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A SONG IN THE NIGHT (Psalm 28)

Most of the psalms we read and the hymns we sing were born out of great struggle. Someone went through the valley, and it was there that God gave that person a song.

Psalm 28 is one of those. Spurgeon called it “God’s song in the night.” David wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and, although we don’t know exactly when, it is obvious that he was under some kind of great pressure in his life.

Verse 1: “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.”

While meditating on this verse, I noticed the difference between the rock and the pit. In which of those two places are you living today?

David did not want to be one of those going into the pit. He knew that to avoid that, he would have to run to the rock and hide there. The only hope and the only strength can be found in the rock that is higher than you.

Now look at the rest of the chapter:

“Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 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. 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. Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord 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. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.”

Do you sense a change here? Do you see how it moves from the first verse to the last — from a sigh to a song?

The psalm seems to begin with a groan but ends with great glory. How does that happen? There is a moment in this prayer when David got his eyes totally on the Lord.

• Verses 1-2 - David poured out the petition of his heart, laying out before the Lord where he was. It was the groan of his soul.
• Verses 3-5 he prayed against the enemies around him. He went from looking within to looking around.
• By verse 6, something changed in his prayer. It started with, “Blessed be the Lord.” Instead of looking within or around, he looked up.

There is a temptation in our prayers to first be so introspective and self-centered, and then simply to talk to God about others and what they aren’t doing right or have done against us. But the victory comes when your prayer becomes praise. Lester Roloff said, “You can praise your way through things you cannot pray your way through.”

What does that mean? There comes a moment in your prayer when you stop groaning and get a glimpse of the glory of God. You start blessing Him. When you do that, although neither your circumstances nor your enemies have changed, your perspective has changed. You have your eyes totally on the Lord.

That is why the closing verses of this psalm, verses 6-9, have such great joy. There is jubilation and celebration. It almost sounds like a different man.

That is what God does. He takes this great struggle and makes a song out of it.

The old songwriters used to say that it was the thorn in the breast of the nightingale that made it sing. What an interesting expression. It is a way of saying that sometimes God takes the hard things in life — the sharp and uncomfortable things — and makes them the very things that provoke you to worship. It is what pushes out the greatest glory to God.

It starts here in verse 6. “Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.”

Could you just stop right now and bless the Lord because He heard your prayer? Maybe you haven’t seen the answer yet, but you can rest assured that He has heard your prayer.

Verse 7 begins, “The Lord is my strength and my shield.” There is the inner strength as well as the outer protection of the shield. God will give you everything you need on the inside while also protecting you on the outside.

The rest of the verse states, “My heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” You can find help when you start trusting in Him. You will find joy and rediscover your song when you exercise faith in God. You don’t just trust Him for Heaven; you have to trust Him for here.

Why is it that we can believe the Lord to keep us out of Hell but we can’t believe Him to help us with what is happening today? Faith is not an event; it is a way of life. It is not a decision; it is every day. The Bible says in four different places, “The just shall live by faith.” If you want the help you need, exercise faith in God.

Verse 8 begins, “The Lord is their strength.” That is a big shift. We were talking about his problems. But God turned it inside out and changed introspection to intercession. God will turn you from talking only about your problems to bearing the needs and burdens of others. Remember, God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.

So here was David praying for those around him and noting that God “is the saving strength of his anointed.” In verse 7 he referred to the Lord as “my strength” and then in the next verse called Him “their strength.”

The valley you are going through, the burden you are under, is not just for you but also for someone else. As Paul put it in II Corinthians 1:4, “that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

It is no comfort just to say to someone, “I’ve been through that.” You are only identifying with them. The comfort comes in saying, “I’ve been through something, and God met me there. I was in a great struggle, but God was my great strength and He will also be yours.”

Maybe that is the message God is bringing out of your mess today — the truth He is trying not only to give to you, but send through you to someone else.

Verse 9: “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.” David ended Psalm 28 with a prayer for others. He began with a plea not to go down into the pit, but he finished with a petition to lift others.

I think there is a great secret in this. The way to stay on the rock and remain upright is to keep your eyes on the Lord, praying not just for yourself but also for the needs of others.

I hear a note of Christ’s intercession for us in Psalm 28. He is praying for you today. Would you join Him in that prayer meeting and begin to pray for others? God is going to help you and bring you through whatever is happening, and He will give you a song in the night.