His Prayer for Deliverance, and Cry for Blessing on His People.
‘Arise, O YHWH, save me, O my God,
For you have smitten all my enemies on the cheekbone
You have broken the teeth of the wicked.'
David's cry here parallels the marching song of the hosts of Israel (Numbers 10:35; compare Psalms 68:1) as they went forward in confidence with the Ark leading the way. In the same way he was confident that YHWH would equally be with him even though the Ark was not there, for he knew that YHWH was not restricted to a physical object, however sacred.
He brings to mind past victories when God had smitten his enemies on the cheekbone. The smiting on the cheekbone was an act of reproach to a defeated opponent (Job 16:10; 1 Kings 22:24). It indicated reproach offered to someone who should have known better, and was a sign of total victory, and that all their resistance had ceased. Thus would YHWH again vindicate him at this time.
‘Breaking the teeth' of the wicked meant rendering them powerless, removing their weapons, and was based on the idea that captured wild animals would often have their teeth broken so as to render them safe (see Psalms 58:6). He has no doubt that God will deliver him again, rendering his enemies powerless and subject to reproach for attacking YHWH's anointed.
Those who trust in God can always be sure that even though they may have reached their weakest point God will hear them. Indeed the fact is that He often deliberately brings us to our weakest point so that we might learn to trust Him more.
‘Salvation belongs to YHWH.
Your blessing be on your people.'
The psalm ends with a cry of confidence. Salvation is in the hands of YHWH, for all deliverance is finally in His hands. This includes the deliverance of a nation or a king, and it includes a person's own personal deliverance. He is the Saviour (or otherwise, as He chooses) of kings, nations and individuals. All salvation belongs to Him. We are not therefore to look to strength of arm, but to the strength of God. In the New Testament this develops into the idea of God's saving action in each individual life. He works within us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). So daily we should face life with the same cry, ‘Salvation belongs to God'. And it is to Him that we should look daily in order to continually enjoy it. For although in one sense once we become His our salvation is complete, in another we need Him to continue to save us daily.
‘Your blessing be on your people.' Finally he prays that God's blessing may be on His people. Not just those who were with him at that time but on all his people. He recognised that much of the blame for the rebellion lay at his own door. Thus he sought that when he was finally delivered they might be blessed under his own re-enlightenment. Even in his extremity he did not forget his intercessory role. And as 2 Samuel 19:8-10 reveals, not all the people had followed Absalom. In the confusion of unexpected civil war, and leaderless, many of them had simply sought refuge in their homes to await events.
And as we know from our knowledge of later events, things turned out just as the Psalm says.