Psalm 3 is David’s prayer written while fleeing from his son Absalom’s rebellion. Despite being surrounded by enemies who said God wouldn’t save him, David declared his trust in God’s protection, slept peacefully, and woke confident that God would deliver him from thousands of foes.
Psalm 3 opens with a subtitle that changes everything about how we read it: “A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.”
This isn’t just poetry. This is a prayer written in the middle of a family nightmare. David’s own son had turned against him, gathered an army, and forced David to run for his life from Jerusalem. The king who had faced down Goliath as a teenager now found himself fleeing from his own child.
The historical account in 2 Samuel 15-18 gives us the full picture. Absalom had spent years winning the hearts of Israel’s people, undermining his father’s authority, and building a coalition to overthrow him. When David learned about the conspiracy, he had no choice but to escape the city with whoever remained loyal to him.
Picture that scene. David leaving Jerusalem—the city he’d made into Israel’s capital—surrounded by a small group of faithful men, knowing that thousands of former subjects now wanted him dead. And his son was leading them.
This psalm shows us what David prayed during those dark hours. What makes it so powerful is what happened next.
Verses 1-2: The Reality of Opposition
“Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.'”
David doesn’t soften the situation. He acknowledges exactly how bad things look. His enemies aren’t just numerous—they’re vocal about their belief that God has abandoned him. That last part cuts deep. It’s one thing to have people oppose you. It’s another thing entirely when they say God won’t save you.
Think about what David’s enemies were actually claiming. They looked at his situation—a father running from his rebellious son, a king fleeing his own capital—and concluded that God must have turned against him. Why else would he be in this position?
These weren’t just military threats. They were theological attacks. They questioned whether God was really with David at all.
Verse 3: But You
“But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.”
Notice that word “but.” Everything changes with that single word. Yes, the enemies are real. Yes, they’re saying God won’t deliver him. But David’s faith doesn’t rest on circumstances or what people say. It rests on who God is.
David calls God three things here:
- The One who lifts his head high
That third description matters more than we might realize. In ancient cultures, a bowed head signaled defeat, shame, or submission. Lifting your head high meant confidence, honor, and freedom. David is saying that even though his circumstances scream defeat, God lifts his head. God restores his dignity and confidence.
This is the same David who spent years in caves hiding from King Saul. He knew what it felt like to be hunted. He understood what it meant to wonder if God had forgotten him. But he’d also learned something through all those years: God’s protection isn’t always about removing threats. Sometimes it’s about sustaining you through them.
Verse 4: Prayer and Answer
“I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.”
The verb tenses here tell us something important. “I call out”—present tense, ongoing action. “He answers”—completed action. David is describing a pattern he’s experienced repeatedly. Every time he calls out to God, he receives an answer.
God answers from His “holy mountain.” For David, that meant Mount Zion in Jerusalem—the city he’d just fled. His enemies controlled Jerusalem now. Absalom sat in David’s palace. But David knew something his enemies didn’t understand: God’s presence on that mountain mattered more than who occupied the throne.
The physical location wasn’t what made the mountain holy. God’s presence did. And God’s presence wasn’t confined to geography. He could answer David anywhere.
Verse 5: The Sleep of Faith
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.”
Read that sentence slowly. David, surrounded by enemies who want him dead, with an army pursuing him, lies down and sleeps. Then he wakes up.
This verse captures something almost impossible to grasp. David’s enemies—led by his own son—could have attacked during the night. His small group of loyal men couldn’t possibly defend against thousands. Yet David slept peacefully and woke safely.
Why? “Because the Lord sustains me.”
The Hebrew word translated “sustains” here means to support, uphold, or maintain. David isn’t claiming he’s safe because of military strategy or favorable terrain. He’s safe because God sustains him. Period.
This explains why Psalm 3 has been called “the morning psalm” by many Bible scholars. David wrote it after waking up alive when he probably shouldn’t have been. His first thought wasn’t about battle plans or escape routes. His first thought was to acknowledge God’s protection through the night.
Verse 6: From Fear to Confidence
“I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.”
Notice what’s happened in David’s heart between verse 1 and verse 6. He started by acknowledging “how many are my foes” and ended by declaring he won’t fear “tens of thousands.”
The number of enemies actually increased in David’s description. But his fear decreased. What changed? Not his circumstances. Not the size of the opposing army. What changed was his focus.
When David focused on his enemies, he saw overwhelming odds. When he focused on God, the odds didn’t matter anymore. This is the same David who would later write in Psalm 27: “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear.”
That kind of confidence doesn’t come from denying reality. It comes from knowing who God is.
Verse 7: The Battle Cry
“Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.”
This verse makes some modern readers uncomfortable. It sounds violent. But remember the context. David isn’t asking God to destroy people who disagreed with him politically. These were people trying to kill him and everyone loyal to him. His own son wanted him dead.
The imagery of striking enemies on the jaw and breaking teeth comes from the language of wild animals. It’s the picture of removing a predator’s ability to attack and devour. David is asking God to stop his enemies from destroying him.
But notice something else: David is asking God to do this, not taking it into his own hands. He could have fought Absalom. He had skilled warriors with him. Instead, he fled and prayed. He left the outcome to God.
The historical account bears this out. When David’s commander Joab later killed Absalom against David’s explicit orders, David mourned deeply. “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you” (2 Samuel 18:33).
David wanted deliverance, but he didn’t want his son dead. He wanted God to intervene.
Verse 8: Where Salvation Comes From
“From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”
David ends this psalm by stating a truth his enemies refused to believe: salvation comes from God. Not from political maneuvering. Not from military strength. Not from popularity. From God alone.
Then he prays for God’s blessing on “your people.” Even while fleeing from Israelites who had sided with Absalom, David still viewed them as God’s people. He didn’t curse the nation. He asked God to bless them.
This shows us David’s heart. He wasn’t just fighting for his throne. He was fighting for what God intended for Israel.
What Actually Happened
Here’s what makes Psalm 3 so remarkable: David’s prayer was answered exactly as he asked.
According to 2 Samuel 17, Absalom’s counselor Ahithophel gave brilliant military advice: attack David immediately while he was weak and disorganized. But God used Hushai, David’s friend, to convince Absalom to wait and gather a larger army first.
That delay gave David time to regroup. When the battle finally came, Absalom’s forces were defeated. Absalom himself was killed—not by David’s order, but by Joab’s decision.
David returned to Jerusalem victorious. The rebellion ended. The king who fled came back.
But none of that had been certain when David wrote Psalm 3. When he prayed these words, he had no guarantee of survival, let alone victory. He just had faith that God heard him and would answer.
Four Truths from Psalm 3
This psalm teaches us four critical truths about facing opposition:
1. Acknowledge the reality. David didn’t pretend his situation wasn’t serious. He counted his enemies and admitted what they were saying about him. Faith doesn’t require denying how bad things are.
2. Remember who God is. When David shifted his focus from his enemies to God, everything changed. The circumstances stayed the same, but his perspective transformed.
3. Rest in God’s protection. The ability to sleep peacefully when surrounded by threats isn’t natural. It’s supernatural. It comes from trusting that God sustains you.
4. Leave the outcome to God. David asked God to deliver him and strike his enemies. But he didn’t take matters into his own hands. He prayed and waited for God to act.
When You’re Surrounded
You probably don’t have an army chasing you. But you know what it feels like to be surrounded.
Maybe it’s financial pressure coming from every direction. Maybe it’s health problems that won’t resolve. Maybe it’s relationship conflicts that seem impossible to fix. Maybe it’s people at work or in your family who oppose you at every turn.
Psalm 3 shows us how to respond. Not by denying the threats are real. Not by pretending everything is fine. But by doing what David did: acknowledging the reality, remembering who God is, and trusting Him with the outcome.
David’s enemies said God wouldn’t deliver him. David said God was his shield. David’s enemies surrounded him with thousands of soldiers. David slept peacefully and woke up safe.
The same God who sustained David through the night sustains you today. The same God who answered David’s prayers hears yours. The same God who delivered David can deliver you.
From the Lord comes deliverance. That was true for David three thousand years ago. It’s still true for you right now.
Psalm 3 Meaning: David’s Prayer When Enemies Surrounded Him
Psalm 3 is David’s prayer written while fleeing from his son Absalom’s rebellion. Despite being surrounded by enemies who said God wouldn’t save him, David declared his trust in God’s protection, slept peacefully, and woke confident that God would deliver him from thousands of foes.
Psalm 3 opens with a subtitle that changes everything about how we read it: “A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.”
This isn’t just poetry. This is a prayer written in the middle of a family nightmare. David’s own son had turned against him, gathered an army, and forced David to run for his life from Jerusalem. The king who had faced down Goliath as a teenager now found himself fleeing from his own child.
The historical account in 2 Samuel 15-18 gives us the full picture. Absalom had spent years winning the hearts of Israel’s people, undermining his father’s authority, and building a coalition to overthrow him. When David learned about the conspiracy, he had no choice but to escape the city with whoever remained loyal to him.
Picture that scene. David leaving Jerusalem—the city he’d made into Israel’s capital—surrounded by a small group of faithful men, knowing that thousands of former subjects now wanted him dead. And his son was leading them.
This psalm shows us what David prayed during those dark hours. What makes it so powerful is what happened next.
Verses 1-2: The Reality of Opposition
“Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.'”
David doesn’t soften the situation. He acknowledges exactly how bad things look. His enemies aren’t just numerous—they’re vocal about their belief that God has abandoned him. That last part cuts deep. It’s one thing to have people oppose you. It’s another thing entirely when they say God won’t save you.
Think about what David’s enemies were actually claiming. They looked at his situation—a father running from his rebellious son, a king fleeing his own capital—and concluded that God must have turned against him. Why else would he be in this position?
These weren’t just military threats. They were theological attacks. They questioned whether God was really with David at all.
Verse 3: But You
“But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.”
Notice that word “but.” Everything changes with that single word. Yes, the enemies are real. Yes, they’re saying God won’t deliver him. But David’s faith doesn’t rest on circumstances or what people say. It rests on who God is.
David calls God three things here:
That third description matters more than we might realize. In ancient cultures, a bowed head signaled defeat, shame, or submission. Lifting your head high meant confidence, honor, and freedom. David is saying that even though his circumstances scream defeat, God lifts his head. God restores his dignity and confidence.
This is the same David who spent years in caves hiding from King Saul. He knew what it felt like to be hunted. He understood what it meant to wonder if God had forgotten him. But he’d also learned something through all those years: God’s protection isn’t always about removing threats. Sometimes it’s about sustaining you through them.
Verse 4: Prayer and Answer
“I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.”
The verb tenses here tell us something important. “I call out”—present tense, ongoing action. “He answers”—completed action. David is describing a pattern he’s experienced repeatedly. Every time he calls out to God, he receives an answer.
God answers from His “holy mountain.” For David, that meant Mount Zion in Jerusalem—the city he’d just fled. His enemies controlled Jerusalem now. Absalom sat in David’s palace. But David knew something his enemies didn’t understand: God’s presence on that mountain mattered more than who occupied the throne.
The physical location wasn’t what made the mountain holy. God’s presence did. And God’s presence wasn’t confined to geography. He could answer David anywhere.
Verse 5: The Sleep of Faith
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.”
Read that sentence slowly. David, surrounded by enemies who want him dead, with an army pursuing him, lies down and sleeps. Then he wakes up.
This verse captures something almost impossible to grasp. David’s enemies—led by his own son—could have attacked during the night. His small group of loyal men couldn’t possibly defend against thousands. Yet David slept peacefully and woke safely.
Why? “Because the Lord sustains me.”
The Hebrew word translated “sustains” here means to support, uphold, or maintain. David isn’t claiming he’s safe because of military strategy or favorable terrain. He’s safe because God sustains him. Period.
This explains why Psalm 3 has been called “the morning psalm” by many Bible scholars. David wrote it after waking up alive when he probably shouldn’t have been. His first thought wasn’t about battle plans or escape routes. His first thought was to acknowledge God’s protection through the night.
Verse 6: From Fear to Confidence
“I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.”
Notice what’s happened in David’s heart between verse 1 and verse 6. He started by acknowledging “how many are my foes” and ended by declaring he won’t fear “tens of thousands.”
The number of enemies actually increased in David’s description. But his fear decreased. What changed? Not his circumstances. Not the size of the opposing army. What changed was his focus.
When David focused on his enemies, he saw overwhelming odds. When he focused on God, the odds didn’t matter anymore. This is the same David who would later write in Psalm 27: “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear.”
That kind of confidence doesn’t come from denying reality. It comes from knowing who God is.
Verse 7: The Battle Cry
“Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.”
This verse makes some modern readers uncomfortable. It sounds violent. But remember the context. David isn’t asking God to destroy people who disagreed with him politically. These were people trying to kill him and everyone loyal to him. His own son wanted him dead.
The imagery of striking enemies on the jaw and breaking teeth comes from the language of wild animals. It’s the picture of removing a predator’s ability to attack and devour. David is asking God to stop his enemies from destroying him.
But notice something else: David is asking God to do this, not taking it into his own hands. He could have fought Absalom. He had skilled warriors with him. Instead, he fled and prayed. He left the outcome to God.
The historical account bears this out. When David’s commander Joab later killed Absalom against David’s explicit orders, David mourned deeply. “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you” (2 Samuel 18:33).
David wanted deliverance, but he didn’t want his son dead. He wanted God to intervene.
Verse 8: Where Salvation Comes From
“From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”
David ends this psalm by stating a truth his enemies refused to believe: salvation comes from God. Not from political maneuvering. Not from military strength. Not from popularity. From God alone.
Then he prays for God’s blessing on “your people.” Even while fleeing from Israelites who had sided with Absalom, David still viewed them as God’s people. He didn’t curse the nation. He asked God to bless them.
This shows us David’s heart. He wasn’t just fighting for his throne. He was fighting for what God intended for Israel.
What Actually Happened
Here’s what makes Psalm 3 so remarkable: David’s prayer was answered exactly as he asked.
According to 2 Samuel 17, Absalom’s counselor Ahithophel gave brilliant military advice: attack David immediately while he was weak and disorganized. But God used Hushai, David’s friend, to convince Absalom to wait and gather a larger army first.
That delay gave David time to regroup. When the battle finally came, Absalom’s forces were defeated. Absalom himself was killed—not by David’s order, but by Joab’s decision.
David returned to Jerusalem victorious. The rebellion ended. The king who fled came back.
But none of that had been certain when David wrote Psalm 3. When he prayed these words, he had no guarantee of survival, let alone victory. He just had faith that God heard him and would answer.
Four Truths from Psalm 3
This psalm teaches us four critical truths about facing opposition:
1. Acknowledge the reality. David didn’t pretend his situation wasn’t serious. He counted his enemies and admitted what they were saying about him. Faith doesn’t require denying how bad things are.
2. Remember who God is. When David shifted his focus from his enemies to God, everything changed. The circumstances stayed the same, but his perspective transformed.
3. Rest in God’s protection. The ability to sleep peacefully when surrounded by threats isn’t natural. It’s supernatural. It comes from trusting that God sustains you.
4. Leave the outcome to God. David asked God to deliver him and strike his enemies. But he didn’t take matters into his own hands. He prayed and waited for God to act.
When You’re Surrounded
You probably don’t have an army chasing you. But you know what it feels like to be surrounded.
Maybe it’s financial pressure coming from every direction. Maybe it’s health problems that won’t resolve. Maybe it’s relationship conflicts that seem impossible to fix. Maybe it’s people at work or in your family who oppose you at every turn.
Psalm 3 shows us how to respond. Not by denying the threats are real. Not by pretending everything is fine. But by doing what David did: acknowledging the reality, remembering who God is, and trusting Him with the outcome.
David’s enemies said God wouldn’t deliver him. David said God was his shield. David’s enemies surrounded him with thousands of soldiers. David slept peacefully and woke up safe.
The same God who sustained David through the night sustains you today. The same God who answered David’s prayers hears yours. The same God who delivered David can deliver you.
From the Lord comes deliverance. That was true for David three thousand years ago. It’s still true for you right now.
Olivia Clarke
I’m Olivia Clarke, a Bible teacher and writer passionate about helping others connect deeply with God’s Word. Through each piece I write, my heart is to encourage, equip, and remind you of the hope and truth we have in Christ.
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