‏ Psalms 3

* David complains to God of his enemies, and confides in God.

(1-3) He triumphs over his fears, and gives God the glory, and

takes to himself the comfort. (4-8)1-3 An active believer, the more he is beaten off from God,

either by the rebukes of providence, or the reproaches of

enemies, the faster hold he will take, and the closer will he

cleave to him. A child of God startles at the very thought of

despairing of help in God. See what God is to his people, what

he will be, what they have found him, what David found in him.

1. Safety; a shield for me; which denotes the advantage of that

protection. 2. Honour; those whom God owns for his, have true

honour put upon them. 3. Joy and deliverance. If, in the worst

of times, God's people can lift up their heads with joy, knowing

that all shall work for good to them, they will own God as

giving them both cause and hearts to rejoice. 4-8 Care and grief do us good, when they engage us to pray to

God, as in earnest. David had always found God ready to answer

his prayers. Nothing can fix a gulf between the communications

of God's grace towards us, and the working of his grace in us;

between his favour and our faith. He had always been very safe

under the Divine protection. This is applicable to the common

mercies of every night, for which we ought to give thanks every

morning. Many lie down, and cannot sleep, through pain of body,

or anguish of mind, or the continual alarms of fear in the

night. But it seems here rather to be meant of the calmness of

David's spirit, in the midst of his dangers. The Lord, by his

grace and the consolations of his Spirit, made him easy. It is a

great mercy, when we are in trouble, to have our minds stayed

upon God. Behold the Son of David composing himself to his rest

upon the cross, that bed of sorrows; commending his Spirit into

the Father's hands in full confidence of a joyful resurrection.

Behold this, O Christian: let faith teach thee how to sleep, and

how to die; while it assures thee that as sleep is a short

death, so death is only a longer sleep; the same God watches

over thee, in thy bed and in thy grave. David's faith became

triumphant. He began the psalm with complaints of the strength

and malice of his enemies; but concludes with rejoicing in the

power and grace of his God, and now sees more with him than

against him. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; he has power to

save, be the danger ever so great. All that have the Lord for

their God, are sure of salvation; for he who is their God, is

the God of Salvation