Psalm 3 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 3 (1928 BCP) is a prayer for deliverance from enemies, moving from a cry of distress to confidence in the LORD's protection and a blessing on his people. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer places it among Psalms 1–5 in the first morning's portion of the Psalter. Its remembrance of sleep and waking gives a distinctive voice to morning prayer; Christian commentators have also read that verse in relation to Christ's death and resurrection.
Text of the Psalm
The Prayer Book gives the Latin opening Domine, quid multiplicati? The asterisks mark the division of each verse for reading or chanting.
LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! * many are they that rise against me.
2 Many one there be that say of my soul, * There is no help for him in his God.
3 But thou, O LORD, art my defender; * thou art my worship, and the lifter up of my head.
4 I did call upon the LORD with my voice, * and he heard me out of his holy hill.
5 I laid me down and slept, and rose up again; * for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid for ten thousands of the people, * that have set themselves against me round about.
7 Up, LORD, and help me, O my God, * for thou smitest all mine enemies upon the cheekbone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongeth unto the LORD; * and thy blessing is upon thy people.
From distress to trust
The repeated “many” gives weight to both the number of opponents and their claim that God will not help. The psalmist answers that taunt by addressing God directly as defender and lifter of the head. The appeal rests on remembered experience: the LORD heard the cry from his holy hill and sustained the sleeper through the night. Confidence in verse 6 does not suppress the plea in verse 7; trust and urgent prayer stand together.
The image of striking enemies and breaking teeth is violent. In the poem it accompanies an appeal for God to deliver the threatened speaker, not an instruction for worshippers to strike their own opponents. The final verse moves beyond the individual: salvation belongs to the LORD, and the blessing is invoked upon his people.
In the biblical psalm's superscription, David is fleeing from Absalom; the 1928 Psalter prints the psalm without that historical heading. The narrative describes the grief of David's departure:[2]
And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
The connection with the rebellion gives a concrete setting for the prayer, without requiring every detail in the psalm to be assigned to a particular event. In the 1869 edition of his Anglican commentary, John Mason Neale describes the prayer's appeal to previous help:
The Church continues to cry to God for help, drawing from past deliverances present comfort.
Neale's observation illuminates the way verse 7 brings remembered deliverance into a present petition; it does not promise that danger or grief will never return.
A Christian reading of sleep and waking
Augustine reads the speaker's sleep and rising as words spoken in the person of Christ. In explaining the image, he connects it to Jesus' willing death and to Scripture's use of sleep for death:
Scripture contains numberless instances of sleep being put for death; as the Apostle says, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.”
Augustine appeals to the words of Jesus in John 10. The Authorized Version reads:
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
This is a theological interpretation of the psalm rather than an assertion that its literal words name Jesus. The psalm's ordinary image of a night survived remains significant in its own right; Augustine's reading places that image alongside Christian hope in Christ's resurrection.
In Morning Prayer
The first day's sequence places Psalm 3 between the royal psalm of Psalm 2 and the evening-like prayer of Psalm 4. In the Daily Office, the psalm is one portion of the appointed monthly Psalter; Morning Prayer also permits a selection of psalms. Its gratitude for waking can be heard alongside the office's Collect for Grace:
O LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The psalm recalls preservation through sleep; the collect asks for God's direction and defense through the day ahead. Together they make thanksgiving and petition part of common prayer, while the psalm's final blessing widens the worshipper's concern to the whole people of God.
See Also
External Links
- The 1928 Psalter, Psalms 1–50, Society of Archbishop Justus
- Augustine's exposition of Psalm 3, New Advent
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Psalter, First Day, Morning Prayer, Psalm 3, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.
- ↑ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition, Psalm 3:1 and note on the superscription, USCCB Bible.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, King James Version, 2 Samuel 15:30, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ John Mason Neale, A Commentary on the Psalms: From Primitive and Mediæval Writers, vol. 1, 2nd ed. (London: Joseph Masters, 1869), Psalm 3, p. 108, digitized edition at BiblicalStudies.org.uk.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 3, §5, anonymous translation in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), revised by Kevin Knight, New Advent transcription.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, King James Version, John 10:17–18, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for Daily Morning Prayer, Collect for Grace, Society of Archbishop Justus transcription.