#DailyDevotion Do You Feel The LORD Isn’t Listening To You?
Psalm 28 I’m calling You, O LORD, O my Rock, don’t turn silently away from me. If You are silent, I will be like those who go down to the grave.
Like everyone else on planet earth, David has problems. Like many people, his problems are other people who are also sinners like him and sinners do to him as sinners can only do. David’s only hope is the LORD, his Rock. David apparently had been praying to the LORD for quite some time because the language here seems to intimate the LORD isn’t answering David’s prayer. So he petitions the LORD here to not turn silently away from him. If the LORD is silent in answering David’s prayers he will end up dead. His enemies will overcome him.
David’s appeal is to the LORD as his Rock. It is interesting to see it is first in Deuteronomy that the LORD refers to Himself as the Rock. It starts in Deut. 32, “4The Rock! What He does is perfect; yes, all His ways are right. A faithful God, without any wrong, just and righteous is He.” Seeing how the LORD describes Himself here, there is good reason for David to appeal to Him as his Rock. If you are going to plead to someone for help, these are the characteristics you are going to want of the one you are appealing. On the other hand, the rest of Deuteronomy the references to the LORD as the Rock is Israel rejecting Him as such. So it is a good thing here for David to appeal to Him as such. It demonstrates his faithfulness to the LORD. Looking to the LORD for help is all He ever really wants of us. Really, you are not bothering the LORD at all if you go to Him for help in everything, big things, little things, and every things. He greatly delights in it. He is not like us who reply to those who come to us constantly, “Can you just do something yourself!”
2Listen to me plead as I call to You for help, as I raise my hands toward Your most holy place.
David enduring quality is that almost without exception (the Bathsheba affair) he turns to the LORD in everything. This pleases the LORD. So he calls upon the LORD, his Rock, to listen to him as he calls for help. We at times may feel like David. We may think the LORD isn’t listening to us. But the LORD is indeed listening to us even as He listens to David’s pleas. As we turn to Him in faith, in the name of Jesus, the throne-room of God is open wide and our Father hears our every prayer. He answers them the way that is best for us. David raises his hands to the LORD in order to receive good things from Him. It is not a bad practice for us, symbolizing our being His children. Our children raise their hands to us when they need something, particularly when they are little. We are God’s children. We are still little. Perhaps at the resurrection we will finally be all grown up. But even then, we will look even all the more to the Rock of our salvation.
If it appears as if God is not listening to us, as it appears to be to David in this psalm, let us remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Look at Him long in prayer. See Him ask if there is a way this cup can pass from Him. See the Father’s answer as He goes to the cross to suffer and die. We are Jesus’ disciples. There are times it is the Father’s will we will live under His discipline. It will not be easy. We will moan and groan and be in great suffering. We may even die. Yet see Jesus risen from the dead. See Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. If the Father answers Jesus’ prayer in such a manner, remember He has promised to raise you from the dead in Christ Jesus and to sit you on His throne as well.
Heavenly Father, be our Rock in the midst of trials, tribulations and testings so You will be our foundation and we may not be washed away by them but remain faithful to You. Give us patience to await the answer to our pleas knowing You only give to us what is best for us and our salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.