The superscription names the moment exactly: a psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. This is not poetry composed in comfort about trouble in general — it is a king running for his life from his own child’s rebellion, writing down, in the middle of the crisis, that he still slept soundly through the night.
A study in Psalm 3 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
LORD, How Are They Increased That Trouble Me!
“LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God.”
Psalm 3:1-2
The rebellion David is fleeing here is his own son’s, and the crowd growing against him is described as expanding by the hour — “increased” and “many” repeated for emphasis. Worse than the numbers is what they are saying: not merely that David will lose, but that God Himself has abandoned him.
Thou, O LORD, Art A Shield For Me
“But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.”
Psalm 3:3-4
David answers the accusation directly rather than arguing with the crowd — not a defense of his own standing, but a statement about God’s. “The lifter up of mine head” pictures a man too ashamed or defeated to look up, whose head is raised by someone else entirely. This is a king in exile, and he is not too proud to describe himself this way.
I Laid Me Down And Slept
“I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.”
Psalm 3:5-6
This is the psalm’s most striking claim, easy to read past without noticing how unusual it is: a fugitive king, actively pursued by an army loyal to his own son, reports sleeping through the night and waking rested. Fear this severe does not typically permit that kind of rest. David names God, not circumstance, as the reason it happened anyway.
“David and all his company—warriors and statesmen, old men and youth, the women and the little children—in the darkness of night crossed the deep and swift-flowing river.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 742
White’s narrative fills in exactly what this psalm’s calm confidence was actually set against — not a tidy retreat, but an entire household, from elderly counselors to small children, fording a river at night ahead of an advancing army. The sleep David describes in verse 5 happened inside that scene, not instead of it.
Arise, O LORD; Save Me, O My God
“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. Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people.”
Psalm 3:7-8
The psalm closes with a request phrased almost as a done deal — David asks God to arise and save him using verbs of past completed action, “thou hast smitten,” as though the outcome were already as settled as the sleep he just described. The final line widens the scope one more time: whatever happens to David personally, the real subject is that salvation itself belongs to the LORD, not to armies or numbers on either side.
