Psalm 28 is the 28th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock;". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 27. In Latin, it is known by the incipit, "".
Psalm 28 is used in both Jewish and Christian liturgies. It has often been set to music.
Charles and Emilie Briggs describe the psalm as
The Briggs suggest that it is to be dated to the reign of King Jehoiakim in "the late Babylonian period shortly before the exile", which occurred in 587 or 586 BCE. They identify verses 5 and 9 as glosses which "give a reason for the imprecation upon enemies (verse 5) and a liturgical petition for salvation (verse 9)".
In Psalm 28:5 is, according to Charles Spurgeon's exegesis, an example of general revelation: with God's hand clearly seen in nature and history. God works in creation: nature teems with proofs of his wisdom and goodness, yet atheists refuse to see him: he works in providence, ruling and overruling, and his hand is manifest in human history.
The Jerusalem Bible suggests that the word "anointed" here refers to the people of God consecrated to his service, and not the king or the high priest.
In the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, this psalm is appointed to be read on the evening of the fifth day of the month.
A setting of Psalm 28 in English, "Thou art, O Lord, my strength and stay", by John Bennet was published in Richard Langdon's Divine Harmony in 1774. Heinrich Schütz wrote a setting of a paraphrase of the psalm in German, "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Gott, mein Hort", SWV 125, for the Becker Psalter, published first in 1628. Felix Mendelssohn used verse 1 of Psalm 28 for a recitative in his oratorio Elijah, first performed in 1846. Alan Hovhaness set verses 1, 2, and 9 for his choir and organ work Unto Thee Will I Cry, op. 162.
The following table shows the Hebrew text of the Psalm with vowels, alongside the Koine Greek text in the Septuagint and the English translation from the King James Version. Note that the meaning can slightly differ between these versions, as the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text come from different textual traditions. In the Septuagint, this psalm is numbered Psalm 27.