Psalm 3

Lamentation (persecuted and accused)

God and Man Make a Majority

                6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people

                Who have set themselves against me round about.

·         The saddest thing in all this tumult and civil war was that it was the punishment sent by God, according to prophecy, on David for his sin in the matter of Uriah.

·         In the conflict, also, man has not understanding, but becomes capable of this only after the conflict is over—reflects then aright upon what has occurred to him under it.

·         [I]n times of deep trouble the mind studies not logical unity. It is more apt to give vent to its emotions in broken sentences, yet really pertinent.

·         [David’s] view of his own sinfulness showed him the justice of God in sending these, and even worse afflictions.

·         Despair is the perfection of unbelief.

·         There is hardly a sweeter thought of heaven than that there we shall be done with temptation.

·         The effects of a pious education are often not manifest until the heart of parents is nearly broken by the wickedness of their offspring. . . . Grace is not hereditary. God is a sovereign.

·         Popular breath is as fickle as the wind, and as light as vanity. The want of it is proof against no man’s worth. The possession of it confirms no man’s title to esteem.

·         [God] knows how to make the iron enter into the soul of his erring people.

·         God may greatly afflict his chosen even after they have truly repented of their sins. It was so with David here. The Lord often sees it good for us to have the past in sad remembrance. When he does thus try us, let us fall into the arms of him, who chastises us.

·         “Perils and frights should drive us to God, not from him.” (Henry)

·         As soon as David’s trouble comes, he goes to God. Blessed words are these: “We are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” ( 1 Cor 11:32).

·         We never receive from God a stroke more than we both deserve and need either for our purification or usefulness. And we never repent too frequently or too humbly for our sins. They are more hateful than we have ever felt them to be. True repentance is not a fit; it is a habit.

·         Despair may do a prodigious deed of valor; it never performed a great work of faith or of patience.

·         “True Christian fortitude consists more in a gracious security and serenity of mind, in patient bearing, and patient waiting, than in daring enterprises, sword in hand.” (Henry)

·         “This Psalm is profitable to us for comforting weak and straitened consciences, if we understand in a spiritual sense, by the enemies and teeth of the ungodly, the temptations of sin and the conscience of an ill-spent life. For there indeed is the heart of the sinner vexed, there alone is it weak and forsaken; and when men are not accustomed to lift their eyes above themselves, against the floods of sin, and know to make God their refuge against an evil conscience, there is great danger: and it is to be feared lest the evil spirits, who, in such a case, are ready to seize upon poor souls, may at last swallow them up, and lead them through distress into doubt.” (Luther)

·         Apollinarius calls the third Psalm a mournful song, and so it is; yet where will you find higher confidence expressed than in portions of this wailing composition?

·         In devotion, logical connection is of far less importance than fervor, humility, faith, and the spirit of submission and importunity.”