Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.
Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.”
But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
I cry to Yahweh with my voice, and he answers me out of his holy hill.
I laid myself down and slept. I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.
I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side.
Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to Yahweh. May your blessing be on your people.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 Sacred history teaches that David was not only dethroned,…
Sacred history teaches that David was not only dethroned, but forsaken by almost all men; so that he had well nigh as many enemies as he had subjects. It is true there accompanied him in his flight a few faithful friends; but he escaped in safety, not so much by their aid and protection as by the hiding-places of the wilderness. It is therefore not wonderful though he was affrighted by the great numbers who were opposed to him, for nothing could have taken place more unlooked for, on his part, than so sudden a rebellion. It was a mark of uncommon faith, when smitten with so great consternation, to venture freely to make his complaint to God, and, as it were, to pour out his soul into his bosom. Il a ose venir familierement faire sa complainte a Dieu et comme se discharger a lui. — Fr.
In the third verse he expresses more distinctly, and more emphatically, the pride of his enemies in deriding him as a castaway, and as a person whose circumstances were past hope. And he means, that their boldness increased hereupon, because they were confident he had been rejected by God. Perhaps, in these words also, their ungodliness is indirectly referred to, inasmuch as they made no account of the help of God in preserving the king whom he had chosen. And this second view is the more probable, for Absalom did not flatter himself with the hope of the favor of God, but, entirely disregarding him, hoped for victory from his own power. David, therefore, expressly introduces both him and the rest as speaking after this manner, to show that it was by a monstrous and outrageous contempt of God that they were driven to such fury against him, as if they made no account whatever of the fact of his having been often wonderfully delivered from the greatest dangers. The ungodly, when they rise up to destroy us, may not openly break forth into such daring presumption as to maintain it to be impossible for us to derive any advantage from the favor of God; yet, as they either ascribe every thing to fortune, or hold the opinion that a man’s success will be in proportion to his strength, and therefore fearlessly rush forward to gain their object, by all means, whether right or wrong, as if it would be equally the same, whether God is angry with or favorable towards them, it is evident that they set no value whatever upon the favor of God, and mock at the faithful as if it would avail them nothing to be under the care and protection of God.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 8 This was a token of his stable faith, that…
This was a token of his stable faith, that for all his troubles he had his recourse to God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Psa 3:1 « A Psalm of David, when he…
Psa 3:1 « A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. » LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many [are] they that rise up against me.
A Psalm of David] Tremellius addeth, Quem cecinit, which he sang when he fled, &c. As birds in the spring tune most sweetly when it rains most sadly. This was better yet than that black sanctus (as they call it) sung by our Henry II in like case, and for like cause. For when, as some few hours before he died, he saw a list of their names who conspired with the king of France and Earl Richard (his son and successor) against him, and found therein his son John (whom he had made earl of Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Nottingham, Derby, and Lancaster, &c.), to be the first; he fell into a grievous passion, both cursing his sons and the day wherein himself was born; and in that distemper departed the world, which so often himself had distempered.
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When he fled from] Heb. From the face of Absalom, which he had too much admired, and was now afraid of. Then when he went up Mount Olivet weeping, 2Sa 15:30, made he this psalm, say the Rabbis. So in the sack of Ziklag he comforted himself in the Lord his God, 1Sa 30:6. A Christian is never without his cordial.
Absalom his son] His darling, his tidling, his one eye. Such another good son was Barabbas, which signifies his father’s son, his white boy, as we say, like as Absalom signifieth his father’s peace, but it proved otherwise; as it likewise befell Eve, when she called her firstborn Cain, and thought she had got a great boon from the Lord. But
Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo,
David was disappointed: for Absalom proved like the sea Pacific or calm, so it is called; but Captain Drake found it rough and troublous above measure (Heyl. Geog.). Absalom would have done by David, if he could have come at him, as afterwards Amidas did with his father Muleasses, king of Tunis, in Africa, whom he first dethroned, and afterwards put out his eyes (Turk. Hist.). In Absalom was nothing good but his name. That may have a good name the nature whereof is so ill that it is not to be named; like as, Lev 20:17, abominable incest between brother and sister is called chesed, or kindness, per antiphrasin.
Ver. 1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?] He worthily wondereth at so sudden a change:
Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo;
Et subito casu, quae valuere, ruunt.
David was deserted by all almost, and had now as many enemies as till now he had subjects, excepting a few that stuck to him. Our Henry VI, who had been the most potent monarch for dominions that ever England had, was, when deposed, not the master of a molehill; and served to show that mortality was but the stage of mutability.
Many are they that rise up against me] Many, and many, by the figure anaphora. Here is also in the original a ομοιοτελευτον in the words, Tsarai in the former clause, and Gnalai in the latter; not unlike that doleful ditty of the Church, Lam 5:16, Oi na lanu, chei chattanu, Woe to us that we have sinned! which is so elegant in the original, that Mr William Whately of Bradbury (who used to be very plain in his preaching, and not to name a Greek, Latin, or Hebrew word) quoted it once in the Hebrew, as a hearer of his relateth (Mr Leigh, Saint’s Encour. Ep. dedic.).
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–8 He might well say so; for almost all his…
He might well say so; for almost all his people joined in the conspiracy.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 The title of this psalm and many others is…
The title of this psalm and many others is as a key hung ready at the door, to open it, and let us into the entertainments of it; when we know upon what occasion a psalm was penned we know the better how to expound it. This was composed, or at least the substance of it was meditated and digested in David's thought, and offered up to God, when he fled from Absalom his son, who formed a conspiracy against him, to take away, not his crown only, but his life; we have the story, 2 Sa. 15, etc. 1. David was now in great grief; when, in his flight, he went up the Mount of Olives, he wept greatly, with his head covered, and marching bare-foot; yet then he composed this comfortable psalm. He wept and prayed, wept and sung, wept and believed; this was sowing in tears. Is any afflicted? Let him pray; nay, let him sing psalms, let him sing this psalm. Is any afflicted with undutiful disobedient children? David was; and yet that did not hinder his joy in God, nor put him out of tune for holy songs. 2. He was now in great danger; the plot against him was laid deep, the party that sought his ruin was very formidable, and his own son at the head of them, so that his affairs seemed to be at the last extremity; yet then he kept hold of his interest in God and improved that. Perils and frights should drive us to God, not drive us from him. 3. He had now a great deal of provocation given him by those from whom he had reason to expect better things, from his son, whom he had been indulgent of, from his subjects, whom he had been so great a blessing to; this he could not but resent, and it was enough to break in upon any man's temper; yet he was so far from any indecent expressions of passion and indignation that he had calmness enough for those acts of devotion which require the greatest fixedness and freedom of thought. The sedateness of his mind was evinced by the Spirit's coming upon him; for the Spirit chooses to move upon the still waters. Let no unkindness, no, not of a child or a friend, ever be laid so much to heart as to disfit us for communion with God. 4. He was now suffering for his sin in the matter of Uriah; this was the evil which, for that sin, God threatened to raise up against him out of his own house (Sa2 12:11), which, no doubt, he observed, and took occasion thence to renew his repentance for it. Yet he did not therefore cast away his confidence in the divine power and goodness, nor despair of succour. Even our sorrow for sin must not hinder either our joy in God or our hope in God. 5. He seemed cowardly in fleeing from Absalom, and quitting his royal city, before he had had one struggle for it; and yet, by this psalm, it appears he was full of true courage arising from his faith in God. True Christian fortitude consists more in a gracious security and serenity of mind, in patiently bearing and patiently waiting, than in daring enterprises with sword in hand.
In these three verses he applies to God. Whither else should we go but to him when any thing grieves us or frightens us? David was now at a distance from his own closet, and from the courts of God's house, where he used to pray; and yet he could find a way open heaven-ward. Wherever we are we may have access to God, and may draw nigh to him whithersoever we are driven. David, in his flight, attends his God,
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I. With a representation of his distress, Psa 3:1, Psa 3:2. He looks round, and as it were takes a view of his enemies' camp, or receives information of their designs against him, which he brings to God, not to his own council-board. Two things he complains of, concerning his enemies: - 1. That they were very many: Lord, how are they increased! beyond what they were at first, and beyond whatever he thought they would have been. Absalom's faction, like a snow-ball, strangely gathered in its motion. He speaks of it as one amazed, and well he might, that a people he had so many ways obliged should almost generally revolt from him, rebel against him, and choose for their head such a foolish and giddy young man as Absalom was. How slippery and deceitful are the many! And how little fidelity and constancy are to be found among men! David had had the hearts of his subjects as much as ever any king had, and yet now, of a sudden, he had lost them. As people must not trust too much to princes (Psa 146:3), so princes must not build too much upon their interest in the people. Christ, the Son of David, had many enemies. When a great multitude came to seize him, when the crowd cried, Crucify him, Crucify him, how were those then increased that troubled him! Even good people must not think it strange if the stream be against them and the powers that threaten them grow more and more formidable. 2. That they were very malicious. They rose up against him; they aimed to trouble him; but that was not all: they said of his soul, There is no help for him in God. That is, (1.) They put a spiteful and invidious construction upon his troubles, as Job's friends did upon him, concluding that, because his servants and subjects forsook him thus and did not help him, God had deserted him and abandoned his cause, and he was therefore to be looked on, or rather to be looked off, as a hypocrite and a wicked man. (2.) They blasphemously reflected upon God as unable to relieve him: "His danger is so great that God himself cannot help him." It is strange that so great unbelief should be found in any, especially in many, in Israel, as to think any party of men too strong for Omnipotence to deal with. (3.) They endeavoured to shake his confidence in God and drive him to despair of relief from him: "They have said it to my soul;" so it may be read; compare Psa 11:1; Psa 42:10. This grieved him worst of all, that they had so bad an opinion of him as to think it possible to take him off from that foundation. The mere temptation was a buffeting to him, a thorn in his flesh, nay, a sword in his bones. Note, A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of help in God; you cannot vex him with any thing so much as if you offer to persuade him that there is no help for him in God. David comes to God, and tells him what his enemies said of him, as Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh's blasphemous letter before the Lord. "They say, There is no help for me in thee; but, Lord, if it be so, I am undone. They say to my soul, There is no salvation" (for so the word is) "for him in God; but, Lord, do thou say unto my soul, I am thy salvation (Psa 35:3) and that shall satisfy me, and in due time silence them." To this complaint he adds Selah, which occurs about seventy times in the book of Psalms. Some refer it to the music with which, in David's time, the psalms were sung; others to the sense, and that it is a note commanding a solemn pause. Selah - Mark that, or, "Stop there, and consider a little." As here, they say, There is no help for him in God, Selah. "Take time for such a thought as this. Get thee behind me, Satan. The Lord rebuke thee! Away with such a vile suggestion!"
II. With a profession of his dependence upon God, Psa 3:3. An active believer, the more he is beaten off from God, either by the rebukes of Providence or the reproaches of enemies, the faster hold he will take of him and the closer will he cleave to him; so David here, when his enemies said, There is no help for him in God, cries out with so much the more assurance, "But thou, O Lord! art a shield for me; let them say what they will, I am sure thou wilt never desert me, and I am resolved I will never distrust thee." See what God is to his people, what he will be, what they have found him, what David found in him. 1. Safety: "Thou art a shield for me, a shield about me" (so some), "to secure me on all sides, since my enemies surrounded me." Not only my shield (Gen 15:1), which denotes an interest in the divine protection, but a shield for me, which denotes the present benefit and advantage of that protection. 2. Honour: Thou art my glory. Those whom God owns for his are not safe and easy, but really look great, and have true honour put upon them, far above that which the great ones of the earth are proud of. David was now in disgrace; the crown had fallen from his head; but he will not think the worse of himself while he has God for his glory, Isa 60:19. "Thou art my glory; thy glory I reckon mine" (so some); "this is what I aim at, and am ambitious of, whatever my lot is, and whatever becomes of my honour - that I may be to my God for a name and a praise." 3. Joy and deliverance: "Thou art the lifter up of my head; thou wilt lift up my head out of my troubles, and restore me to my dignity again, in due time; or, at least, thou wilt lift up my head under my troubles, so that I shall not droop nor be discouraged, nor shall my spirits fail." If, in the worst of times, God's people can lift up their heads with joy, knowing that all shall work for good to them, they will own it is God that is the lifter up of their head, that gives them both cause to rejoice and hearts to rejoice.
In singing this, and praying it over, we should possess ourselves with an apprehension of the danger we are in from the multitude and malice of our spiritual enemies, who seek the ruin of our souls by driving us from our God, and we should concern ourselves in the distresses and dangers of the church of God, which is every where spoken again, every where fought against; but, in reference to both, we should encourage ourselves in our God, who owns and protects and will in due time crown his own interest both in the world and in the hearts of his people.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?.... David's…
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?.... David's enemies increased in the conspiracy against him, Sa2 15:12; the hearts of the men of Israel were after Absalom, and against him. Christ's enemies increased when Judas with a multitude came to take him; when the body of the common people cried out, Crucify him; when the assembly of the wicked enclosed him, and pierced his hands and his feet. And the enemies of God's people are many; the men of this world are against them; legions of devils oppose them; and they have swarms of sins in their own hearts; and all these give trouble. David's enemies troubled him; he wept as he went up the hill, to think that his own son should seek to destroy him; that his subjects, whom he had ruled so long with clemency, and had hazarded his person in war for their defence, and to protect them in their civil and religious rights, should rebel against him. Christ's enemies troubled him, when they bound and led him away as a malefactor; when they spit upon him, smote and buffeted him; when they scourged and crucified him, and mocked at him. The enemies of the saints are troublers of them; in the world, and from the men of it, they have tribulation; Satan's temptations give them much uneasiness and distress; and their indwelling sins cause them to cry out, "Oh wretched men that we are!" This address is made to the Lord, as the Lord God omniscient, who knew the case to be as it was, and who had a concern in it not being without his will, but according to it, he having foretold it, and as he who only could help out of it: and the psalmist delivers it in a complaining way, and in an expostulatory manner; reasoning the case why it should be so, what should be the reason of it, for what end and purpose it was; and as wondering at it, suggesting his own innocence, and how undeserving he was to be treated in such a way;
many are they that rise up against me; many in quantity, and great in quality, great in the law, in wisdom, in riches, and in stature, as Jarchi interprets it; such as Ahithophel and others, who rose up against David in an hostile manner, to dispossess him of his kingdom, and to destroy his life. And many were they that rose up against Christ; the multitude came against him as a thief, with clubs and staves: the men of this world rise up against the saints with their tongues, and sometimes with open force and violence; Satan, like a roaring lion, seeks to devour them, and their own fleshly lusts war against them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 David complains to God of his enemies, ver. 1,…
David complains to God of his enemies, ver. 1, 2. Comforts himself in God, and the experience of his goodness, ver. 3-6. Triumphs in the salvation of God, ver. 7, 8 A psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–8 David complains, in great distress, of the number of…
PSALM III
David complains, in great distress, of the number of his
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enemies, and the reproaches they cast on him, as one forsaken
of God, 1, 2;
is confident, notwithstanding, that God will be his protector,
3;
mentions his prayers and supplications, and how God heard him,
4, 5;
derides the impotent malice of has adversaries, and foretells
their destruction, 6, 7;
and ascribes salvation to God, 8.
NOTES ON PSALM III
This is said to be A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.] See the account, 2Sa 15:1, c. And David is supposed to have composed it when obliged to leave Jerusalem, passing by the mount of Olives, weeping, with his clothes rent, and with dust upon his head. This Psalm is suitable enough to these circumstances and they mutually cast light on each other. If the inscription be correct, this Psalm is a proof that the Psalms are not placed in any chronological order.
The word Psalm, מזמור mizmor, comes from זמר zamar, to cut, whether that means to cut into syllables, for the purpose of its being adapted to musical tones, or whether its being cut on wood, c., for the direction of the singers what we would call a Psalm in score. This last opinion, however, seems too technical.
Verse 1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?] We are told that the hearts of all Israel went after Absalom, 2Sa 15:13; and David is astonished to find such a sudden and general revolt. Not only the common people, but his counsellors also, and many of his chief captains. How publicly does God take vengeance for the sins which David committed so privately! In the horrible rebellion of Absalom we see the adultery of Bath-sheba, and the murder of Uriah. Now the words of Nathan begin to be fulfilled: "The sword shall not depart from thy house."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Psa 3:1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble…
Psa 3:1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? — He might well say so, for the party that sought his ruin was very numerous and very formidable. Absalom his son had stolen away the hearts of the generality of the people, and was at the head of them: Ahithophel, his counsellor, sought his ruin: Shimei, with others of his enemies, reproached him as utterly forsaken of God; while many of his friends, undoubtedly, trembled for his safety, and, had Ahithophel’s advice been followed, his ruin, morally speaking, would have been unavoidable. No wonder, then, that he was in great trouble, as he certainly was in great danger: but in the midst of it he takes the right method, and has recourse to God, his strong helper. As he went up the mount of Olives, with his head covered and barefoot, he wept and prayed, wept and believed, and God heard him from his holy habitation.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–8 A Psalm of David - literally, belonging to David;…
:Title
A Psalm of David - literally, belonging to David; that is, belonging to him as the author. This is marked in the Hebrew as the first verse, and so in the Syriac version, the Latin Vulgate, and the Septuagint, making in the Hebrew, and in each of these versions, nine verses in the psalm instead of eight, as in our translation. This may have been prefixed to the psalm by the author himself, for it was not uncommon in ancient times for an author to prefix his name to his own composition, as is commonly done by the apostle Paul in his epistles. It is not absolutely certain, however, that this was done in the Psalms by the authors themselves, but it may have been done by him who collected and arranged the Psalms, indicating the prevalent belief in regard to the authorship, and under the Spirit of inspiration.
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When he fled - On the occasion of his fleeing. That is, it was composed at that time, or was subsequently composed in remembrance of it. See Introduction, Section 2.
From Absalom his son - See the introduction, Section 2.
Lord, how are they increased - How are they multiplied; or, how numerous they are. Perhaps the idea is, that at first they seemed to be comparatively few in number, but had now so multiplied as to endanger his crown and life. This is an appropriate expression on the supposition that it refers to Absalom. At first the number of those who adhered to Absalom was not so great as to excite much alarm; but by the arts of a demagogue, by complaining of the government, by saying that if he were made a judge in tim land, every man would have justice done him 2Sa 15:4-5, he won the hearts of the people, and gathered so many under his standard as to make it necessary that the king should flee from Jerusalem to a place of safety.
That trouble me - literally, my enemies. The allusion is to those who were now enlisted under Absalom, and who were engaged in endeavoring to overthrow the government.
Many are they that rise up against me - That is, that have become my enemies.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 3
Psalms 3
A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son
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1 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me!
Many are they that rise up against me.
2 Many there be which say of my soul,
There is no help for him in God. Selah.
3 But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me;
My glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
4 I cried unto the Lord, with my voice,
And he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
5 I laid me down and slept;
I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people,
That have set themselves against me round about.
7 Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God;
For thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone;
Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:
Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.—The title Mizmôr and the use of Selah (vid. Introduction) indicate the use of this Psalm in the service of the temple. It is particularly suited by its tone and subject for a morning Psalm (Psa_3:5) in times of trouble, especially in the dangers of war.11 There is not the least occasion, in fact, or in the language, to deviate from the traditional view of the origin of this Psalm as it is expressed in the title. There are reflected in this Psalm the particular features of the story of the trouble of David in his flight from Absalom, especially 2Sa_15:13; 2Sa_16:7 sq.; 2Sa_17:1; 2Sa_17:11. [Delitzsch: “The derision of David as one forsaken by God, 2Sa_16:7; the danger by night, 2Sa_17:1, the myriads of people, 2Sa_15:13; 2Sa_17:11, and the high and honorable position of the Psalmist.”—C. A. B.] The expressions, especially of Psa_3:6, transcend the description of the troubles of a private man of piety. If this fact is recognized against Seb. Schmidt, Olsh., Hupf., the supposition of an unknown king (De Wette, Sachs) is an unjustifiable criticism of the traditional view; for nothing speaks against David, and many things for him. The transfer of its time of origin to the period of the supremacy of Saul, especially the troubles of David after the destruction of Ziklag by the Amalekites, 1Sa_30:6 (Hitzig) is incompatible with Psa_3:4 (vid. exegesis of the verse). It is true there is no apparent reference to Absalom, and many exegetes miss it; but they do not notice that we have here a lyrical effusion of a specific religious character, and this not here the expression of the experience of a sick and anxious father, as 2Sa_15:11, but the lamentation and the trust of a chieftain and sovereign, who is hard pressed, yet cheerful in prayer, and these experiences resound in such terse sentences and pithy words, that the reader hears the royal Psalmist sigh, cry, and weep from his inmost soul. [Ewald: “The grandeur, color, and language of David are unmistakable.”—C. A. B.]
At the same time, the rythmical arrangement of the four strophes (three according to Geier) is so artistic that it may properly be regarded as written down at a later time, and yet we have no reason to suppose that it was a later composition (Rosenm.), or that there was a long time between its conception and its production (Hengstenberg). Moreover, the origin of this Psalm of prayer does not, most naturally, fall upon the evening (Hengst.) of the first day of the flight, 2Sa_16:14, (Kimchi), on which David went bare-footed and weeping up the Mount of Olives, and experienced many bitternesses and mortifications, but in the morning hours, after the intervening night, in which Ahithophel would have fallen upon him, 2Sa_17:1, (J. H. Michaelis [Ewald]).
The Hollanders sang this Psalm according to their Psalm-book when they marched against the Belgians, Aug. 1st, 1831.
Str. I. Psa_3:1. [How.—Mâh, an expression of lamentation (De Wette), on account of the crowd of enemies (Hupf.)—Increased.—Barnes: “How are they multiplied; or how numerous they are. Perhaps the idea is, that at first they seemed to be comparatively few in number, but had now so multiplied as to endanger his crown and life.”—Hupfeld: “That trouble me—in general of enemies or opponents.—Rise up against me.—Properly not rebels, but adversaries in general, those who stand up against him to oppose him.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_3:2. [Hupfeld: “His need has become so great and threatening that many doubt his deliverance, and deny that he has any help to expect from God.”—C. A. B.]—My soul.—This circumlocution for the person is not without significance (most interpreters). It is used in Hebrew not only with reference to the life (Gesen. [Barnes]), but also with reference to the spirit, and will (Hupfeld), and it here expresses the fact that the words spoken partly about David, and partly to him, as well by open enemies (Hitzig), as by friends who have become perplexed, wound his inmost soul (Hengstenb.), and pass in judgment his inmost character, and his personal relation to God (Delitzsch).—Help.—According to the context, the reference is to deliverance from danger to his life, which it is pretended David has no longer to expect from Elohim. The speakers here are not Atheists, who mistake the Divine power (De Wette), but men, who regard the ruin of David as unavoidable, and wish to express the opinion that now even prayer will not help. Herein is expressed their view that God will not, or does not wish to help the afflicted one; and this turn of expression must have stung the soul of David with all the more bitterness, as his heinous sin with Bathsheba had already brought upon him a series of Divine chastisements. But we are not to infer from this, that the speakers would say that there is now no more salvation with God for David, or he has been thrust out from the Divine grace (Delitzsch). The termination athah [termination of the Hebrew word for help—C. A. B.] is neither intensive (Kimchi), nor demonstrative (Gesen.), nor euphonic (Aben Ezra and the most of the later interpreters), but the accusative of design (Hupfeld [Delitzsch]), which in the Hebrew is about to pass out of use, and is only preserved in fragments in certain feminines in –ָ.ה in the poets (derived from the view of direction towards an end).
Str. II. Psa_3:3. [Hengstenberg cites Luther as saying: “The Psalmist here contrasts with the previous clauses three others. He has spoken of many enemies, he opposes them with, the Lord is his shield. Then, as they have set themselves against him to disgrace him before the world, he opposes them with, the Lord sets him in honor. Finally he laments over those who slander and insult him, against whom he boasts that it is the Lord who lifts up his head.”—C. A. B.]
[Shield.—Vid.Gen_15:1, where God is Abraham’s shield, Deu_33:29, where he is Israel’s shield. It is also a favorite expression of David, Psa_7:10; Psa_18:2; Psa_28:7.—For me.—בַּעֲדִי. A better rendering is “around me,” “about me,” “round about me,” so almost all exegetes. Hitzig: “Jehovah stands behind him, and holds His shield before him (Zec_12:8; 2Sa_6:16).” Alexander: “Covering the whole body, not merely a part of it, as ordinary shields do.”—My glory.—Hengstenberg: “Because David’s glory, the exalted dignity with which he was clothed, had its source in the Lord.” Psa_62:7.—Lifter up of my head.—Hengst.: “Indicates that he is delivered from the state of depression in which he went about in sadness, without spirit, and with bowed head.” Delitzsch, upon this verse as a whole, says: “Hourly he has to fear that he will be fallen upon and ruined, but Jehovah is the shield which covers him. His kingdom has been taken away from him, but Jehovah is his glory. With covered head, bowed to the ground, he ascended the Mount of Olives, 2Sa_15:30; but Jehovah is the lifter up of his head whilst He comforts and helps him.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_3:4. My voice.—Most exegetes suppose that קולִי is the accusative of instrument, or according to Ewald more correctly accusative of closer definition, and indicates that the call was a loud one. Hitzig, on the other hand (Begriff der Kritik, p. 23), Böttcher (Collectanea, p. 116), and Hupfeld, suppose that there is here a poetical use of a double subject, and that the active member appears, first, as the nearer subject in the nominative, and then, the person himself appears again in the verb. It is disputed here whether the imperf. is to be taken in the historical sense as preterite (Hupf., Hitzig, Baur), or as an expression of continued action, Delitzsch, et al. If we separate the imperf. in the latter sense with De Wette from the poet’s real hour of affliction, and regard it as a description of the constant state of his soul, so that the perfects in ver 5 must, contrary to usage, be taken in like sense; then this explanation which reduces it, “to be accustomed,” is clearly wrong. But the strict historical explanation is likewise carried too far when Sachs translates the following imperf. conversive: “and he has answered.” Hitzig puts even Psa_3:6 in the past. But the poet expresses rather, what he has in Jehovah now and at all times, according to his faith and his experience (Psa_3:3), in connection with his prayer (Psa_3:4 a), and with the promise that he should be heard Psa_3:4 b); and then passes over to the description of what has happened to him through Jehovah’s help, since the last evening (Psa_3:5 a) until the present morning (Psa_3:5 b), and in what frame of mind he now is (Psa_3:6). It is out of this frame of mind corresponding with the dangers of his situation that the true cry of prayer then breaks forth.12—Holy hill. Hitzig would think of the hill of God (1Sa_10:5), or the Mount of Gibeon (1Ki_3:4, comp. 2Ch_1:3; 1Ch_21:29), if not of Sinai (1Ki_19:8), or Bashan (Psa_68:16). But there is no reference to a consecrated mountain on which at any time Jehovah appeared and spoke to men, or accepted their worship; but to the abiding-place of the revelation and authority of Jehovah among His people, whither the prayerful turn with the assurance of receiving an answer. This place was from the time of Moses above the ark of the covenant, and the ark had been brought by David from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 6; 1Ch_13:5, and in his flight from Absalom it was not taken with him, 2Sa_15:25. It can therefore only mean Mount Zion. The entire hypothesis of Hitzig is thus shattered. [Delitzsch: “He was now separated from the place of the Divine presence by hostile power. But his prayer presses through to the throne of the cherubim, and there is no wall of separation, either in space or the creature, to the answer given by Him who is there enthroned.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. III. Psa_3:5. I laid me down and slept.—A reference to the past night (Delitzsch). Barnes: “Notwithstanding these troubles and dangers, I had such confidence that God hears prayer, and such calm trust in His protection, that I laid me down gently and slept securely. The Psalmist mentions this as a remarkable proof of the Divine protection and favor.”—I awaked.—“Still safe and secure” (Barnes). Delitzsch: “It is because Jehovah has sustained him, the hand of God is his pillow, the gracious and omnipotent hand is under his head, he is inaccessible and without fear.”
Psa_3:6. Barnes: “This exaltation may be regarded in some measure as the result of the calm and refreshing slumber which he had enjoyed. The mind as well as the body had been refreshed and invigorated. With the bright light of a new morning he looked with more cheerfulness and hope on the things around him, and felt new strength to meet the dangers to which he was exposed.”—Ten thousands.—Myriads without any definite number being thought of, only a very great multitude. This is not a supposed case, for all Israel had gone over to Absalom (Delitzsch). Delitzsch: “Selah is lacking at the end of this strophe, because it is not spoken in a tone of triumph, but of humility, and as a quiet expression of confidence and faith.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IV. Psa_3:7. Arise.—The accentuation kumáh instead of kúmah (Rise up! arise! a cry to Jehovah, for the first time, Num_10:35) is best explained by Hupfeld as: with the design of special emphasis [Delitzsch: “God arises when He interferes to decide the events of this world.”] The cry for help is based upon the following clause with כִי; and the perfects are the so-called prophetical perfects, which indicate the action as one certainly to be expected (De Wette), but a real one (almost all recent interpreters). The objection of De Wette that then the prayer would be superfluous, because no more enemies were present, is not to be refuted on the ground that כל, kol, all, is not to be regarded as numerical (Hupf.), or refers to many particular events (Delitzsch). The word refers rather to the myriads which now surrounded the Psalmist in hostility. He fears them not, because in previous cases God has always brought the enemies of the poet (my enemies) to shame and ruin, whether many or few. [The perfects here are real perfects, with Ewald, Delitzsch, Hupf., Alexander, Barnes, et al., and the reference is to the foreign enemies, Philistines, A morites, etc., and his enemies of the house of Saul, whom the Lord had destroyed before him. This is the most natural and logical order of thought. The Psalmist, in the last strophe, strengthens himself with reference to the experience of the past night, and in this strophe by remembrance of the experiences of his past conflicts with his enemies. As the experience of the past night gives him confidence, the experience of the past deliverances stimulates him to renewed prayer as he recalls his present dangers.—C. A. B.] As God is represented under the figure of a warlike hero and hunter, so the enemies are represented under the figure of ravenous beasts, from whom all power of injuring the friend of God has been taken away by crushing their jaws, and the teeth fixed therein. God prepares for them a complete and shameful overthrow (Hengst. and Delitzsch). The double accusative of the object, Psa_3:7 b, should be noticed.
Psa_3:8. “In the lamed of possession and the generic article before ישׁוֹעהּ there is an exclusiveness of possession and the free power of disposal” (Delitz.).—[Thy blessing be upon.—This is not the statement of a fact (A. V.: Thy blessing is upon Thy people), but an intercessory prayer. David prays for his own deliverance, and then, that the salvation of the Lord may rest upon his people. Thus almost all recent commentators.—C. A. B.] The closing word which “casts a clear light into the depths of the noble soul” (Ewald) turns now from the personal to national affairs (De Wette). It refers not only to that part of the people which had remained faithful to David, as the only genuine people of Jehovah (Aben Ezra), but it implores blessings instead of curses, and has as its antitype the words “Father, forgive them” of the other David whom His people had crucified (Delitzsch). Böttcher, however, considers this verse as a later liturgical addition. Bugenhagen, aptly: “benedictio Dei est Dei beneficentia.”
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. If the first word in severe affliction is to call upon the name of the Lord, then lamentation is changed into prayer, and the soul no longer swims in a sea of trouble, it lays hold of God again, and begins to believe and to hope.
2. The conspiracy of the adversaries is worse than their number; and the arrows of scorn are sharper than the sword, in piercing the heart. But the heart is wounded much more deeply when the complaints and condemnations of opponents cannot be refuted by a pure conscience as merely hateful slanders and wicked abuse. Then to the external affliction there is added internal conflicts which beget suffering for the soul, and lead to spiritual struggles. George von Anhalt showed his brother John three remedies against such struggles: Faith in the forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection, and in an eternal life.
3. In spiritual conflicts human judgment does not decide. Only the afflicted must not allow themselves to be pressed away from God, or to be wearied and lamed by doubting the Divine mercy. For those who resign themselves to Him, God is always as the faithful God of the Covenant, a Shield protecting on all sides, as He was for Abraham, Gen_15:1, and for all Israel, Deu_33:29. It is God, who not only maintains the honor of His servants, restores them again when disgraced, and surrounds the abused king with the splendor of majesty, but He Himself is the essential idea of all honor, majesty, and glory; and the world cannot deprive the pious of Him even in the uttermost misery. Moreover, it is God who not only lifts up the head of the afflicted which is wearied, and has fallen upon the breast, and raises again the crown of fallen princes which has been thrown down; but does the same thing to the penitent sinner who has bowed his face to the dust, and with the down-trodden righteous man whose head lies upon the ground.
4. The assurance that prayer will be heard is a great comfort to the afflicted, especially if these have already had personal experience of it. Although separated from the place where God has previously given them the experience of His gracious presence, yes, although they are obliged to be deprived of the help of Divine service, and all the ordinary means of grace, the voice of prayer presses above all to God, and the answer of the Lord comes to those who sincerely supplicate Him.
5. Those who awake after a night full of danger, and give the Lord the glory with thankful recognition of the protection and assistance of the Almighty, whose hand has been under the head of the slumbering (Song Son_2:6), those are usually filled with fresh courage and faith. From the thankfulness of the morning psalm springs joyfulness for the work of the day; fearlessness, in spite of all the enemies which surround him, and heartfelt confidence in Divine help; and thence again prayer and supplication take a fresh start with an earnestness and a fervor which urges to the boldest importunity, yet without overstepping the bounds assigned to the creature.
6. Whoever has the true God for his God may be forsaken by all the world, and experience that human assistance is of no profit; but “if all kinds of misfortune, affliction, and tribulation, are heaped upon him, yet it is the Lord who then saves him; in His hand is help and blessing” (Luther); and whoever, on the basis of the revelation of the covenant is in communion with Him by faith, makes the experience in his heart through faith, that he is comforted by Divine promises, and has the experience in his life that to the previous help he has received from the hand of God, new deliverances are constantly added.
7. However it is not enough merely to have a God, to believe in Him and call upon Him; the question is: What God? For Jehovah, the God of the historical revelation, is the only God who possesses and distributes those things which afford help, deliverance, and salvation, in bodily and spiritual needs, for time and for eternity.
8. Those who are truly pious think not only of their own deliverance, and their personal salvation; if they earnestly care for this, they pray at the same time for Divine blessings upon the whole people, that Divine judgment may be turned away from the guilty, and for the salvation of all who return in repentance to God. Deus est satis idoneus patientiæ sequester. Si injuriam deposueris apud eum, ultor est; si damnum, restitutor est; si dolorem, medicus est; si mortem, resuscitator est (Tertull. de patient. 15).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
To truly flee for refuge is to flee to God, for that leads us, 1) from the tumult of the world into the peace of God; 2) from earthly oppression to everlasting salvation; 3) from the power of men to the hands of God.—He who can pray in time of need is in the way of salvation; for 1) he looks beyond the multitude and strength of his oppressors, to the power and favor of the Most High; 2) he hears not the scorn and threatenings of his enemies, but the comforting voice and answer of his God; 3) he experiences, amid all the afflictions and anxieties of his heart, the comfort of communion with Him, who is the sole help in time of need, and the true deliverer of the faithful.—The sword of the enemy threatens his body, the scorn of the ungodly aims at his soul, but God is a shield and protection against both.—He who prays in faith, casts all his care on the Lord, therefore he goes to sleep trusting in Divine protection; even after a day full of calamity he is calm, and awakes to the battle of life full of fresh boldness of faith, with renewed prayer for the help of the Lord.—Let him, who would not be ruined in time of danger, take refuge with the Lord, for then: 1) He does not complain, but prays; 2) he does not doubt, but trusts in the living God; 3) he does not tremble, but gains hope and courage. Personal experiences of grace bring an enduring blessing; for: 1) They protect against the scorn of unbelievers in times of calamity; 2) they strengthen the assurance that our prayers will be heard in time of strong opposition; 3) they lead to a lively resignation to God in days when all human greatness, skill, and power, seem to be nothing.—Against the enemy of our country we fight not only with the sword, but with those spiritual weapons: 1) prayer; 2) trust in God; 3) humiliation under the strong hand of God; 4) çxaltation in the name and power of the Lord.—The necessity of the times is no sign that we are forsaken by God, but, 1) reminds us of our weakness; 2) refers us to the works of the Lord; 3) encourages us to pray; 4) warns us against devotion to the world; 5) exhorts us to seek the blessing of the Lord.—He who gives the glory to God, makes the best provision for his own elevation: 1) From a previous fall; 2) from present need; 3) from impending death.—A king can present to his people nothing more noble than a lively piety; nothing more precious than salvation by Jehovah; can ask nothing better than the blessing of the Lord.—We may have many enemies, but our help comes from one only true God, who is the best friend to those who trust in Him.—The blessing of God belongs to the people of God.
Starke: David had fled from God his true Father, now he must flee from a rebellious son. This is the retribution of God; like with like.—Even blood relationship is destroyed by sin and Satan.—Unhappy children, who drive away their parents; blessed parents, who are driven to God by the wickedness of their children.—Pray to God, who is able to convert even lost sons.—If the Lord show thee the multitude of thine enemies, He will likewise show thee the riches of His help.—We must not heed the talk of the enemy, but hold fast to the word of our God—The world judges perversely; the pious are always accused of being ungodly, whilst on the contrary the irreligious would be considered nearest God.—God often lets His children appear to be forsaken in their own eyes, and the eyes of others, that their faith may be tried, their belief in the Word of promise purified, and their childlike hope crowned.—Faith and prayer go together. For faith is experienced by prayer and prayer receives from faith its true form and validity.—Our strength is derived from both.—If the danger and the necessity are great, the inward strengthening of God is regulated accordingly.—Whoever desires God to grant his prayers for assistance, must be able to call the Lord his God, not only because He is Creator and Redeemer, but also because He sanctifies those who accept Him.—With the pious the cross has ever a sorrowful beginning but a joyful ending.
Luther: There is no trouble, however severe it may be, that is to be compared with that against which Jeremiah (17:17) prays with trembling, when God contends with man.
Osiander: When God’s promises are received with faith, they give to a godly man a peaceful heart, because he trusts himself to God, his true Father.—Strigel: We must above all notice the gradation of thought: When attacked he prays, when he prays he is saved, when saved he gives thanks.—Selnekker: Whoever will serve God must suffer persecution, and must have the whole world, yes, his own flesh and blood, for enemies; but whoever trusts God belongs to Him, and shall remain His, though the whole world persecute him.—Arndt: It is the essential character of faith: 1) That it lays the care and burden of the heart upon God, 2) that it expels fear and terror; 3) that it trusts God against all enemies.—Frisch: When faith brings peace into the heart the body is likewise benefited.—Herberger: Distress teaches to pray, and prayer drives all trouble away.—The heart as well as the head belongs on high.—Rieger: Although relief is delayed, still the blessing of the Lord is with His people.
[Matt. Henry: True Christian fortitude consists more in a gracious security and serenity of mind, in patient bearing and patient waiting, than in daring enterprises with sword in hand.—A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of help in God; you cannot vex him with anything so much as if you offer to persuade him “there is no help for him in God.”—A cheerful resignation to God is the way to obtain a cheerful satisfaction and confidence in God.—Promises of salvation do not supersede, but engage our petitions for it,—Barnes: That we are “awaked” in the morning, after a night’s refreshing slumber; that we are raised up again to the enjoyments of life; that we are permitted again to greet our friends, and to unite with them in the privileges of devotion, should always be regarded as a new proof of the goodness of God, and should lead to acts of praise.—Who has not experienced the influence of the slumbers of a night, and of the light of the morning, in giving new vigor, and inspiring new hopes, as if the returning day was an emblem of brighter scenes in life, and the passing away of the shades of night a token that all trouble and sorrow would flee away?—Spurgeon: May we ever wait with holy confidence in our hearts, and a song upon our lips.—Search Scripture through and you must, if you read it with a candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is the great doctrine of the Word of God.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[11][Delitzsch: “The first two Psalms, which are prologues, are succeeded by a morning Psalm, Psalms 3, and an evening Psalm, Psalms 4, as we would naturally expect such Psalms to come first in a Psalm book.”—C. A. B.]
[12][Barnes: “He gave utterance to the deep anguish of his soul in words. So did the Saviour in Gethsemane (Mat_26:39).”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–8 say of my soul--that is, "of me" (compare Psa…
say of my soul--that is, "of me" (compare Psa 25:3). This use of "soul" is common; perhaps it arose from regarding the soul as man's chief part.
no help . . . in God--rejected by Him. This is the bitterest reproach for a pious man, and denotes a spirit of malignant triumph.
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Selah--This word is of very obscure meaning. It probably denotes rest or pause, both as to the music and singing, intimating something emphatic in the sentiment (compare Psa 9:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1. How are they increased?—The vast and constantly swelling…
1. How are they increased?—The vast and constantly swelling number of the revolters threw the country into the greatest alarm. David three times mentions it—in Psa_3:1-2; Psa_3:6—and calls them myriads, a Hebraism for a vast but unknown number. See 2Sa_15:13
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1. they … that trouble me] R.V. mine adversaries:…
1. they … that trouble me] R.V. mine adversaries: lit. they that distress me. Cp. Psa_4:1.
increased … many] “The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom” (2Sa_15:12-13; cp. 2Sa_16:15).
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many are they that rise up against me] lit. many are rising up against me. The rebellion is in full progress and gathering strength. The phrase is used of enemies in general, but is specially appropriate to insurgents against the established government. Cp. 2Sa_18:31-32.
1, 2. David lays his need before Jehovah. He is threatened by a rebellion which hourly gathers fresh adherents. His cause is pronounced utterly desperate.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 (1) How . . . many.—“And Absalom and all…
(1) How . . . many.—“And Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem” (2Sa_16:15). Ahithophel counsels Absalom to take 12,000 men, and go in instant pursuit of the fugitive. Hushar’s advice shows, of course, the exaggeration of flattery: “Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Bcersheba, as the sand which is by the sea for multitude.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–8 This psalm is entitled, "a Psalm of David when…
This psalm is entitled, "a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son;" literally, "in his flight from Absalom his son." The historical correctness of the title has been questioned (Hitzig, De Wette), but without any sufficient reason. The Davidical composition is almost universally allowed. If it be asked at what time during the flight the psalm may be supposed to have been written, the best answer would seem to be that of Paulus, "on the eve of the battle which is described in 2Sa_18:1-8.
The composition is made up of three parts a strophe, an antistrophe, and an epode, each terminated by the word selah. Some critics, however, make out four parts, by dividing the epode. But the absence of the word selah at the close of ver. 7 is against this.
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Lord, how are they increased that trouble me: rather, Lord. how numerous are they that trouble me! We arc told, in the Book of Samuel, that "the conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom, (2Sa_15:12) and again, "Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him". (2Sa_16:15) Ahithophel proposed to attack David with twelve thousand men only, (2Sa_17:1) but the actual number which went against him must have been far larger, for some twenty thousand men, chiefly, no doubt, Absalom"s partisans, fell in the battle. (2Sa_18:7) Many are they that rise up against me; i.e. "that rebel against me, and rise up in arras to make war upon me". (comp. Psa_18:48 Psa_44:5 Psa_59:1, etc.)
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-8. A morning song in perilous times.
In this case, as in others, the words which in our version form the title of the psalm are in the Hebrew its first verse. And they enable us, with less than the usual uncertainty, to fix on the historic occasion on which it was written. This is one of those psalms which come under those in the first division of the introductory homily. It is a historical psalm, and as such it must be studied and estimated, As an illustration of the way in which excellent men have turned aside from the obvious intent of a psalm to put fancied dogmatic meanings of their own into it, Luther"s interpretation of this psalm is a choice specimen. By such a process, men not only proceed on insecure bases, but they lose very much of the instruction which the historical psalms are calculated to afford. The evangelical truth which they think they find here is abundantly taught elsewhere; hence nothing is gained; while very much is lost by their failing to note the fine shades of personal experience, emotion, and character with which these psalms are marked. We have here one of the many priceless specimens of an Old Testament saint"s experience struggle, prayer, victory, song. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." And it has brought comfort to many a struggling soul in the hard conflicts of life, to find how believers in bygone times have gone through trials even sharper than their own. We note in this psalm five stages of personal experience.
I PERIL. (Vers. 1, 2) (In order to introduce this psalm vividly to the people, a preacher should study closely the historic, incidents to which it refers.) The writer was
(1) compassed with foes;
(2) surrounded with plots and snares;
(3) scoffed at for his piety.
"There is no help for him in God. " These who were plotting against him thought they had laid their plans securely, and that none could upset them. So it was with Daniel and with St. Peter. Note: If the people of God have to struggle hard with opposers and revilers, let them remember that they have had and shall have "companions in tribulation;" and that the experience of the saints of old, and of the course they adopted, is here recorded as a help for them.
II PRAYER. (Ver. 4) "I cried unto the Lord with my voice." The name of God. used by the psalmist is the revealed name of Israel"s redeeming God, Jehovah. Of the vast meaning of this name the scoffing heathen knew nothing. And now, when the world scornfully asks, "Where is their God?" they do so in entire ignorance of the blessed throne of grace to which the believer can repair. "With my voice while their voice defies God, my voice shall address God. The blessed reality of inter-communion with the infinite and eternal God, through his own appointed way of sacrifice and mediation, is one of which the carnal mind knows absolutely nothing. None laugh at prayer who understand what it is. Those who know God know well that he is a Refuge and a Hiding-place in any time of trouble.
III RESCUE. In God he has a Deliverer. In three forms is this expressed, each one full of suggestiveness.
1. A Shield. The word means more than this, even a protection which compasses one around.
2. My Glory. The believer can make his boast in God, even when men are scoffing at the great Name.
3. The Lifter-up of my head. One who enables me to rise superior to my troubles, and to smile upon them. All these expressions show not only what God was to David, but what he is to the saints still. Note: Whether we sink in trouble or rise above it will depend on our faith and prayer. We may fetch such help from God as will enable us to "smile at the storm.
IV FEARLESSNESS.
1. In spite of all his foes, he could lie down and sleep. How many a wakeful night would have become one of sweet repose if the troubled ones did but thus hide in God! As the little child sleeps away his griefs on his mother"s breast, so we can have sweetest repose when we make God our Hiding-place. The prophecy is, "A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind," etc.
2. As he sleeps in holy calm, so he awakes in holy courage. (Ver. 6) "I will not be afraid," etc. (cf. Ps 26 Ps 46) The courage of David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, etc., may well be repeated in us. "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
3. The answers to prayer already received strengthen his confidence for the future. (Vers. 4, 7) "He heard me," etc.; "Thou hast smitten all mine enemies," etc.; and because this has been so, his faith in future deliverances is confirmed.
V TESTIMONY. The psalmist had prayed to Jehovah; he now testifies for him, as the result of his experience.
1. Experience furnishes the best answer to the scorner. In ver. 2 David quotes the words of the heathen, "There is no help for him in God;" but he knows better. He has tried what prayer will do. He has asked for help, and help has come. So that in direct opposition to wicked men, and as the result of positive knowledge, he can affirm, "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, i.e. (same Hebrew word as in ver. 2) "help" or deliverance. This, of course, would be true of salvation from sin, etc.; but that is not its reference here. It means deliverance or help in any time of trouble.
2. Experience warrants a confident statement of the truth. "Thy blessing is upon thy people." How rich this blessing (or favour) of God is cannot be told in words. Not even the Old Testament saints knew its fulness of wealth and glory. Not till such teachings as Rom_8:31-39 were known to believers was it possible that they should. Of this blessing it was then true, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love him." And in Revelation 7 the double form of that blessing is given (see the present writer"s homily thereon), viz. safe keeping now, while in the tribulation; and safe leadership out of the great tribulation, to the glory yet to be revealed! C.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-8. David"s dependence on God.
This psalm written by David at the time of Absalom"s revolt, reminds one of the poet"s lines"Most wretehed men Are cradled into poetry by wrong; They learn in suffering what they teach in song.
I A COURSE OF AGGRAVATED TROUBLE AND DANGER.
1. Caused by a tenderly beloved son. And yet David never mentions him; a sign how deeply he was wounded. The silence tells more than speech would do.
2. Not only his throne, but his life, was in danger. See the account of David"s flight in 2Sa_15:3. His enemies charge him with being abandoned of God. As well as deserted by the people. His late sin with Bathsheba would make the charge plausible, and tend to shake his faith in God.
II DAVID"S RESOLUTE FAITH IN GOD.
1. Inspired by his past experience. (Vers. 3, 4) God had been his Defence, Inspiration, and Help in times past, in answer to his constant cries. "Shield". (Gen_15:1) "Lifter up of my head." The head hangs down in trouble. "Holy hill:" Zion, where was the ark of the covenant.
2. Inspiring a present sense of peace and security. (Vers. 5, 6) The Divine arm was his pillow, and he slept; the Divine hand raised him up, and he woke with such a sense of security that he was not afraid of the thousands that were encamped against him.
III A PASSIONATE CRY FOR HELP AND VICTORY IN HIS PRESENT STRAITS. Urged again by an appeal to the past. "Thou that didst save me from the teeth of the lion and the bear, and didst destroy mine enemies on every side, rise up now for me against them that rise up against me." "Help me, O God!" This is his courageous answer to the mocking exultation of his enemies when they say, "There is no help for him in God. He replies, "To Jehovah belongeth help, or the victory; help, not in this strait only, but help for the needy in all times and in all places.
IV A NOBLE PRAYER FOE HIS MISGUIDED, REBELLIOUS SUBJECTS. He thought of the horrors of a civil war, and he forgot himself in his anxiety for the welfare of his people. This is royal and generous when we in our utmost danger can cherish a deep concern for the safety of others. David reminds us of St. Stephen, who, with the spirit as well as the face of an angel, cried, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;" and preeminently of him who said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–8 "A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom…
"A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his Son." You will remember the sad story of David's flight from his own palace, when in the dead of the night, he forded the brook Kedron, and went with a few faithful followers to hide himself for awhile from the fury of his rebellious son. Remember that David in this was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He, too, fled; he, too, passed over the brook Kedron when his own people were in rebellion against him, and with a feeble band of followers he went to the garden of Gethsemane. He, too, drank of the brook by the way, and therefore doth he lift up the head. By very many expositors this is entitled THE MORNING HYMN. May we ever wake with holy confidence in our hearts, and a song upon our lips!
This Psalm may be divided into four parts of two verses each. Indeed, many of the Psalms cannot be well understood unless we attentively regard the parts into which they should be divided. They are not continuous descriptions of one scene, but a set of pictures of many kindred subjects. As in our modern sermons, we divide our discourse into different heads, so is it in these Psalms. There is always unity, but it is the unity of a bundle of arrows, and not of a single solitary shaft. Let us now look at the Psalm before us. In the first two verses you have David making a complaint to God concerning his enemies; he then declares his confidence in the Lord (3, 4), sings of his safety in sleep (5, 6), and strengthens himself for future conflict (7, 8).
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Verse 1. The poor broken-hearted father complains of the multitude of his enemies: and if you turn to 2 Samuel 15:12, you will find it written that "the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom," while the troops of David constantly diminished! "Lord how are they increased that trouble me!" Here is a note of exclamation to express the wonder of woe which amazed and perplexed the fugitive father. Alas! I see no limit to my misery, for my troubles are enlarged! There was enough at first to sink me very low; but lo! my enemies multiply. When Absalom, my darling, is in rebellion against me, it is enough to break my heart; but lo! Ahithophel hath forsaken me, my faithful counsellors have turned their backs on me; lo! my generals and soldiers have deserted my standard. "How are they increased that trouble me!" Troubles always come in flocks. Sorrow hath a numerous family.
"Many are they that rise up against me." Their hosts are far superior to mine! Their numbers are too great for my reckoning! Let us here recall to our memory the innumerable host which beset our Divine Redeemer. The legions of our sins, the armies of fiends, the crowd of bodily pains, the host of spiritual sorrows, and all the allies of death and hell, set themselves in battle against the Son of Man. O how precious to know and believe that he has routed their hosts, and trodden them down in his anger! They who would have troubled us he has removed into captivity, and those who would have risen up against us he has laid low. The dragon lost his sting when he dashed it into the soul of Jesus.
Title. With regard to the authority of the TITLES, it becomes us to speak with diffidence, considering the very opposite opinions which have been offered upon this subject by scholars of equal excellence. In the present day, it is too much the custom to slight or omit them altogether, as though added, nobody knows when or by whom, and as, in many instances, inconsistent with the subject-matter of the Psalm itself: while Augustine, Theodoret, and various other early writers of the Christian church, regard them as a part of the inspired text; and the Jews still continue to make them a part of their chant, and their rabbins to comment upon them.
It is certainly unknown who invented or placed them where they are; but it is unquestionable that they have been so placed from time immemorial; they occur in the Septuagint, which contains also in a few instances titles to Psalms that are without any in the Hebrew; and they have been copied after the Septuagint by Jerome. So far as the present writer has been able to penetrate the obscurity that occasionally hangs over them, they are a direct and most valuable key to the general history or subject of the Psalms to which they are prefixed; and, excepting where they have been evidently misunderstood or misinterpreted, he has never met with a single instance in which the drift of the title and its respective Psalm do not exactly coincide. Many of them were, doubtless, composed by Ezra at the time of editing his own collection, at which period some critics suppose the whole to have been written; but the rest appear rather to be coeval, or nearly so, with the respective Psalms themselves, and to have been written about the period of their production.
John Mason Good, M.D., F.R.S., 1854.
See title. Here we have the first use of the word Psalm. In Hebrew, Mizmor, which hath the signification of pruning, or cutting off superfluous twigs, and is applied to songs made of short sentences, where many superfluous words are put away. Henry Ainsworth.
Upon this note an old writer remarks, "Let us learn from this, that in times of sore trouble men will not fetch a compass and use fine words in prayer, but will offer a prayer which is pruned of all luxuriance of wordy speeches."
Whole Psalm. Thus you may plainly see how God hath wrought in his church in old time, and therefore should not discourage yourselves for any sudden change; but with David, acknowledge your sins to God, declare unto him how many there be that vex you and rise up against you, naming you Huguenots, Lutherans, Heretics, Puritans, and the children of Belial, as they named David. Let the wicked idolaters brag that they will prevail against you and overcome you, and that God hath given you over, and will be no more your God. Let them put their trust in Absalom, with his large golden locks; and in the wisdom of Ahithophel, the wise counsellor; yet say you, with David, "Thou, O Lord, art my defender, and the lifter up of my head." Persuade yourselves, with David, that the Lord is your defender, who hath compassed you round about, and is, as it were, a "shield" that doth cover you on every side. It is he only that may and will compass you about with glory and honour. It is he that will thrust down those proud hypocrites from their seat, and exalt the lowly and meek. It is he which will "smite" your "enemies on the cheek bone," and burst all their teeth in sunder. He will hang up Absalom by his own long hairs; and Ahithophel through desperation shall hang himself. The bands shall be broken, and you delivered; for this belongeth unto the Lord, to save his from their enemies, and to bless his people, that they may safely proceed in their pilgrimage to heaven without fear.
Thomas Tymme's "Silver Watch Bell", 1634.
Verse 1.
Verse 1. Absalom's faction, like a snowball, strangely gathered in its motion. David speaks of it as one amazed; and well he might, that a people he had so many ways obliged, should almost generally revolt from him, and rebel against him, and choose for their head such a silly, giddy young fellow as Absalom was. How slippery and deceitful are the many! And how little fidelity and constancy is to be found among men! David had had the hearts of his subjects as much as ever any king had, and yet now of a sudden he had lost them! As people must not trust too much to princes (Psalm 146:3), so princes must not build too much upon their interest in the people. Christ the Son of David had many enemies, when a great multitude came to seize him, when the crowd cried, "Crucify him, crucify him," how were they then increased that troubled him! Even good people must not think it strange if the stream be against them, and the powers that threaten them grow more and more formidable. Matthew Henry.
Verse 1. The saint telling his griefs to his God.
(1) His right to do so.
(2) The proper manner of telling them.
(3) The fair results of such holy communications with the Lord.
When may we expect increased troubles? Why are they sent? What is our wisdom in reference to them?
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 Lord, how are they increased that trouble me.
Psa_3:1-8
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me.
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Morning thoughts
With returning day there comes back on the monarchs heart the recollection of the enemies who threaten him, a nation up in arms against him; his own son heading the rebellion, his wisest and most trusted counsellor in the ranks of his foes (2Sa_15:1-37; 2Sa_16:1-23; 2Sa_17:1-29). Never, not even when hunted by Saul, had he found his position one of greater danger. The odds are overwhelmingly against him. This is a fact which he does not attempt to hide from himself: How many are mine enemies. Meanwhile, where are his friends, his army, his counsellors? Not a word of allusion to any of them in the Psalm. Yet he is not crushed, he is not desponding. Enemies may be as thick as leaves of the forest, and earthly friends may be few, or uncertain, or far off. But there is one Friend who cannot fail him, and to Him David turns with a confidence and an affection which lilt him above all his fears. Never had he been more sensible of the reality and preciousness of the Divine protection. If he was surrounded by enemies, Jehovah was his shield. If Shimei and his crew turned his glory into shame, Jehovah was his glory; if they sought to revile and degrade him, Jehovah was the lifter up of his head. Nor did the mere fact of distance from Jerusalem separate between him and his God. He had sent back the ark and the priests, for he knew that God could still hear him from His holy mountain (Psa_3:4), could still lilt up the light of His countenance upon him, and put gladness in his heart (Psa_4:6-7). Sustained by Jehovah, he had lain him down and slept in safety; trusting in the same mighty protection, he would lie down again to rest. Enemies might taunt, and friends might fail him, but the victory was Jehovahs, and He could break the teeth of the ungodly (3:7, 8). (J. J. S. Perowne.)
A morning hymn
The Psalm falls into four strophes; three of which are marked by Selah.
1. Verses 1, 2: The Psalmist recounts his enemies. As a morning Psalm this is touchingly true to experience. The first waking thought is often a renewed inrush of the trouble which sleep had for a time dammed back. His enemies are many, and they taunt him as forsaken of God. The Psalmist is finding refuge from fears and foes, even in telling how many there are, since he begins his complaint with Jehovah. Without that word the exclamations of his first strophe are the voice of cowardice or despair. With it they are calmed into the appeal of trust. The Selah here is probably a direction for an instrumental interlude while the singer pauses.
2. Verses 3, 4: The utterance of faith, based on experience, laying hold of Jehovah as defence. By an effort of will the Psalmist rises from the contemplation of surrounding enemies to that of the encircling Jehovah. This harassed man flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. He sees in Him precisely what he needs at the moment, for in that infinite nature is fulness corresponding to all emptiness of ours. How comes this sudden burst of confidence to lighten the complaining soul? Verse 4 tells. Experience has taught him that as often as he cries to Jehovah he is heard. The tenses in Psa_3:4 express a habitual act and a constant result.
3. Verses 5, 6 beautifully express the tranquil courage that comes from trust. Surrounded by enemies, he was quite safe under Gods protection, and exposed to no peril even in the night. This suits the situation pointed to in the superscription of the Psalm.
4. Verses 7, 8 give the culmination of faith in prayer. Arise, Jehovah is quoted from the ancient invocation (Num_10:35), and expresses in strongly anthropomorphic form the desire for some interposition of Divine power. Fearlessness is not so complete that the Psalmist is beyond the need of praying. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The number of a mans foes
When a mans enemies increase fit number the man should bethink himself, for surely they will not increase without reason. This is a matter which cannot be decided without careful consideration. It is no argument against a man that his enemies are millions strong, nor is it any argument in favour of a man that his friends are at least equal in number. At the same time, it may be spiritually educative and useful to consider why there are so many enemies. Enmity may be founded on jealousy, or envy, or opposition of conviction; or upon assurance that the individual against whom the enmity is directed is pursuing a mischievous course. It is for the man himself to retire within the sanctuary of his own conscience, to discover his moral purpose in everything, and, according as his integrity can be proved to stand fast even in solitude and desolation. But there is a self-analysis that is irreligious. It is conducted upon wrong principles, and the conductor of it is resolved upon self-vindication, rather than upon an absolute discovery of truth, be it on which side it may. It should be remembered, too, that there are some questions which cannot be decided in solitude, the help of social influence is necessary to modify the judgment and chasten the feeling of the inquirer. A second thought arising in this connection is that the very fact of the enemies being all but countless in number may be a tribute to a mans greatness. Armies are not sent to cut down mushrooms or bulrushes. The very magnitude of the host encamped against a man may say without words how great the man is and mighty, and how worthy of being attacked. To leave some men alone is to withhold from them every moral and intellectual tribute. The numbers of a mans enemies may be a tribute to the very greatness which they desire to modify or overthrow. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
A souls complaint to God
I. An enumeration of trouble (1, 2). Though God knows all, it relieves the surcharged heart to tell all unto Him. The foes were many. They quoted his sin as a reason for supposing that God had forsaken him (2Sa_16:7-8). The word help is salvation, which belongs only unto God.
II. An expression of unfaltering trust (3, 4). God our shield (Gen_15:1). It is a good thing to use the voice in prayer as our Lord did. Words keep the heart awake (Heb_5:7).
III. An acknowledgment of mercy (5, 6). It was the perfection of trust to be able to sleep under such circumstances. But it is possible (Mar_4:38; Act_12:6). If we are where we should be God will save us, if not from, then in our troubles.
IV. An urgent entreaty. He counts his foes as wild beasts, harmless because their jaws are broken and their teeth dashed out. They may prowl around, but they cannot hurt. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The great trials of life
I. A good man under great trial.
1. It involved great dangers: the danger of losing his palace, throne, reputation, life.
2. It came from an unlikely source. From his own and favourite son.
3. It was morally deserved. He had committed heinous crimes. His guilty conscience added much to the weight of the trial which now befell him.
II. An all-sufficient friend under great trial. Here Jehovah is presented as--
1. A protecting;
2. A glorifying;
3. A restoring;
4. A prayer hearing;
5. A life-sustaining friend.
III. A right moral temper under great trial. Two characteristics in Davids temper at this time--
(1) courage;
(2) prayerfulness.
Davids whole soul seems to have gone out in this prayer, and in truth all true prayer is earnest. As a painted fire, says a brilliant old writer, is no fire, a dead man no man, so cold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead man there is no life; so in a cold prayer there is no omnipotency, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven. As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without fervency of spirit. (Homilist.)
The via dolorosa
The title is, A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son (2Sa_15:1-37; 2Sa_16:1-23; 2Sa_17:1-29; 2Sa_18:1-33).
I. None are exempt from trouble. The man who sorrows is a king, even David. All meet together in sorrow, for it is the lot of all.
II. Troubles often come in troops. How are they increased that trouble me. So was it here with David, and so was it with Job. All sorrows are akin, and hence they come in crowds.
III. Our trouble may be our sin finding us out. It was so with David here. The backslider ill heart shall be filled with his own ways.
IV. Trouble is apt to stagger our faith in God. The enemy took advantage of Davids troubles, and said to him, God hath forsaken thee, and left thee. Men in trouble are prone to run into one of two extremes--despair or indifference. We are not to steel our hearts against chastening, for God means that we should feel it; nor, on the other hand, are we to faint. Doubt Gods very existence sooner than His mercy. Plato defines suicide to be a desertion of our post. We are to be like that Roman soldier who stood to his post in the sentry box at Pompeii, when the scoriae of Mount Vesuvius buried it with the city.
V. The power of sustaining grace under affliction is here seen. I laid me down and slept. There are myriads today who are able to testify of the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. David in flight finds God his Shield and high Tower, though he has but six hundred men. Ahithophel at court, backed by an army of twelve thousand troops, is in despair, and hangs himself. God keep us from unsanctified affliction. (E. S. Prout.)
The harassed man
1. One element of the harassment is multitudinousness of trouble. A characteristic feature of the trouble time with Absalom.
2. Another element is unkind and taunting speech. The cruel scoff--no help for him in God--cuts like a knife to the very centre of his personality.
3. Another element is a kind of internal despair. It sounds in the first sentences of the Psalm. What are the resources of the harassed man? Turning Godward. He flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. The thought of God as possessing precisely what he, amid his harassments, needs. God is the three things he needs--shield, or defence; my glory; and the lifter up of my head, for God can both cheer the harassed mans spirit, and restore to him the consciousness of his own real dignity, notwithstanding his trials. I came upon the most beautiful illustration of all this the other day. One of those spiritual Christians, a Stundist as they call them in Russia, was standing amidst a lot of Russian criminals in the courtyard of a Russian prison, chained with them, and sentenced with them to Siberia for his faiths sake. His fellow prisoners were jeering at him. But youre no better off than we are. You are wearing the bracelets, as we do; if your God is of any use to you, why doesnt He knock off your chains and set you free? The man replied reverently: If the Lord will, He can set me free Wen now; and though my hands are chained, my heart is free. He was freed. But though he had been obliged to trudge the weary way to Siberia, for his free heart God would still have been shield, glory, the lifter up of the head. Calmness and courage can come to the harassed man. There is this possible mood for the harassed man--confident expectation. Salvation belongeth unto God; Thy blessing is upon Thy people. (Homiletic Review.)
Many are they that rise up against me.
The Psalmists complaint
The superscription of the Psalm indicates the occasion of its composition (2Sa_15:1-37).
I. The magnitude of his complaint. It proceeds from a heart at once oppressed by the grievousness of its sorrows, and terrified at the number of its enemies. The severity of the trial is evident from its progressive character. He has adversaries who even blaspheme God, and insultingly say of His servant, There is no help for him in God. The best men have many faults, and sin often appears sweet to them. So God suffers them to taste the unpalatable fruit of transgression; but He even extracts sweetness from its very bitterness, educing from chastisement amendment of life, and help heavenward. Good men flee to their heavenly Father in the day of trouble, and this fact shows that the very nature of punishment is transformed.
II. The nature of his trial. The Psalmist sighs over the extreme severity of his trials. But God never lays more upon His own children than they are able to bear. The sense of gracious support in the hour of trial is an evidence that God is assuaging grief and providing a way of escape from it. When the wicked are punished there is no such alleviation, nor any access to God.
III. The source of his complaint. It does not proceed from mere human nature. The complaint originates with the Spirit of God, and with that spirit of adoption which He sheds abroad in the heart. The son, conscious of his fathers affection, expostulates in the midst of his chastisement. He even feels that God suffers with him, and is deeply affected by the trials which He Himself sends. We shall do well to imitate Davids complaint in our time of trouble, ever seeking profoundly to realise Gods love in Christ Jesus. (Robert Rollocks.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 3
Psalms 3
ANOTHER pair of psalms follows the two of the Introduction. They are closely connected linguistically, structurally, and in subject. The one is a morning, the other an evening hymn, and possibly they are placed at the beginning of the earliest psalter for that reason. Ewald and Hitzig accept the Davidic authorship, though the latter shifts the period in Davids life at which they were composed to the mutiny of his men at Ziklag. {1 Samuel 30} Cheyne thinks that "you will find no situation which corresponds to these psalms," though you "search the story of Davids life from end to end." He takes the whole of the Psalms from 3 to 17, excepting 8, 15, 16, as a group, "the heart utterances of the Church amidst some bitter persecution"-namely, "the period when faithful Israelites were so sorely oppressed both by traitors in their midst and by Persian tyrants" ("Orig. of Psalt.," pp. 226, 227). But correspondences of the two psalms with Davids situation will strike many readers as being at least as close as that which is sought to be established with the "spiritual kernel of the nation during the Persian domination," and the absence of more specific reference is surely not unnatural in devout song, however strange it would be in prosaic narrative. We do not look for mention of the actual facts which wring the poets soul and were peculiar to him, but are content with his expression of his religious emotions, which are common to all devout souls. Who expects Cowper to describe his aberrations of intellect in the "Olney Hymns"? But who cannot trace the connection of his pathetic strains with his sad lot? If ever a seeming reference to facts is pointed out in a so called Davidic psalm, it is brushed aside as "prosaic," but the absence of such is, notwithstanding, urged as an argument against the authorship. Surely that is inconsistent.
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This psalm falls into four strophes, three of which are marked by Selah. In the first (Psa_3:1-2) the psalmist recounts his enemies. If we regard this as a morning psalm, it is touchingly true to experience that the first waking thought should be the renewed inrush of the trouble which sleep had for a time dammed back. His enemies are many, and they taunt him as forsaken of God. Surely it is a strong thing to say that there is no correspondence here with Davids situation during Absaloms revolt. It was no partial conspiracy, but practically the nation had risen against him, "ut totidem fete haberet hostes quot subditos" (Calvin).
Shimeis foul tongue spoke the general mind: "The Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom". {2Sa_16:8} There had been sin enough in the kings recent past to give colour to the interpretation of his present calamity as the sign of his being forsaken of God. The conviction that such was the fact would swell the rebel ranks. The multitude has delight in helping to drown a sinking man who has been prosperous. The taunt went deep, for the Hebrew has "to my soul," as if the cruel scoff cut like a knife to the very centre of his personality, and wounded all the more because it gave utterance to his own fears. "The Lord hath bidden him," said David about Shimeis curses. But the psalmist is finding refuge from fears and foes even in telling how many there are, since he begins his complaint with "Jehovah." Without that word the exclamations of this first strophe are the voice of cowardice or despair. With it they are calmed into the appeal of trust.
The Selah which parts the first from the second strophe is probably a direction for an instrumental interlude while the singer pauses.
The second strophe (Psa_3:3-4) is the utterance of faith, based on experience, laying hold of Jehovah as defence. By an effort of will the psalmist rises from the contemplation of surrounding enemies to that of the encircling Jehovah. In the thickest of danger and dread there is a power of choice left a man as to what shall be the object of thought, whether the stormy sea or the outstretched hand of the Christ. This harassed man flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him and looks up to God. He sees in Him precisely what he needs most at the moment, for in that infinite nature is fulness corresponding to all emptiness of ours. "A shield around me," as He had promised to be to Abraham in his peril; "my glory," at a time when calumny and shame were wrapping him about and his kingdom seemed gone; "the lifter up of my head," sunk as it is both in sadness and calamity, since Jehovah can both cheer his spirit and restore his dignity. And how comes this sudden burst of confidence to lighten the complaining soul? Psa_3:4 tells. Experience has taught him that as often as he cries to Jehovah he is heard. The tenses in Psa_3:4 express a habitual act and a constant result. Not once or twice, but as his wont, he prays, and Jehovah answers. The normal relation between him and Jehovah is that of frank communion; and since it has long been so and is so now, even the pressure of present disaster does not make faith falter. It is hard to begin to trust when in the grip of calamity, but feet accustomed to the road to God can find it in the dark. There may be an allusion to Davids absence from sanctuary and ark in Psa_3:4. The expectation of being answered "from His holy hill" gains in pathetic force when the lovely scene of submissive sacrifice in which he sent back the Ark is recalled. {2Sa_15:25} Though he be far from the place of prayer, and feeling the pain of absence, the singers faith is not so tied to form as to falter in the assurance that his prayer is heard. Jehovah is shield, glory, and strengthener to the man who cries to Him, and it is by means of such crying that the heart wins the certitude that He is all these. Again the instruments sound and the singer pauses.
The third strophe (Psa_3:5-6) beautifully expresses the tranquil courage which comes from trust. Since sleeping and safe waking again in ordinary circumstances is no such striking proof of Divine help that one in the psalmists situation would be induced to think especially of it and to found his confidence on it, the view is to be taken that the psalmist in Psa_3:5 is contemplating the experience which he has just made in his present situation. "Surrounded by enemies, he was quite safe under Gods protection and exposed to no peril even in the night" (Riehm, in Hupfeld in loc.). Surely correspondence with Davids circumstances may be traced here. His little band had no fortress in Mahanaim, and Ahithophels counsel to attack them by night was so natural that the possibility must have been present to the king. But another night had come and gone in safety, disturbed by no shout of an enemy. The nocturnal danger had passed, and day was again brightening.
They were safe because the Keeper of Israel had kept them. It is difficult to fit this verse into the theory that here the persecuted Israelitish Church is speaking, but it suits the situation pointed to in the superscription. To lie down and sleep in such circumstances was itself an act of faith, and a sign of the quiet heart which faith gives. Like Christ on the hard wooden "pillow" during the storm, or like Peter sleeping an infants sleep the night before his purposed execution, this man can shut his eyes and quiet himself to slumber, though "ten thousands have set themselves against him." They ring him round, but cannot reach him through his shield. Psa_3:6 rises to bold defiance, the result of the experience in Psa_3:5. How different the tone of reference to the swarms of the enemy here and in Psa_3:1! There the psalmist was counting them and cowering before them; here their very number is an element in his triumphant confidence. Courage comes from thinking of the one Divine Ally, before whom myriads of enemies are nothing. One man with God to back him is always in the majority. Such courage, based on such experience and faith, is most modest and reasonable, but it is not won without an effort of will, which refuses to fear, and fixes a trustful gaze not on peril, but on the protector. "I will not be afraid" speaks of resolve and of temptations to fear, which it repels, and from "the nettle danger plucks the flower" trust and the fruit safety. Selah does not follow here. The tone of the strophe is that of lowly confidence, which is less congruous with an instrumental interlude than are the more agitated preceding strophes. The last strophe, too, is closely connected with the third, since faith bracing itself against fear glides naturally into prayer.
The final strophe (Psa_3:7-8) gives the culmination of faith in prayer. "Arise, Jehovah," is quoted from the ancient invocation, {Num_10:35} and expresses in strongly anthropomorphic form the desire for some interposition of Divine power. Fearlessness is not so complete that the psalmist is beyond the need of praying. He is courageous because he knows that God will help, but he knows, too, that Gods help depends on his prayer. The courage which does not pray is foolish, and will break down into panic; that which fears enough to cry "Arise, Jehovah," will be vindicated by victory. This prayer is built on experience, as the preceding confidence was. The enemies are now, according to a very frequent figure in the Psalter, compared to wild beasts. Smiting on the cheek is usually a symbol of insult, but here is better taken in close connection with the following "breaking the teeth." By a daring image Jehovah is represented as dealing the beasts of prey, who prowl round the psalmist with open mouth, the buffets which shatter their jaws and dislodge their teeth, thus making them powerless to harm him. So it has been in the past, and that past is a plea that so it will be now. God will be but doing as He has done, if now He "arise." If He is to be true to Himself, and not to stultify His past deliverances, He must save his suppliant now. Such is the logic of faith, which is only valid on the supposition that Gods resources and purpose are inexhaustible and unchangeable. The whole ends with confident anticipation of an answer. "Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah." The full spiritual meaning of that salvation was not yet developed. Literally, the word means "breadth," and so, by a metaphor common to many languages, deliverance as an act, and well-being or prosperity as a state. Deliverance from his enemies is the psalmists main idea in the word here. It "belongs to Jehovah," since its bestowal is His act. Thus the psalmists last utterance of trust traverses the scoff which wounded him so much (Psa_3:2), but in a form which beautifully combines affiance and humility, since it triumphantly asserts that salvation is in Gods power, and silently implies that what is thus Gods "to will and do" shall certainly be His suppliants to enjoy.
Intensely personal as the psalm is, it is the prayer of a king; and rebels as the bulk of the people are ("ten thousands of the people"), they are still Gods. Therefore all are included in the scope of his pitying prayer. In other psalms evil is invoked on evil-doers, but here hate is met by love, and the self-absorption of sorrow counteracted by wide sympathy. It is a lower exemplification of the same spirit which breathed from the lips of the greater King the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “The preceding psalm had set before us the utter…
MINORITIES AND MAJORITIES
Introduction
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“The preceding psalm had set before us the utter vanity of all attempts to injure the throne of God’s anointed King—Messiah. The present psalm relates to that incident in David’s life which stands as the typical instance of rebellion against God’s kingdom;—as the type, therefore, of the working of Antichrist.”—Kay.
I. The majority without God.
1. The greatness of the majority. “How are they increased.” “Many are they” (Psa_3:1). “Many there be” (Psa_3:2). “Ten thousands of people, that have set themselves” (Psa_3:6). Nearly all Israel had deserted the king (2Sa_15:12). How often has goodness to find itself outvoted! How often has the man of God to feel a sense of solitude and desolation! Thus Christ. Thus the Church has often been outnumbered by its enemies, again and again. A few holy men have had to struggle against the weight of governments, the influence of the press, the omnipotence of wealth, the organisation of parties, the fury of mobs, and sometimes the power of the pulpit. And the believer feels the air is full of foes: his adversaries are “legion.” He feels that he is alone contending with dark hosts of sins, doubts, fears, and sorrows. “They set themselves round about.” They swarm on every hand, and fix themselves in battle array. The odds were overwhelmingly against the Psalmist; so are the odds overwhelmingly against the Church of Christ, and against the souls which trust in Christ.
2. The bitterness of the majority. “Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God” (Psa_3:2). “He has offended God: and God, who was his strength, has forsaken him. God will no longer save him. He is a reprobate.”—Kay. “God as well as man is against him; his destruction is certain; prayer itself will be of no avail.”—Perowne (2Sa_16:8). His enemies breathe out cruelty. “The words of the adversaries pronounce a judgment upon his inmost life, or upon his personal relationship to God.”—Delitzsch. ‘God,’ they cried, ‘has deserted him.’ And the Psalmist knew that their reproach was not without seeming justification. He knew that his own sin lay at the bottom of this insurrection. “David had plunged himself into the deepest abyss of wretchedness by his adultery with Bathsheba. The rebellion of Absalom belonged to the series of dire calamities which began to come upon him from that time. Plausible reasons were not wanting for such words as these which gave up his cause as lost.”—Delitzsch. Thus his enemies, as well as his disconcerted friends, remember his sin, and regard him as one cast away. And this was the weak point of David in dealing with the hosts of the enemy. And it is with us. A sense of moral blamelessness would enable us to confront boldly with the seraph Abdiel a myriad enemies; but “conscience makes cowards of us all,” and we tremble in the presence of numbers. Thus our spiritual adversaries reproach us; there it no salvation for him in God; and the consciousness of our faithlessness gives a power and sting to their words which penetrate our soul with bitterness, and which might well drive us to despair.
II. The minority with God.
The Psalmist felt himself to be in a minority of one, but with God. Mark:
1. His consciousness of safety (Psa_3:3). “A shield about me, or around me, covering the whole body; not merely a part of it, as ordinary shields do.”—Alexander. Alone with God the believer feels profoundly safe. “If God be for us,” &c.
2. His refuge in prayer (Psa_3:4). The Lord heard his cry of penitence and supplication. It was in this cry that the guilty, lonely man put himself right with God. He is away from the sanctuary, away from the ark; but the voice of the solitary and sorrowful reaches God anywhere. Alone with God, this is the secret of the martyr’s strength. If the world forsakes yon, if men and demons mock you, knock at Heaven’s gate with cries, and groans, and tears, and God shall receive and shelter you.
His sublime peacefulness (Psa_3:5-6). “I laid me down and slept,” &c. Many lie down who cannot sleep, but he could lie down on a rough bed and sleep. God’s hand was his pillow, and his sleep was sweet. The peace of God passeth understanding, and the wildest storms of temptation and persecution cannot disturb it. The Atlantic Ocean is swept by fearful storms, and mountainous billows traverse its surface, but scientific men say it is so quiet down in the depths that if you could stretch a rope of sand from one side of the ocean to the other, there is not disturbance enough to dissolve it. So amid the direst storms of life the believer’s heart is kept in perfect peace, a peace which the world gives net, and which the world does not take away.
4. His assurance of victory (Psa_3:7). He looks upon victory as certain, as indeed already accomplished. He sees his enemy “as a wild beast whose jaw is broken, and which is unable to devour its prey.”—Kay. He feels assured that God will rebuke the wrath of Shimei, confound the counsel of Ahithophel, frustrate the usurpation of Absalom, and bring to nought the uprising of Israel. So, having put ourselves right with God, although our enemies rage as the waves of the sea, we may confidently anticipate victory.
5. His generous temper (Psa_3:8). He does not ask for vengeance, but blessing. This verse “casts a bright light into the very depths of his noble soul.”—Ewald. He has been wronged; but as God has forgiven him, so he forgives those who have injured him. Too often when minorities become majorities they exact and tyrannise; but when God exalts us in the gate, our spirit should be forgiving and tender.
Lessons:
1. Do not always trust in the verdicts of majorities. “The longest sword, the strongest lungs, the most voices, are false measures of truth.”—Whichcote.
2. Do not confide in majorities. David was at one time most popular; but how soon the people deserted him. “Mortality is but the stage of mutability.”—Trapp.
3. Do not fear to be in a minority with God. “Everybody,” said Talleyrand, “is cleverer than anybody.” This is fine worldly wisdom no doubt, but God is wiser, stronger than all, and he who is in a minority with God need not fear. “He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.”
4. Remember that the majority will be against you when God is. When the people thought that God had forsaken the king, they forsook him too. Men often sell their conscience for a majority, but know when God forsakes you, the universe forsakes you.
5. The way to conquer majorities is through penitence and prayer. Thus, in great social and religious reforms, Luther, Wilberforce. So in our spiritual life; “One shall chase a thousand,” &c. And thus shall the majority against the Christian Church be changed into a minority.
MISTAKEN VERDIOTH
(Psa_3:2-3.)
In the second verse you have the verdict of sense touching the Psalmist’s character; in the third verse you have the judgment of faith.
I. The verdict of sense.
Psa_3:2. The verdict of sense was that the king was deserted of God. And observe:
1. This verdict was popular. “Many there be,” &c. It appeared thus to his enemies, and it would seem as if many of his friends shared the same opinion. It was the verdict of the multitude.
2. It was plausible. It regarded the king’s sin. The devil’s advocates would not fail to keep the dark crime of the fallen king before the eyes of the nation. Would not God forsake such a sinner? And then there were the circumstances of the king. He appears fallen and discrowned. Driven away from his palace, and accompanied in exile by a few trembling friends. ‘Surely God had deserted the royal sinner,’ they said.
3. It was confident. “There is no help,” &c. They felt sure that his cause was utterly hopeless: God had cut him off altogether.
II. The judgment of faith.
Psa_3:3. The voice of the people was not the voice of God. The Psalmist puts his personal consciousness over against the anathemas of the people. He knows God to be his shield, his glory, and the restorer of his fortunes.
How often has this fact been repeated! The verdict of men passed upon their brother is one of capital condemnation, and yet the condemned one has hope in God. How often does the world speak thus:—‘The chief of sinners amongst men,’ ‘the woman that is a sinner.’ How soon society regards these as lost, hopeless! How often has a corrupt Church spoken thus! The Catholics kindled the stake, and consigned the souls of glorious saints to the devil. Nay, is not the true Church of Christ sometimes in danger of falling into this mistake? Are we not ready to give up some cases, some classes, perhaps, as impracticable? How is it that we fall into this great mistake?
1. We take circumstances as the sign of a man’s spiritual status and relationship. The people did in Jerusalem; we do, and it is a great error. A man may be poor, friendless, afflicted, reduced to saddest straits, and yet not be forsaken of God.
2. We ignore the power of penitence. Psa_3:4. The Psalmist “cried unto the Lord,” &c. The world knows a man’s sins, when it does not know his deep sorrow and burning tears.
3. We limit the mercy and grace of God. God’s pity is greater than ours, and the blood of Jesus makes the foulest clean. “No help for him in God.” Some sinners are so obtuse, defiant, brutal, their wickedness so profound, and chronic, and desperate, that we practically despair of their salvation. Yet, have not our brightest saints been raised out of most abandoned and desperate sinners? The natural historian tells us that the rich olive was once dry and offensive, the luscious peach bitter, the apple-tree full of thorns, the aromatic rose a mere thorn, and the fields of wavy gold but wild grasses. But far more surprising transformations have been wrought in the Church of God. “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor unchaste, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of our God” (1Co_6:9-11). We forget the greatness of redeeming mercy and power.
Lessons:
1. Human judgments are not infallible.
2. Despair not of the worst of men.
3. Despair not of yourselves in life’s darkest moments.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. In this text, if we will consider it…
Psa 3:5
I. In this text, if we will consider it well, we find a clear token of the mysteries of this solemn time of Easter: our Lord dying and rising again. If the person who speaks is Jesus Christ, no doubt His lying down is His death upon the Cross; His sleep is the rest which He took in Joseph’s sepulchre; His rising up again is that glorious awaking and bursting of the bonds of death, which makes the Church joyful this day and every Sunday in the year.
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II. And surely we do well to connect that mystery with our own lying down and rising up, as often as night and morning return; but daily lying down and rising up is given us for a sacramental sign and pledge of Christ’s death and resurrection and of our own.
III. Christ is in the meanest, the least, of His people as a life-giving Spirit, a fountain of eternal life; and if it be life eternal, will it leave a man when his time comes to die and be turned again to his dust? No, it will not leave him. To God he will still live if he die in faith; even in the grave he will abide a member of Christ. He may lie down and sleep, and seem alone and helpless, but he has within him that which sustains him, still keeps him in true communion with God. Christ, even now abiding in His people, makes them already in this world partakers of a heavenly and Divine life. He sustains them both sleeping and waking, in life and in death, in their beds and in their graves, for in both conditions they are alike members of Him. Dying, they partake of His Cross and Passion, and they are to rise again and live for ever in virtue of His glorious and happy resurrection.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vi., p. 92.
References: Psa 3:8.—J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. v., p. 145. Psalm 3—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 246; Parker, The Ark of God, p. 122; I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 100; S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 94. Psa 4:2.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 98.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The sufficiency of the unchanging God.
The sufficiency of the unchanging God.
A psalm of David when he fled from the face of Absalom his son.
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The third psalm is, in its title, ascribed to David, when he fled from the face of Absalom his son. "Search the story of David’s life from end to end," says Cheyne, "and you will find no situation which corresponds to these psalms" (3 and 4). On the other hand, Delitzsch says "All the leading features of the psalm accord with [the inscription], namely, the mockery of one who is rejected of God (2Sa 16:7, seq.); the danger by night (2Sa 17:1); the multitudes of the people (2Sa 15:13, 2Sa 17:11); and the high position of honor held by the psalmist."
1. The psalm itself is simple enough in character. It is the first and most elementary thing in a believer, what indeed makes him such, that is expressed in it, -confidence in the Unchangeable. Here is the soul’s sufficiency, and the growing danger has no argument to shake it. As the waves rise, the soul is only driven up higher upon its rock of refuge.
Yet around they murmur, "there is no help for him in God." The many that rightly see God in the circumstances, often wrongly judge of Him by the circumstances alone. There is an easy faith, which was that of Job’s friends, that simply accepts the clouds and darkness that are "round about Him," as if they revealed instead of hiding Him, It is a straightforward theology, to which the sufferer himself is often tempted to become a proselyte, that love with Him wears no disguises; whereas it is indeed His delight to find a soul familiar enough with Him to penetrate the disguise, and mount through the darkness to the perfect Light above.
With this shield of faith the psalmist fortifies himself. Nay, better than that, it is God who is his shield; no partial defense, therefore, but "round about" him: perhaps he had not realized Him so near, had not the need been so great. Thus, though the cloud be a reality too, he can say of Him, "my glory," as in the cloud itself for Israel, and in the darkness, the glory had shone out. So he can add, "the Uplifter of my head": for it is not pride or obstinacy that will not give in, or natural courage merely that sustains him, but the sweet apprehension of the "I AM" of God. "I am has sent me to you," was the deliverer of old to say; and with the divine words, when faith admits them into the heart, deliverance might seem already to have come.
At the back of this confidence lie how many experiences! what answers to prayer have already come! how well the present faith is justified by the test of experience! This living intercourse has made familiar to us a living God nor is He man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. I cry, and He answers me! and this is not a possible delusion. The Voice out of the holy mount, the holy Voice that speaks ever from the more wondrous sanctuary of the divine nature, how impossible for it to have been but the mere feeble echo of my own!
2. The psalm passes on from the general to the particular, -to the present distress and the needful deliverance. Here already there has been obtained a foretaste of this, in the peace that has entered and possessed the soul. "I have laid me down and slept," he says; not evidently the sleep of one merely worn out, to whom it has become a necessity: men have been known to sleep on the deck of a ship in action; but not such the sleep that is spoken of here. It is the peace of the known rampart round about which qualifies for this. Night has its special dangers in the midst of warfare, and the imagination pictures in the darkness more than may be found; yet faith can rest and be quiet under the watchful eye of God, and the morning justifies this assurance: I awaked, for Jehovah sustaineth me."
The multitude of enemies are then but witnesses of Jehovah’s care of one that trusts in Him. They remain, but faith has already triumphed over them. The cry to God for deliverance is answered in the soul by memories of the past that are at the same time prophetic of the future. The enemies are the same "ungodly" who have been so often before defeated, and gape upon him with jaws that have, as it were, been already broken. They are harmless, and only make indeed Jehovah better known. To Him belongs salvation; upon His people invariably His blessing rests.
All this is simplicity itself, as long as no questions arise from within to disturb the conclusion. God is the same, and from without no question need be for a moment entertained. Beautiful as this faith is, and real, and fully warranted, and sure to be fully justified at last; yet as we follow these psalms to their close, we shall find how many painful experiences may intervene before this childhood instinct becomes maturity of manhood knowledge, -before "I will not be afraid" becomes the abiding realization of the soul. It will become so, for this is true and Spirit-taught confidence, and God cannot be less to it than faith deems of Him. But it is another thing whether faith will be equal to the encounter of all challenges itself has made. This process in some way do we not all pass through? Yet through fire and water we are brought at last into a wealthy place. Such is God’s way; and His way is ever perfect. He must needs have His people answer to what His heart craves that they should be. Hence come their trials, and His issue both.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This is the first of the 'Davidic' Psalms. It…
This is the first of the 'Davidic' Psalms. It is a morning prayer as Psa_3:6 suggests. The heading of the Ps. provides a historical setting for it in the revolt of Absalom, and it is the only Ps. specifically dated at that time. There are many features in that revolt (2 Samuel 16-18) which suit the circumstances to which the Psalmist refers. He speaks of the increasing number of his enemies (cp. 2Sa_17:11), of the contempt in which many held him (cp. 2Sa_16:7-10), of the danger in which he lay (cp. 2Sa_17:2), and of his preservation by Jehovah (cp. 2Sa_17:14). The Ps. contains the Psalmist's description of his foes (1, 2); his inward assurance of God's help (3, 4); his statement of his present experience (5, 6); and his prayer for complete deliverance and national blessing (7, 8).
1. Increased] cp. 2Sa_15:12, 2Sa_15:13.
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2. Of my soul] i.e. of myself.
3. A shield] a natural metaphor in days when kings were warriors: cp. Psa_18:2; Psa_84:9, Psa_84:11; Psa_115:9, etc.
4. Out of his holy hill] i.e. Zion, the seat of Jehovah's worship, where in a special sense He was present. The Psalmist was probably at a distance from Jerusalem. Selah] This word is found 71 times in the Psalter. It occurs in 40 Pss., as well as three times in Habakkuk 3, which is also a Ps. Its meaning and use are both uncertain. Possibly it is derived from a root, meaning to 'lift up.' LXX translates it 'interlude,' while the Jewish tradition renders it 'for ever.' (1) Some think that it is an instruction to the musicians to 'strike up' with an interlude during an interval of the singing. (2) Prof. Briggs suggests that the LXX and Jewish renderings are really two aspects of the same thing: the former ('interlude') denoting the point where the benediction might be sung and the Ps. concluded for that service; while the latter ('for ever') gives the last word of the benediction, which would indicate the same thing. (3) Taking another derivation (from sallem, 'supplement'), others conjecture that the note may indicate the point at which the MS has to be, or has been, supplemented from another MS. It is best, perhaps, just to regard it generally as a 'musical interlude.'
5. I laid me down, etc.] His very sleep, natural as it was, was a proof of God's care, for he might have slept the sleep of death.
Sustained] RV 'sustaineth,' suggesting continual oversight.
7. Arise, O Lord] The ancient marching-song of the Hebrew host began with these words (Num_10:35).
8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord] A triumphant assertion of what the adversaries denied in Psa_3:2. Thy blessing is] RV 'thy blessing be' upon the people as upon their leader. Selah] see on Psa_3:4.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 Trust is the characteristic O.T. word for the N.T.…
trust
Trust is the characteristic O.T. word for the N.T. "faith," "believe." It occurs 152 times in the O.T., and is the rendering of Heb. words signifying to take refuge (e.g. Rth 2:12 "to lean on" (e.g.) Psa 56:3 "to roll on" (e.g.) Psa 22:8 "to stay upon" (e.g.) Job 35:14.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 3
Psalm 3
Sorrows and Trials of the Godly Remnant (3-7)
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1. Persecution and comfort (Psa 3:1-4)
2. Arise Jehovah! Save me, O my God (Psa 3:5-8)
The five Psalms which follow bring before us the godly remnant of Israel, their sorrows and trials during the end of the age, while the expected Redeemer and King has not yet come. While this is the dispensational aspect, the application is wider. The trials and sorrows are common to all saints, who live in accordance with their calling apart from the world which rejects Christ; and the comfort belongs to them likewise.
Psa 3:1-4. The Psalm was written by David when he fled from the face of Absalom. Persecution is mentioned first. The remnant is suffering persecution and that from their own unbelieving brethren, who sneer at them and mock. “There is no salvation (deliverance) for him from God.” But the godly trust in Jehovah as a shield about them, giving protection; He is my glory and the lifter up of mine head. Thus David encouraged himself in the Lord and so do all saints in persecution and the remnant when they are persecuted in the time of Jacob’s trouble.
Psa 3:5-8. The simple faith produces peace and quietness. He has slept in peace even if myriads of people should set themselves around him. He cries to Jehovah to arise and to save. Then faith looks back and remembers that God hath smitten the enemies in the past, and broken the teeth of the ungodly. He acknowledgeth that salvation belongeth to the Lord, it is of Him and that His blessing rests upon His people who trust in Him. Viewed in connection with the remnant of Israel in the coming tribulation all this takes on an interesting meaning. It is called a morning hymn.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Morning Prayer of a Christian in Danger and Affliction.
Morning Prayer of a Christian in Danger and Affliction.
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son, 2Sa 15:14, probably written on the morning after the day of the flight, when David saw nothing but danger and destruction on every side, when his heart expressed the thoughts which arise in the hearts of all children of God as they battle with affliction.
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v. 1. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me, the idea of their increasing number being brought home to David by the fact that his own son had joined their ranks. Many are they that rise up against me, as his adversaries along every line, but particularly in the rebellion of Absalom.
v. 2. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. David’s condition at that time, as history shows, 2Sa 15:23; 2Sa 15:30, was such as to make all men doubt the possibility of his deliverance, while his enemies openly stated that he could no longer expect any help from the Lord. The word Selah was a term used in music which, according to its etymology, denoted some sort of augmentation or elevation; either the orchestra at this point played in full strength, or the accompaniment was increased in loudness, or both voices and instruments were raised in loud tones. In this way David set forth the greatness of the distress under which he was laboring. He does not, however, give way to despair, but turns to the Lord in a fervent prayer for deliverance.
v. 3. But Thou, O Lord, art a Shield for me, protecting him against all the attacks of the enemies; my Glory, the source of all David’s dignity and authority as king, and the Lifter up of mine head, sure to raise him out of the deep depression with which he was then battling, which beset him on all sides. It is the lot of the children of God in this world which they must suffer that they are always in deep tribulation; but out of the very depths of their misery and woe they can and shall look up to the God of their salvation.
v. 4. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, in loud and fervent supplication, and He heard me out of His holy hill, the mountain of His presence, Mount Zion, where the Tabernacle had now been erected and where the Temple was afterwards built. Selah. Again a pause in the psalm, in order to bring home the great truth of the Lord’s answering prayer.
v. 5. I laid me down and slept, instead of spending the night in useless lamentation; I awaked, still safe and secure, not yet delivered into the power of his enemies; for the Lord sustained me, it was David’s confidence that the hand of Almighty God was upholding him, and this fact gave him his calm assurance in the midst of dangers.
v. 6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, no matter how great a multitude Absalom might gather to crush him, that have set themselves against me round about. This was not spoken in boastfulness, but with the quiet assurance of faith in the almighty protection of Jehovah.
v. 7. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God! a confident cry to Jehovah to interfere now in the happenings of the world; for Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly, like the jaws of ravenous beasts or tearing monsters, the crushing of whose jaws and teeth not only renders them harmless, but is equivalent to their complete overthrow.
v. 8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, He can and will help in every trouble, for there is no limit to the power at His disposal. Thy blessing is upon Thy people. David prays not only for his own deliverance, but for the welfare of his whole nation, a large part of which had been led astray in the rebellion then incited by Absalom. Selah. Thus David prayed even for his enemies, just as all Christians, sure of their own deliverance, make intercession for all men, also in the petition: "Thy kingdom come!"
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
Yahweh, how many are my enemies!
This exclamation shows that David is afraid of his enemies. AT: "Oh Yahweh, I have so many enemies!" (See: Exclamations)
have risen against me
Fighting against someone is spoken of as rising against him. AT: "come against me" (See: Idiom)
Selah
This may be a musical term that tells people how to sing or play their instruments here. Some translations write the Hebrew word, and some translations do not include it. (See: Copy or Borrow Words)
translationWords
psalm
David
Absalom
Yahweh
adversary
God
selah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7 Pss 3–7 This group of psalms moves readers from…
Pss 3–7 This group of psalms moves readers from the orderly world of Pss 1–2 to a disoriented one. The Lord’s anointed cries out while facing enemies, ferocious opposition, evil schemes, and the Lord’s apparent distance.
Ps 3 This psalm laments that the expectations raised by Pss 1–2 have not been met. But even when beset by enemies, godly people need not question the Lord’s just dealings. Rather, they can confidently trust his goodness and expect God to rescue them.
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3:title This sad episode in David’s life (see 2 Sam 15–18) helps readers keep the promises of Ps 2 in perspective. The Lord granted victory to his anointed king (Ps 2), but the manner and timing of this victory remained in God’s hands.
3:1-2 The psalmist’s many enemies speak brashly (4:6; 12:4; 40:15) and question the Lord’s ability to rescue (10:11; 22:7-8; 71:10). Their words haunt him because it seems that the Lord will not answer his prayer. • These enemies wield great power (cp. 2:1-3); unlike Ps 2, this psalm does not resolve the crisis.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.