Psalm 28

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:8

The Lord is their strength - Instead of למו lamo , to them, eight MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have לעמו leammo to his people; and this reading is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This makes the passage more precise and intelligible; and of the truth of the reading there can be no reasonable doubt. "The Lord is the strength of his People, and the saving strength of his anointed." Both king and people are protected, upheld, and saved... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:9

Save thy people - Continue to preserve them from all their enemies; from idolatry, and from sin of every kind. Bless thine inheritance - They have taken thee for their God; thou hast taken them for thy people. Feed them - רעה raah signifies both to feed and to govern. Feed them, as a shepherd does his flock; rule them, as a father does his children. Lift them up for ever - Maintain thy true Church; let no enemy prevail against it. Preserve and magnify them for ever. Lift them... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:1

Verse 1 1.Unto thee, O Jehovah! will I cry. The Psalmist begins by declaring that he would betake himself to the help of God alone, which shows both his faith and his sincerity. Although men labor every where under a multitude of troubles, yet scarcely one in a hundred ever has recourse to God. Almost all having their consciences burdened with guilt, and having never experienced the power of divine grace which might lead them to betake themselves to it, either proudly gnaw the bit or fill the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:2

Verse 2 2.Hear the voice of my prayers when I cry to thee. This repetition is a sign of a heart in anguish. David’s ardor and vehemence in prayer are also intimated by the noun signifying voice, and the verb signifying to cry. He means that he was so stricken with anxiety and fear, that he prayed not coldly, but with burning, vehement desire, like those who, under the pressure of grief, vehemently cry out. In the second clause of the verse, by synecdoche, the thing signified is indicated by the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:3

Verse 3 3.Draw me not away with wicked men. The meaning is, that in circumstances so dissimilar, God should not mingle the righteous with the wicked in the same indiscriminate destruction. (595) Undoubtedly, too, in speaking of his enemies, he indirectly asserts his own integrity. But he did not pray in this manner, because he thought that God was indiscriminately and unreasonably angry with men; he reasons rather from the nature of God, that he ought to cherish good hope, because it was God’s... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:4

Verse 4 4.Give them according to their works. Having thus requested God to have a regard to his innocence, the Psalmist thunders forth a curse against his enemies. And the accumulation of words shows that he had groaned long and grievously under the burden before he broke forth to desire such vengeance. He intimates that the wicked of whom he speaks had transgressed not once, nor for a short time, nor in one way, but that they had proceeded so far in their constant evil doings, that their... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:5

Verse 5 5.Because they regard not the doings of Jehovah. In this verse he lays open the root of impiety, declaring that the ungodly are so bold to do mischief, because, while they are thus indulging their hatred, and perpetrating every species of wickedness, they think that they have nothing to do with God. And when conscience stings them, they soothe themselves with false hopes, and at last stubbornly harden themselves into insensibility. First, being intoxicated with prosperity, they flatter... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:6

Verse 6 6.Blessed be Jehovah, who hath heard. This is the second part of the psalm in which the prophet begins to give thanks to God. We have already seen how he employed himself in prayer in the midst of his dangers; and now by this thanksgiving he teaches us that his prayers were not in vain. Thus he confirms by his own example, that God is ready to bring help to his people whenever they seek him in truth and sincerity. He declares the same truth more fully in the next verse, calling God his... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:8

Verse 8 8.Jehovah is their strength. By way of explanation, he repeats what he had said before, that God had been his strength; namely, because he had blessed his armies. David had indeed employed the hand and labor of men, but to God alone he ascribes the victory. As he knew that whatever help he had obtained from men proceeded from God, and that his prosperous success flowed likewise from his gratuitous favor, he discerned his hand in these means, as palpably as if it had been stretched forth... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 28:9

Verse 9 In this verse he shows that it was not so much his own welfare as the welfare of the whole Church which was the object of his concern, and that he neither lived nor reigned for himself, but for the common good of the people. He well knew that he was appointed king for no other end. In this he declares himself to be a type of the Son of God, of whom, when Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9) predicts that he would come “having salvation,” there is no doubt that he promises nothing to him apart from... read more

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