"Of David.
To you, O Lord, I call;
my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me off with the wicked,
with the workers of evil,
who speak peace with their neighbours
while evil is in their hearts.
4 Give to them according to their work
and according to the evil of their deeds;
give to them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and build them up no more.
6 Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever."
Psalm 28
We may compare and contrast this Psalm with the previous one, in which the order
was: Praise, followed by anxious prayer. Here, the order is reversed: anxious prayer (1-5)
is followed by praise (6-9). This is certainly the more usual order in the Psalms we have
studied thus far, but the fact is that both orders are common and legitimate expressions
of spiritual experience. The subject matter here seems to be the same as that in Psalm 26, and the Psalmist's plaint has to do with the controversy and conflict between the orthodox upholders of the traditional faith and the innovators who were endangering its purity. But there is a pleading, beseeching note, especially in 1, as if he were terribly
afraid that the vindication, for which he prayed in Psalm 26, was not forthcoming, and that God was holding His silence unaccountably, when he desperately needed His man-
ifest help. The silence of God can be a very trying experience for the believer, when he is battling and contending for the truth, for in such a situation it sometimes seems overwhelmingly important that God should vindicate him now, and when He does not, it sometimes is more than he seems to be able to bear. But 'earnestly contending for the
faith once delivered to the saints' is a protracted and long-term exercise in which there are no quick victories. We need to beware of facile analysis of our contemporary situation which suggests that all that needs to be done is a simple assertion of the Truth, and that a simple teaching of the gospel will bring the promised revival we long to see.
Rome was not built in a day, and the great 19th century movement of revival and
reawakening came only as the fruit of generations of faithful contending, during which
many an agonised and discouraged plea arose from hearts bludgeoned by the rigours of
the battle. The cry 'be not silent to me' is a very understandable one.