Psalms 3:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Arise, O Lord, save me Defer no longer, but let them see thou hast not forsaken me; O my God Who art mine by special relation and covenant: Lord, save thy own. Deliver me from these my rebellious subjects, whose policy and power I am unable to withstand without thee. For thou hast smitten mine enemies Namely, in times past; on the cheek bone Hast discomfited and put them to shame, hast subdued and exposed them to contempt and reproach. Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly That is, their strength, and the instruments of their cruelty. As, then, thou hast hitherto helped me, do not now leave me; but deliver me from these, as thou hast formerly delivered me from other powerful enemies. Thus David, in his distress, encouraged himself in God by the experience he had had of his former gracious interpositions in his favour, by saving him from his cruel enemies, who had frequently attempted his destruction, and whom he compares to savage beasts, which tear their prey with their teeth, and grind it with their jaws, an allusion which, in a country abounding with these ravenous creatures, was natural and expressive. Some, however, consider him as relating, in the former verses, the state of his mind during his flight, and as expressing, in the latter part of this, and in the following, his thankfulness for his deliverance, which he ascribes entirely to God's power and goodness. See Chandler.