PSALMS 28


1 (A Psalm of David.) Unto thee will I cry, O Yahweh my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

It is a standing precept of his house "to pray to God without ceasing," whose house are we IF we continue steadfast in the faith of obedience of Him. And it is natural for sons of God to pray for as sons of God, their first love is the love of God -- not a feeble, moderate love, but a love of the sort expressed by the words, "with all thy strength, soul, and mind."

This being their love, it impels them, as all love does, to intercourse with its object. Their fears impel them in the same direction: for they have fears, as David had, and Jesus in the days of his flesh had. The triumphs of the enemy and their own experience of evil, and the awful greatness of God, make them afraid, and drive them to prayer.

This mixture of love and fear gives earnestness to their prayers, and hope makes the light to shine. The men that Jesus will summon around him in the work of God will be men of prayer -- not praying men in the mechanical sense, like Mohammedans and Papists, but men in whom ripe reason, acting on the facts revealed in the Word of God, has brought forth its fruits of daily and hourly incense to the Most High. None else need hope for acceptance. This is the fact to be looked at and applied now.

Let everyone fall back on self-examination. If we come short in this matter, let us not give way to dejection and hopelessness. Let us rather take courage from the other fact exemplified in both the Scriptures read, and indeed in all the Scriptures continually -- that

"there is forgiveness with God." "He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy."

To neglect prayer is a Sin, because it is a transgression of the law which commands us to pray. If any man convicts himself secretly of this neglect, let him put an end to his neglect, let him forsake his sin; let him "pray always, and not faint," as Jesus taught at his first appearing. In everything giving thanks, for this, says Paul, is the will of God concerning us.

Bro Roberts - Nearer the crisis



2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.

4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.

5 Because they regard not the works of Yahweh, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.

6 Blessed be Yahweh, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

7 Yahweh is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.



8 Yahweh is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.

Was Christ different from us? God was his strength and his salvation. He had none other --nothing in himself -- nor have we. He was the perfect man because he was the perfect manifestation of man's helplessness and God's perfection.

Bro Growcott


9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.