“Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 3:7 Mean?
Psalm 3:7 is David's battle cry from his bed — written while fleeing his own son Absalom: "Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly."
The superscription tells us David wrote this psalm while fleeing Absalom's rebellion — one of the lowest points in his life. His son has stolen the throne. His advisors have betrayed him. The people have turned against him. He's running for his life from the child he raised. And from that context, David prays: Arise, LORD. Save me.
The imagery — smiting cheek bones, breaking teeth — is the language of shutting mouths. Enemies bite. They devour with accusations, slander, threats. Breaking their teeth means silencing their attacks. Striking the cheek bone means disabling the jaw that's been talking. David isn't praying for abstract deliverance. He's praying for the specific silencing of the specific voices that are tearing him apart.
What makes this psalm remarkable is its context. Verse 5 says "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me." David slept while his enemies surrounded him. The peace of verse 5 and the ferocity of verse 7 coexist in the same psalm — rest and battle prayer, back to back. David could sleep because he trusted God to fight. And he could pray violently because he was honest about the threat. Both are acts of faith.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Are you honest with God about your anger toward the people attacking you — or do you sanitize your prayers to sound more spiritual?
- 2.How do David's rest (verse 5) and fierce prayer (verse 7) coexist — and what does that teach you about holding peace and honest rage together?
- 3.Whose 'teeth' do you need God to break — whose attacks, accusations, or slander are you carrying right now?
- 4.Does knowing this psalm was written during betrayal by David's own son give you permission to bring your most painful relational wounds to God?
Devotional
David is running from his own son. The army is behind him. The throne is gone. His closest advisor Ahithophel has defected. And David prays: arise, LORD. Break their teeth.
This isn't a polished prayer from a comfortable chair. It's raw, desperate, specific. David wants mouths shut. He wants the accusations silenced. He wants the enemies who are biting at him to lose the capacity to bite. And he's not ashamed to pray that way. He's not trying to sound spiritual. He's trying to survive.
If you've been prayed against, talked about, slandered, or attacked by people who should have been on your side — maybe even family — David's prayer gives you language for the rage you're carrying. You don't have to sanitize your prayers. You don't have to pretend you're above the anger. You can ask God to break the teeth of the people who are devouring you. That's not un-Christian. That's a psalm. It's inspired Scripture. The same Bible that says "love your enemies" also says "break their teeth." Both live in the canon because both live in the human heart, and God receives both.
But notice: David slept. Before the battle prayer, he rested. The fierceness and the peace aren't contradictions. They're complements. The person who rests in God's protection can also honestly express their rage to God. Because both are forms of trust — resting trusts God's sovereignty; praying fiercely trusts God's justice. Do both.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God,.... God sometimes, in the apprehension of his people, seems to be as if he was asleep:…
Arise, O Lord - This is a common mode of calling upon God in the Scriptures, as if he had been sitting still, or had…
David, having stirred up himself by the irritations of his enemies to take hold on God as his God, and so gained comfort…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture