“To you, Lord, I call; You are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.” (Psalm 28:1)
When was the last time you wondered if God even hears your prayers? When was the last time you sensed the sound of silence as you were pleading at the gates of heaven? Notice I said “when,” not “if.” Like David in today’s verse, we all find ourselves in seasons where heaven seems to be unresponsive and unyielding, and we just want to know that God has not turned a deaf ear to our pleas.
Psalm 28 provides lovely insight into David’s prayer life as he cried out to God from the depths of his heavy heart, saying, “If you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.” We don’t know exactly what David was going through at the time the Spirit of God moved him to pen this psalm. Perhaps David was in a season of sickness or a time of deep and desperate despair. Regardless of the nature of the difficulty David was facing, he looked to his God, his Rock, for help.
Here is the question that you and I must consider: “Do we do the same thing in the same way – in utter dependence upon God?” David knew where to take his weakness and despair – to the only One who could help him rise above the waves of challenge that were battering him. David not only knew Who to go to, he also knew that the One he went to was able to act on his behalf, because he was crying out to the Rock of ages.
The 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way:
The immutable Jehovah is our rock, the immovable foundation of all our hopes and our refuge in time of trouble; we are fixed in our determination to flee to him as our stronghold in every hour of danger.
What picture comes to mind when you read David calling God his Rock? God as our Rock is a picture of a foundation that simply cannot be moved. Many scholars have stated that God as Rock pictures His permanence and power, something David knew by way of personal experience. God the Rock was not only David’s source of strength, He was also his source of stability and security.
But that’s not all! There is one more very important picture of God as Rock given us in Paul’s writing about the wilderness wandering of Israel:
They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:3-4).
You see, David was looking forward to the Rock that was to come and this Rock was the “smitten rock” of Exodus 17:6, the Lord Jesus Christ, who provides water for the thirsty even in the most barren wilderness that we may be currently experiencing.
Are you experiencing “the sound of silence”? Are you worried that God is not listening to your heartfelt cries? Take your cue from David. Regardless of what you are facing, cry out to your Rock, knowing that He will never turn a deaf ear. He will always answer . . . but in His way and in His perfect timing. May that truth set us all free.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 