Singing Psalm 28 for strength to go on
- Karen Wallace
- Apr 2, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 8, 2025
Looking for strength to go on
During those times when you find yourself alone on one side of a conflict with the other side well-padded with people, you can find yourself fruitlessly arguing, or silently discouraged that your position seems to be falling on deaf ears.
You want validation that you are pursuing God’s purposes versus taking matters into your own hands. You want to know what it looks like to rely on God and obey his words that bring life.
Although you know that relying on what you know apart from God‘s words brings death, this approach seems to come more naturally. When others are convinced that their way is right without consulting God, do you just look for strength to go on within yourself in order to oppose them? Do you try to find and rally others to fight on your side?
Hoping for strength to go on
You want the one who made you to hear as you call to him, as you cry to him, as you plead with him for mercy and for help with a sense of abandon knowing that if he doesn’t answer, there is no one else in whom you can hope for strength to go on. You are undone. You have come to the end of yourself.
Finding strength to go on
Earnestly seeking him and believing that he rewards those who do that, you can put all your eggs in his one basket. You can trust him to be your shepherd and to carry you forever. Since he makes good on all his promises, you have made a wise choice relying on him for strength to go on rather than on yourself or anyone else.
When he speaks a word of promise, it’s as good as done. You wait for it in eager anticipation of its fulfillment remembering that you were not made to live on earth for eternity. In fact, your time here compared to your time in the new heavens and the new earth is less than a blink of an eye! That should give you hopeful perspective as you wait.
“From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.”
“But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him.’"
Have you been misunderstood? Have you felt rejected? Have your words been deemed as irrelevant? Has your advice been disregarded? Even if people with whom you ought to be close to are seemingly against you, you can go on in confidence, peace, and unashamed. As you rely on him, you can quietly rejoice in your good shepherd who hears you, who delights in blessing you with his very presence. He will carry you through the sadness of bruised relationships giving you strength to go on in the upward climb.
Singing Psalm 28 for strength to go on
Amazingly, you can find strength to go on in one outside yourself in whom you can trust as a rock, a shield, a saving refuge, a shepherd to carry you. The only thing is, he gets the glory as you get out of the way. Singing Psalm 28, you are pulling up alongside one whose heart has done just that, training your emotions to delight in being carried, and going on in grateful wonder that he would carry you.
“Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
"The Lord is the strength of his people;
He is the saving refuge of his anointed.
O save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.” ~ Psalm 28:6-9
March 7, 2022
Edited: March 12, 2022
Published: April 2, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
January 19, 2025
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11-13
Question: What does God say about your value as a male? As a female?
Heart reflection: Being created in God’s image as male and female with the potential to create gives us immense value. It is the part of us that together is most like God, our Creator, and gives us opportunities to do for others what God loves to do for us. Whether or not a person comes across as masculine or feminine, whether or not an individual person is given to marry and have biological children, regardless of whether each person has or doesn’t have the capacity to create new life, we, as his body, his church, thrive when we are after his heart that innately, creatively, desires to give. God designed our hearts with a built-in proclivity to help others but our hearts are often embattled, taken captive, shrunken, and hijacked by self-love. Life on this earth can be understood through Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration in Christ. Knowing and worshiping Jesus, our Creator, Rescuer, and Re-Creator, is knowing God. Jesus is the key to knowing your value as his image bearer because it is he who wins back our hearts. We were made to glorify our Creator now by sowing the seed of his gospel and bearing his fruit, and for eternity worshiping the Lord from the heart together. You can know Jesus truly (though not exhaustively) through his word, the Holy Bible, where he reveals himself by his Holy Spirit. He is our consummate helper who helps you delight in listening for needs so that you can help others know God’s protection and provision for them. His very nature is to nurture others. In creating us as male and female image bearers, he ensures that there will continue to be worshipers that are protected, provided for, and nurtured. Each child conceived is not a problem made by man to be solved but a person of potential created by God in His image to be joyfully embraced. Each marriage points our inner being to Christ and his church. Each birth looks forward to the hope of being born again to worship God and produce his fruit.
“O save Your people; give them help;
And bless Your heritage.
Be their own Shepherd, carry them
Secure through every age.” ~ Psalm 28:9
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The Psalms—Q&A
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.” ~ Isaiah 49:15-16
How can singing Psalm 28 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
“Blessed be the LORD who heard me,
For the LORD’s my strength and shield.
I am helped when my heart trusts him;
Gladly singing, thanks I yield.” ~ Psalm 28:6-7
What is the impact of my counting on the fact that God hears and discerns whether what others think or speak about me is false or true, that he hears me cry out to him for help, and that he knows and remembers me in love that cannot fail?
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” ~ John 13:1
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
October 10, 2025
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