What does Psalm 3:7 mean?

David appeals to the Lord to save him from his many enemies. Specifically, in this case, his son has contemplated sending an army of 12,000 men with orders to kill him (2 Samuel 17:1–3). Hushai, David's ally, managed to convince Absalom to wait, and warned David (2 Samuel 17:15–16). David's prior experience, however, has given him confidence that God will not abandon him in this situation.

He recalls how the Lord struck down his enemies in the past and was confident he would do so again. Perhaps David was thinking especially about how the Lord had delivered him from a bear and a lion, from Goliath, from the Amalekites, and from King Saul's forces (1 Samuel 17:37, 49–50; 2 Samuel 1:1). "You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked" evokes the image of landing a crushing blow in combat. The Lord would defeat David's enemies so thoroughly that they would be harmless.

Believers may not be surrounded by military foes, but we are surrounded by trials and afflictions. The apostle Paul assures us "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Even physical death is a defeated foe. By his resurrection, Jesus delivered a crushing blow and gained the victory over it for us. In 1 Corinthians 15:54–57, Paul writes: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."