS of the awkward prepositional phrase lamo (“to him”) to the more understandable leʿammo (“to his people”)16 evidenced in other Hebrew manuscripts, then the individual image of Yahweh as the psalmist’s “shield” (28:7) has been expanded to include the whole community in 28:8. This sort of movement is often associated with postexilic adaptation of earlier individual hymns to speak to the needs and issues of the exilic Diaspora community, although nothing in these final verses necessitates an exilic viewpoint.
His anointed one. God is the “fortress of salvation”17 for his “anointed one.” We have encountered previous references to God’s “anointed one,” beginning in 2:2 and continuing in 18:50 and 20:6. Those earlier passages have demonstrated the complex of concepts that surround this designation, including divine election for service; the covenant of kingship between God, David, and the Davidic dynasty; and the anticipated deliverer known as “the Messiah.”
Precisely which of these concepts is operative in these final verses of Psalm 28 is difficult to determine. If the reference is part of the early, preexilic context of the original psalm, then it probably refers to the Israelite king currently in power or, more generally, to all such kings. If, as seems more likely, the concern with the “anointed one” is part of the postexilic adaptation of this psalm, then it most likely refers to the coming Messiah through whom Yahweh will save his people and bless his inheritance (28:9a). Regardless of which scenario is original, it is clear that the postexilic community would have come to associate this statement with their hopes for the anticipated saving appearance of the Messiah.
Save your people and bless your inheritance. The final entreaty slips over into direct address of Yahweh again and acknowledges that Israel is Yahweh’s “people”—an inalienable “inheritance” dependent on him for their blessing. As the psalmist sought earlier to bless Yahweh (28:6), so Israel now seeks blessing from him. One’s “inheritance” (naḥalah) is that property acquired during a lifetime that cannot be taken away but remains to be passed on to one’s descendants. Israel is God’s “inheritance” in the sense that they are his possession, and no one else can lay any claim on her.
Be their shepherd. The picture of the divine shepherd returns for the first time since its introduction in 23:1. This term is used of God only one additional time in the Psalter (80:1). The effect of the linkage between Psalms 28 and 23 is to mark off these psalms “as a collection linked by many common themes.”18
Carry them forever. The image of God as shepherd is merged here with the image of Yahweh as the servant God who carries his people rather than be carried by them. Isaiah 46:1–2 ridicules those who entrust their lives to idols that must be carried from place to place by their worshipers. Instead, Israel is called to trust Yahweh who has carried them from their birth and will continue to do so until their old age (46:3–4). Isaiah 63:9 again recalls that Yahweh “in his love and mercy . . . redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” This reference to the “days of old” may well reflect the account in Deuteronomy 1:31, which reminds the Israelites how Yahweh carried them in the desert during the Exodus wandering—another intriguing link to the Exodus-pilgrimage tension discerned in Psalms 23–30.19
Bridging Contexts
RETRIBUTION. THE PSALMIST calls on God to judge the evildoers according to their deeds (28:4–5). The idea of retribution—that what one does ultimately determines how God responds—is commonly expressed in biblical wisdom literature, especially Proverbs. There we encounter the expectation that because Yahweh has created the world, there must be a certain orderliness about the cosmos that distinguishes clearly between the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the fool. The wise and righteous can anticipate divine blessing while the fool and wicked can expect God’s judgment.
While this general concept is repeatedly affirmed in the proverbs and psalms, the nature of divine blessing is debated within the wisdom books themselves. Some passages suggest that wisdom/righteousness leads to prosperity and wealth.20 Other passages, however, make it clear that divine blessing is not always synonymous with economic abundance or even robust health.21
Our psalm aligns itself with the point of view that God judges the wicked and upholds the righteous. Interestingly, divine judgment is described as appropriate pay for work performed—a sort of biblical equivalent of marketplace economics, where certain jobs or professions are more highly paid because of market demand. Those with essential or highly prized tasks can demand higher wages or greater benefits while those in less influential positions are more poorly paid. In an age where entertainers and professional athletes receive multimillion dollar contracts while teachers and laborers receive far less, the motivational force behind salary differential cannot be said to be the lasting and innate value of the work itself but the perceived marketplace value—which job has the potential for greatest financial return for those who pay the bills.
In our psalm, it is interesting to note the kinds of “work” for which the psalmist’s enemies are condemned. It is not that these are murderers or thieves—there is no indication of physical assault or robbery. Instead, they are described as “two-faced” or deceptive in their relations with others. They “speak peace” (NIV “speak cordially”) to their neighbors—expressing a concern for others’ well-being—while actually harboring resentments and “malice” toward those they address. This is an interior attitude of self-focus and self-concern that is not visible to those around about. Yet lack of integrity in inner thought and outer expression is one of the sinful attitudes commonly addressed in the psalms.22
Clearly such deception undermines the foundation of intimate relationship. To cloak one’s inner thoughts and feelings behind a deceptive exterior is to deny others access to the real person. Humans can dissemble with one another and succeed in hiding their true selves and motivations for a while at least, but God is not deceived since he looks on the heart and knows all the plans and motivations of his creatures. Even in the world of human relationships, hidden motivations and attitudes often are revealed through actions more than words. Malice in the heart will ultimately inform what the hands do.
Not only do the enemies “do evil,” allowing their true nature to work itself out in their deeds; they also have no respect for what God is about. This is hardly surprising since what God desires and works for is the ultimate restoration of right relationship human to human and all humans with their God. God’s work is most often diametrically opposed to the deceptive practices of the enemies. The holy God takes care to make himself fully known to his creatures, both in his deeds and in the explicit revelation of his innermost character. God is holy, hating evil and desiring only good for his creatures. God is compassionate, just, merciful, and forgiving to those who acknowledge their dependence on him. God desires an intimate relationship grounded in integrity and sharing of the interior life. God shares himself and expects the same in return.
Contemporary Significance
SUFFERING AMONG THE WICKED. For exilic Israel the idea of the innocent being dragged off to suffer along with the wicked was a real experience. Too often we think of the nations of Israel and Judah as monolithic wholes who broke their covenant with Yahweh and deserved to be carted off into exile, far from all that was familiar and comforting. We forget that there remained within the nation a faithful remnant who believed the words of the prophets and entrusted themselves completely to God, similar to the seven thousand faithful at the time when Elijah believed himself to be alone—those who had never bowed to Baal or kissed him (1 Kings 19:1–18). During the Exile, these faithful few did not experience the deliverance hoped for but found themselves dragged away into captivity along with the sinful many, who had rejected Yahweh’s warnings. They experienced the same suffering—the dislocation and loss—that the faithless community as a whole deserved.
Those faithful innocents in exile had a choice: to understand their suffering among the wicked as happenstance (i.e., the accidental results of the vagaries of existence outside the control of an uncaring or unjust God), as evidence of deserved punishment for some sin hidden from themselves, or as evidence of a divine calling for the righteous few to suffer vicariously for the sins of the wicked many. The message of Job comes across clearly here. The righteous do suffer, but not for any hidden sin unknown even to themselves. God is still to be acknowledged as just and compassionate while the suffering faithful continue to rely wholly on him.
The suffering servant of Isaiah—whom Jesus took as the foundational model for his own ministry of suffering and death for the sins of his people—was first and foremost a call to the faithful few to adopt the role of vicarious sufferers for the sins of the many. In so doing, they were to act redemptively for the forgiveness and redemption of the people as a whole. It was only because they were ultimately unable (or unwilling) to fulfill this role completely that God himself, incarnate in Jesus, accomplished the vicarious and redemptive suffering for all humanity that made possible the restoration of God’s original creation intention.
I said this view of vicarious suffering was a choice. The exilic faithful could have (and I suppose many did so) wallowed in their self-pity, refusing to accept any solidarity with their suffering community and demanding divine explanation for an essentially unjust act.23 They could also have looked inward, accusing themselves of imaginary sin to explain their suffering.
We have to admit if we are honest that we have the same choices when confronted with suffering and brokenness today. God’s purpose in calling his church “out”24 of the world is not to escape its brokenness and pain. He has called us out in order to experience a new wholeness and to experience the world’s brokenness for what it really is: a direct contradiction of God’s intention for humanity and his whole creation. Armed with this knowledge and with the power of his Spirit sustained within the fellowship of believers, we have been sent back to the world—with the “mind of Christ Jesus”—to make its suffering our own and so to redeem it.
Whenever we love instead of hate, when we exchange self-protection for risky compassion, when we allow our hearts to be broken by the suffering of the world around us, we turn our own senseless suffering not into a cry of anger, but into a plea for unity and restoration. Then we are able to cry out with the psalmist in 28:6–7:
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.