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Psalm 3Trust in God under AdversityA Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. 1 O L ord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying to me, “There is no help for you in God.” Selah
3 But you, O L ord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 4 I cry aloud to the L ord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the L ord sustains me. 6 I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Rise up, O L ord! Deliver me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Deliverance belongs to the L ord; may your blessing be on your people! Selah New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Because ל is sometimes used by the Hebrews for מך Min, some not improperly translate this clause, Salvation is of the Lord. I, however consider the natural and obvious meaning to be simply this, that salvation or deliverance is only in the hands of God. By these words, David not only claims the office and praise of saving for God alone, tacitly opposing his power to all human succor; but also declares, that although a thousand deaths hang over his people, yet this cannot render God unable to save them, or prevent him from speedily sending forth without any effort, the deliverance which he is always able to impart. In the end of the psalm, David affirms that this was vouchsafed, not so much to him as an individual, as to the whole people, that the universal Church, whose welfare depended on the safety and prosperity of his kingdom, might be preserved from destruction. David, therefore, acknowledges the dispersion of this wicked conspiracy to have been owing to the care which God had about the safety of his Church. From this passage we learn, that the Church shall always be delivered from the calamities which befall her, because God who is able to save her, will never withdraw his grace and blessing from her. |