Psalms 3:1-2

Psalm 3 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ² 

3:1 Lord, how ³  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ⁴ 

3:2 Many say about me,

“God will not deliver him.” ⁵  (Selah) ⁶ 

Psalms 42:10

42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, ⁷ 

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” ⁸ 

Psalms 71:11

71:11 They say, ⁹  “God has abandoned him.

Run and seize him, for there is no one who will rescue him!”

Psalms 91:14

91:14 The Lord says, ¹⁰ 

“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;

I will protect him ¹¹  because he is loyal to me. ¹² 

Mark 15:30-32

15:30 save yourself and come down from the cross!” ¹³  15:31 In the same way even the chief priests – together with the experts in the law ¹⁴  – were mocking him among themselves: ¹⁵  “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! 15:32 Let the Christ, ¹⁶  the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him. ¹⁷ 

¹ sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

² sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

³ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

⁴ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”

⁵ tn Heb “there is no deliverance for him in God.”

⁶ sn The function of the Hebrew term סֶלָה (selah), transliterated here “Selah,” is uncertain. It may be a musical direction of some kind.

⁷ tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”

⁸ sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.

⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁰ tn The words “the Lord says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the words which follow are the Lord’s oracle of assurance.

¹¹ tn Or “make him secure” (Heb “set him on high”).

¹² tn Heb “because he knows my name” (see Ps 9:10).

¹³ sn There is rich irony in the statement of those who were passing by, “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” In summary, they wanted Jesus to come down from the cross and save his physical life, but it was indeed his staying on the cross and giving his physical life that led to the fact that they could experience a resurrection from death to life. There is a similar kind of irony in the statement made by the chief priests and experts in the law in 15:31.

¹⁴ tn Or “with the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22. Only “chief priests” is in the nominative case; this sentence structure attempts to capture this emphasis.

¹⁵ tn Grk “Mocking him, the chief priests…said among themselves.”

¹⁶ tn Or “the Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹⁷ sn Mark’s wording suggests that both of the criminals spoke abusively to him. If so, one of them quickly changed his attitude toward Jesus (see Luke 23:40-43).