Ps 3:3

Ps. 3.3

But you /  O Lord  /  are a shield  / round me

My glory /  and the One  /  who holds up  / my head.

I will cry out loud  /  to the Lord,

And he will answer me  / from his holy mountain.  Selah

The “many” of vs. 1-2 were becoming a cloak of darkness around David. They were darkening his vision and ushering him into a place of fear and despair. In these verses, there is a radical change. The mood and the atmosphere of the Psalm (en)lighten. David has come to see something more intimate to him than the mantle of darkness placed on him from the “many”.

“But you, O Lord”: until now David’s vision has been consumed by the darkness descending upon him by the “many”. But here, we are met with the One. In vs. 1-2 the “many” are faceless, and their lack of identity adds to their sense of foreboding. Because they are ‘many’ the represent a vast horde that cannot be identified individually. This is always a ground for fear: an inability to adequately identify, because of sheer size, the proportions of the danger. One could see David, alone in the darkness, huddled around a campfire while noises, coming from all sides, steadily gets louder and louder. Those who know how to use fear know that the inability to specifically identify it only increases its sense of all-pervasiveness and magnitude.

1)       It is therefore with an immense sense of security that here we are met with the One, who stands in utter contrast to the “many”. Here is one who has a face. Here is one who with whom David is and can be intimate. He can again speak and leave himself and the constricting nature of fear and despair. Communion has again been established and David is no longer alone. Recall Ps. 2 and the words spoken by the Enthroned One. “You are my son; Today I have begotten you.” The Father has returned to David’s vision. Were David to have said his “friends” were about him, it would have been as powerful. The contrast with the “many” would not have brought this sense of security. This is the Lord, the “One who holds up his head”.

2)       “my shield round me”: here we see the One as more intimate to David than the many. As consuming and oppressive as the “many” are, this One stands even closer to David. Shields generally only protect the front of the person. David, though, extends the metaphor; the One is like a circular shield. Just as the “many” en-circle David, so too does the One protect him from every side.

a.       This will include David’s back. The sense of fear of the many must include the aspect of their ability to attack David “from behind” (meaning, from a place of vulnerability and a place that David cannot protect). Here, though, the shield of the One will protect David even from those places of such weakness. The One will take better care of David than he could ever take care of himself.

3)       “my glory”: the glory of a king is his ability to command respect and authority. It is the ‘aura’ that surrounds him and enables him to command people without effort. In Ps. 2 we realize that behind the anointed is the terrible voice of the Enthroned One. And that it is that power that enables David to hold a “rod of iron” and smash nations as if they were potter’s vessels. It would seem as if very aspect of that power has here been utterly stripped from David. His glory would seem to be gone. This is what the “many” mean when they say that David’s god has abandoned him; his “glory” has deserted him. He is now but a man, an earthly king, and totally without protection.

a.       But to David, this is now not the case. His gaze has been turned to the One, his Father, who is closer to him than the many. His glory has not been removed, even though it would appear to the “many” like the light has been snuffed out. Although the “many” cannot see it, David’s glory has not left him. He is not in darkness but surrounded by the One. He is, in fact, encased in light.

b.       Here we are seeing something we have not yet been in touch with in the Psalms. There have been hints of it in the “blessed man” of Ps. 1, and we can catch a glimpse of it in Ps. 2 in the intimate dialogue between the anointed and the Enthroned One. But here—here we see a strength in face of darkness that is new. I cannot help but see this as, in some way, related to the sense of Isaiah when he speaks about this ‘new, hidden thing’ emerging for the people in exile. A hidden and profound strength is being born, directly in the midst of an all consuming darkness. And it comes from prayer, a dialogue more intimate that the darkness has found David. It has…

4)       “the One who holds up my head”:  2 Sam 15.30 speaks of David’s head being covered in shame on the Mount of Olives. Here, the shame is being lifted. One thing I did not mention previously was that the words of the ‘many’ to the effect that God had abandoned David were words of a typical military taunt. It spoke of a god’s fleeing from the premises and leaving his people defenseless. It is a word of shaming. Here, the words are reversed. Now, David’s head is “held up”. The shame is (being) removed. Hope is dawning. And this, I think, is the ‘new’ thing we have noticed in the Psalms: what ‘hope’ actually looks like and how it feels.

5)       “I will cry out to the Lord”: David is already re-establishing communion with his Lord/father. But another step is needed: crying out. To ‘cry out’ is a typical expression of seeking deliverance. Not only is God to be David’s shield; he is to be his deliverer. It is not enough that David is coming to see the hope of restoration. He must cry out for it. As we have noted before, history is moved forward by the cries of God’s anointed one. This act recalls to us the words of Ps. 2 and the Father’s address to his son, “Just ask and I will give…”. Here, David is asking and his Father will gladly respond.

6)       “He will answer me from his holy mountain”: I have not spent much time on the historical aspect of this Psalm but David has fled Jerusalem because of his son’s attempted coupe. It is his own son in fact who is the “many” from whom David is terrified. What this means, in a more profound manner, is that the king has been separated from his throne. Remember in Ps. 2, the Enthroned One when he shouted his hurricane blast to the nations, said, “I have installed my king upon my holy mountain, Zion”. Absalom has removed David from his source of power. David is, in essence, in exile. A rift has occurred and a chasm opened.

a.       However, David can still appeal to his throne. This is a very revealing thing. Even though David has been removed from his throne, his Father will still answer him from that place; even though the one enthroned has been exiled, the Enthroned One has not abandoned the throne on which David sat. It is as if the throne would not allow another to sit on it, as if it was eagerly awaiting the return of its owner. And, as if it still had the power to come to his aid. It is established by God and so can be appealed to. There is here a very profound sense that David’s home, and the place wherein his authority is complete, is Jerusalem (Zion). This must be appreciated especially because, for many, “God is everywhere” would tend to completely lose this sense of loving attachment of David (and of God’s!) for the throne in Zion. It would be wrong to say that Zion exerts some ‘magical power’. But it would be wrong because it doesn’t go far enough. Zion is the place of God’s home (his Temple) and it is the place of his son’s home as well (his throne). The Father and his son want to be reunited, and the Father will answer him from this place of intimacy.