Psalm 28 - Cry unto the Lord
1-2 To you, O Lord, I cry out!
My protector, do not ignore me!
If you do not respond to me,
I will join those who are descending into the grave.
Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,
when I lift my hands toward your holy temple!
...
6-9 The Lord deserves praise,
for he has heard my plea for mercy!
The Lord strengthens and protects me;
I trust in him with all my heart.
I am rescued and my heart is full of joy;
I will sing to him in gratitude.
The Lord strengthens his people;
he protects and delivers his chosen king.
Deliver your people!
Empower the nation that belongs to you!
Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms at all times! Net Bible
What do you do when the heavens seem like brass and it seems that your prayers are bouncing off of the ceiling? Do you feel that you are unworthy or that the Lord doesn't love you? The beauty of the Bible is that it is real and talks about normal people just like you or me. The Bible characters, like King David, who wrote this psalm, are real people with real problems. If the king of all Israel could feel that God was ignoring his plea, then can we know that there is nothing wrong with us? If even kings and psalmists feel that way from time to time, then there is nothing abnormal about us, for us to feel that way.
The key here is to keep reading to see what David did. Even though he felt like he was being ignored and put upon, still he persevered. He felt so despondent that he felt that he might as well just die and get it over with, but he didn't stop there. He kept crying out and lifting his hands towards the Lord, even when it didn't seem like the Lord was anywhere near.
Finally, (after a little more complaining in verses 3-5) the psalmist gets his answer. Now he is in a mood to praise the Lord, because he has persevered and pushed through until he got his answer. Strength, protection, deliverance, empowerment, a shepherd's care, all these things and more came to him because he didn't give up on God.
We don't know how long it was from verse 1 to verse 9. Sometimes the Lord answers quickly and sometimes He answers after a long delay. The old church saying was " don't know when the Lord will come, but He will be on time!" We don't like to hear that our answer may not come for years or even decades, but sometimes that is just the way it is. Our time is not the Lord's time. (see previous blogs on the relationship between time and eternity)
So when we wait, how do we keep going? I'm not sure I can even answer that as I'm not any kind of expert in waiting! The only answer that I know is that you keep on going by keeping on going- you just refuse to give up! Certainly the Bible characters give us numerous examples of this from the trials of King David with his family to the legendary patience of Job, and even Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. So what is the bottom line? Take heart, don't give up; have faith- the Lord does hear and He will answer, in His time.
Psalm 28 "Unto You I will Cry", by Randy Gordon
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