Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Psalms
Book: Psalms
Chapter: 3
Overview:
David complains to
God of his enemies, and confides in
God.
(1-3) He triumphs over his fears, and gives
God the
Glory, and
takes to himself the comfort.
(4-8)
1-3 An active believer, the more he is beaten off from
God,
either
By the rebukes of
Providence, or the reproaches of
enemies, the faster
Hold he will take, and the closer will he
cleave to him. A
Child of
God startles at the very thought of
despairing of help in
God. See what
God is to his people, what
he will be, what they have found him, what
David found in him.
1. Safety; a
Shield for me; which denotes the advantage of that
protection. 2. Honour; those whom
God owns for his, have true
honour
Put upon them. 3. Joy and deliverance. If, in the worst
of times,
God's people can lift up their heads with joy, knowing
that all shall work for good to them, they will own
God as
giving them both cause and hearts to rejoice.
4-8 Care and grief do us good, when they engage us to pray to
God, as in
Earnest.
David had always found
God ready to answer
his prayers. Nothing can fix a gulf between the communications
of
God's
Grace towards us, and the working of his
Grace in us;
between his favour and our
Faith. He had always been very safe
under the Divine protection. This is applicable to the common
mercies of every night, for which we ought to give thanks every
morning. Many
Lie down, and cannot sleep, through pain of body,
or anguish of mind, or the continual alarms of fear in the
night. But it seems here rather to be meant of the calmness of
David's
Spirit, in the midst of his dangers. The
Lord,
By his
Grace and the consolations of his
Spirit, made him easy. It is a
great
Mercy, when we are in trouble, to have our minds stayed
upon
God. Behold the Son of
David composing himself to his
Rest
upon the
Cross, that
Bed of sorrows; commending his
Spirit into
the
Father's hands in full confidence of a joyful resurrection.
Behold this, O
Christian: let
Faith teach thee how to sleep, and
how to die; while it assures thee that as sleep is a short
Death,
So Death is only a longer sleep; the same
God Watches
over thee, in thy
Bed and in thy
Grave.
David's
Faith became
triumphant. He began the psalm with complaints of the strength
and malice of his enemies; but concludes with rejoicing in the
power and
Grace of his
God, and now sees more with him than
against him.
Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord; he has power to
save, be the danger ever
So great. All that have the
Lord for
their
God, are sure of
Salvation; for he who is their
God, is
the
God of
Salvation.