Psalm 28

 

⁰⁸          The Lord is the strength of His people;

the stronghold of salvation for His anointed.

⁰⁹          Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage!

                        Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

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Save Your People!

For the Lord’s Day:  the 3^rd of July 2005

 

Introduction:  In my collection of military hats, there are quite a few made from soft materials, that would become formless after being worn in any amount of rain.  However, the military mind could never tolerate such sloppiness and so most of them have a stiffing element hidden somewhere within the folds of felt, fur or other unlikely materials.  My favorite Glengarry, which I have worn the most often over the years – has developed a crack within the stiffening component and now – it not only does not hold its un-natural shape, but can barely be kept on one’s head at any angle, let alone the ordinarily fashionable angle.

 

I use this example to get us to the apt conclusion of our passage for today.  And that is, the ordinary human – without the stiffening of the Holy Spirit is a sorry specimen for the Lord’s work indeed.  The military mind has often described their lest perfect specimens, who cannot even stand up straight as needing the stiffening of an iron ramrod alongside the person’s backbone.  I won’t tell you how that is supposed to be accomplished!

 

At the very least, in the closing verses of this Psalm, David takes a realistic view of the human species and sets forth the most obvious conclusion that “The Lord is the strength of His people.”

 

Development:  What sorry sinful specimens of humanity we would all be if it were not for the power of the Holy Spirit which has come upon us, made and molded us to perfections which are beyond our capacity.

 

The boy’s recently had a large hay wagon fold up in upon itself because of flaws in the material from which it was made.  Once the wagon was unloaded and the failed beam replaced – the wagon once again has some utility.  But, a lot of time was wasted in handling the bales of hay an extra time and then there was the labor to wrench out the failed components and finally to realign the wagon so that it could not only carry a load, but also run straight and true along the roadway.

 

Do we realize the love, mercy and grace required to make us useful to the Kingdom of the Spirit?  David does, and he counts it all gain – that the Lord of hosts is willing to invest so much precious capital on his sorry behalf.  And so he writes to admonish us all:  “The Lord is the strength of His people.”

 

And further, as we note in the second line of verse seven:  He is “the stronghold of salvation for His anointed.”  The word stronghold here is military in its application.  It means a fortress, somewhat like “Helm’s Deep” in Tolkien’s tale.  In fact, this is the last refuge, the national redoubt – if we remember how Tolkien’s fantasy plays out.  In real life, the Kingdom of the Belgians developed the city of Antwerp as a national redoubt early in the last century.  And to that redoubt did the divisions of their Army retreat in face of the Germanic horde that crossed their border in the late summer of 1914.  The border fortresses fell one by one and as the whole national focus became confined to Antwerp, it was almost as if national survival depended upon holding out to the last man.

 

Yet, it was not to be – the heavy German artillery reduced the most modern fortifications one shell at a time – and the remnants of the Belgian forces fled along the sea shore to Flanders where they found a means of stopping the German invasion.  But, they had to flood their beloved country in order to save it, and thereby they desperately hung on to a small portion of the national real estate until the war was finally won.  And little Belgium was grateful for their salvation – they were the only country in World War One to ever repay us every cent spent on their behalf.

 

The “anointed” here in David’s psalm refers of course to David the king, but the term is theologically pregnant as well.  By that I mean that the greater Son of David, the one messianic in His anointing: He must be considered as well.  Just as the God of heaven and earth sustained David in all his trials, so too in ways we may not fully understand – the Father sustained the Son through worse things than David ever imagined.

 

If we come to an end our appreciation of verse seven with the thought that the Lord’s guarantee is absolute, we do not fall short of the implications in this blessed verse.

 

In other words, the Lord God is not only our strength, but also our salvation and this is accomplished by His sustaining the Son even though He went to the depths of a hellish experience in that terrible death upon the tree.  The Lord’s “Anointed” was not only saved, but also raised up from death, and by that providential process being accomplished, death itself died: at least for all of those for whom the Son voluntarily gave up His own life.

 

Application:  Even this saving process is anticipated in the hopes and prayers of David:

 

“Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage!

                Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”

 

In this prayer, David prays for all of the elect:  “Oh, save Your people” he pleads on bended knee.  David of course realizes that it is only in the strength and power of God that anyone’s salvation can be accomplished.  So therefore, even as Christ prays for us from the great throne in heaven, so too did David pray for the Lord’s people when he was enthroned in Jerusalem so many centuries ago.

 

In the second phrase of verse eight, the word “heritage” ordinarily means in our language something that we possess from the past history of our family and people.  Here, it is parallel with the people of Israel who were a special possession of God alone.  Certainly, we can appreciate both implications.  From the love of the Father for us at the beginning of time, we have a very special “heritage.”  And in the familial sense of being adopted into the family of God we know full well the blessings of once being chosen.

 

The last verse, in the sense of knowing Christ as our Great Shepherd – is a blessing indeed.  “Be their shepherd,” David prays earnestly for all his countrymen.  “Be their shepherd,” David implies for all of those in every time and place who come into the same heritage known by him.  And what does it mean for God in Christ to be our Shepherd:  “carry them forever,” David prays.  Here we have moved beyond the military symbols and implications of verse seven.  No longer shall David suppose the supply of just a little back bone.  Here he comes closer to the heart of God and His providential plan for using all the people of God.  The Lamb who died in our place, the Savior who gave His life, the Lord of the Universe will carry us through as the old hymn goes!  “Jesus will carry you through.”

 

There is an important lesson here for any and every one who believes that they can learn to be all that they should be on this earth.  I have known institutions that would ramrod their members – all in the name of perfecting them for heaven.  While this could easily be the way of the world, it is not the way of heaven.  “Jesus will carry you through.”  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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