This psalm can pertain to David or to Christ, and through him to all the saints.

That this psalm should be understood as spoken in the person of Christ is strongly suggested by the words I rested, and fell asleep, and I arose because the Lord will uphold me.^[1] For this seems more in tune with the Lord’s passion and resurrection than with the particular story in which we are told about David’s flight from the face of his own son who was at loggerheads with him.

It is shown in various statements and examples of holy Scripture that God has used domestic disputes, rebellion and multiple disasters in the punishment of sin. The purpose of David was to chastise and to edify life through the psalm, so that no one would do evil, or violate the law of God or experience what befalls a sinner. David was fleeing his son because he had acted unchastely; he was fleeing his son because he had violated purity in marriage; he was fleeing his son because he had departed from the law of God, which says, You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery.^[1] . . . Many today wage wars in their homes; one is opposed by his wife, another is besieged by his son; one is ruled by a brother, and another by a slave; and each one is in anguish and afflicted. He fights, wages war and is harassed by war, and no one can understand why. But if he had not planted the seeds of sin, it would have never happened that thorny plants and prickly bushes would grow up in his home; if he had not hidden the glare of his sins, his home would not burn.

He who offers no grounds for hate and enmity may have enemies for no reason. Such are all who endure persecution because they live righteously for Jesus Christ.^[1] To these the Savior says, Blessed are you when people revile you and when liars speak evil against you on account of me.^[2] This is what happened when David had many enemies for no reason such as Saul and Absalom and those who accompanied them. For they attacked without cause him who was a righteous man and had often shown them much goodness and gentleness.

We readily accept this psalm as spoken from the person of David, as we have noted in its title. According to history, certain men were hurting David, many of whom as their number increased were joining themselves to Absalom. . . . Those who were oppressing the Savior were Jews who were shouting, Away with him; away with him!^[1] Judas the betrayer and Caiphas rose up against him. The ones who said that there was no deliverance of his life were the same ones passing by him at the time of his suffering who said, Come down from the cross and we will believe you.. . . But, one may also understand this passage in this way: all the rulers and teachers of subjects that are foreign to the decrees of Christ who have come against him. The people who cling to them and follow their teaching cause him trial. Finally, they who, neither teaching contrary matters nor instructed by false teaching, believe that there is no divine nature in the teaching of Christ, they say there is no salvation of the soul in God. They say that there is not anything that promises salvation either in the word of his teaching or the historical signs that he relates concerning his advent.

When the great David served as interpreter for the Spirit, he related in his song the things that he had previously learned, and if he was taught something additional while he was speaking, he submitted to the Spirit who was making the hearing of his soul resound and stopped the music, and when he was filled with these thoughts he related these matters, again entwining the words with the melody. One who has comprehended the term in a definition might say, then, that diapsalma is a pause that occurs suddenly in the midst of the singing of a psalm in order to receive an additional thought that is being introduced from God. Or, one might rather define it as follows. Diapsalma is a teaching from the Spirit that occurs in a mysterious manner in the soul, when the attention given to this new thought impedes the continuity of the song. . . . In the third psalm he spoke first about the distress and hardship that occurred when his enemies rose up against him. Then he separated that part with the diapsalma and put his trust in the one who was causing that sound of salvation to resound mysteriously in him and said, But you, Lord, are my protector, my glory, and the lifter up of my head. Again, when he has stopped the music, saying, in accordance with that gracious voice that he has made his own, I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his holy mountain, he is taught what the solution is for the hardship that is common to human ills. And after he has been taught the mystery related to the passion of the Lord in the sudden illumination of the Spirit, he assumes the character of the Lord and says, I lay down and slept, and I was raised, because the Lord will help me.

It is also necessary to indicate the difference between the term diapsalma and the song of the diapsalma, or in short what their meaning is. While diapsalma means a change of tune and alteration of rhythm, then, and not a shift in thought, as some commentators believed, so does song of the diapsalma, since frequently singers changed the tunes according to the availability of instruments. So it indicates alternation in styles and rhythms, not change in ideas. It is, in fact, ridiculous to mention anything else, though some commentators have come up with extraordinary notions, like the Spirit coming on the author at one time and withdrawing at another, which did not happen—perish the thought. I mean, the Holy Spirit did not grant the authors the grace of addressing the text in the manner the demons do to those unaware of what they are saying; rather, he implanted in their mind complete understanding, and on receiving this knowledge they gave voice to it to the extent of their capability, not uttering what they did not understand in the manner of the seers but having complete knowledge of the force of their words. As I said, therefore, the occurrences of diapsalma and songs of diapsalma are changes in rhythms and styles, not alterations in ideas. The movement of thought also reveals this: after the reference diapsalma you never find the following thought in opposition to what precedes, being instead sequential and consistent. Hence it is clear that the occurrence midstream of diapsalma involved no interruption to the thought of the text, instead perhaps altering the rhythm in keeping with the norms of music and rhythm applying at the time.

Certainly, people place their glory in various places, some in their country, some in family line, some in beauty, some in the strength of their bodies and in their skill of competing in the contest, being very elated they have overcome these people or those by their physical struggling. And why is it necessary to recount all the things through which those unknown gods are glorified, whose glory is in their shame,^[1] as the apostle said? God is the glory of the saint who trusts him, glory, I say, not blindly credited but credited through faith that is reckoned as righteousness, through which one is enabled to see the signs of a present God and participate in his strength. So, God was the glory of Moses who loved the prophet so much that he revealed himself to the point of showing his face both before all the Hebrew people and before the Egyptians. God was the glory of the prophet Elijah, who revived the son of the widow and begged for the rain to be held back, and who continually was heard. God was speaking truth, therefore, when he said, I will only honor them honoring me.^[2] God is the glory of them who are magnified in their strength, which no one other than the Father places in them, who hand themselves over to him for sustaining their souls.

Many, in fact, are the enemies of every kind who assail me from all sides, but more numerous are those who trouble me by their mockery and their claims that I am bereft of your providence. Yet I know that you would not persist in ignoring me, despite my many failings. On the contrary, you will raise up the one who now humbles himself for the sin he committed and make him appear stronger than his foes. . . . I have confidence neither in kingship nor in sovereignty; instead, I trust in you to be my glory, and I expect to be quickly raised up by your right hand.

Since the psalm is spoken from the person of the Lord, it must be said that even the head of him who is lifted up is of God, since really his deity is made manifest to the faithful through external demonstration. The word head in this place indicates chief. Christ, therefore, the chief of holy people, deservedly is their king, and it is his head that is lifted up.

The strength of a stable spirit that is greatly tested in adversity must be considered because, since it possesses hope, even amidst the greatest anguish it does not yield. Those, I say, who mock me say such things to increase my grief. I will not stop hoping in what I have believed because you, Lord, help me as I labor. You guard my step from the danger of evil. You restore my honor and worth.

The preceding psalm calls to mind this mountain when it says, I have installed my king on mount Zion, my holy mountain. Christ was the one he was speaking of, and now David bears witness that he must be heard plainly by Christ from his holy mountain. Further, he says who is going to hear him except the Lord who has been installed as king upon Zion his holy mountain? Through this statement he [David], now alone, believed that he would be forgiven, that his glory would return and that his head would be lifted up.

It is the greatest faith that allows no hesitation for seeking the help of God for himself and that approaches with confidence of his demand.

The prophetic psalms are by no means silent on the subject of [Christ’s] resurrection. . . . What other meaning can be taken from these words in Psalm 3, sung in the person of Christ? . . . For, unless one sees in this sleep the death, and in this awaking the resurrection of Christ thus prophesied, one is reduced to the silly supposition that the prophet wished to communicate to us the really remarkable news that he himself fell asleep and later on woke up!

As in the previous psalm so here the future is prophesied. . . . I lie down, and I sleep is spoken prophetically, namely, I will lie down, I will sleep, I will rise up, because you, Oh Lord, are my sustainer, my glory and the lifter of my head. . . . For sleep indicates death, concerning which the future is prophesied for us. It refers to the time of the life of the Savior, which when it was finished, prophecy came to an end; when, namely, the Son of man Christ descended even to hell and the Savior was clearly shown to the captives who were awaiting destruction; so as in the time of his resurrection from death many bodies of the saints who had been sleeping will live again with him, in whom was the likeness of the spirit of David.

Do not let these words, where he says, since the Lord took me up, strike your minds as meaning that Christ himself did not raise up his own body. The Father raised him up, and he also raised himself up. How shall we prove to you that he raised himself up? Call to mind what he said to the Jews: Pull down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.^[1]

In this verse the psalmist is not moved by his own trials to the point of despairing of the help of God, nor is he dissuaded from a position of faith by words of reproach. He, having learned by experience the fullness of previous help, cries out most confidently after the kindnesses of God toward him through which he is freed from all of the entangling of his troubles: I will not fear ten thousands surrounding me.

The verse clearly teaches that the one who comes to the greatest virtue, to very great security, comes on account of faith in God. . . . The Savior, recognizing that thousands of the people of the circumcision were going to demand that he be crucified and knowing his own spirit of fearlessness (I say these things speaking in terms of the flesh), is able to say even these words.

He could not fear a death that he foreknew would last only three days and would benefit the world.

He predicts that there are going to be many thousands of adversaries who will wish to hinder the resurrection of the saints because they are jealous of their salvation: which ones I will regard as nothing, he said. I have trusted my defender, the victor over death, who, after the bronze gates were torn down and the iron bolts thoroughly broken, opened the gates of death that had been closed for ages, and with those people known to him, from which number was David, he prepared for the resurrection life.

It is not that God is awakened while sleeping or lying down for rest, but it is common for the divine Scriptures to express a matter through a metaphor, to say something about God using what is familiar to us.

When he foresees his deliverance after death, he has faith that he has been saved by grace and that kindness has been granted. He is certain that this faith of some in the resurrection of the Savior is able to come to him, and consequently he prays that the resurrection of the Lord be hastened so that through it he himself will experience salvation. . . . Now, he says, you have broken the teeth of sinners; that is, their conversations and blasphemous words hurled against me you have stripped away.

He has struck his adversaries, he has broken the teeth of sinners; indeed, so that he may heal them again: I will strike [he said], and again I will heal. He has broken the teeth of sinners, or, in other words, the wicked words and carnal actions, because he desires to destroy them in the inmost parts. Perhaps he has called those same ones adversaries and sinners: since he has broken the teeth of all sinners who turned against Christ, but especially the Jews on account of unfaithfulness; those teeth about which in another psalm he says, Those who devour my people as bread, and they do not call on the Lord.^[1] He broke these teeth . . . when he arose from the dead.

The teeth of sinners are thoughts foreign to reason coming to us on account of our nature by which our enemies approach us, just like using their teeth time after time again to devour our flesh. That is, those [are] things that spring forth from the flesh: Manifest are the works of the flesh,^[1] as the apostle says.

The phrase breaking the teeth of sinners, that is to say, depriving them of all strength, is by comparison with wild beasts, which when bereft of their teeth are quite undaunting and open to attack.

The phrase the teeth of sinners can also be understood as those sinful leaders by whose authority a person is cut off from the community of those who live upright lives and is incorporated, so to speak, into those who live corruptly. Opposed to these teeth are the teeth of the church, by whose authority believers are cut clean away from the error of the heathen and of a whole range of heterodox opinions and are brought over into that society that is Christ’s body. Peter was told to slaughter animals and eat them with teeth like this, which means to kill in the Gentiles what they were and changed it into what he himself was. . . . You have broken the teeth of sinners, should, therefore, be understood in the sense, you have brought to nothing the chief sinners, by striking down all who oppose me without good cause. For it was the leaders who, according to the Gospel story, persecuted him, while the inferior rabble held him in honor.

He who gives salvation is called the salvation of the Lord, and he is likewise our salvation who received him.

In a single sentence he both commands us what to believe and promises what we can receive from him.

What is the blessing to people who overcome unless it is the will of the Father concerning the coming of his Son into the world?

What is this blessing of the Lord? Without a doubt it is peace, just as Scripture says in many places: Peace be over Israel.^[1] Through these words he wishes to show that in the place of blessing peace is conferred on the people.