But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
David, stripped of his kingdom and hunted by his own son, had every reason to despair, yet he clung to God's promise against mockery and death itself. He makes no mention of his sins here, his adultery and the blood of Uriah, which means this psalm captures only one part of his prayer; the full anguish of God's punishment for those crimes came first.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 3:1-8
Here David avows his confidence in God. "Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me." The word in the original signifies more than a shield; it means a buckler round about, a protection which shall surround a man entirely, a shield above, beneath, around, without and within. Oh! what a shield is God for his people!
The title of this psalm and many others is as a key hung ready at the door, to open it, and let us into the entertainments of it; when we know upon what occasion a psalm was penned we know the better how to expound it.
Commenting on Psalm 3:1-3