Psalm 28 (ESV) — Of David. 1 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 neighbors 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.

A personal journey through silence.

• My vocal cord surgery—two days of silence.
  • I couldn’t speak.
  • But I had to wait for the labs and doctors to speak.

The Problem in the Psalm: God’s Silence.

• Does God hear me?
  • Be not deaf to me (v.1).
  • Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy (v.2).
• Why can’t I hear God?
  • Lest, if you be silent with me, I become like those who go down to the pit (v.1).
    • Likely interpretation: Right now, God is just as conversant with me as someone who is already dead.
• The pain of divine hiddenness.
  • Divine hiddenness today:
    • Answers
    • Health
    • Broken relationships
    • Depression or anxiety

Great people of the faith have had this experience.

• Habakkuk: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Hab. 1:2)
• Job: “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me…” (Job 30:20)
• Jesus: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46)
  • This enables Jesus to embrace us in our weakness.

How did David re-engage with God’s voice?

• For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy (v.6).
• “…a life radiant with the light of His face.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)
• The four stanzas of the psalm represent four key movements that led David back to God’s voice.

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Solution 1: Appeal to God’s Mercy (28:1-2)

Psalm 28 (ESV) — 1 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.

David’s first move was to appeal to God’s merciful nature.

• David did not appeal to his own goodness.
  • Pleas for mercy (v.2)
    • This indicates he knew he needed mercy.
  • I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary (v.2)
    • A place of atonement by blood on the mercy seat of the Ark inside the tabernacle.
    • “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13)
      • Receive me on the basis of the blood!
• David appeals to the God he knows.
  • Exodus 34:6–7 — 6 “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

How do you break the silence?

• Do you come with an appeal to your own goodness? Do you implicate God and suggest he is unrighteous for his silence? Or do you appeal to his merciful, atoning work, knowing you need it?
  • Do you know who I am? vs. I know who you are…and I know who I am (I need your mercy).

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Solution 2: Hope in God’s Justice (28:3-5)

3 Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors 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.

Injustice pained David.

• Wicked (v.3)
• Workers of evil (v.3)
• Who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts (v.3)
• The wicked had not sought God’s mercy for their wickedness, but had disregarded the works of the Lord and the work of his hands (v.5).
  • What God had revealed of himself and his plan (tabernacle, Israel), the wicked had rejected.

So David asked God to act.

• Render them their due reward (v.4).
  • Repay (HCSB, NIV)
  • Payback time

We are often uncomfortable with the concept of God as Judge.

• But God is Judge—and this is necessary and beneficial.
  • “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Heb. 9:27).
  • Paul announced that God “will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
  • Paul also spoke of a “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed,” and he “will render to each one according to his works” (Rom. 2:5-6).
• He is the only one suited as Judge, because he is:
  • Perfect (holy): without impure motives.
  • Knows everything: sees all everyone has done, thought, or would have done.
  • Is all powerful: able to enact judgment.
  • And is good, gracious, and loving: he is prone to forgive.
  • He is the only one suited to be the ultimate Judge.
• We are not at liberty to make our own version of God.
  • I like to think of God as…artist, architect, force, kind, benevolent.
  • “So often remarks of this kind serve as the prelude to a denial of something that the Bible tells us about God.” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God)
    • 2nd Commandment paraphrase: “Don’t worship a false god of your own making” (Ex. 20:4-5)
• Story: Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy—a South African man who, at age 12, fell into a mysterious coma-like state due to an unknown illness.
  • Many quietly, anonymously, with no real voice, suffer at the hands of others. Justice is on the way!
  • Revelation 19:2—The great multitude sings “his judgments are true and just.”
  • Revelation 19:11—“In righteousness he judges and makes war.”

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Solution 3: Trust in God’s Strength (28:6-7)

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.

Something shifted.

• Blessed be the LORD! (v.6)
• He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. (v.6)
• Trust, help, joy (exults), and thankfulness to God are unlocked. (v.7)
  • This is a totally different man.

But what shifted?

• External event? Poetic seam? Or an internal movement of faith?
  • Soldier hearing, “Backup is on the way.”

The Lord was his rock (v.1)—and now he knew it.

• The Lord is my strength and my shield (v.7).
• He learned to lean on the rock as he recounted God’s mercy and justice.
• Sometimes worship is warfare.
  • King Jehoshaphat’s praise army (1 Ch. 20:1-30).
  • Praise is like the first light on the horizon.

Lean on the rock.

• His identity as the Son of God is the rock upon which the church is built (Matt. 16:13-19).
• “No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
• He is called the chief cornerstone (Ps. 118:22, 1 Peter 2:7).
• “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock…” (Matthew 7:24–25).
• Story: Grandma got a speeding ticket—disillusionment!
  • Life is like that—people, relationships, politicians, movements, ministries, and philosophies all fail us.
  • But there is one who does not disappoint—our Rock! Our Lord!

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Solution 4: Rest in God’s Covenant (28:8-9)

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.

He turns from himself to the congregation.

• Others focus: a true sign you have shifted from God’s silence to God’s strength—you’re free of yourself!

He is confident: God is for his people.

• The Lord is the strength of his people (v.8).
• He is the saving refuge of his anointed king (v.8).
• Save your people. Bless your heritage (v.9).
• Story: Randos
  • Interpretation: We aren’t just anyone. We aren’t randos. We are God’s people. Of course he will shepherd and carry us forever (v.9).

When we come to the Lord’s table, we rest in his covenant.

• “ “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (1 Cor. 11:25)
• “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35)
• “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:37)