Psalm Shorts: Psalm 3

Psalm 3 starts with David feeling devastatingly outnumbered — not just by his enemies, but by voices telling him that God isn't going to show up for him this time. Many of us know what that feels like.

This lament psalm takes place in one of the darkest moments of David's life: fleeing Jerusalem, barefoot and weeping, mocked by his people, and betrayed and hunted by his own son.

David opens by naming the threat. And then, somehow, he sleeps. Not because the danger has passed, but because something about his posture toward God has shifted. The word for shield used here, magen, describes something held close in hand-to-hand combat, not a distant fortress. David isn't appealing to a far-off God. He's clinging to one who is right there.

The psalm invites us into a form of prayer that doesn't require us to have it together first. Lament isn't a failure of faith. In Scripture, it's often what faith looks like under pressure, and God welcomes his children in crisis. Grief is raw, enemies are real, and corruption destorys. But David shows a confidence that isn't coming from "I will fix this." It comes from "God will hold me, and salvation belongs to Him." 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Okay, welcome back to our Psalm Shorts. Psalms Shorts. Sounds weird. It must be Psalms Shorts, though. Welcome back to the Psalms of Shorts. Psalms Shorts. And we are going over Psalm 3 today, which is titled Save Me, O My God, a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. Can I ask a question now before we even read it? No. It's actually a very short one, so let me go ahead and read it. Okay. Okay. O Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him and God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and my lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept. I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. So that is the entirety of Psalm three. And before we get into questions, I'll start with just saying that it's a lament psalm that turns into a confidence style psalm. And this is a prayer. Some aren't as much of a prayer, like in Psalm 1, but this one is like a morning prayer written during active crisis. And there's a really cool arc of moving from fear to the end, which is more of a victory language. So that is the structure of Psalm 3. Did anything stand out to you when I read it?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I definitely got what you were saying, that sort of moving from crisis then into that confidence stand.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, for sure. So this is attributed to David. Um, and it's really interesting because it's so specific, the heading, which says when he fled from Absalom, his son, they're not always that specific over when he wrote them. We can assume based on what he says. A lot of the time it'll just say like to the choir master or to this person or according to this person, or just a psalm of David. But what's really cool is we know exactly what this was in regards to. So it gives us a little bit more context. So now that we know that this is around Absalom's rebellion, which we see in 2 Samuel 15 through 18, we know some things that are going on. So David is being betrayed, right? So he's fleeing Jerusalem barefoot, he's losing political power, family stability, and he's unsure where he's gonna go, unsure where he'll survive. It's a lot about survival in this moment of this psalm.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Did he write this while he was fleeing, or did he write this about fleeing after?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It literally says when he fled. So I feel like he's writing this while it's happening. I feel like a lot of David's psalms feel very the emotion in them feels like it's happening now versus us writing something that happened a year ago. We might be more removed from some of the emotion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

So Psalm three is not a continuation of Psalms one and two, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, I think this is kind of like the first one after the gateway psalms, which are more of the one and the two, which opens up the door for more specific Psalms, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah. What I really like about some of these specific Psalms is that they are, like you said, they're about something that was happening, but they're not narrative. So we we read about David and Absalom and all of that earlier. Yeah. And then the Psalms are more of his emotional state and response versus literal here's what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Absolutely. And I mean, I think he was really in a terrible place when he wrote Psalm 3. People are rising against him.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Well, I imagine because it's not just people, his son is leading this, which is really weird. Like, can you imagine? No. If your own kid was literally after you.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I know, I know. So if anyone wants to read about Absalom's rebellion, it happens across 2 Samuel, chapters 15 through 18. In 2 Samuel 15, we will see Absalom building support, declaring himself king, David fleeing, again barefoot and weeping. Oh, that's sad. So maybe Rachel, if you could read a little blurb from 2 Samuel 15.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

This is verses 9 through 11. So this is really the moment that Absalom activates his plot. Okay. The king said to him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, Absalom is king at Hebron. With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited guests, and they went in their innocence and knew nothing. So he is bringing all these people to he's gonna declare himself king in front of all these people, and they don't know about this plot. Yeah. And then later in verse 13, this is how David learns of it. And a messenger came to David saying, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Okay, yeah, that's a really good insight into the world that he's writing this in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

So that's how it happens, and then from there there's a bunch of chaos. And then in still in 2 Samuel 15, verse 30, says, But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who are with him covered their heads and they went up weeping as they went. Yeah, you can just imagine he's obviously got immediate fear for his own and other people's physical safety. Yeah. But then also that emotional toll, your own son is basically plotting to overthrow you. Absolutely. I wonder if you could read the psalm again with all of that context. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Oh Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me, many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. I lay down and slept, I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you strike all my enemies on the cheek, you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord, your blessing be on your people. And so if we look even kind of breaking it down a little bit, if we look at verses one and two, David names the threat pretty quickly. Yeah. The foes are coming, like there's not really an intro. He's like, I'm literally in the middle of what feels like a war, you know. Right. And I think people are kind of saying that God won't save him. They said there is no salvation for him in God, which is really interesting. They're like, God has abandoned you. So then it moves into verse three, which is, but you, O Lord, are a shield about me. I've read before that shields are close. A shield is something that like you have near you that you're holding. Yeah. So I think his language is pretty specific. He's describing it as something that will protect him.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

It's interesting because we see it when Saul is king that God turns from Saul. Well, Saul turns away from God. Yeah. So that idea that the people are saying that God has abandoned you and won't save you, that's essentially what they saw happen with Saul. When Saul was like, Oh, never mind, like you were right. Yeah, I promise I'll still serve you. At that point, it was too late and it was already gonna be David. And so I wonder if there's a connection there that the people are saying we watched Saul fall and we're gonna watch you fall. Right, like this is what happens. Yeah. If you look at Saul's relationship with God, the relationship falls first, and when David stays in relationship with God.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, right. It's a different kind of storyline. Yeah. Okay, so an interesting Hebrew word that's worth highlighting with shield, it's Magan, which means protector in close combat, not distant defense, personal protection. And this word shows up again later in the Psalms, describing God's covenant care over Israel. So kind of going back to shield being an important word. When he says lifter of my head, I find that like a really interesting phrase. Yeah. Like it seems specific, doesn't it? Yeah. In ancient culture, a lowered head was defeat. We see that more in animals, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Yeah, and we just read that too. David was lowering his head, weeping, and then all the people were lowering their head with him.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and a lifted head is restored honor, right? And so he's not just asking to survive, but he's saying, He's going to restore my honor. Yeah. Because he lifts my head. So I think that's really cool. And this is the first introduction to kind of a mystery word, also, salah. You'll see this in other psalms. It's at the right hand side of the main writing of psalms in like a separate column. It'll say salah. It's used frequently in the Psalms and it seems to be a musical or liturgical direction. Maybe this is meant to be religious ceremony or part of maybe a musical pause, even. Yeah. Yeah. So it's an interesting kind of thing. And it appears in this short psalm multiple times. Uh, and maybe it's to say, like, oh, let's pause and let's think. Or maybe it's showing importance to a certain part that you shouldn't just rush past. But um, it's kind of a little bit of a mystery that word. So is it used in other psalms or or just Psalm three? No, yeah, it's sprinkled throughout a lot of them. Cool. Yeah. And it to be a mystery. I like mysteries. I like that, even though I don't know what it means. I know. Yeah, I kind of when I read it, I see it as like when you say it salah. For me, it's calming. Oh, let's take a pause, let's breathe. Yeah. Salah. I don't know. That's just kind of what seems to make sense for me. Another cool part of Psalm 3 is not like a straight-up messianic. We talk about all the time. The Old Testament is all pointing towards Jesus, right? Yeah. So even if a psalm isn't directly a outrightly messianic psalm, it still echoes Jesus in several ways. So David here is rejected, betrayed by his son and kingdom. Yeah. Jesus rejected by his nation. Both experience public humiliation, abandonment language. So I think a lot of David's journey can be reflected in what happens with Jesus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

They both also still keep giving it to God, where you see a lot, a lot of people when they are faced with terrifying pivotal moments. Absolutely. They will make the decision that seems like it's going to keep them safe in the moment. David is a little unique in that. I mean, I guess Moses too. David and Moses have their own human responses sometimes, but they all keep that really tight connection with God rather than saying, Well, they're going to kill me, so I need to go that way. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

They're like, oh, God says I'm good. Yeah. I'm going to go in front of this army of 5,000. And so another kind of echo, I lay down and slept. Early Christians often saw this as a resurrection echo, laying down, rising again, sustained by God. Again, not like a prophecy, but there can be some themes that are interwoven throughout some of this. And then thirdly, salvation belongs to the Lord. This is later echoed in Jonah 2.9 and Revelation 7.10. And so this almost becomes like a signature phrase of this rescue story across scripture. Could you bring up Jonah 2.9?

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah. So an exact phrasing. Because here in Psalm 3, it says at the very end, salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. And then it's it's again directly in Revelation 7.10. So can you bring that one up too?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, but first I want to point out that immediately after that is when the fish vomits Jonah onto the land. Nice. Literally. Literally. Okay. So Revelation 7.10 and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Oh, that's interesting. So it belongs to God, but also Jesus now.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

So I think this is a thread. If you think about it, like Psalms is earlier on, and then we have Jonah, and then at the very end Revelation. So there is this thread of the specific sentence, salvation belongs to the Lord. Something else that I just looked up because he says, and you break the teeth of the wicked.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah, that sounds pretty intense. I mean, we obviously want the wicked to be taken care of, but like that sounds pretty intense. Like, what does that even mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Totally. So break teeth. Teeth often represent violent speech, lies, and slander. So I think it's referring to the teeth as the vessel that this can come out of, maybe. And so he's saying, he's not saying literally break the teeth of the wicked, which sounds kind of strangely violent, but rather break violent speech, lies, and slander.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah. Through the mechanism of it. So it's almost like silencing the wicked.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

And I think it's David asking to stop the false narrative. Yeah. He gives judgment to God, which is the opposite of taking vengeance yourself as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah, that's a great point. He so he's not saying God, please go eradicate these people who are betraying me. He is saying, please stop that narrative and restore my honor. And he's not actually asking for what he thinks God should do to the people other than correct the truth.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, and he often, you'll see this with David too. He'll often give judgment to God. He's not saying, I want to break the teeth, like I'm gonna stop these enemies. It's often this idea of God, I'm giving you the judgment, which is the opposite of taking vengeance himself. So he seems to understand that it's not really him, it's God that needs to make that judgment. So I think that's pretty much it for that one, since it's a smaller psalm. It's a cool introduction to how David writes. He says shield a lot. He cries out to the Lord a lot and he puts it in the Lord's hands. It starts with, Wow, I have a lot of foes. This sucks. Oh, but wait, Lord is a shield, he's going to sustain me. And at the end, he says, salvation ultimately belongs to the Lord. So it starts with distress and it ends with your blessings be on your people. I mean, that's a big jump.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

And that and that's the classic format of a lament. It's we're crying out with our woe and then turning it to, it doesn't necessarily mean we feel good now, but all of this horribleness is gonna be put in God's hands. Totally. And so now I can at least find strength and peace in him. It's cool that when we say salvation belongs to the Lord in the Psalm, it's David saying, I know that you'll redeem this, and the redemption belongs to you, not me. Yeah. And then it happens, right? And then when it's in Jonah and Jonah says that, and then Jonah is vomited out onto the sand and he's now safe.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

And then obviously Revelation is a culmination, and that's where yeah, restoration really comes to a more permanent fruition. I feel like a message in that is we have to understand that idea of salvation belongs to God for redemption to actually happen.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Totally. And like you said, at Revelation, it's the last time, of course, we see salvation belongs to the Lord because it's quite literally happening. Yeah. And like you said, this is a lament psalm, but obviously there's also the book of lamentations and lamenting is a part of the Bible. And so a general lament structure that most lament psalms follow is one is the address to God, two is the complaint, three is the request, asking for help, four is the statement of trust. It's like the turning pivot moment. And five is praise or confidence in future rescue, not pretending things are fixed, exactly like you said, but trust that God can come back and help us. It's not weak faith, because I think sometimes people can feel fearful to bring distressing things to God for fear that it's a complaint or like, oh, am I whiny? But actually, lamenting is a structure that is a good structure and it's a good thing. It's like, yes, you bring your woes to God. You say, This, I do not understand this. I had a death in the family. This is terrible. I'm feeling terrible. But it's not just stopping then. That would be stopping at the complaint, naming the problem, right? What feels wrong? Why are you sad? Be honest. But next is asking God for help. And then it's praising and really praising God and having confidence in him to finish out that lament, right? Sadness. So the amount of times that laments are in Psalms, it's good for us to know that we can bring confusion, sadness, grief to him.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, I used to think that we weren't supposed to. That is like reflecting that you're in the wrong place. Sure. Like, oh, you're not trusting God. Right. And why would God it's like that idea of questioning authority, right? You're told don't question me because I said so.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

But now as a mom, I think of it like I want my daughter to always bring the issues to me. So that helped me reframe it a bit too, and that understanding if something's wrong with my child, even if it goes against something that I've already like I've already explained, don't do this because XYZ, I still need her to bring the problem to me. And not even because I can always fix it, but because that's what keeps our relationship connected.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah. And it's at the same time, like God knows our heart and he knows what's grieving us. But can you imagine if your child had such a heavy grief and they didn't bring it to you? Because they thought you didn't want to hear it. Yeah. I mean, that would be so sad. So I think of all things, God wants, no matter what is on your mind, to bring it to him, not to figure it out first and then bring it to him.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

That's kind of the backwards way of doing it. But I've felt like that before too. Like, let me figure this out myself and then I'll pray. Once I kind of get a grasp of what I'm really feeling.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah. And I think that's the big the big difference that we see in some of the biblical figures like David or Moses or Jonah versus people like Saul or Samson, where they had God's favor. Yeah. And then they end up feeling that power for themselves. And then they start to make decisions and they're still gonna claim God, but it's sort of on the backside of, yeah, well, I've conquered this, I've made this work, I've done this great thing. Right. So yay, God. God's like, no, that's not that's not how we have relationship. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

You're like, oh, God's there in the background, He's saved me, He's redeemed me. I'm gonna figure this out now on my own. Kind of like when David had his two years respite from God when he kind of wasn't following God for two years, you know. So yeah, I mean, I think that's a good takeaway from Lament Psalms in general, just like this one as the first one, that it's totally okay to be like David and say, How many are my foes? Many are rising against me, many are saying, of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. That's like really a really heavy thing. But at the end, salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. So thanks for coming to our Psalm Psalms Shorts. I think it's Psalm Shorts. Psalm Shorts. Yeah, because that would be ridiculous. Psalms of Shorts, it's too hard to say. And we have 150 something to do. No one wants to hear us say Psalms the Shorts 50 150 times. So tune in next time. Thanks for listening and stay salty.