Psalm 28

Prayer

Intro

√ Requesting

Many of David's psalms are prayers. We find him praying for all sorts of things…

Forgiveness

Strength

Deliverance

Intercession for others

In this psalm we find David was concerned that his enemies were undermining his reputation and his work. So, we find him making two requests of God:

Vs. 1-2 Speak to me!

Vs. 3-5 Save me!

Sound familiar?

Ap. Those are very common prayers of mine! J

Requesting (vs. 1-5)

Ps. 28:1 To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.

Ps. 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications When I cry to You, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

Ps. 28:3 Do not take me away with the wicked And with the workers of iniquity, Who speak peace to their neighbors, But evil is in their hearts.

Ps. 28:4 Give them according to their deeds, And according to the wickedness of their endeavors; Give them according to the work of their hands; Render to them what they deserve.

Ps. 28:5 Because they do not regard the works of the LORD, Nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them And not build them up.

√ Speak to me! (vs. 1-2)

Note David's first request.

Whenever David wasn't sure what he should do, or how he should handle a situation…

…he prayed to God and asked Him for direction - "speak to me - tell me what to do!"

Note vs. 1

"To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock: Do not be silent to me, Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit."

We find the same instructions in the New Testament…

Jam. 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Great promise! Yet, note that there is a condition to the promise…

Jam. 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

Jam. 1:7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Jam. 1:8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

I believe that many of us know how to ask God for what we need…

…but often we hinder our own prayers because we don't really believe that God is going to answer them!

Ex. Joash

2Ki. 13:14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

2Ki. 13:15 And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows.

2Ki. 13:16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

2Ki. 13:17 And he said, “Open the east window”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the LORD’S deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.”

2Ki. 13:18 Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped.

2Ki. 13:19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”

Ap. How many of us miss out on the promises of God because we don't pray in faith!

What's the crisis in your life tonight? Are you asking God to intervene? When you pray do really believe that He can and will answer you?

Remember, God allows trials in our lives to grow our faith!

How will you or I ever believe God for victory over a Goliath if we don't first learn to trust Him to provide our daily needs?!

So, when you ask God to lead you - ask believing that He wants you to know His will and that He will let you know what it is.

√ Save me! (vs. 3-5)

The second thing that David requested of God is that God would save him!

Note vs. 3

Ps. 28:3 Do not take me away with the wicked And with the workers of iniquity, Who speak peace to their neighbors, But evil is in their hearts.

David understood that God judges the wicked…

Ex. The world in Noah's day & The cities of Sodom & Gomorrah

…not only in the past but also in the present! That is, God was still active in David's day bringing judgement upon those who practice evil.

Ex. The unrepentant King Saul

So, David asks that God would save him from the judgement that was coming upon the wicked.

Ap. So it is in our day also. God is able to make a distinction between the wicked and His own!

Peter writes…

2Pet. 2:7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked

2Pet. 2:8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)--

2Pet. 2:9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

Because of the current situation in Iraq, the Middle East, and all that is going on in the World today…

…many people wonder if we're at the edge of human history when God will pour out His judgement upon the earth.

They fear for their safety and that of their loved ones - worried that they might suffer the same fate as those God is judging.

Be encouraged - as Peter tells us God is able to make a distinction between His people and the wicked!

Ex. Enoch and Lot

So it will be for us - or those who are alive at the time when God prepares to judge the world He will deliver His people from His judgement.

Note the faithful church - Philadelphia

Rev. 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

And, those who come to faith after the Rapture of the Church will be protected from God's wrath (though not Satan's),

Ex. Those sealed in Rev. 7 - see Rev. 9:4

So, take David's prayer to heart and make your requests known to God believing that He will speak to you and that He will save you!

Rejoicing (vs. 6-9)

Ps. 28:6 Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!

Ps. 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.

Ps. 28:8 The LORD is their strength, And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.

Ps. 28:9 Save Your people, And bless Your inheritance; Shepherd them also, And bear them up forever.

√ Rejoicing in answered prayers!

Are you waiting for the Lord to answer some prayer you've lifted to Him? Look at these verses again…

Vs. 6 - "Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!"

More than just hearing, God answered David's prayer…

Vs. 7 - "My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped"

Vs. 8 - " He is the saving refuge of His anointed."

Therefore, we find David now rejoicing because God has once more proven Himself faithful to respond to David's prayer for help.

Ap. The same is true for us today!

Even as God heard and helped David, so He will do the same for you and me who put their trust in Him!

David's experience isn't unique, what he experienced with God is what God desires all of us to experience!

Note the promise of Jesus…

Mat. 21:21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.

Mat. 21:22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

So, like David we can rejoice in the Lord and what He is doing, even if we can't rejoice in ourselves or our circumstances.

We're called to walk by faith trusting that God will hear our prayers and answer them by being our strength, our song, our shepherd, and our salvation!

Ap. What do you do if you find yourself in a difficult time this evening?

Follow David's example and lift your prayer and praise to God!

Heb 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

It is God's delight to respond to those who place their lives into His hands.

Remember, all too often we don't receive that which we ask of God because of a lack of faith.

Lack of faith is expressed when we don't really put all our trust in Him!

It comes down to this question…

"How big is your God?"

David had come to expect big things because his God was a big God!

Close

√ God loves to answer prayers - let's pray in faith and watch what He does!

√ Trust God to slay the Goliaths in your life!

√ Offer Him the sacrifice of praise.