“Track 28: My Strength and Shield (Psalm 28)” | 7/20/25
Psalm 28 | 7/20/25 | Will DuVal
This morning, as we continue our journey this summer through the PSALMS, we come to Psalm 28, which is really a PRAYER of David. Prayer is just “talking with God”. God wants to hear from our hearts, and prayer is simply when we OPEN our hearts to Him, like DAVID does here: “To you, O Lord, I call”. God INVITES us to call out to him, all throughout His word:
Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you”
Psalm 145:18 promises that “The Lord is near to all who call on him”.
Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
And here in Psalm 28, King David offers us a beautiful example and MODEL of that kind of prayer. Specifically, David cries out to God with 5 different PLEAS here. And if prayer is truly just opening our hearts - our HONEST, vulnerable, real, raw emotions - to God, then with each of these 5 prayers, David is really offering us PERMISSION to FEEL as well - to vent and VOICE our feelings - I want to drill down BENEATH each of these petitions to see the EMOTION, the PASSION behind it, that DRIVES each prayer, that WE TOO are being invited to experience internally and express externally to God as well.
So 5 prayers, driven by 5 passions, and then finally, we’re gonna see God ANSWER David’s prayers here with 5 PROMISES.
So that’s where we’re headed. But I’m also gonna try something a little different this morning. Usually in a sermon you get your five points, and typically I’d suggest some ways of practically applying each point in your own life personally. But since we’re talking about PRAYER, and as I told you: I read David’s words here as an INVITATION to us to pray along WITH him; so instead of me trying to GUESS the various ways each of his 5 prayers here might be applicable in YOUR life, I’ve built in some time after each point for you to simply PRAY. To follow David’s example here and lift your heart up to the Lord. Because YOU know how each of his petitions here hits home for you personally far better than I do. So I’ll simply offer you a prayer PROMPT, give you a few minutes to “call out” to God quietly, and then I’ll close each of those prayers.
(SCRIPTURE:) I invite you to STAND and read along OUT LOUD with me; this is the inspired word of God:
“To you, O Lord, I call;
my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.
3 Do not drag me off with the wicked,
with the workers of evil,
who speak peace with their neighbors
while evil is in their hearts.
4 Give to them according to their work
and according to the evil of their deeds;
give to them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and build them up no more.
6 Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
David prays 5 PETITIONS here, fueled by 5 PASSIONS (emotions), and his prayers are answered with 5 PROMISES.
Prayer #1: “O Lord, HEAR.”
“HEAR the voice of my pleas for mercy…
I CALL to you, Lord; be NOT DEAF to me,” I need you to HEAR me, and MORE than that, to RESPOND to me; I need to hear from YOU! Because “if you are SILENT,” God, I will DIE! “I’ll become like those who go down to the PIT”, to SHEOL, the place of the DEAD in the Old Testament.
Is David just being hyperbolic here? Or does he really believe what JESUS said in Matthew 4:4, that “‘Man does not live by breadalone, but by everyword that comes from the mouth of God.’” If that’s true, if God’s WORD is our very LIFE, Church, then David is RIGHT to pray here, “God, unless you HEAR me, and more importantly, unless Ihear from YOU, then I might as well be DEAD.” Your word is my LIFE (Jn 6:63).
-
Now, is David SILLY for praying this? Does he even NEED to pray it? Isn’t God OMNIPRESENT - he’s EVERYWHERE - isn’t he OMNISCIENT - he knows EVERYTHING; is it even POSSIBLE, then, for God NOT to hear us? According to Psalm 139, v4: “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”
Here’s how commentator James Johnston explains (Psalms, 292): “David is not talking about literal deafness. He is talking about God’s disposition to him. He is worried that God will give him the cold shoulder and ignore him.”
Now, why would David worry about THAT? DOES God ever turn a deaf ear to us? It may surprise you to hear that - YES, according to His own WORD, God DOES sometimes ignore our prayers. Here are at least TEN (and there may be even MORE, but I’ll give you at least TEN) prayers that God Himself says he will NOT hear (https://www.forthegospel.org/read/8-reasons-god-doesnt-hear-your-prayers):
If we ignore God’s WORD; in Proverbs 28:9, God warns: “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”
If we ignore the poor; Proverbs 21:13 “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”
If we are unjustly VIOLENT; Isaiah 1:15 “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”
If we mistreat God’s PEOPLE; Micah 3:2-5 “those who… tear the skin from off my people… they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them”
If we LOVE SIN; Psalm 66:18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
If we have UNCONFESSED sin in our hearts; Isaiah 59:2 “your sins have hidden [God’s] face from you so that he does not hear.”
If we have UNFORGIVENESS in our heart; Mark 11:26 “if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses”
If we have SELFISH MOTIVES; James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
If we DOUBT God; James 1:5-7 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God… in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts… must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” And number…
If you are INSENSITIVE to your WIFE; 1 Peter 3:7 “husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to [her]... so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
NOW do you see why David was so worried about God not HEARING his prayers?! Do you see why it’s such a MIRACLE that God EVER hears ANY of our prayers?!
Anyone dishonor your spouse at all last week?
Doubt GOD at all?
Get SELFISH? Cerish SIN a little?
We should praise God that he EVER listens to us, in SPITE of our sinfulness!
But I think there’s something ELSE going on here too, with DAVID’s prayer in particular. Consider the CONTEXT; v2: these are “pleas for MERCY”; David says, “I cry to you FOR HELP”. He is worried, v3, about being “dragged OFF with the WICKED”, so he prays in v9, “Oh (God), SAVE”, RESCUE, DELIVER.
It seems pretty CLEAR from the context that David is stuck here between a proverbial ROCK and a HARD place. And that’s why he calls OUT to and LEANS on YAHWEH to BE “my rock” (v2).
But there are at least two HINTS here that God did not IMMEDIATELY answer David’s prayers for help: First of all, the REPETITIVENESS of his pleas; “I CALL to you… DON’T be deaf… HEAR my voice… lest, if you be silent” - why even MENTION that as a POSSIBILITY, unless David really feels like he is currently experiencing God’s SILENCE? - and notice, v2, his “PLEAS”, plural, for mercy. He has apparently been crying out for A WHILE.
And then the SECOND hint that God didn’t immediately answer him is the DELAY, the GAP between David’s PETITION and his assurance of the PROMISE that God HAS actually heard his prayer; notice: that encouragement doesn’t come until the second half of verse SIX: “[the Lord] has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.”
So what’s the takeaway for US? Church: we can rest assured that in CHRIST, God DOES hear our prayers. 1 John 5:14 “this is the confidence that we have toward [Christ], that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” Praise GOD!
But that doesn’t mean he always ANSWERS our prayers on OUR preferred timetable. Or EVEN in the way that we WANT. God never promises us a “YES”. Except when we pray in accordance with His WILL; if you pray, “YOUR kingdom come, Lord, YOUR will be done”, THAT’s a for sure “YES”. But God’s not a GENIE. He’s not a VENDING machine. And not only does he not promise to give us everything we want, but God doesn’t even promise to ANSWER us right away either.
By the way, “not now” IS an answer. Again, might not be one we LIKE. But it IS an ANSWER. Almost every night, at DINNER, my kids ask, “Can we watch a little MOVIE before bed?” And almost every night, the answer is… MAYBE. Not NOW; we’re gonna talk and interact with one another during dinner. But we’ll see… how well you eat, how smoothly family devotionals go, how TIRED Mom and I are afterward… we’ll just SEE. But not now.
My kids don’t LOVE that. But it’s a good answer.
Where the analogy breaks DOWN is with God’s REASON for answering “not yet”. When I say “not yet” as a parent, I want my kids to DROP IT, until I’ve made up my mind; then I’ll let you know. But “GOD is not a man, that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19); God’s plans for us were established before we were even BORN (Ps 139:16). And yet, why does he so OFTEN answer our prayers with “not yet”?
According to JESUS, it is precisely because he does NOT want us to “drop it”! On the contrary, God wants us to KEEP BUGGING Him! Listen to what Luke tells us in HIS gospel: “Now [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (18:1) And then Luke records for us Jesus’s story about a “persistent widow”, who wouldn’t stop BUGGING this “unrighteous judge” to give her JUSTICE, until FINALLY he says, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” Then Jesus points out, “And GOD is a RIGHTEOUS judge; how much MORE, then, can we trust him to ANSWER our prayers for justice.”
But the real POINT of the story, according to Luke, is that we ought ALWAYS to pray and NEVER give up, never lose HEART”.
Which of course raises the QUESTION: “Why does God make us WAIT, make us continue “BOTHERING” him, BUGGING him, PLEADING with him?”
And God’s ANSWER comes in Proverbs 15, v8 : “the prayer of the upright is [God’s] DELIGHT.”
God DELIGHTS in our prayers! Like ANY good father, God LOVES to hear from his CHILDREN (and God is infinitely BETTER than even the BEST father!) He doesn’t get ANNOYED when we keep coming to Him, tugging on his pants’ leg - “Hey Dad… Dad… DAD!” - he LOVES it! Why??
Because it’s a sign of our DEPENDENCE on HIM. God HATES our SELF-reliance; he LOVES our GOD-reliance.
But do WE love it? Do WE love it when we HAVE to keep returning to God, OVER and over and OVER again, PLEADING with him again and again and AGAIN - How does it make you FEEL?
We’ve SEEN David’s PRAYER: “HEAR the voice of my pleas”...
And we skipped ahead to v6 and saw it ANSWERED, with God’s PROMISE: “he has heard the voice of my pleas”.
But what about the PASSION, the EMOTION, that David is experiencing in BETWEEN the two… in the WAITING?
Can’t you HEAR it in his VOICE here? “Be not DEAF to me… God, if you’re SILENT I’m gonna DIE!” - David feels FORGOTTEN! FORLORN. Forsaken.
Maybe that’s some of YOU this morning. Maybe you’ve been crying out to God, over and over and OVER again, but He’s answered, “Not now” for so LONG at this point, that it FEELS like He’s all but FORGOTTEN you; it feels like - at BEST - he’s IGNORING you; at WORST, he’s FORSAKEN you, ABANDONED you.
If that’s you, I want to ENCOURAGE you with 3 truths from God’s word:
First of all, it is possible that for SOME in that boat, God IS actually ignoring your prayers because YOU are ignoring His WORD… or the POOR… or His PEOPLE… or some unconfessed SIN in your life… Maybe it feels like your prayers are just hitting the ceiling, falling on deaf ears, because they ARE, and God is CALLING you this morning to REPENT! To QUIT dishonoring your wife, to QUIT harboring resentment and unforgiveness in your heart, to quit CHERISHING your INIQUITY. ”If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” that He might HEAR our prayers once again. Maybe that’s you.
But SECOND, maybe it’s NOT a sin issue, and God just wants you to KEEP crying OUT, to KEEP turning your face to Him, keep RELYING on Him… but if you’re HONEST, it’s getting HARD. And if that’s you, I just wanna encourage you that you’re not ALONE; you’re in good company. DAVID prayed back in Psalm 13: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” (v1). Even JESUS prayed, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ” (Mt 27:46).
But the LAST and most IMPORTANT truth I want to encourage you with is that God has NOT in fact forgotten or forsaken you. I know it may FEEL like it, but the FACT of the matter, God’s PROMISE to you from his WORD, is this: “I will NEVER leave you nor FORSAKE you” (Heb 13:5). “Even if my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in” (Ps 27:10). He HEARS you and he will ANSWER you, in his OWN perfect timing.
And until he DOES, he DELIGHTS when we COME to him, and we keep PLEADING with him, in faith. So we’re gonna DO that, now. I’m gonna give you just a minute or two, to fill in the blank here with your OWN personal pleas and petitions: “Lord, if I’m HONEST, I feel FORGOTTEN; it feels like you’re IGNORING me. I confess any hidden SINS in my life, and I’m asking you to HEAR me now, HEAR the VOICE of my PLEAS”; would you PRAY that, and then LIFT your pleas UP to Him now? Just quietly, in your own heart; I’ll give you a few moments…
[WILL PRAYS… “Lord, HEAR us… Amen.”]
Prayer #2 now: “O Lord, HELP!” (vv1b-3a)
V2: “I CRY to you… for HELP!”
“Don’t drag me OFF,” v3, “with the WICKED!”
“I don’t wanna go DOWN, v1, to the PIT.”
V2: I need MERCY! HELP!
We don’t know for SURE which predicament in David’s life actually occasioned his cries here; he was certainly no STRANGER to TRIALS and HOSTILITY: David was rejected by his own family of origin (Ps 69:8); he faced near CONSTANT opposition from enemies both WITHOUT - the Philistines and Moabites, the Syrians and Arameans - as WELL as enemies WITHIN - David was chased all over the DESERT by King SAUL, despite having served him faithfully.
But perhaps the most PAINFUL antagonism David ever endured, and the one that MOST scholars believe to be the occasion for Psalm 28, was the REBELLION of his own son ABSALOM, who usurped David’s throne and even attempted to MURDER his own father.
Yeah, that’d have ME crying out for MERCY… for HELP! For DELIVERANCE from DEATH - “lest I… go down to the PIT”.
And once AGAIN, David’s prayers were ANSWERED. But once AGAIN, God’s ANSWER wasn’t IMMEDIATE. We skip down to vv7 & 8 for God’s PROMISE. And by the WAY - please don’t miss this; I should’ve mentioned EARLIER; pretty important point: even God’s promises David CLAIMS here in vv5-9, in the SECOND half of the psalm, he claims BY FAITH; NOT by SIGHT. It’s not like David wrote the FIRST half of the psalm and then put his PEN down, and waited for God to ANSWER his pleas, before picking the pen back up again to actually finish the psalm; NO! David is still very much in the THICK of it, still in desperate NEED of God’s mercy and help. What has CHANGED is not David’s circumstances, but David’s OUTLOOK. Remember that great quote from a couple weeks back: “When the OUTLOOK is BLEAK; try the UP-look.” David is now looking UP, in vv5-9, to the LORD. He’s BEEN looking AROUND, at his bleak circumstances; but now he looks UP, at his GREAT GOD. Who David TRUSTS to DELIVER him: “The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped” - he’s actually still WAITING on the help. But David knows that if God has PROMISED it, it’s as good as DONE.
And God HAS in fact promised it, friends, to HELP us, RESCUE us, DELIVER us:
Psalm 91: “he will deliver you from the snare… under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield… no evil shall be allowed to befall you” (vv3-10)
Psalm 121: “The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life… from this time forth and forevermore.” (vv7-8)
2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”
But once AGAIN, as with our pleas to be HEARD, so too with our pleas to be HELPED, God does NOT promise to answer them in OUR preferred timing, but in HIS. And in the MEAN-time, while we AWAIT deliverance, RESCUE, what do you FEEL?
Afraid.
When was the last time you felt really AFRAID? Not long ago my daughter Ellery got sick with a fever that lasted for a few days, and at one point, she started suffering hallucinations. And THAT was scary ENOUGH. But when we called her pediatrician, they said “It’s PROBABLY just a temporary condition, but we wanna do an MRI on her BRAIN to make sure nothing more SERIOUS is going on…”. And let me tell you: I was SCARED. I know us MEN in particular don’t like to admit to FEAR, but if you can watch your 9-year old getting her brain MRI’ed to make sure there are no TUMORS and you’re NOT afraid, I’m pretty sure that just means you’re a crappy FATHER. If you CARE, if you LOVE her, then TRUST me: you are AFRAID.
The QUESTION is: What do we DO with our fear? Where do we GO with it? And here is God’s INVITATION to us, in Psalm 28, and ALL throughout his word: “Bring it TO ME”. “Cast your cares on me, because I CARE for YOU” (1 Pet 5:7).
So I want to give you the opportunity to do that right now; to fill in the blank once AGAIN with your OWN pleas: “Lord, I feel AFRAID. And I need your HELP with…” - WHAT? Tell him, cast your CARES on him now…
[WILL PRAYS… Amen. ]
Prayer #3, vv3-5: “O Lord, HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE. (vv3-5) WHO??
“The WICKED… the workers of EVIL… [with] EVIL in their hearts… [who] do not regard the works of the LORD” - Can you imagine how INSULTING it must be to God when rebels REFUSE to “regard” his work of CREATION, and just take this world and their LIFE here for GRANTED? How UNGRATEFUL and ENTITLED they must seem in God’s eyes, refusing to regard his work of Sovereignly SUPERINTENDING and SUSTAINING our every STEP; the Bible says, “in HIM [in GOD], we LIVE and MOVE and have our very BEING” (Ac 17:28); if God stopped giving us breath for 5 seconds, we’re DONE. Game OVER. If you’re 40 years old, like me, that translates to roughly 300 MILLION breaths that God has given me, over the course of my lifetime; can you IMAGINE never stopping to THANK him, for a single ONE of them!?
Can you imagine how FOOLISH and CONDEMNABLE it is, to refuse to regard God’s WORK of SALVATION - sending His only SON into this crooked, broken world, to be judged and mocked and ultimately MURDERED in the most BRUTAL way IMAGINABLE, so that wretched SINNERS like us - the very people who KILLED him - might be FORGIVEN and CLEANSED and ADOPTED into God’s heavenly family - imagine how PREPOSTEROUS it is that ANYONE would CONSIDER God’s work of salvation through his son JESUS, and conclude:
“...Nahhh. Not for me. Just not really my thing…”
“Because they do not regard the works of the Lord… he will tear them DOWN,” NEVER again to rebuild them. That is God’s PROMISE, of JUDGMENT.
And David PRAYS for it, with righteous INDIGNATION - THAT’s the emotion BEHIND his prayer here: “God, GIVE to them according to their evil deeds… render them their due reward.”
“Hold them RESPONSIBLE.” It’s a very BIBLICAL prayer; I don’t have time to read for you all the cross references, but rest assured - A TENTH of the Psalms ALONE are of the “imprecatory” genre, invoking God’s CURSES on one’s ENEMIES: “Pour out your wrath on [those] who do not acknowledge you” (Ps 79:6)
“O God, break the teeth in their mouths” (Ps 58:6)
“CONSUME them in WRATH til they are no MORE!” (Ps 59:13)
Those are BIBLICAL prayers. But man are they CONVICTING prayers. Are you SURE you wanna ask for God’s JUDGMENT? For God to RENDER to EACH ONE according to our “DUE REWARD”? We are ALL FOR praying that… for OTHERS, aren’t we? For the WICKED - “Give to THEM according to the evil of THEIR deeds”. But what about the evil of OUR deeds? The Bible says, “NO ONE is righteous… NO ONE does good… [our] mouths are full of curses [quite LITERALLY, if you’re gonna pray the IMPRECATORY psalms!]... “Their feet are swift to shed blood…“There is no fear of GOD before [our] eyes” (Rom 3:10-18). How can you pray, “God, give us all what we DESERVE” without SHUDDERING in the FEAR of the LORD?! Cuz we KNOW what we deserve, deep down: we ALL deserve His WRATH! His JUDGMENT! Even the TINIEST sin we ever committed, against an Almighty, perfectly HOLY God is deserving of infinite, ETERNAL punishment.
But friends, here is the GOSPEL, according to the PSALMS, according to DAVID: “God does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities… For as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps 103:10-12)
The good news is: God does NOT hold us responsible for sin, because JESUS said, “Father, hold ME responsible instead”, in their PLACE.
So we can pray a BETTER prayer today, than David could pray for HIS enemies; Jesus said, ““You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:43-44). So let’s do that NOW - not with “indignation”, but with COMPASSION, let’s love those who are still GOD’S enemies by PRAYING for them, specifically, that God would NOT hold them responsible for their own sin, but credit it to JESUS’ account. That they would TURN from their wickedness - the “evil in their hearts” and “evil of their deeds” - and instead REGARD the works of the Lord’s hands, that were nailed to the cross for their sin. Would you pray that those who do not YET know Christ would COME to know Him, come to trust in Him, and come to CHERISH Him above all else, that God might show them mercy and NOT “render them their due reward.”
And I don’t know how we can pray that without being reminded of our OWN “due reward”, and the mercy that God has shown US.
So here’s your prayer prompt this time, and I encourage you to pray for specific people this time, that God brings to mind:
“Lord, I feel COMPASSION for those still trapped, still ENSLAVED in their SIN. God: THANK you for setting ME free, for NOT holding me eternally responsible for my own sin, for sending JESUS for me. Lord: would you do the same for…” - someone else in YOUR life: a friend of family member, a neighbor or co-worker… WHOEVER God brings to mind; would you PRAY for them now…[Will Prays… “Amen”]
Prayer #4 now: “O Lord, HAVE YOUR GLORY. (vv6-8)
God: Be GLORIFIED, be BLESSED!
David once felt FORGOTTEN and AFRAID; he felt righteous INDIGNATION but NOW he feels nothing but awe-filled ADORATION: “Blessed BE the LORD!”
“He is my strength and my shield…
my heart exults, and with my song I give him thanks.”
God: THANK you for “hearing the voice of my pleas for mercy”; thank you that WHEN my heart trusts in you, I am HELPED; thank you that you are our STRENGTH - you don’t just GIVE us strength; according to v8 here, “The Lord is [HIMSELF] the strength of his people.” And God, thank you MOST of all, that you are the “saving refuge” of all your anointed, all those you graciously and sovereignly CHOOSE for yourself, to BE your people; you are our “saving REFUGE”.
Lord: I THANK you and I BLESS you for it; may you ALONE get ALL of the GLORY that you DESERVE for it.
Friends: of all the prayers we can pray - YES, God wants to hear it ALL: our forlornness and our fears… our indignant cries for justice and our compassionate pleas for mercy - but of ALL our prayers, NONE blesses God’s heart more than THIS one:
“Lord, receive the GLORY that is DUE your holy NAME!”
Prayers of supplication come easy for us: “God, GIVE ME…”; but what about prayers of ADORATION, where we just PRAISE God for who He IS, intrinsically?
I invite you to do that NOW: “Lord, I ADORE you for all that you ARE - in your very NATURE - and for all that you’ve DONE for me - HEARING my pleas for mercy, BEING my strength and shield, my “saving refuge”. God: I pray that you would be GLORIFIED for it ALL…” - Let’s spend a few moments now simply WORSHIPING God for who He is and what He’s done; would you do that NOW…
[Will prays… “Amen”]
And finally, Prayer #5: “Lord, HOLD US TO THE END.” (v9)
“Save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”
David’s FIFTH prayer here is the only one not ANSWERED in the text. The psalm ENDS with a note of LONGING, and hopeful ANTICIPATION of God’s eventual fulfillment of his promise to save and shepherd his people. And a thousand years after David penned these words, the Good Shepherd DID come, to save his sheep by laying down his LIFE for them (Jn 10). And here is Jesus’ promise to us: “My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
I will CARRY them FOREVER; I hold them to the very end.
And UNTIL then, like David, our response is one of CONFIDENT TRUST. That is David’s fifth and final FEELING here: confident trust. Blessed assurance, JESUS is mine. He HAS saved me and He WILL SHEPHERD me - guide and guard, protect and PRESERVE me - forever.
Friend: do you HAVE that blessed assurance today? If not, you CAN. You can receive JESUS as YOUR Savior and Shepherd today; just pray this closing prayer:
“Jesus, I trust you. I TRUST you to be my Savior and Shepherd, and to carry me forever.”
Let’s pray…