7 Rise, O Jehovah! save me, my God. Because Thou hast smitten All mine enemies `on' the cheek. The teeth of the wicked Thou hast broken.
They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves.
O God, break their teeth in their mouth, The jaw-teeth of young lions break down, O Jehovah.
Rise, O Jehovah, in Thine anger, Be lifted up at the wrath of mine adversaries, And awake Thou for me: Judgment Thou hast commanded:
Arise, O Jehovah! O God, lift up Thy hand! Forget not the humble.
Because of the spoiling of the poor, Because of the groaning of the needy, Now do I arise, saith Jehovah, I set in safety `him who' doth breathe for it.
Stir up, and wake to my judgment, My God, and my Lord, to my plea.
And Thou, Jehovah, God of Hosts, God of Israel, Awake to inspect all the nations. Favour not any treacherous dealers of iniquity. Selah.
Why dost Thou turn back Thy hand, Even Thy right hand? From the midst of Thy bosom remove `it'.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah, Awake, as `in' days of old, generations of the ages, Art not Thou it that is hewing down Rahab, Piercing a dragon!
He giveth to his smiter the cheek, He is filled with reproach.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 3
Commentary on Psalms 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 3
As the foregoing psalm, in the type of David in preferment, showed us the royal dignity of the Redeemer, so this, by the example of David in distress, shows us the peace and holy security of the redeemed, how safe they really are, and think themselves to be, under the divine protection. David, being now driven out from his palace, from the royal city, from the holy city, by his rebellious son Absalom,
Those speak best of the truths of God who speak experimentally; so David here speaks of the power and goodness of God, and of the safety and tranquility of the godly.
A psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
Psa 3:1-3
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.
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,
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.
Psa 3:4-8
David, having stirred up himself by the irritations of his enemies to take hold on God as his God, and so gained comfort in looking upward when, if he looked round about him, nothing appeared but what was discouraging, here looks back with pleasing reflections upon the benefit he had derived from trusting in God and looks forward with pleasing expectations of a very bright and happy issue to which the dark dispensation he was now under would shortly be brought.
In singing this, and praying it over, we must own the satisfaction we have had in depending upon God and committing ourselves to him, and encourage ourselves, and one another to continue still hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord.