Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Psalm 3

What should I learn from this chapter?

• As David, so Jonah, so Jesus

The Lord Helps His Troubled People

A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

Psalm 3:¹ Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.

• Prophetic of Jesus. David’s life and writings often parallel, becoming prophetic, of Jesus. To “rise up” is metaphorical of a sea of people, people who rise like waters which threatened to drown the writer.
• 2 Samuel 22: 1,47-49 David spoke to the Lord the words of this song (2 Samuel 22), on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
  • ⁴⁷“The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, The Rock of my salvation!
    ⁴⁸ It is God who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me;
    ⁴⁹ He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man.

Psalm 3:² Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God (‘ĕlōhîm-plural for God).” Selah

Like King David, Jesus also experienced the threat of His enemies:

• Luke 23:35 And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”

Psalm 3:³ But You, O Lord (Yᵊhōvâ), are a shield (Lit. around) for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.

• The word “but” means “the flipside is”. David knows the truth and will proclaim it.
• God is the “lifter of our heads”.
  • If you want to pick up trash in your life, look down.
  • If you want to absorb the Sonshine, look up.

Psalm 3:⁴ I cried to the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

• David uses his voice to cry to God. To cry out has a personal application for man; let us use our voices to cry out to God so that our voice can attest to God’s salvation in the same way Lazarus was risen from the dead as a visual attestation of God’s power to raise men from the dead.

• Psalm 2:6 “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”

Psalm 3:⁵ I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) sustained me.

• King David slept in peace amid the fear as Jesus did in the boat during a threatening storm.

• Matthew 28:²³ Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. ²⁴ And suddenly a great tempest arose on (the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. ²⁵ Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” ²⁶ But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷ So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

• Again, the sea is a sea of people metaphorically and the storm is the effect of Satan in the midst of people stirring them up and causing them to boil and “rise up”.

Psalm 3:⁶ I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

• Strong leaders surrounded Jesus at the cross.
  • Psalm 22:12 Many bulls (leaders) have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan (a place of giants) have encircled Me.

Psalm 3:⁷ Arise, O Lord (Yᵊhōvâ) ;
Save me, O my God (‘ĕlōhîm)!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Good vs Ungodly.

Psalm 3:⁸ Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah

• Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Yehoshua (Yeh-HO-shoo-ah), which, over time, became contracted to the shorter Yeshua (Yeh-SHOO-ah). Yehoshua, and therefore Yeshua as well, means “the Lord is salvation”

• Therefore; one can substitute the word “salvation” for “Yeshua”, not only in Psalm 3:8 but elsewhere in scripture. Yeshua is the Hebrew word for Jesus in Greek.