Culture & Context: Psalms 3 & 4

Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.

Did you know that many of the Psalms are connected? They may have been written by the same author or refer to the same event. Psalms 3 and 4 are one such pair. Others are Psalms 1 and 2, 18 through 21, 42 and 42, and 118 and 119. Some psalm are theologically paired while others are companions that tell a story.

I wrote a more extensive blog post on Psalms; you can find it here; this is a small portion: Bible Guide says that the psalms were written and collected over a 600 year period and include hymns of praise, songs for festivals, royal psalms, and prayers of sadness, joy and lament.

The psalms are very personal, using the pronouns I and we but not always identifying the subject. Most of the psalms follow a regular literary pattern rather than “free verse.” This pattern is called parallelism because many of the verses in a psalm will relate to each other in a parallel pattern. Sometimes the pattern is related to the beginning Hebrew letters for each verse. Some psalms have a call and response, and Psalm 49 even poses a riddle and the responses to the riddle!

David wrote a lot of Psalm, including Psalms 3 and 4. They are a complementary pair and should be read together to get the full story that David is telling. Psalm 3 is a morning hymn while Psalm 4 is an evening hymn. Psalm 3 describes a night filled with danger; Psalm 4 explores the danger and David’s response.

David was fleeing his son Absalom, who had maneuvered himself into power. You can read the story in 2 Samuel 15 and 16. The people of Israel had switched their allegiance from David to Absalom, leading David to quickly flee Jerusalem with most of his household and military. David was weeping and in mourning as he fled. He had been betrayed by a trusted counselor and wondered if he could trust his replacement. He had clandestine meetings with supporters as he went into exile. David was feeling very oppressed and feared for himself and his people.

Psalm 3 appears to have been written the morning after David’s flight from Jerusalem. Psalm 3 is an individual lament, written from an individual’s viewpoint and revealing the individual’s beliefs. Lament psalms are honest cries to God for His help.

The ESV Expository Commentary divides Psalm 3 into four sections:

I. What He Sees (3:1–2)

II. What He Believes (3:3–4)

III. What He Finds (3:5–6)

IV. What He Prays For (3:7–8)

Psalm 4 was written later, after David had time to consider all of the events that led to his exile. It is a Psalm that demonstrates trust in God despite the author’s fears and beliefs. God cares for His people and scoffers are dismissed rather than considered. It is a psalm that we can read as worship of a loving God.

The ESV Expository Commentary also divides Psalm 4 into four sections that mirror the divisions of Psalm 3:

I. Confident Prayer (4:1)

II. Words to the Faithless (4:2–3)

III. Words to the Faithful (4:4–5)

IV. Words to the Lord (4:6–8)

Ian Vallancourt in Treasuring the Psalms reminds us that David is a type of Jesus, but also contrasts the humanity of David with the deity of Jesus. David was sinful while Jesus was sinless. David was often grieved by his sin and suffered for his sin; Jesus was grieved by our sin and suffered for our sin. David feared and Jesus did not, even when both faced death.

When we feel that we are being attacked on all sides by job issues, family problems, by fears real or imagined, Psalms 3 and 4 can show us how to pray and move from fear to freedom.

Works Cited

• Beetham, C. A., & Erickson, N. L., eds. (2024). The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible (One-Volume Edition). Zondervan Academic.

• Collins, C. J. (2022). The Psalms. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Psalms–Song of Solomon: Vol. V (pp. 21–696). Crossway.

• Grogan, G. W. (2001). Prayer, Praise and Prophecy: A Theology of the Psalms. Christian Focus Publications.

• Kirkpatrick, A. F. (1906). The Book of Psalms. Cambridge University Press.

• Vaillancourt, I. J. (2023). Treasuring the Psalms: How to Read the Songs that Shape the Soul of the Church. IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press.