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For my weekly quiet time, I will blog about Psalm 28. I have three items:
1. Psalm 28:3 states that the Psalmist's enemies speak peace to their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts. Moreover, according to Peter Craigie, vv 3-4 appear to carry a "curse-like character": the Psalmist does not want to be swept away with the wicked, but he hopes that God will render to the wicked what their deeds deserve. Craigie concludes that the wicked in Psalm 28 are covenant-breakers: a wicked person made a covenant with the Psalmist (speaking peace to him) and then broke it. For Craigie, the curses of vv 3-4 indicate that the issue in Psalm 28 is a broken covenant, for curses were attached to covenants for the parties that broke them.
But there's a problem, according to Craigie: In Psalm 28, the guilty party is not suffering any curses. Rather, the Psalmist appears to be the one suffering. He's the one who feels as if he's going down into the pit! And the Psalmist's enemy is asserting that the Psalmist is suffering because he---the Psalmist---was the one who broke the covenant! And so Craigie believes that the Psalmist was not only betrayed within a covenant, but also that he is being slandered, as if he broke the agreement. And so the Psalmist hopes that God will restore him and punish his enemy, not only because his enemy deserves punishment, but also so that the Psalmist's reputation can be vindicated.
Craigie may be on to something, or his thesis here may be a stretch. After all, do the wicked in Psalm 28 necessarily have to be covenant-breakers, or are there are other settings in which wicked people could deceive others by appearing to be friendly, when their real intent is to do harm? But Craigie's scenario does strike a cord with me because there are times when I am afraid that people will spread tales about me, and will smugly comment on whatever misfortune I happen to be enduring. On a certain level, I can identify with the powerlessness that the Psalmist feels. And, in his eyes, his only recourse is God. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way for everyone, who may have family and friends who can help (as I do). But the Psalmist is in a situation in which he feels helpless, and he cries out to God for help.
Another possible setting is that Psalm 28 is about the king, who faces a conspiracy against him. In this case, there would certainly be people who are obsequious to the king's face, while they seek to undermine him behind his back!
2. Does the Psalmist have faith in God in Psalm 28? In a sense, the Psalmist feels that God is deaf and mute in his relationship with him. Peter Craigie states that the Psalmist is affirming that he feels dead because he has not seen any indication of God's concern for him, for the Psalmist considered death to be a place of silence (Psalm 94:17).
But the Psalmist still believes in God. He does not want God to destroy him with the wicked, which does seem to indicate that he believes that God punishes the wicked. But his hope is that God will punish the wicked and deliver him from his own predicament. The Psalmist does not want God to lose sight of him in God's wrath. In vv 6-9, the Psalmist becomes more hopeful. This may be because a cult functionary reassured him that God heard his prayer, or a judge punished the wicked, or the Psalmist is looking forward to the future with the eyes of faith or prophetic insight, or the Psalmist wrote vv 6-9 after his deliverance. In any case, God showed himself to be faithful to the Psalmist, either through resolving his problems, or by giving him the strength to go on. And the Psalmist then moved his perspective from himself onto the community of Israel, as he prayed that God might shepherd his people---by feeding them and lifting them up continually.
3. The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages, which is a critical edition of Nizzahon Vetus, a medieval Jewish polemic against Christianity, presented an interesting insight on this Psalm. Against Christians who applied Psalm 28 to Jesus, the Nizzahon Vetus contended that there is a difference between the Psalmist here and Jesus. The Psalmist prayed that God might punish his enemies, whereas Jesus on the cross asked God to forgive those who were putting him to death, for they did not know what they were doing (Luke 23:34). The Nizzahon Vetus does not comment on whether or not Jesus' attitude is superior to that of the Psalmist, but, in my opinion, it does well to point out that there are differences between the Psalms that Christians have applied to Jesus, and what parts of the New Testament say about Jesus. Interestingly, Augustine related Psalm 28 to Jesus, and the result was a Jesus who was pretty vengeful---although, in many cases, Augustine prefers to interpret Psalms to mean that God is humbling the wicked and bringing them to repentance, as opposed to destroying them.
I'll stop here.
