We turn our thoughts this week to Psalm 28 verses 6-9 which says, “Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.  The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.  Save thy people and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.”

Let us remember that this Psalm was probably written in the days when Absalom had stolen the kingship from David his Dad.  David has moved in this Psalm from a desire to be heard in his prayer of verses 1-2 to praying judgment on his enemies in verses 3-5.

In the verses before us this week David begins to praise the LORD.  They who pray well will soon praise well.  Prayer and praise should be the ultimate moves of our soul.  Prayer should lead us to praise and praise should lead us to prayer.

David is praising the LORD here for answered prayer.  (…because he hath heard…)  Oh, how often we fail to acknowledge God publicly when He answers our prayer.  It is a very dangerous thing.  It would be such great encouragement and strength and remind us that we ought always to pray and not faint.

How often when we are waiting on answers to prayer should we pass the time in praise.  We see in verses 6-8 what is involved in praise.  How often praise is just meditating upon who and what God is to us.  David begins to ponder the fact that ‘the LORD is my strength’.  O how trouble weakens us but when we meditate upon Him He infuses our weaknesses with His strength.

David speaks to us of his faith and dependency on the LORD when he said, “my heart trusted in him,” The word ‘trust’ has the idea of resting all the being upon another.  What is to be gained by such trust?  David said, “…I am helped:” Faith always comes before help.  Let us be assured when we rest all of our being upon our LORD, help is not far off.  This faith and help caused David to break out in great rejoicing with songs of praise.  Let me mention a couple of word studies from our text that I believe will help us in our public prayers of praise.

The word ‘rejoiceth’ in verse 7 means to jump with joy.  Let us not think this is something David is doing inwardly but more than likely this is outward.  It is not a show of flesh but the overwhelming presence of God.  The word ‘praise’ in verse 7 means to revere or worship with hands extended upward or by the wringing of the hands with words of thanks or just with moans of deep contrition.  These acts of rejoicing praise must be provoked by the overwhelming presence of a holy God.  In verses 8 and 9 David moves from telling us that the LORD is his strength to reminding us that He is the same to all His people.  In verse 8 we are told the same God who helped David so many years ago sill lives today and desires to be a present help in my time of need.  Oh, let me not do less than to tell it publicly and rejoice in praise to Him.  We are told in verse 8b how He could help David as well as us.  We are told He was the strength ‘for His anointed’.  The word ‘anointed’ is the word for Christ or the Messiah.  The help given or infused to His son was but a channel to us His people.  He is the conduit that mediates strength and help from the Father to us His people.

David in verse 9 prays not only for the people of God in his day but for us the people of God who live today.  He asks the LORD to ‘save’ us (succour in all things or satisfy) to ‘bless’ us (be peace, plenty, prosperity to), to ‘feed’ us (to shepherd and direct in all our ways), and to ‘lift’ us (carry us in His arms both now and forever more).  May David’s prayer be answered in our lives and may we praise our LORD as we wait in anticipation for a visible confirmation.