We turn out thoughts of study again this week to Psalm 28:3-5 which says, “Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.”

Many believed this was written in the days when Absalom raised up to steal the kingdom from David his Dad.  Much of this Psalm is a prayer.  What better response to the evil deeds of others than to pray.   This part of the Psalm is an ‘imprecatory’ prayer.  The word means to pray the judgment of God upon your enemies.  

In verse 5 David mentions a ‘Companionship’.  In this consoling request he asks not to be left with a particular group of people.  He asks not to be ‘drawn away’ with these people.  The phrase indicates ‘Lord, don’t let me suffer their punishment’.  This group would be awful companions for eternity.  One group David calls the ‘wicked’.  (Those who have no rest)  They are like the tumbled sea.  B.R. Lakin told a dear friend of mine one day, ‘Preacher, aren’t you glad God made a hell for those who want to go there?’  David used the word ‘workers of iniquity’ to describe one group.  This speaks of those who have no rules.  I do not want to be a legalist, but neither do I want to be without absolutes, with some rights and some wrongs.  Then he uses the word ‘mischief’ to describe a group.  This means a people with no restraints.  Lord, don’t let me go to hell with a people who have no rest, rules, or restraints, neither let them join us in heaven.  They would be like a fish living out of water in that heavenly world.

In verse 4 we have the judgment prayed by David upon his enemies.  We call this a prayer of ‘Condemnation’.  God in His judgment is known for giving the like kind of judgment to man that man has meted out to others.

David prays for this judgment to ‘fall upon his enemies’.  The Egyptian killed the male child of Israel and God killed the firstborn of Egypt.  Sisera sought to kill Israel with iron chariots and God killed him with an iron nail through his head.  Saul slew the Gibeonites and seven of Saul’s sons were hung by the Gibeonites.  Daniel’s accusers were thrown in the lion’s den made for Daniel.  Haman was hung on the gallow he designed for Mordecai.  In secular history we find others who were given like judgments as they meted out to others.  Alexander VI was poisoned by the wine he prepared for another.  Charles IX made Paris run with the blood of God’s people and he bled to death with a disease where he bled from every opening even his pores.  Cardinal Benton condemned and hung the great Christian George Wishart. The Cardinal was killed by a violent death and hung out the window from which he watched the hanging of George Wishart.  Let us be careful in our judging of others less God turn and mete out to us the same judgment.

In verse 6 we find in the prayer a ‘Consideration’.  Oh, how many never see God at work in their world.  They refuse to give him any glory.  They see not the operation of His hands.  They see not His providence and arrangements of all things.  How our God works in providence, ruling, and over ruling by manifesting His obvious presence in human history.  David asks God to ‘destroy’ them. (To render as nothing)  He asks God not to let them be ‘established’.  Oh, if God moves across our land in the last days to remove those who do not acknowledge His providence of handy work in this world, who shall be left standing?