Psalms 28:2

Psa 28:2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

Ver. 2. When I lift up my hands] An ordinary gesture in prayer, expressing faith (for they held out their open hands, as craving beggars with the palms upward, 1Ki 8:22) and helping fervency; while hands and heart went up together to God in the heavens, Lam 3:40. Preces fundimus, ecelum tundimus, miserieordiam extorquemus, &c. (Tertul.).

Toward thy holy oracle] Called Debhir, because therehence God spake and gave answer. Toward this (a type of Christ, the Word essential) David lifteth up his hands; that it might be as a ladder whereby his prayer might get up to heaven. The devil also, who delighteth to be God’s ape, but for man’s mischief, gave oracles at Delphi and elsewhere (Herod. Clio); but λοξα et mendacia, doubtful and lying; as to Croesus, Pyrrhus, others. But the eternity of Israel cannot lie, 1Sa 15:29; every word of God is pure, he is a shield to them that put their trust in him, Pro 30:5.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 28:2. When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle — Earnestly desiring and confidently expecting an answer of peace from thence. The most holy place within the veil is here, as elsewhere, called the oracle. There the ark and the mercy-seat were; there God was said to dwell between the cherubim, and thence he spake to his people, Num 7:89. This was a type of Christ, and it is to him that we must lift up our eyes and hands, for through him all good comes from God to us. It was also a figure of heaven, Heb 9:24. And from God, as our Father in heaven, we are taught to expect an answer to our prayers.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. (Psa 28:2) Hear the voice of my supplications, in my crying unto thee (for help); in my lifting up my hands to thy holy oracle. In my crying, in my lifting, i.e. at the time of my so doing, when I am in the very act. The lifting up of the hands is a natural symbol of the raising of the heart or the desires to God, and is therefore often mentioned in connection with the act of prayer. Exo 9:29; Exo 17:11-12, 1Ki 8:22; 1Ki 8:54, Lam 2:19, iii. 41, Psa 63:5 (4).—The Sword translated oracle is derived from the verb to speak, and seems to mean a place of speaking or conversation, like the English parlour from the French parler. Now we learn from Exo 25:22, Num 7:89, that the place whence God talked with Moses was the inner apartment of the tabernacle; and from 1 Kings 6:19, that the corresponding part of the temple bore the name here used. To this, as the depository of the ark and the earthly residence of God, the ancient saints looked as we look now to Christ, in whom the idea of the Mosaic sanctuary has been realised. See above, on Ps. 5:8 (7).

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28:2 It was common to lift up one’s hands in a gesture of devoted prayer (63:4; 134:2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He used this outward means to help the weakness of his faith: for in that place was the Ark, and there God promised to show the tokens of his favor.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

lift up my hands--a gesture of prayer (Psa 63:4; Psa 141:2).

oracle--place of speaking (Exo 25:22; Num 7:89), where God answered His people (compare Psa 5:7).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. Toward thy holy oracle.] דביר קדשך debir kodshecha; debir properly means that place in the holy of holies from which God gave oracular answers to the high priest. This is a presumptive proof that there was a temple now standing; and the custom of stretching out the hands in prayer towards the temple, when the Jews were at a distance from it, is here referred to.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Hear the voice of my prayers when I cry to thee. This repetition is a sign of a heart in anguish. David’s ardor and vehemence in prayer are also intimated by the noun signifying voice, and the verb signifying to cry. He means that he was so stricken with anxiety and fear, that he prayed not coldly, but with burning, vehement desire, like those who, under the pressure of grief, vehemently cry out. In the second clause of the verse, by synecdoche, the thing signified is indicated by the sign. It has been a common practice in all ages for men to lift up their hands in prayer. Nature has extorted this gesture even from heathen idolaters, to show by a visible sign that their minds were directed to God alone. The greater part, it is true, contented with this ceremony, busy themselves to no effect with their own inventions; but the very lifting up of the hands, when there is no hypocrisy and deceit, is a help to devout and zealous prayer. David, however, does not say here that he lifted his hands to heaven, but to the sanctuary, that, aided by its help, he might ascend the more easily to heaven. He was not so gross, or so superstitiously tied to the outward sanctuary, as not to know that God must be sought spiritually, and that men then only approach to him when, leaving the world, they penetrate by faith to celestial glory. But remembering that he was a man, he would not neglect this aid afforded to his infirmity. As the sanctuary was the pledge or token of the covenant of God, David beheld the presence of God’s promised grace there, as if it had been represented in a mirror; just as the faithful now, if they wish to have a sense of God’s nearness to them, should immediately direct their faith to Christ, who came down to us in his incarnation, that he might lift us up to the Father. Let us understand, then, that David clung to the sanctuary with no other view than that by the help of God’s promise he might rise above the elements of the world, which he used, however, according to the appointment of the Law. The Hebrew word דביר, debir, which we have rendered sanctuary, דביר, debir, is derived from דבר, dabar, to speak.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) Lift up my hands.—For interesting illustrations of this Oriental custom see Exo_9:29; 1Ki_8:22, &c. Compare the well-known line:—

“If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer.”

TENNYSON: Morte d’Arthur.

Holy oracle.—Better, the shrine of thy sanctuary (see margin)—i.e., the holy of holies, the adytum, or inner recess of the Temple in which the ark was placed, as we see from 1Ki_6:19-22. The Hebrew word, which is of doubtful derivation, is, with the exception of this place, only found in Kings and Chronicles. The margin, “the oracle of thy sanctuary,” is a better rendering than the text.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The first line recurs in Psa_31:22.

when I cry] A stronger word than that in Psa_28:1, meaning to cry for help.

when I lift up my hands] The attitude of prayer (Psa_63:4; 1Ti_2:8), the outward symbol of an uplifted heart (Psa_25:1).

toward thy holy oracle] Lit., as R.V. marg., toward the innermost place of thy sanctuary, i.e. the most holy place, where the Ark, the symbol of God’s Presence among His people, was. See 1Ki_6:16 ff; 1Ki_8:6. The rendering oracle, following Jerome’s oraculum, rests upon a wrong derivation. The word does not in itself denote the place where God answers. It is used elsewhere only in the accounts of the building of the Temple (1 Kings 6-8; 2 Chronicles 3-5). The worshipper naturally turns as he prays towards Jehovah’s dwelling-place in heaven (1Ki_8:22), or its earthly counterpart (1Ki_8:30 ff.). Cp. Psa_5:7.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Kg1 6:23; compared with Ch2 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 Lam 3:41; it was frequently used, even by the Heathens, as a prayer gesture (r); see Psa 141:2.

(r) "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 , Homer. Iliad. 5. v. 174.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hear the voice of my supplications - It was not mental prayer which he offered; it was a petition uttered audibly.

When I lift up my hands - To lift up the hands denotes supplication, as this was a common attitude in prayer. See the notes at 1Ti 2:8.

Toward thy holy oracle - Margin, as in Hebrew, “toward the oracle of thy holiness.” The word “oracle” as used here denotes the place where the answer to prayer is given. The Hebrew word - דביר debı̂yr - means properly the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle or the temple, the place where God was supposed to reside, and where He gave responses to the prayers of His people: the same place which is elsewhere called the holy of holies. See the notes at Heb 9:3-14. The Hebrew word is found only here and in 1Ki 6:5, 1Ki 6:16, 1Ki 6:19-23, 1Ki 6:31; 1Ki 7:49; 1Ki 8:6, 1Ki 8:8; 2Ch 3:16; 2Ch 4:20; 2Ch 5:7, 2Ch 5:9. The idea here is that he who prayed stretched out his hands toward that sacred place where God was supposed to dwell. So we stretch out our hands toward heaven - the sacred dwelling-place of God. Compare the notes at Psa 5:7. The Hebrew word is probably derived from the verb to “speak;” and, according to this derivation, the idea is that God spoke to His people; that he “communed” with them; that He answered their prayers from that sacred recess - His special dwelling-place. See Exo 25:22; Num 7:89.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

i.e. Towards the holy of holies, which is so called, 1Ki 6:23, compared with 2Ch 3:10; compare also 1Ki 6:5; 8:6, because there the ark was; from whence God gave oracular answers to his people; and to which they accordingly directed their prayers, not only when they drew near to it, but when they were at a distance from it, as Dan 6:10.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 2. This is much to the same effect as the first verse, only that it refers to future as well as present pleadings. Hear me! Hear me! Hear the voice of my supplications! This is the burden of both verses. We cannot be put off with a refusal when we are in the spirit of prayer; we labour, use importunity, and agonize in supplications until a hearing is granted us. The word "supplications, "in the plural, shows the number, continuance, and variety of a good man's prayers, while the expression "hear the voice, "seems to hint that there is an inner meaning, or heart voice, about which spiritual men are far more concerned than for their outward and audible utterances. A silent prayer may have a louder voice than the cries of those priests who sought to awaken Baal with their shouts. When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle: which holy place was the type of our Lord Jesus; and if we would gain acceptance, we must turn ourselves evermore to the blood besprinkled mercy seat of his atonement. Uplifted hands have ever been a form of devout posture, and are intended to signify a reaching upward towards God, a readiness, an eagerness to receive the blessing sought after. We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells. O that whenever we use devout gestures, we may possess contrite hearts, and so speed well with God.

Ver. 2. I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Called (rybd), debhir, because there hence God spake and gave answer. Toward this (a type of Christ, the Word essential), David lifteth up his hands, that it might be as a ladder, whereby his prayer might get up to heaven. John Trapp.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle—The “oracle” was the inner sanctuary, or “holy of holies.” 1Ki_6:16; 1Ki_8:6. On praying with hands outspread towards the most holy place when exiled or absent, see Dan_6:10

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee. God is said to hear prayer when he grants it, to be deaf to prayer when he withholds the boon requested. The use of the expressions "voice" and "cry" marks the earnestness of the prayers offered. When I lift up my hands, The usual attitude of a Hebrew in prayer. (see Exo_9:29 Exo_17:11, 12 1Ki_8:22, 54 Psa_63:4 Psa_141:2 Lam_2:19 Lam_3:41) Originally, the idea probably was that the hands should be ready to receive the blessings which God would bestow. But, later on, the lifting up of the hands seems to have been regarded as symbolizing the lifting up of the heart. (Lam_3:41) Towards thy holy oracle. (see the comment on Psa_5:7)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Towards - Towards the holy of holies, because there the ark was; from whence God gave oracular answers to his people.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.