January 25
“To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. Do not take me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give them according to the work of their hands; render to them what they deserve. Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up,” Psalm 28:1-5.
When we read the prayers of the psalmist, we have an example of how we, too, should approach the almighty God. He prays to God as if he were speaking “man to man.” “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock!” The psalmist’s boldness in pleading with God to hear and answer his prayers can only be the result of a firm trust in the grace and mercy of the almighty God revealed by Christ Jesus.
He is so bold as to tell the Lord what will happen if the Lord is silent. “Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.” He was saying that if God did not answer his prayers, he would be like a person who goes to the grave without any hope for a life after death.
The psalmist portrays himself as standing and shouting and waving his arms heavenward to get God’s attention. “Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.” As children of the heavenly Father by faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we always have God’s attention.
In the words that follow, the psalmist has a special request: “Do not take me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts.” He asks God not to treat him like the wicked workers of iniquity, whose words cannot be trusted. They speak with a “forked tongue,” or out of two sides of their mouth. They use nice-sounding words to speak a lot of nonsense.
The psalmist asks God to treat the ungodly according to God’s judgment. “Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give them according to the work of their hands; render to them what they deserve.”
We, too, must pray and ask God to frustrate and bring to naught the plotting and planning of the many evil people in the world who seek to hurt and harm us. Ultimately, the plotting and planning of the wicked, unless they repent, will boomerang. “Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.” As Christians, we place the whole matter into the hands of God, who says, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord,” Romans 12:19.
In all of our contacts with ungodly people, let us remember that they, too, are sinners for whom Christ died. If they can be brought to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus as God’s Son and their Savior through our witness, praise the Lord!
“The Law of God is good and wise,
And sets His will before our eyes;
Shows us the way of righteousness,
And dooms to death when we transgress.
To Jesus we for refuge flee,
Who from the curse has set us free,
And humbly worship at His throne,
Saved by His grace through faith alone.” Amen.