Lord, how are they increased that trouble me.
Morning thoughts
With returning day there comes back on the monarch’s heart the recollection of the enemies who threaten him, a nation up in arms against him; his own son heading the rebellion, his wisest and most trusted counsellor in the ranks of his foes (2 Samuel 15:1-37; 2 Samuel 16:1-23; 2 Samuel 17:1-29). Never, not even when hunted by Saul, had he found his position one of greater danger. The odds are overwhelmingly against him. This is a fact which he does not attempt to hide from himself: “How many are mine enemies.” Meanwhile, where are his friends, his army, his counsellors? Not a word of allusion to any of them in the Psalm. Yet he is not crushed, he is not desponding. Enemies may be as thick as leaves of the forest, and earthly friends may be few, or uncertain, or far off. But there is one Friend who cannot fail him, and to Him David turns with a confidence and an affection which lilt him above all his fears. Never had he been more sensible of the reality and preciousness of the Divine protection. If he was surrounded by enemies, Jehovah was his shield. If Shimei and his crew turned his glory into shame, Jehovah was his glory; if they sought to revile and degrade him, Jehovah was the lifter up of his head. Nor did the mere fact of distance from Jerusalem separate between him and his God. He had sent back the ark and the priests, for he knew that God could still hear him from “His holy mountain” (Psalms 3:4), could still lilt up the light of His countenance upon him, and put gladness in his heart (Psalms 4:6-7). Sustained by Jehovah, he had lain him down and slept in safety; trusting in the same mighty protection, he would lie down again to rest. Enemies might taunt, and friends might fail him, but the victory was Jehovah’s, and He could break the teeth of the ungodly (3:7, 8). (J. J. S. Perowne.)
A morning hymn
The Psalm falls into four strophes; three of which are marked by “Selah.”
1. Verses 1, 2: The Psalmist recounts his enemies. As a morning Psalm this is touchingly true to experience. The first waking thought is often a renewed inrush of the trouble which sleep had for a time dammed back. His enemies are many, and they taunt him as forsaken of God. The Psalmist is finding refuge from fears and foes, even in telling how many there are, since he begins his complaint with “Jehovah.” Without that word the exclamations of his first strophe are the voice of cowardice or despair. With it they are calmed into the appeal of trust. The Selah here is probably a direction for an instrumental interlude while the singer pauses.
2. Verses 3, 4: The utterance of faith, based on experience, laying hold of Jehovah as defence. By an effort of will the Psalmist rises from the contemplation of surrounding enemies to that of the encircling Jehovah. This harassed man flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. He sees in Him precisely what he needs at the moment, for in that infinite nature is fulness corresponding to all emptiness of ours. How comes this sudden burst of confidence to lighten the complaining soul? Verse 4 tells. Experience has taught him that as often as he cries to Jehovah he is heard. The tenses in Psalms 3:4 express a habitual act and a constant result.
3. Verses 5, 6 beautifully express the tranquil courage that comes from trust. “Surrounded by enemies, he was quite safe under God’s protection, and exposed to no peril even in the night.” This suits the situation pointed to in the superscription of the Psalm.
4. Verses 7, 8 give the culmination of faith in prayer. “Arise, Jehovah” is quoted from the ancient invocation (Numbers 10:35), and expresses in strongly anthropomorphic form the desire for some interposition of Divine power. Fearlessness is not so complete that the Psalmist is beyond the need of praying. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The number of a man’s foes
When a man’s enemies increase fit number the man should bethink himself, for surely they will not increase without reason. This is a matter which cannot be decided without careful consideration. It is no argument against a man that his enemies are millions strong, nor is it any argument in favour of a man that his friends are at least equal in number. At the same time, it may be spiritually educative and useful to consider why there are so many enemies. Enmity may be founded on jealousy, or envy, or opposition of conviction; or upon assurance that the individual against whom the enmity is directed is pursuing a mischievous course. It is for the man himself to retire within the sanctuary of his own conscience, to discover his moral purpose in everything, and, according as his integrity can be proved to stand fast even in solitude and desolation. But there is a self-analysis that is irreligious. It is conducted upon wrong principles, and the conductor of it is resolved upon self-vindication, rather than upon an absolute discovery of truth, be it on which side it may. It should be remembered, too, that there are some questions which cannot be decided in solitude, the help of social influence is necessary to modify the judgment and chasten the feeling of the inquirer. A second thought arising in this connection is that the very fact of the enemies being all but countless in number may be a tribute to a man’s greatness. Armies are not sent to cut down mushrooms or bulrushes. The very magnitude of the host encamped against a man may say without words how great the man is and mighty, and how worthy of being attacked. To leave some men alone is to withhold from them every moral and intellectual tribute. The numbers of a man’s enemies may be a tribute to the very greatness which they desire to modify or overthrow. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
A soul’s complaint to God
I. An enumeration of trouble (1, 2). Though God knows all, it relieves the surcharged heart to tell all unto Him. The foes were “many.” They quoted his sin as a reason for supposing that God had forsaken him (2 Samuel 16:7-8). The word “help” is “salvation,” which belongs only unto God.
II. An expression of unfaltering trust (3, 4). God our shield (Genesis 15:1). It is a good thing to use the voice in prayer as our Lord did. Words keep the heart awake (Hebrews 5:7).
III. An acknowledgment of mercy (5, 6). It was the perfection of trust to be able to sleep under such circumstances. But it is possible (Mark 4:38; Acts 12:6). If we are where we should be God will save us, if not from, then in our troubles.
IV. An urgent entreaty. He counts his foes as wild beasts, harmless because their jaws are broken and their teeth dashed out. They may prowl around, but they cannot hurt. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The great trials of life
I. A good man under great trial.
1. It involved great dangers: the danger of losing his palace, throne, reputation, life.
2. It came from an unlikely source. From his own and favourite son.
3. It was morally deserved. He had committed heinous crimes. His guilty conscience added much to the weight of the trial which now befell him.
II. An all-sufficient friend under great trial. Here Jehovah is presented as--
1. A protecting;
2. A glorifying;
3. A restoring;
4. A prayer hearing;
5. A life-sustaining friend.
III. A right moral temper under great trial. Two characteristics in David’s temper at this time--
(1) courage;
(2) prayerfulness.
David’s whole soul seems to have gone out in this prayer, and in truth all true prayer is earnest. “As a painted fire,” says a brilliant old writer, “is no fire, a dead man no man, so cold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead man there is no life; so in a cold prayer there is no omnipotency, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven. As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without fervency of spirit.” (Homilist.)
The via dolorosa
The title is, “A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son” (2Sa 15:1-37; 2 Samuel 16:1-23; 2 Samuel 17:1-29; 2 Samuel 18:1-33).
I. None are exempt from trouble. The man who sorrows is a king, even David. All meet together in sorrow, for it is the lot of all.
II. Troubles often come in troops. “How are they increased that trouble me.” So was it here with David, and so was it with Job. All sorrows are akin, and hence they come in crowds.
III. Our trouble may be our sin finding us out. It was so with David here. “The backslider ill heart shall be filled with his own ways.”
IV. Trouble is apt to stagger our faith in God. The enemy took advantage of David’s troubles, and said to him, “God hath forsaken thee, and left thee.” Men in trouble are prone to run into one of two extremes--despair or indifference. We are not to steel our hearts against chastening, for God means that we should feel it; nor, on the other hand, are we to faint. Doubt God’s very existence sooner than His mercy. Plato defines suicide to be “a desertion of our post.” We are to be like that Roman soldier who stood to his post in the sentry box at Pompeii, when the scoriae of Mount Vesuvius buried it with the city.
V. The power of sustaining grace under affliction is here seen. “I laid me down and slept.” There are myriads today who are able to testify of the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. David in flight finds God his Shield and high Tower, though he has but six hundred men. Ahithophel at court, backed by an army of twelve thousand troops, is in despair, and hangs himself. God keep us from unsanctified affliction. (E. S. Prout.)
The harassed man
1. One element of the harassment is multitudinousness of trouble. A characteristic feature of the trouble time with Absalom.
2. Another element is unkind and taunting speech. The cruel scoff--“no help for him in God”--cuts like a knife to the very centre of his personality.
3. Another element is a kind of internal despair. It sounds in the first sentences of the Psalm. What are the resources of the harassed man? Turning Godward. He flings himself out of the coil of troubles round about him, and looks up to God. The thought of God as possessing precisely what he, amid his harassments, needs. God is the three things he needs--“shield,” or defence; “my glory”; and the “lifter up of my head,” for God can both cheer the harassed man’s spirit, and restore to him the consciousness of his own real dignity, notwithstanding his trials. I came upon the most beautiful illustration of all this the other day. One of those spiritual Christians, a Stundist as they call them in Russia, was standing amidst a lot of Russian criminals in the courtyard of a Russian prison, chained with them, and sentenced with them to Siberia for his faith’s sake. His fellow prisoners were jeering at him. “But you’re no better off than we are. You are wearing the bracelets, as we do; if your God is of any use to you, why doesn’t He knock off your chains and set you free?” The man replied reverently: “If the Lord will, He can set me free Wen now; and though my hands are chained, my heart is free.” He was freed. But though he had been obliged to trudge the weary way to Siberia, for his free heart God would still have been shield, glory, the lifter up of the head. Calmness and courage can come to the harassed man. There is this possible mood for the harassed man--confident expectation. Salvation belongeth unto God; Thy blessing is upon Thy people.” (Homiletic Review.)
Many are they that rise up against me.
The Psalmist’s complaint
The superscription of the Psalm indicates the occasion of its composition (2 Samuel 15:1-37).
I. The magnitude of his complaint. It proceeds from a heart at once oppressed by the grievousness of its sorrows, and terrified at the number of its enemies. The severity of the trial is evident from its progressive character. He has adversaries who even blaspheme God, and insultingly say of His servant, “There is no help for him in God.” The best men have many faults, and sin often appears sweet to them. So God suffers them to taste the unpalatable fruit of transgression; but He even extracts sweetness from its very bitterness, educing from chastisement amendment of life, and help heavenward. Good men flee to their heavenly Father in the day of trouble, and this fact shows that the very nature of punishment is transformed.
II. The nature of his trial. The Psalmist sighs over the extreme severity of his trials. But God never lays more upon His own children than they are able to bear. The sense of gracious support in the hour of trial is an evidence that God is assuaging grief and providing a way of escape from it. When the wicked are punished there is no such alleviation, nor any access to God.
III. The source of his complaint. It does not proceed from mere human nature. The complaint originates with the Spirit of God, and with that spirit of adoption which He sheds abroad in the heart. The son, conscious of his father’s affection, expostulates in the midst of his chastisement. He even feels that God suffers with him, and is deeply affected by the trials which He Himself sends. We shall do well to imitate David’s complaint in our time of trouble, ever seeking profoundly to realise God’s love in Christ Jesus. (Robert Rollocks.)