Psalms 28

Psalms 28:1

Augustine of Hippo: “Unto You, O Lord, have I cried; My God, be not silent from me” [Psalms 28:1]. Unto You, O Lord, have I cried; My God, separate not the unity of Your Word from that which as Man I am. “Lest at any time Thou be silent from me: and I shall be like them that go down into the pit.” For from this, that the Eternity of Your Word ceases not to unite Itself to Me, it comes that I am not such a man as the rest of men, who are born into the deep misery of this world: where, as if You are silent, Your Word is not recognised. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Diodorus of Tarsus: I shall attribute the fact of the victory not to my virtue but to you, the God who proved its source for me. — COMMENTARY ON Psalms 28

Origen of Alexandria: Frequently, in Scripture, the righteous are said to have called out to God. Each one tries to beseech God with a cry, and I may say with an unusual cry. He goes to his bedroom closet, locks the door and calls out to God: “Do not be silent before me.” It was written of Moses, Aaron and Joshua the son of Nun. Indeed, they were the worthy ones to whom God spoke. He spoke through the prophets whenever the people stood before God. Let us not think that God speaks to us externally, for those righteous thoughts that are in our hearts are the words we speak and the voice through which God speaks to us. Understand this when Scripture says that God spoke to this one or that. Thus Scripture testifies, “Blessed is the one whose help is from you.…” We have this help through which the word of God is received. Holy is that one … who hears the word of the Lord and does it. — SELECTIONS FROM THE Psalms 28:1

Theodoret of Cyrus: If you keep silence with me and deprive me of your help, I shall immediately be consigned to death, which he called “pit,” since the grave is dug like a pit. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28:1

Psalms 28:2

Augustine of Hippo: “Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication, whist I pray unto You, while I hold up my hands to Your holy temple” [Psalms 28:2]. Whilst I am crucified for their salvation, who on believing become Your holy temple. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Origen of Alexandria: Often, we communicate by the lifting of hands, as when Moses’ arms were lifted up and Israel was victorious. When his hands were down, the Amalekites won.… Our hands are our deeds of piety. If we store treasures in heaven, we have hands lifted to God and overcome the enemy. When, therefore, I raise my hands to God, I lift my spirit to him through my uplifted hands. Amalek is conquered by me. So, it is needful to lift your hands to God. The temple of God is his glory. — SELECTIONS FROM THE Psalms 28:2

Theodoret of Cyrus: Though the temple was not yet built, he gives the name “temple” to the tabernacle in which he prayed, distant from it in body but directing his mind there. Likewise also when blessed Daniel in Babylon prayed, he opened the windows facing Jerusalem, not under the impression that God was confined there but from his knowledge that the divine manifestation occurred there. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28:2

Psalms 28:3

Augustine of Hippo: “Draw not My Soul away with sinners, and destroy me not with them that work iniquity, with them that speak peace with their neighbours” [Psalms 28:3]. With them that say unto Me, “We know that You are a Master come from God.” [John 3:2] “But evil in their hearts.” But they speak evil in their hearts. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Bede: It is good that the Spirit descended upon the Lord in the form of a dove, so that the faithful may learn that they cannot be filled with his Spirit unless they are simple, unless they possess true peace with their brothers, which is signified by the kiss of doves. Ravens also have kisses, but they tear flesh (which a dove does not do at all), signifying those “who speak peace with their neighbor, but wicked things are in their hearts.” A dove, which by nature is innocent of the tearing of the flesh, most suitably fits those innocents who pursue peace and sanctity with everyone. — Homilies on the Gospels 1:15

Theodoret of Cyrus: The prayer of blessed David is to have no truck with those who practice duplicity: he calls abhorrent those who say one thing but mean another. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28:2

Psalms 28:4

Augustine of Hippo: “Give unto them according to their works” [Psalms 28:4]. Give unto them according to their works, for this is just. “And according to the malice of their affections.” For aiming at evil, they cannot discover good. “According to the works of their hands give Thou unto them.” Although what they have done may avail for salvation to others, yet give Thou unto them according to the works of their wills. “Pay them their recompense.” Because, for the truth which they heard, they wished to recompense deceit; let their own deceit deceive them. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Jerome: Because they do not understand through blessings, they will understand through suffering. — BRIEF COMMENTARY ON Psalms 28

Theodoret of Cyrus: Let no one think, however, that the righteous person is cursing his enemies: the words are a mark not of cursing but of a just verdict. “Grant them their due repayment,” he says, meaning, May they fall foul of their own schemes, which they hatch against one another. This is said also in the seventh psalm, “Their trouble will come back on their own head, and their wrong will come down on top of them.” — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28:3

Psalms 28:5

Augustine of Hippo: “For they have not had understanding in the works of the Lord” [Psalms 28:5]. And whence is it clear that this has befallen them? From this forsooth, “for they have not had understanding in the works of the Lord.” This very thing, in truth, has been, even now, their recompense, that in Him whom they tempted with malicious intent as a Man, they should not recognise God, with what design the Father sent Him in the Flesh. “And the works of His hands.” Nor be moved by those visible works, which are laid out before their very eyes. “You shall destroy them, and not build them up.” Let them do Me no hurt, nay, nor again in their endeavour to raise engines against My Church, let them anything avail. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Psalms 28:6

Augustine of Hippo: “Blessed be the Lord, for He has heard the voice of My prayer” [Psalms 28:6]. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Psalms 28:7

Augustine of Hippo: “The Lord My Helper and My Protector” [Psalms 28:7]. The Lord helping Me in so great sufferings, and protecting Me with immortality in My resurrection. “In Him has My Heart trusted, and I have been helped.” “And My Flesh has flourished again:” that is, and My Flesh has risen again. “And of my will I will confess unto Him.” Wherefore, the fear of death being now destroyed, not by the necessity of fear under the Law, but with a free will with the Law, shall they who believe in Me, confess unto Him; and because I am in them, I will confess. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Maximus of Turin: Take note of the expression he used. He does not say “flourished,” but “flourished again,” for nothing flourishes again unless it had flourished previously. The Lord’s flesh flourished when he first came forth from the Virgin Mary’s undefiled womb, just as Isaiah says: “A shoot will come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from his root.” It flourished again, when, after the flower of his body was cut down by the Jews, it sprouted forth from the tomb with the renewed glory of the resurrection. In the manner of a flower, it breathed forth at the same time a scent and the gleam of immortality on all people, circulating the scent of good works with its sweetness and demonstrating the incorruptibility of the eternal divinity with its gleam. — Sermon 55:2

Psalms 28:8

Arnobius the Younger: All that he suffered, he suffered by his own will, as he said, “I have the power to lay down my spirit and to take it back.”And he also said, freely I will confess him. He himself is the strength of his own people because he fulfills his words by his deeds. He said that he was going to suffer and he suffered, that he was going to die and he died, that he was going to arise and he arose from the dead, overcoming weakness of fear and giving strength to a most eager will. Because he is the protector of the salvation of his own anointed, because without a doubt he is “God in Christ, reconciling the World to himself,”27saving his own people by bringing deliverance to spirit and body, and by blessing the nations, his own inheritance, by freeing them from demonic subjection, so that the Son of God, with the Father and Holy Spirit, may extol them and rule forever. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28

Augustine of Hippo: “The Lord is the strength of His people” [Psalms 28:8]. Not that people “ignorant of the righteousness of God, and willing to establish their own.” [Romans 10:3] For they thought not themselves strong in themselves: for the Lord is the strength of His people, struggling in this life’s difficulties with the devil. “And the protector of the salvation of His Christ.” That, having saved them by His Christ after the strength of war, He may protect them at the last with the immortality of peace. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Augustine of Hippo: This does not refer to the people which was ignorant of God’s righteousness and tried to establish its own. Rather, it refers to a different people that did not look to itself for its strength but knew instead that the Lord would be its strength as it contends with the devil in the difficulties of this life. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE Psalms 28:8

Eusebius of Caesarea: This teaches us that all the wonders of Christ written in the holy Scriptures, done for our salvation, whether teachings or writings, or the mysteries of his resurrection now referred to, were all done by the will and power of the Father defending his own Christ as with a shield in all his marvelous and saving words and works. — PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4:16.185

Jerome: Whoever is baptized in Christ is his anointed. — BRIEF COMMENTARY ON Psalms 28

Psalms 28:9

Augustine of Hippo: “Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance” [Psalms 28:9]. I intercede therefore, after My Flesh has flourished again, because You have said, “Desire of Me, and I will give You the heathen for Your inheritance;” “Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance:” for “all Mine are Yours.” [John 17:10] “And rule them, and set them up even for ever.” And rule them in this temporal life, and raise them from hence into life eternal. — Exposition on Psalms 28

Pseudo-Athanasius: He aids and saves the people that were anointed for inheritance and the priestly kingdom, and he tends and exalts them forever, showing us to be raised up and glorified in future infinite ages. — EXPOSITION ON Psalms 28

Theodoret of Cyrus: The prayer for the people befits the king as well: it is also admirable about mighty David that though pursued also by the people, who waged war on him along with Saul, he offered supplication on their behalf to God. He foresaw their future conversion, you see, and had regard not for the injustice but for the servitude to come. — COMMENTARY ON THE Psalms 28:5