Psalms 28:6 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David thanks God for hearing his prayer, just as earnestly as he had recently asked for that hearing: “Blessed be the Lord” (Psalm 28:6). How quickly the sorrows of God’s people can turn into songs, and their prayers into praise. David prayed in faith, “Hear the voice of my supplications” (Psalm 28:2), and by that same faith he now gives thanks that God has heard him.

Those who pray in faith may also rejoice in hope. David means, “He has heard me and kindly accepted me, so I am as sure of an answer as if I already had it.” What we gain by prayer, we should wear with praise. If God has heard our cries, then let us bless his name.

David also encourages himself to trust God for everything else he needs. After giving God glory for his grace, he now takes comfort from it. This is the path to peace, begin with praise that is within reach. First bless God, and then you may rightly bless yourself.

He says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield.” God strengthens him so he can go on through all his duties and sufferings, and God protects him from the evil plans of his enemies. David has chosen the Lord to be this for him. He has always found God faithful, and he expects God will remain faithful still.

David also speaks from experience: “My heart trusted in him, and I was helped.” He means that God has often helped him in the past, and that even his trust in God helped him while he waited. Faith itself is often a real support to a discouraged soul, especially when help seems far off.

From that experience David draws two conclusions. First, he says, “My heart greatly rejoices.” The believer’s joy is deep in the heart, while the fool may laugh outwardly and still be inwardly sad. True faith leads, in due time, to great joy, the joy and peace that come from trusting God. Second, David says God will get the praise: “With my song I will praise him.” Gratitude should be expressed, and this is the least we can do. It also encourages others to trust in God.

David then rejoices in the shared blessing all God’s people have through Christ. “The Lord is their strength,” he says, not mine only, but the strength of every believer. The saints are glad for one another’s comfort as well as their own. Just as the sun’s light is not reduced when more people share it, so God’s favor is not less for others because it is given to many. This is part of our fellowship with all the saints, that God is their strength and ours, and Christ is their Lord and ours (Colossians 1:2).

He is the strength of all Israel because he is the saving strength of his anointed, that is, of David as a pattern of the Christ to come. God strengthened David, their king, and so strengthened the whole kingdom as he fought their battles. David calls himself God’s anointed because the special setting apart he had received made his enemies envy him, and therefore made him dependent on God’s protection. More fully, this points to Christ, the Messiah, God’s anointed one. God was Christ’s saving strength, fitting him for his work and carrying him through it (Psalm 89:21; Isaiah 49:5; Isaiah 50:7, 9). In that way, God becomes the strength of all the saints. He strengthened the head of the church, and from him he gives strength to all the members (Psalm 68:28; Psalm 80:17, 18).

David ends with a short but full prayer for God’s people. He prays for Israel not as “my people,” though they were, but as “your people.” God’s claim on them is nearer to his heart than David’s own interest. “We are your people” is a strong plea, and so is, “I am yours, save me” (Isaiah 64:9; Isaiah 63:19). God’s people are his inheritance, dear and precious to him.

David asks four things for them. He asks that God would save them from their enemies and from danger. He asks that God would bless them with every good thing that comes from his favor and keeps his promise. He asks that God would feed them, giving them plenty, especially the plenty of his word and worship, which are food for the soul. The margin also reads, “rule them.” That means, direct their plans and actions rightly, and overrule their affairs for good. Give them shepherds and rulers who will do their work with wisdom and understanding.

Finally, David asks that God would lift them up forever. He wants them lifted out of their troubles, and he looks beyond that present time to all God’s people in every age, even to the end. He is asking that they be lifted up into God’s glorious kingdom, raised as high as heaven. There, and only there, will the saints be lifted up forever, never again to fall or be pressed down. Those whom God feeds and rules, and who are willing to be taught, guided, and governed by him, will be saved, blessed, and lifted up forever.