Psalms 28:6

⁵Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them. ⁶Blessed be 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. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.

Sermons

In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband's Safe Arrival

Anne Bradstreet

Summary

This verse expresses the psalmist's plea for God to hear his supplications and cries for mercy. It reflects a deep sense of trust and dependence on God's attentive ear to the prayers of His people. The psalmist acknowledges God as the source of his strength and salvation, recognizing that the Lord is responsive to the needs of those who seek Him earnestly. It serves as a reminder of the intimate relationship believers have with God, encouraging them to pour out their hearts before Him with confidence and faith.

Commentary

Keil-Delitzsch
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
John Gill
Matthew Henry
Tyndale

Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

The first half of the Psalm prayed for deliverance and for judgment; this second half gives thanks for both. If the poet wrote the Psalm at one sitting then at this point the certainty of being answered dawns upon him. But it is even possible that he added this second part later on, as a memorial of the answer he experienced to his prayer (Hitzig, Ewald). It sounds, at all events, like the record of something that has actually taken place. Jahve is his defence and shield. The conjoined perfects in Psa 28:7 denote that which is closely united in actual realisation; and in the fut. consec., as is frequently the case, e.g., in Job 14:2, the historical signification retreats into the background before the more essential idea of that which has been produced. In משּׁירי, the song is conceived as the spring whence the הודות bubble forth; and instead of אודנּוּ we have the more impressive form אהודנּוּ, as in Ps 45:18; Psa 116:6; Sa1 17:47, the syncope being omitted. From suffering (Leid) springs song (Lied), and from song springs the praise (Lob) of Him, who has "turned" the suffering, just as it is attuned in Psa 28:6 and Psa 28:8. (Note: There is a play of words and an alliteration in this sentence which we cannot fully reproduce in the English. - Tr.) The αὐτοί, who are intended by למו in Psa 28:8, are those of Israel, as in Psa 12:8; Isa 33:2 (Hitzig). The lxx (κραταίωμα τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ) reads לעמּו, as in Psa 29:11, which is approved by Bצttcher, Olshausen and Hupfeld; but למו yields a similar sense. First of all David thinks of the people, then of himself; for his private character retreats behind his official, by virtue of which he is the head of Israel. For this very reason his deliverance is the deliverance of Israel, to whom, so far as they have become unfaithful to His anointed, Jahve has not requited this faithlessness, and to whom, so far as they have remained true to him, He has rewarded this fidelity. Jahve is a עז a si evhaJ to them, inasmuch as He preserves them by His might from the destruction into which they would have precipitated themselves, or into which others would have precipitated them; and He is the מעוז ישׁוּעות of His anointed inasmuch as He surrounds him as an inaccessible place of refuge which secures to him salvation in all its fulness instead of the destruction anticipated. Israel's salvation and blessing were at stake; but Israel is in fact God's people and God's inheritance - may He, then, work salvation for them in every future need and bless them. Apostatised from David, it was a flock in the hands of the hireling - may He ever take the place of shepherd to them and carry them in His arms through the destruction. The נשּׂאם coupled with וּרעם (thus it is to be pointed according to Ben-Asher) calls to mind Deu 1:31, "Jahve carried Israel as a man doth carry his son," and Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11, "as on eagles' wings." The Piel, as in Isa 63:9, is used of carrying the weak, whom one lifts up and thus removes out of its helplessness and danger. Psa 3:1-8 closes just in the same way with an intercession; and the close of Psa 29:1-11 is similar, but promissory, and consequently it is placed next to Psa 28:1-9.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentary

In these verses, I. David gives God thanks for the audience of his prayers as affectionately as a few verses before he had begged it: Blessed be the Lord, Psa 28:6. How soon are the saints' sorrows turned into songs and their prayers into praises! It was in faith that David prayed (Psa 28:2), Hear the voice of my supplications; and by the same faith he gives thanks (Psa 28:6) that God has heard the voice of his supplications. Note, 1. Those that pray in faith may rejoice in hope. "He hath heard me (graciously accepted me) and I am as sure of a real answer as if I had it already." 2. What we win by prayer we must wear by praise. Has God heard our supplications? Let us then bless his name. II. He encourages himself to hope in God for the perfecting of every thing that concerned him. Having given to God the glory of his grace (Psa 28:6), he is humbly bold to take the comfort of it, Psa 28:7. This is the method of attaining peace: let us begin with praise that is attainable. Let us first bless God and then bless ourselves. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God: "The Lord is my strength, to support me, and carry me on, through all my services and sufferings. He is my shield, to protect me from all the malicious designs of my enemies against me. I have chosen him to be so, I have always found him so, and I expect he will still be so." 2. His experience of the benefits of that dependence: "My heart trusted in him, and in his power and promise; and it has not been in vain to do so, for I am helped, I have been often helped; not only God has given to me, in his due time, the help I trusted to him for, but my very trusting in him has helped me, in the mean time, and kept me from fainting." Psa 27:13. The very actings of faith are present aids to a dropping spirit, and often help it at a dead lift. 3. His improvement of this experience. (1.) He had the pleasure of it: Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. The joy of a believer is seated in the heart, while, in the laughter of the fool, the heart is sorrowful. It is great joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. The heart that truly believes shall in due time greatly rejoice; it is joy and peace in believing that we are to expect. (2.) God shall have the praise of it: when my heart greatly rejoices, with my song will I praise him. This must we express our gratitude; it is the least we can do; and others will hereby be invited and encouraged to trust in him too. III. He pleases himself with the interest which all good people, through Christ, have in God (Psa 28:8): "The Lord is their strength; not mine only, but the strength of every believer." Note, The saints rejoice in their friends' comforts as well as their own; for, as we have not the less benefit from the light of the sun, so neither from the light of Gods' countenance, for others' sharing therein; for we are sure there is enough for all and enough for each. This is our communion with all saints, that God is their strength and ours, Christ their Lord and ours, Co1 1:2. He is their strength, the strength of all Israel, because he is the saving strength of his anointed, that is, 1. Of David in the type. God, in strengthening him that was their king and fought their battles, strengthened the whole kingdom. He calls himself God's anointed because it was the unction he had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, and therefore entitled him to the divine protection. 2. Of Christ, his anointed, his Messiah, in the anti-type. God was his saving strength, qualified him for his undertaking and carried him through it; see Psa 89:21; Isa 49:5; Isa 50:7, Isa 50:9. And so he becomes their strength, the strength of all the saints; he strengthened him that is the church's head, and from him diffuses strength to all the members, has commanded his strength, and so strengthens what he has wrought for us; Psa 68:28; Psa 80:17, Psa 80:18. IV. He concludes with a short but comprehensive prayer for the church of God, Psa 28:9. He prays for Israel, not as his people ("save my people, and bless my inheritance"), though they were so, but, "thine." God's interest in them lay nearer his heart than his own. We are thy people is a good plea, Isa 64:9; Isa 63:19. I am thine, save me. God's people are his inheritance, dear to him, and precious in his eyes; what little glory he has from this world he has from them. The Lord's portion is his people. That which he begs of God for them is, 1. That he would save them from their enemies and the dangers they were exposed to. 2. That he would bless them with all good, flowing from his favour, in performance of his promise, and amounting to a happiness for them. 3. That he would feed them, bless them with plenty, and especially the plenty of his ordinances, which are food to the soul. Rule them; so the margin. "Direct their counsels and actions aright, and overrule their affairs for good. Feed them, and rule them; sets pastors, set rulers, over them, that shall do their office with wisdom and understanding." 4. That he would lift them up for ever, lift them up out of their troubles and distresses, and do this, not only for those of that age, but for his people in every age to come, even to the end. "Lift them up into thy glorious kingdom, lift them up as high as heaven." There, and there only, will the saints be lifted up for ever, never more to sink or be depressed. Observe, Those, and those only, whom God feeds and rules, who are willing to be taught, and guided, and governed, by him, shall be saved, and blessed, and lifted up for ever.