Commentary - Psalm 28:1-5

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 28 is a prayer of raw dependence that climaxes in a confident imprecation against the wicked. David, finding himself in a desperate spot, cries out to God, his Rock, pleading not to be met with silence. The alternative to God hearing him is unthinkable, it is to be lumped in with those who are headed for the pit. This psalm teaches us that true prayer is not a polite religious exercise; it is a matter of life and death. It moves from a desperate personal plea (vv. 1-2), to a sharp and necessary distinction between the righteous and the wicked (v. 3), to a righteous calling down of justice upon those who work iniquity (vv. 4-5). The psalm as a whole is a model for how the people of God ought to pray when surrounded by treachery, not with personal vindictiveness, but with a zealous regard for God's justice and a desire to be distinguished from His enemies.

This is one of those psalms that makes modern evangelicals nervous, containing as it does what we call imprecations, which is a formal way of saying curses. But we must remember that the Psalms are the prayer book of Jesus Christ Himself. When we pray them, we are praying in Him. This is not a license for settling personal scores, but rather a summons to align our hearts with God's perfect justice against those who have set themselves implacably against Him and His kingdom. David’s prayer is rooted in a profound understanding of God's character: He is a Rock, a holy God, and a righteous Judge. The wicked are not wicked because they broke some impersonal rule, but because they disregard the very works and operations of Yahweh's hands. Therefore, the judgment called down upon them is not an overreaction, but a fitting and necessary consequence of their rebellion.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 28 sits within the first book of the Psalter, a collection largely attributed to David and reflecting his personal and kingly struggles. It follows psalms of lament, trust, and thanksgiving, and it combines these elements. The raw cry of verse 1 is reminiscent of other psalms where David feels abandoned or on the brink of death (e.g., Psalm 13, Psalm 88). The sharp turn to imprecation in verse 4 connects it to other psalms that call for God's judgment on the wicked, such as Psalms 35, 69, and 109.

What is crucial to see is that these are not simply disconnected emotional outbursts. They are covenantal prayers. David is God's anointed king, and the enemies he faces are not just personal rivals but enemies of God's covenant purposes for Israel. Therefore, his prayer for their downfall is a prayer for the advancement of God's kingdom. The stability of his throne is tied to the establishment of righteousness, and so he prays for God to act decisively as the ultimate Judge.

Key Issues

Commentary

Psalm 28:1

To You, O Yahweh, I call; My rock, do not be silent to me, Lest if You are hesitant toward me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.

David begins where every saint must begin, with a direct address to God. He is not talking into the air; he is calling upon Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. This is personal and direct. And he immediately identifies God by one of his most comforting and stabilizing names: "My rock." In a world of shifting sand, of turmoil and treachery, David’s situation is unstable, but his God is not. A rock is a place of refuge, a fortress, a source of stability. But a rock is also silent. And this is David's great fear. He cries out, "do not be silent to me." The Hebrew is more forceful, suggesting deafness or unresponsiveness. The plea is for God not to be inert, not to be a silent rock in the philosophical sense, but to be a responsive Rock, a saving Rock. The stakes are as high as they can be. If God remains silent, if He hesitates, the result is catastrophic. David says, "I will become like those who go down to the pit." The pit is Sheol, the grave, the place of the dead. For God to be silent in the face of His servant's cry is to abandon him to death, to lump him in with the wicked who are already on their way there. Unanswered prayer, for the genuine believer, is not a minor inconvenience. It is a terrifying prospect, because our very life is in His hands.

Psalm 28:2

Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

The plea continues, and David specifies what he wants God to do: "Hear the voice of my supplications." This is not just noise; it is an articulate cry for grace and mercy. The prayer is both vocal ("I cry to You") and physical. David is lifting his hands. This is a posture of prayer seen throughout Scripture, signifying surrender, dependence, and appeal to a higher authority. He is not just mumbling some words; his whole body is engaged in this desperate appeal. And where is this appeal directed? "Toward Your holy sanctuary." The sanctuary, or oracle, was the location of the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God's presence dwelt in a special way among His people. David is directing his prayer to the throne of grace. He is looking to the place of atonement and mercy. For us, under the New Covenant, we lift our hands and voices not to a physical temple, but to the heavenly sanctuary where Christ, our great High Priest, has entered behind the veil for us. We cry out to Him who is the mercy seat itself.

Psalm 28:3

Do not drag me away with the wicked And with workers of iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts.

Here the psalm pivots. David's fear is not just death, but a particular kind of death, the kind reserved for the wicked. "Do not drag me away with the wicked." The image is one of a final, forceful judgment, like a fisherman hauling in a net full of fish to be discarded. David is desperate to be distinguished from the ungodly. He knows that God is coming to clean house, and he wants to be on the right side of that cleansing. And what is the character of these wicked men? They are "workers of iniquity." Their sin is not an occasional stumble; it is their trade, their craft. And their particular brand of wickedness is duplicity. They "speak peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts." This is the oily, treacherous speech of the hypocrite. They present a facade of friendship and goodwill, but inwardly they are plotting mischief and harm. This is a profound evil because it poisons the well of human community and trust. It is the sin of Judas, who betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss. David wants nothing to do with such men, either in this life or in the judgment to come.

Psalm 28:4

Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their actions; Give to them according to the deeds of their hands; Return their dealings upon them.

This is the imprecation, the call for judgment. And notice how meticulously just it is. David is not asking for some arbitrary, vindictive punishment. He is praying for the simple, bedrock principle of God's universe to be applied: the law of the harvest. He asks God four times, in four different ways, to give these men exactly what they have earned. "Give to them according to their work... according to the evil of their actions... according to the deeds of their hands... Return their dealings upon them." This is a prayer for perfect retributive justice. Let them reap what they have sown. Let the evil they have crafted with their own hands be their reward. This is not a petty prayer of personal revenge. It is a prayer that God would be God, that He would uphold His own moral law. When we pray this, we must do so in Christ, asking first that God would destroy our enemies by making them our brothers through the cross. But if they persist in their rebellion, then we are praying for God to vindicate His own name and His own justice in the world.

Psalm 28:5

Because they do not regard the works of Yahweh Nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.

David now gives the grounds for this judgment, the ultimate reason why these men deserve what he has prayed for. It is because "they do not regard the works of Yahweh." Their fundamental sin is a sin of inattention and disregard for God Himself. They look at the world God has made, they see the history He has orchestrated, they observe His providence, and they shrug. They are spiritually blind and willfully ignorant. They do not consider "the deeds of His hands," whether in creation or in judgment. Because they have set themselves against the Creator and Sustainer of all things, their own end will be deconstruction. "He will tear them down and not build them up." Their projects, their schemes, their little empires of deceit, will all be demolished. God is the great builder, but for those who refuse to acknowledge Him, He becomes the great demolisher. There is no neutral ground. You are either being built up by God into His holy temple, or you are being slated for demolition because you have set yourself up as a rival builder.

Application

First, we must learn to pray with the desperation of David. Our prayers should not be tepid or formal. We are crying out to our Rock, and the alternative to His hearing us is the pit. We must not be content with a silent heaven. We should cry out, lift our hands, and direct our pleas to the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus intercedes for us.

Second, we must cultivate a holy hatred for duplicity and treachery. We live in an age that prizes a flimsy and sentimental niceness above all else. But God hates a double heart. We should pray to be delivered from smooth-talking hypocrites and, more importantly, pray that we would not become one of them.

Finally, we must recover a biblical understanding of imprecatory prayer. This is not about getting even with the guy who cut you off in traffic. It is about aligning our hearts with God's justice against His implacable enemies. We should desire, first and foremost, their conversion. But when evil men set themselves to destroy the church and defame the name of Christ, it is right and good to pray that God would bring their schemes to nothing and give them what their hands have made. We pray for justice, because our God is a just God, and His throne is established on righteousness.