Psalm 28 - Before and After

Two things I love about this psalm....


First, when you look at verse 1:

"I pray to you, O Lord, my rock.
      Do not turn a deaf ear to me.
   For if you are silent,
      I might as well give up and die."

David is recognizing his great need for God. He admits that without relationship with God, life is not conquerable. He might as well give up and die. We need God and David knows and respects that.

The other thing I love is this psalm seems to give us a before and after...not just of an attitude change for David, but of some event. The first part of the psalm starts as we read above and continues with verse 2:

"I pray to you, O Lord, my rock.
      Do not turn a deaf ear to me.
   For if you are silent,
      I might as well give up and die."

David is clearly standing before a situation is which he feels overwhelmed and completely in need of the Lord's help. When we look at the first part of the second section, verses 6 & 7:

"Praise the Lord!
      For he has heard my cry for mercy.
 The Lord is my strength and shield.
      I trust him with all my heart.
   He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
      I burst out in songs of thanksgiving."

We can see that whatever David needed, God provided and we see David at the other end, thanking and praising the Lord for God's intervention.

What a blessing it is to see both sides of this in the same psalm. Of course we see times in our our lives when we cry out to God and God answers, but one of the great things about David is that we can relate to him and when we read the psalms, we go on a journey with David. It is comforting to see his journey take many of the same turns (for good and bad) that our journey takes. We remember that David was referred to as a man after God's own heart...and clearly David is a real person with all the joys and sufferings that you and I experience.

As I said though, this psalm gives us the before and after. Are you as good as David at sharing your woes and praising God when God intervenes on your behalf? I know how easy it is to cry out to God and then when the cry is answered, to get caught up in the joy of being past the suffering and forget to praise God.

As we journey with David, I am trying to become more like him and give God glory, not just my shopping list of woes. How about you?