Do we really pray to God against ourselves? That can’t be. And yet, if we pay attention, we’ll probably find that we do it quite a bit. I can’t help but wonder, and worry about, how many times have I done that?
It’s not even a question of whether I’ve done it or not. It’s happened. It will happen again.
And it happens to all of us.
If you read “Psalm 26 – How can anybody possibly live a perfect life?”, then you know that when you read the key verse for today, you’ll also see that David also prayed against himself. But you also maybe know something about why, in the end, God won’t hold that against us.
Psalm 28
Of David.
Ps 28:1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock;
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.
Ps 28:2 Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.
Ps 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Ps 28:4 Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back upon them what they deserve.
Ps 28:5 Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD
and what his hands have done,
he will tear them down
and never build them up again.
Ps 28:6 Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
Ps 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
Ps 28:8 The LORD is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Ps 28:9 Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Background on Psalm 28
Hope in God Alone
At the end of the last chapter I wrote about waiting for the Lord, which is where Psalm 27 ends. This is something we must learn to do better, since God does not usually respond to prayer according to our timetable. We do not expect to have to wait for God forever, of course. But what should we do while we are waiting? The answer is that we need to keep praying, to persevere in prayer. Significantly, this is the point to which Psalm 28, the next psalm in the Psalter, takes us. It is about importunity.
This reminds us of a story Jesus told, introduced by the words: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). He said that there was once a judge who cared nothing for God, the law, or other people. There was a widow in his town who had a case that needed to be heard. The judge wasn’t interested. She had nothing to bribe him with. But she kept coming, and finally the judge said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!” (vv. 4–5).
Jesus’ comment was: “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (vv. 7–8).
Jesus was not teaching that God is an unjust judge, of course, or even that he is indifferent to the cries of his people. On the contrary, his point was that God is the exact opposite of the indifferent magistrate of the story and that, for this reason alone, you and I should be bold and persistent in praying. We need to be persistent, because God’s answers do not always come at once, which is why the story is introduced as showing that we should always pray “and not give up.” 1Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (p. 246). Baker Books.
How can Hope in God alone lead to praying to God against ourselves?
That’s all good stuff. But – what does Hope in God alone have to do with praying to God against ourselves?
It sounds impossible. And yet, as I said, it happens all the time.
Here are the verses that stuck out to me when reading Psalm 28 this morning.
First, when David prayed for God to repay the wicked for the things they did.
Ps 28:4 Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back upon them what they deserve.
OK, we do that. But look what David wrote just before that verse.
Ps 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Do you see the problem? And David’s recognition of the problem? Finally, why it’s not a problem for David? And why it shouldn’t be a problem for us? In fact, why it’s not a problem for us if we truly love and follow Jesus?
The problem of praying to God against ourselves
Notice, in verse 4, David prayed that God would repay the wicked for their evil deeds.
We don’t know exactly when this Psalm was written. Was it before or after David committed adultery with Bathsheba? Was it before or after David has her husband, for all practical purposes, murdered?
Either way, David wasn’t perfect. He also committed evil deeds.
In essence, David was praying against himself in this verse.
David’s recognition of the problem.
In verse 3, just prior to the verse that brought the problem to light, David prayed that God wouldn’t take him away with the wicked. So he knew that he should be included with them.
Why this apparent self-condemnation wasn’t a problem for David
One key to solving this apparent problem is the last half of the third verse.
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.
Take a look at the image at the top of the page. It symbolizes someone holding/considering their heart and their brain. That’s what David’s praying about here.
The kind words come from the brain. We know the things we should say, and do. And sometimes we can control the words. Appear to be good.
But we can’t control the heart. Eventually, what we feel in our hearts will be revealed, if by nothing other than our reactions. And even when those actions don’t come out, God can tell and does know what’s in our hearts.
And that’s why this isn’t a problem for David. We saw in Psalm 26 this difference between what’s in our hearts versus what we think, say, and do.
It’s that knowledge from God that even extends what I wrote earlier:
But we can’t control the heart. Eventually, what we feel in our hearts will be revealed, if by nothing other than our reactions. And even when those actions don’t come out, God can tell and does know what’s in our hearts.
God also knows when our emotional reactions do not reflect what’s in our hearts.
Why this apparent self-condemnation shouldn’t be a problem for us
Are we supposed to Believe God, Believe in God or Follow God?
Are we supposed to Believe God, Believe in God or Follow God? Are those three sets of words all different? Or do they all mean the same thing? Well, it depends. When were you born? What culture do you live in / come from? Most important, are you willing to learn what they meant when they were said? In some cases, that’s almost two thousand years ago. In others, several thousand years ago. We need to look at what they meant when they were said, in order to understand what they mean today.
The same thing applies to us as Christians. If we truly love and follow Jesus. If we desire Jesus in our hearts, as David was a man after god’s own heart, as we saw in Psalm 26.
Notice, that’s not just saying some magic words and being saved, no matter how we live.
No, we won’t perfectly follow Jesus. But in our hearts, we should/must want to follow Him, if we truly love Jesus.
The passage below should make it clear that believing in Jesus isn’t merely words. It’s belief that’s so strong we have to act on it.
The Cost of Being a Disciple
Lk 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Lk 14:28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
Lk 14:31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Lk 14:34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
I’m not going to go into detail here. That should be more than enough to make the point that what comes from loving Jesus in our hearts will produce actions to show our love.
And when we have that love, then God won’t take us away from the evil either, even though we deserve to be taken with them? As we know, the reason is that Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sins of those who truly love Him.
Conclusion – Palm 28 – Do we know we sometimes pray to God against ourselves?
Above and beyond what you just read, there’s one more thing in Psalm 28 that shows David’s love for God and his acknowledgment of God’s promises to those who love Him. It’s the first two verses, which I saved for the end.
Ps 28:1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock;
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.
Ps 28:2 Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.
David knows, as should we, that God listens to us. That He wants us to look to Him. And that He will help us, when we ask.
Here’s how our commentary author put it.
David is not self-righteous in these statements. That is the problem we feel in statements asking God to judge others. It is what Jesus was warning about in the command not to judge, since he went on to speak about trying to take a speck out of another’s eye when we have a beam in our own. That is a real difficulty for us, and a common one. But it is not a problem David has here. David has already approached God on the basis of his mercy, that is, acknowledging his own sinfulness. But even more to the point, he begins his petition (in vv. 3–5), not with an appeal to God to judge the wicked but with the request that God keep him from being dragged along into their evil stratagems. In other words, David is aware that in himself he is able to behave exactly like the wicked. He knows that anything any other sinner is capable of doing, he too is capable of doing.
That is why he is so anxious to hear God’s voice and to receive answers to his prayers. Apart from the lifegiving, sustaining power of God’s words, he will be swept along with the wicked and will perish with them. 2Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (p. 249). Baker Books.
So, by all means, call out to God. But also recognize that we, but for the grace of God, are subject to the same repayment that He’s going to take on other people, who don’t love Jesus, who have done the same things we do.
Also, don’t forget, one of the things Jesus commanded us to do is to bring the Gospel, the news of salvation through Jesus, to those same people.
None of this is easy. But it can be done, with the strength, power, and patience we can have through the Holy Spirit.
Image by mohamed_hassan from Pixabay
Footnotes
- 1Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (p. 246). Baker Books.
- 2Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (p. 249). Baker Books.