The Passion Translation | Study | Dr. Brian Simmons

Lesson 3 / Psalm 3: Covered by the Glory ​

King ’s song when he was forced to flee from Absalom, his own son

The rabbis call this ‘The Morning Hymn.’ The words of this psalm could have been heard early in the morning from the lips of Jesus Christ as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. It is the song of a in grave peril as a new day dawns. It is the heartbreak of a father (David) that spoke these words. Although known as a psalm of lament, the true theme of Psalm 3 is: quietness in the midst of troubles. Even though the king was in a painful situation, he still had a song in his heart.

This psalm begins at a very low moment in the life of David. Because of his sin with Bathsheba, his family life was torn apart with strife. Absalom was the arrogant, insolent son of David who attempted to take the kingship from his father by force. He was David’s third son by Maacah, the daughter of king Geshur. Absalom was a charming prince with the people and used his charm to steal their heart from his father the king. Exiled for the murder of his brother Ammon, Absalom eventually returned to Jerusalem and plotted to dethrone his father. David learned of the rebellion of his son and fled to Mahanaim. Although Absalom was formally anointed king, he was eventually defeated and killed by David’s army (2 Sam.15-18).

A marginal (alternate) reading of the inscription is, “To the chief musician on neginoth”. Neginoth is taken from a word that means “to strike, or lay hands on”. It was sometimes used for a string instrument that was strummed with the hand, but it also means to strike down the enemy and be victorious. This psalm is the striking of ’s servant and God’s victory we discover in our difficulties.

Jesus Christ is the Son of David and the Seed of David (Matt.1:1 & Luke 1:30-33). The path that David took as he fled from Absalom is the same as Jesus’ departure from Jerusalem to pray in Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal and arrest. Both David and Jesus passed through the Kidron valley (“valley of mourning”), weeping as they went up by the ascent of Mt. Olivet (II Sam. 15:30 and 15:23). It is simply amazing that King David and his loyal men traced the steps that King Jesus would one day take on His way to Gethsemane and Calvary.

David, in spite of the rebellion of his son, loved Abasalom. He mourned over him while he lived and was heartbroken when he died. One of the great glimpses we have into the heart of the “sweet Psalmist of Israel” is found in the account of David and Absalom. David did not resist the rebellion or even defend himself from those who misunderstood him. He fled from his home and took his household with him, rather than battle with Absalom. During all this season of his life, David chose to trust the Lord and let God vindicate him.

This was the backdrop for the writing of Psalm 3. David is fleeing from his angry son. The army of Absalom is chasing him, ready to kill them all. Psalms 3-7 give us David’s perspective of godly living, even when misunderstood.

As you study this Psalm this week, ask for a heart of wisdom into seasons of trouble and pain. These seasons come to us all, just as they did for David and the Lord Jesus, but they are not wasted as we quiet our hearts before Him and find in Him our strength and safety. Discover Him as your Shield, Savior, and Hero—the One who comes—when you “simply cry out”!

Outline: V. 1-2 The Humbling of a King

V. 3-4 The Help of God

V. 5-6 The Song of Safety

V. 7-8 The Secret of Strength

The Humbling of a King (v.1-2)

V. 1) “LORD, I have so many enemies, so many who are against me.”

David begins his to Yahweh in the vocative case. How many enemies did David have? Nearly all of Israel! Almost all who once sang songs of David’s might are now turned against him in revolt and siding with Absalom, his treacherous son (II Sam.16:15, 17:11-13). His enemies are circling in for the kill. Few believers have experienced such pain and heartache as the fugitive father David did over the rebellion of his son. The accusation, the anger, the pain of betrayal, the father’s love for a wayward son… all of these emotions explode in the lines of this poem.

V. 2) “Listen to how they whisper their slander against me, saying: ‘Look! He’s hopeless! Even God can’t save him from this!’”

Have you ever faced a hopeless situation? David had many foes, so many who were rising up against him, and many skeptics who did not believe God would come to help him. Anyone who moves out for God can expect to experience opposition in these three realms…David’s were numerous, aggressive, and mocking. But this will be matched by three realms of God’s salvation: He will cover our vulnerability as a SHIELD, He will counter the scorns of our enemies by causing us to know Him as our GLORY, and He will reverse the towering opposition of our by becoming the LIFTER of our heads.

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David and Job both experienced the words of hopelessness from others. David had nowhere to turn as many told him God was not there for him and that Elohim would not rescue him. Shimei cursed him to his face, throwing stones at David as he walked by. Not only did his enemies taunt him, but so did his friends…those who were once his faithful counsellors. They all deserted him, saying, “He is hopeless. God will not come to help him.” There is perhaps nothing that could be said to another person that is more hurtful than this.

Jesus was also One who experienced this pain. His cry on the cross was this: “My God, My God…why have You forsaken Me?” David’s grief points us to One greater than David...

Pause in his presence, or the Hebrew word “”, is a puzzling word to translate. Most scholars believe it is a musical term for pause or rest. It is used a total of seventy-one times in the Psalms as an instruction to the leader to pause and ponder in God’s presence. An almost identical word, Sela, means a massive rock cliff. It is said that when Selah is spoken that the words are carved in stone in the throne room of the heavens.

However, most scholars view Selah as the word for a musical pause—a time to reflect on what has been sung, a time to rest. The musicians would use this pause to retune their harps. Strings so easily get out of tune…just like the strings of our heart. We must let “Selah” teach us to pray and realign our hearts with God’s ways.

There are three “Selahs” in this Psalm and three deliverances: from our fears, from our unbelief, and from all our foes! This first ‘selah’ causes the heart to turn away from our enemies and turn in confidence to the Lord. Quietness turns into confidence as we wait on the Lord. We must all eventually turn our attention from our enemies to God.

The Help of God (v.3-4)

V. 3) “But in the depths of my heart I truly know that you, Yahweh, have become my Shield; you take me and surround me with yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head when I bow low in shame.”

God is a circle of protection around David. The “many” are wrong! God will come to His friends and deliver them from evil. As soon as David turned his thoughts away from his enemies, he was reminded of how strong God is and how loving the Lord is to protect him. God is the shield around the life that seeks Him. In the New Testament, is the shield…but it is a faith that trusts in GOD (Eph. 6:16). Because faith points us to God, it becomes our defense and protection. HIS faith becomes our defense.

It is better to hide behind Jehovah’s shield than to defend oneself. He becomes our Defender. David discovered in his pain that God surrounded Him and would be the Divine Protector. Some of the oldest translations of this verse render it: “You, O Lord, are my Taker.” The implication is that God shields us by taking us into Himself. Jesus Christ is the “Taker” of humanity, the One

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who was made flesh, taking our weakness into His Divine strength. He not only took our nature, but He took our sins. We have been taken, apprehended for God. This shield was all around David, it was his sacred covering.

Ponder David’s declaration: “Your glory covers me continually.” When we are covered by the Lord as a shield, His glory falls upon us. Drink deep of this truth: Your King bestows glory upon you! God bestows glory in the midst of affliction and pain. Hidden in His presence, He wraps a glory blanket around us. As Jesus Christ took us to Himself, He replaced our sorrow with glory. He is our source of honor, not what others say about us. David rested in the glory realm all around him even as the angry words of others were like stones bouncing off his heart. When you let God be your glory, sticks and stones and angry words will not hurt you. The Glorious One is your strength.

David experienced this: “For you lift my head when I bow low in shame.” The head that is bowed down in shame and disgrace, God tenderly lifts it up to look into Abba’s eyes. The one thing that encourages and elevates the human spirit is the touch of God! Love lifts our head and lets us look into His eyes. He has the power to lift up the humble and the broken and give them joy. When God lifts up our heads, He restores dignity and worth that has been robbed from us. The Lord is interested in every thought of our heart and our every inner impulse. He not only delivers and rescues us from harm, He restores our heart and fills us with confidence again.

Think of God as your “Lifter-up”. Sin beats us down, but God lifts us up! We can always expect Him to lift up our head, even though we may not see Him doing it right now. God is a shield to protect me, my glory to restore dignity, and the lifter-up of my head to give me new courage.

Jesus truly could have sung this Psalm in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to His arrest. He found God, His Father, as the Shield and the Lifter-up of His head, what a blessed Head! The glory of the Father came streaming down upon the brow of Jesus as He cried aloud and rested His soul in God.

V. 4) “I have cried out to you, and from your holy presence you send me a Father’s help.”

The heart cries out, and God answers. This is the joy of prayer that turns depair into deliverance. “I have cried out to you, and…you send me a Father’s help.” The prayer of faith will be answered. Another way this could be translated is: “Whenever I call He answers!”

Jesus prayed like this in Gethsemane. He looked to the Father and cried aloud (Matt.26:39). Out of His distress and anguish of soul, the Father answered and delivered Him from premature death in the garden.

During Christ’s days on earth, he pleaded with God, praying with passion and with tearful agony that God would spare him from death. And, because of his perfect devotion, his prayer was answered, and he was delivered. (Hebrews 5:7)

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It seems from this passage that the devil attempted to take Jesus’ life prior to the cross, but the Son cried aloud, and the Father answered from His holy hill. Angels were dispatched, and the Lord of Glory was kept alive so He could be the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world.

The holy hill is where God has enthroned His Son (), His Ark of Glory. Not Absalom’s decree, but God’s, will issue forth from Mt. Zion. The Holy Hill is the Tabernacle of David, the very place the Ark rests. It is to this hill that David looks as he is pursued by Absalom. Later, David would be seated before the Ark singing this song as his testimony of God’s deliverance. Today, we can come before the Lord of Glory, the Lifter-up of our heads, and cry aloud to Him. There is One in the Sanctuary who will hear our cry. He will surely come and answer us out of His glorious presence!

Pause in his presence—rest awhile in His presence, weary one. HE is the answer you seek!

The Song of Safety (v.5-6)

V. 5) “So now I’ll lie down and go to sleep—and I’ll awake in safety for you surround me with your glory.”

At last, peace comes to the troubled soul. Sleep comes. The flesh no longer strives as the spirit within finds rest. Many are those who lie awake out of anxiety, but the trusting soul finds sweet sleep, knowing the morning will come. David had his sweet night of rest, not in the palace in Jerusalem, but in the fields as he hid himself from Absalom. Even though his enemies were all around, David could lie down and sleep peacefully. This is the rest of faith.

Jesus went to sleep and arose three days later. He rose again! It was Lord God who sustained Him, even in the death of the cross. Another way of translating this verse: “I slept and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take Me up.” [Augustine]

He was not abandoned, and neither will we be abandoned. The Sustainer of our life will hold us near. We will awake to a new day. Every dark night will see a brighter morning.

V. 6) “Even though dark powers prowl around me, I won’t be afraid.”

Even with no way of escape in the natural, God will surround us with supernatural strength and favor. We must learn to believe God in spite of appearances. What could look worse than having tens of thousands of enemies drawn up against you on every side? What is one against ten-thousand?

Prayer releases us from fear and brings us into the resting place where turmoil cannot enter. It was David’s gaze into the holy hill that empowered him to walk above fear. We must come to the place of declaring in our distress, “I will NOT fear!” We must speak it, and sing it, and pray it

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until it brings us peace. It makes no difference how strong your enemies, how few your friends, how weak your heart, for in Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors!

The Secret of Strength (v.7-8)

V. 7) “I simply cry out to you: ‘Rise up and help me, Lord! Come and save me!’ And you will slap them in the face, breaking the power of their words to harm me.”

This is a war cry: “Rise up and help me, Lord!” David was crying out to the Lord to stir Himself to deliver His outnumbered servant. And God answered this prayer. He caused Absalom to listen to bad advice which drew him out to his death at the hands of David’s loyal men. God was going before David, and deliverance would surely come.

David boldly prayed, “Slap them in the face, breaking the power of their words to harm me.” We may never strike our enemies, but God will! Every time we leave our defense and our vindication to God, He will deliver us. Every time we try to defend our fallen flesh and vindicate ourselves in the eyes of others, we will be ashamed.

The “jaw” of our enemies is their mocking lies. Their “jaw” has the power to discourage and defeat us if our eyes are not fixed on God. David is praying that God would silence the power of their curses spoken over him. David knew it was a spiritual battle, not merely a natural one. The “jaw” of your enemies has power to cripple you with fear, but prayer has the power to break their teeth!

Those who hate you without a cause will lose their power to harm you as you seek God in prayer. This Psalm is a testimony of how prayer works in spiritual warfare to silence our foes and break the power of slander.

V. 8) “My true Hero comes to my rescue, for the Lord alone is my Savior. What a feast of favor and bliss he gives his people!”

This is the verse Jonah quoted in his dark night while in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2:9). Salvation comes from the Lord—not from men, nor from our own cleverness. God alone can save us when tens of thousands are against us. They said God would not help David, but here we see the Lord is His Deliverer.

The Hebrew word for deliverance is “yeshuah,” the name for Jesus. From the LORD comes Jesus. A reference pointing us to where our salvation is found, but is it also a reference to the virgin birth? Jesus’ name means, “The Lord our salvation” or “From the Lord comes deliverance.”

“What a feast of favor and bliss he gives his people.” Pause in his presence. In Christ is found all the blessings and all the treasures God could ever give the human heart! This “blessing”

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imparts victory and deliverance, a confidence that comes to those who rest in the Lord even in the midst of the schemes of men. As faith rises in our hearts, we become “his people”. Calmly think about that…Selah!

Use of Psalm 3 for the Tabernacle of David:

This is the Hymn of the Morning, to be sung at the dawning of a new day, but it is sung in mostly a minor key, for it is a dawning from a sleepless night of difficulty and uncertainty. Have you ever had a sleepless night? This is the song of a soul in great peril and distress. Yet within, there is heard the notes of great encouragement as the prayer of the godly is answered.

This is a morning song that would be appropriately sung as the dawn breaks. Israel used this text regularly in morning worship

Some have given as a title for this Psalm, “Surrounded by Enemies”. This would make a great song for those who feel surrounded by difficulties and in a hard place. David learned the secret of praising His way out of trouble into truth.

It is a prayer of lament and faith mixed together. It is full of emotion. It should be sung prayerfully, full of pauses and moments of reflection. At each “Selah” (Pause in His Presence), there should be relative quietness to bring to bear the emotion of the moment.

It seems this Psalm would express the flowing of a heart moving from a place of despair toward a place of resolution—the place of faith and rest. The third “Selah” would bring us to a place of sweet resignation and confidence.

The French Protestants who were sorely persecuted used this Psalm for the stationing of sentinels to keep watch against sudden attack. During the French “wars of religion”, sentries from Conde’s army would signal danger with the chant, “O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!”

Beginning with verse 7, there is a marked change of tone in this Psalm. The light of day is dawning as victory shines forth. The heart is touched by the glory!

Remember that Jesus also experienced sleepless nights and awoke to a day of trouble. Yet through it all, Jehovah sustained Him. Sing this Psalm from the perspective of Jesus in Gethsemane just prior to His arrest. The very emotions of the Son of David are experienced through this Psalm. [See Hebrews 5:7]

This Psalm would express a heart that is “depressed” but moves fully into great trust. To be covered in His glory is the greatest state of life. Enemies have now been defeated! Adversaries were overcome by God’s rescuing power!

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It is not difficult to see Christ praying this prayer. He no doubt prayed and sang the Psalms of David. We can see in Psalm 3 a powerful portrayal of the depth of difficulty the Son of David endured. The wide scope of this powerful Psalm is fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.

Let’s Go Deeper! Questions:

1. What has God spoken to you through the study of this Psalm?

2. Have you ever faced a hopeless situation, feeling like you were surrounded by enemies? How did you deal with this?

3. David had a song in his heart, even in one of his most painful situations in life. What was his secret for singing out his song? Do you ever sing when you’re in difficulty?

4. Have you ever felt God’s protection like a shield keeping you from harm? Please explain. What does this teach you about His heart for you? How does it reveal the father-heart of God?

5. God lifts up our head when we are bowed down in shame. What does that mean to you? Has there been a time in your life when God set you free from shame and restored dignity to you?

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6. What brings you peace in a sleepless night? Please explain.

7. Do you see God as your True Hero? How has He delivered you from angry insults?

Activation: ● Each verse of this Psalm is a prayer or a faith declaration. Make the words your own. Pray them out and declare the truths into your situation and your life.

● Read :5. Right in the midst of our enemies, we can still feast! Ask the Lord to help you remember this truth when next you feel “surrounded” so that you praise and feast until you only feel surrounded by His glory! (v5) Can you sense God’s blessings, His feast of favor, on your life? Spend some time simply feasting of His “favor and bliss”. Drink deeply!

Notes: ______

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