“Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.”
This lament psalm opens with the speaker surrounded by rising enemies whose claim that God has abandoned him expresses the fundamental crisis of faith that laments articulate. The multiplication of foes many rise against me depicts the speaker as overwhelmed and isolated, while the enemy's taunt that God has withdrawn salvation strikes at the heart of covenantal relationship. The superscription's attribution to David during his flight from Absalom provides a historical frame suggesting that even chosen figures experience desertion, raising acute theological questions about divine faithfulness. This opening establishes the lament's existential pressure: the speaker's physical danger corresponds to spiritual crisis, making survival itself a matter of theological interpretation.
Church Fathers on Psalms 3:1
A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of Abessalon his son. 1. The words, “I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take me up,” lead us to believe that this Psalm is to be understood as in the Person of Christ; for they sound more applicable to the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, than to that history in which David's flight is described from the face of his rebellious son. And, since it is written of Christ's disciples, “The sons of the bridegroom…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!