Lord, Help Us to Not Fall Prey to the World’s Way

Psalms 28:1-2 (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.

From ESV footnotes: This is a lament, a cry for help during the threat posed by evildoers. The threat is probably to the whole community (vv. 8–9), which each of the faithful is personally involved in (thus the references to “I,” “me,” and “my” throughout).

Vs 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.

This is a desperate cry for God to not only hear His prayer but also to respond to his cry for help. 

Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will—they must go further and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, if possible; they dread even a little of God's silence. God's voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. – CH Spurgeon

Vs 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 is asking God to hear him in his cries for help and to hear his cries of praise. 

• Even our desperate cry for help should be accompanied with praise and adoration for the only One who can save is from destruction. 

Vs 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.

David does not want to get mixed up with those who are workers of evil. 

These people speak peace as if that is their goal, but their hearts are set on evil. 

Vs 4-5 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.

David vents his frustration to the LORD….. who better to vent too? 

• He asks God for His justice to overtake their evil and give them the reward for their evil deeds. (the work of their hands…. Notice the contrast compared to the work of God’s hands) 

Vs 6-7 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.

For He has heard my pleas….  Real praise is established upon sufficient and constraining reasons; it is not irrational emotion, but rises, like a pure spring, from the deeps of experience. Answered prayers should be acknowledged. Do we not often fail in this duty? Would it not greatly encourage others, and strengthen ourselves, if we faithfully recorded divine goodness, and made a point of extolling it with our tongue? God's mercy is not such an inconsiderable thing that we may safely venture to receive it without so much as thanks. We should shun ingratitude, and live daily in the heavenly atmosphere of thankful love. – CH Spurgeon

David now shifts into praise, recognition in Whom he is trusting. A declaration of FAITH

• He trusts that God has heard his cry for help. 
• He trusts God to be his strength (within)
• He trusts God to be his shield (outer)
• In Him and no one else does he trust for help. 

David’s heart exults (show triumphant elation) cries for mercy have resulted in cries of victory and jubilation! 

• With MY song says David, I will give thanks. 

Vs 8-9 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.

David closes his prayer/song with praise for God who hears not only his cry for saving and strength, but for all His people. 

• His closing asks God for help and leading for all His people. 

"Lift them up." (carry them) The word here used may mean sustain them, or support them; but it more properly means bear, and would be best expressed by a reference to the fact, that the shepherd carries the feeble, the young, and the sickly of his flock in his arms, or that he lifts them up when unable themselves to rise. - Albert Barnes.