Psalms 28:9

Save thy people,.... The psalmist begins the psalm with petitions for himself, and closes it with prayers for the people of God; whom God has chosen for his people, taken into covenant to be his

Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever. Concluding prayer that the Lord will continue "forever" the salvation which He hath conferred on His people.

Thine inheritance; Israel, for whom I pray; partly because thou hast in some sort committed them to my charge, and partly because Saul did not take due care of them. Lift them up; raise them out of their low and afflicted condition, in which they are, by reason of Saul’ s weakness and neglect, and by the prevailing power of the Philistines, and advance them to a state of safety and honour, and that not for a season, but with constancy and perpetuity, as it follows.

Psalms 28:9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.Ver. 9. Save thy people] The Church must share in our prayers. And bless thine inheritance] Which cannot but be dear to thee. Feed them also] For they are but ill-favouredly fed by Saul. Lift them up] Over all their enemies, as Psalms 27:6.

(9) Feed . . . lift them up.—These words suggest comparison with Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 63:9. The incorporation of this petition in the Te Deum is one of those interesting facts that link the Christian worship with the Jewish.

Verse 9. Save thy people] Continue to preserve them from all their enemies; from idolatry, and from sin of every kind. Bless thine inheritance] They have taken thee for their God; thou hast taken them for thy people. Feed them] רעה raah signifies both to feed and to govern. Feed them, as a shepherd does his flock; rule them, as a father does his children. Lift them up for ever.] Maintain thy true Church; let no enemy prevail against it. Preserve and magnify them for ever. Lift them up: as hell is the bottomless pit in which damned spirits sink down for ever; or, as Chaucer says, downe all downe; so heaven is an endless height of glory, in which there is an eternal rising or exaltation. Down, all down; up, all up; for ever and ever. ANALYSIS OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH PSALM There are three parts in this Psalm: - I. A prayer, Psalms 28:1-6. II. A thanksgiving, Psalms 28:6-9. III. A prayer for the Church, Psalms 28:9. I. The first part is a prayer to God; in which he first requests audience, Psalms 28:2: "Hear me." And his prayer is so described, that it sets forth most of the conditions requisite in one that prays: - 1. The object - GOD: "Unto thee, O Lord, do I cry." 2. His faith: "To thee I cry, who art my rock." 3. His fervour: It was an ardent and vehement prayer: "I cry." 4. Humility; it was a supplication: "Hear the voice of my supplication." 5. His gesture: "I lift up my hands." 6. According to God's ORDER: "Towards thy holy temple." 1. The argument he uses to procure an audience; the danger he was in: "Lest, if thou be silent, I become like them that go down to the pit." 2. Then he expresses what he prays for, which is, that either 1. He might not be corrupted by the fair persuasions of hypocrites: 2. Or that he might not be partaker of their punishments: "Draw me not away with the wicked." Upon whom he sets this mark: "Who speak peace - but mischief is in their hearts." 3. Against whom he uses this imprecation, which is the second part of his prayer: "Give them according to their own deeds," c. 4. For which he gives this reason: They were enemies to God and to his religion far from repentance, and any hope of amendment: "They regard not the words of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands; therefore he shall destroy them, and not build them up." II. Then follows an excellent form of thanksgiving, which he begins with "Blessed be the Lord;" and assigns the reasons, which express the chief parts of thanksgiving. I. That God heard him: "He hath heard the voice of my supplication." 2. That he would be his Protector: "The Lord is my strength and my shield." 3. For his grace of confidence: "My heart trusted in him." 4. That from him he had relief: "I am helped." 5.

9. thine inheritance] Israel. Cp. Deuteronomy 4:20. feed them] Lit. shepherd them. Cp. Psalms 23:1; 2 Samuel 7:7. Govern them in the adaptation of this verse in the Te Deum is from the Vulg. rege. lift them up] Exalt them; as the word is used in 2 Samuel 5:12. But we should probably render as in R.V., bear them up; either as a shepherd carries his sheep (Isaiah 40:11), continuing the idea of the preceding word; or as a father carries his child, a figure often applied to Jehovah’s care for Israel. See Deuteronomy 1:31; Isaiah 46:3-4; Isaiah 63:9. Cp. too Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11.

Save thy people - All thy people. The psalm appropriately closes with a prayer for all the people of God.

9. Save thy people—The burden of his soul was for God’s people. From this standpoint we must judge of all his utterances in prayer and praise. Psalms 3, 19, close in a similar way.