Psalms 28:2

2 Hear my cry for your favor when I call out to you for help. Hear me when I lift up my hands in prayer toward your Most Holy Room.

Psalms 28:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 28:2

Hear the voice of my supplications
Which proceed from the Spirit of grace and of supplication, and are put up in an humble manner, under a sense of wants and unworthiness, and on the foot of grace and mercy, and not merit;

when I cry unto thee;
as he now did, and determined he would, and continue so doing, until he was heard;

when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle:
the holy of holies, in the tabernacle and in the temple, which was sometimes so called, ( 1 Kings 6:23 ) ; compared with ( 2 Chronicles 3:10 ) ; where were the ark, the mercy seat, and cherubim, between which the Lord dwelt, and gave responses to his people; or heaven itself, which the holy of holies was a figure of; where is the throne of God, and from whence he hears the prayers of his people directed to him; or else Christ himself, who is the most Holy, and the "Debir", or Oracle, who speaks to the Lord for his people; and by whom the Lord speaks to them again, and communes with them. The oracle had its name, "debir", from speaking. Lifting up of the hands is a prayer gesture, and here designs the performance of that duty to God in heaven, through Christ; see ( Lamentations 3:41 ) ( 1 Timothy 2:8 ) ; it was frequently used, even by the Heathens, as a prayer gesture ^F18; see ( Psalms 141:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 "Duplices manus ad sidera tendit--et paulo post--et ambas ad coelum tendit palmas", Virgil. Aeneid. 10. vid. Aeneid. 2. "Ad coelum manibus sublatis", Horat. Satyr. l. 2. satyr. 5. v. 97. "Coelo supines si tuleris manus", ib. Carmin. l. 3. Ode 23. v. 1. "Et pandere palmas ante Deum delubra", Lucretius l. 5. prope finem (dh ceira anascwn) , Homer. Iliad. 5. v. 174.

Psalms 28:2 In-Context

1 Lord, my Rock, I call out to you. Pay attention to me. If you remain silent, I will die. I will be like those who have gone down into the grave.

2 Hear my cry for your favor when I call out to you for help. Hear me when I lift up my hands in prayer toward your Most Holy Room.

3 Don't drag me away with sinners. Don't drag me away with those who do evil. They speak in a friendly way to their neighbors. But their hearts are full of hatred.

4 Pay them back for their evil actions. Pay them back for what their hands have done. Give them exactly what they should get.

5 They don't care about the Lord's mighty acts. They don't care about what his hands have done. So he will tear them down. He will never build them up again.