“Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.”
The call for God to arise, save, and strike enemies shifts from assertion to petition, invoking divine action that transforms the speaker from passive victim to God's instrument of vindication. The violence of striking and breaking teeth employs graphic imagery of overwhelming enemy power, making the petition graphically violent. This verse makes explicit what earlier verses implied: divine protection entails enemy destruction, establishing that the speaker's safety and enemy defeat are inextricable. The invocation of divine rising suggests that God enters human history to accomplish what creatures cannot achieve, making the psalmist's salvation dependent on divine military intervention.
Church Fathers on Psalms 3:7
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!