Chapter 3

David, when he fled from Absalom.

2024 - So we know very precisely what this Psalm is about.  MSB intro said that after studying these little introductory comments on so many of the Psalms, we believe they were added very shortly after the Psalms were each written, and so they are reliable.

David laments his increasing enemies, but turns to God as his shield, the lifter of his head.

2025 - A shield is defensive.  No one attacks with only a shield.  I think we will see that defense is a recurring theme.  God is not our sword, not our bow or arrow.  Shield for now.  How many other defenses will we see?  David never prays that God will make him strong so he can kill his enemies, never that God would make him invisible so he can kill them where they sleep.  In vs 7 we see David's non-defensive prayer that  asks God to be his offense and to break the teeth of the ungodly.  David takes himself out of both sides of the strategy.  God is his defense, and God acts proactively, God attacks his enemies.

2024 - Look at the last phrase of this verse:

2 many are saying of my soul, "There is no salvation for him in God." Selah [Psa 3:2 ESV].  A lot of people were saying that God had turned against David, over the Bathsheba/Uriah incident which was surely common  knowledge at this time, and for which David had not been punished.  He was clearly wrong.  He clearly deserved death.  But he was King.  But an unrespected King, and one that many believed was destined for hell.  They believed God's back was turned forever toward David.  Imagine knowing that people believed that.

Selah.

David says that he woke up from a night's sleep, and it was God who sustained him.  He asks that God strike his enemies.

Selah.

7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. [Psa 3:7 ESV] NDP