Psalm 3

The superscription ties this psalm to the worst week of David's life. His son Absalom had spent years standing at the city gate intercepting men who came to the king for judgment, telling each of them his case was good and no one would hear it — a slow, patient theft of the nation's loyalty. When the revolt broke, David left Jerusalem on foot rather than let the city be fought over.

The road out ran down into the Kidron ravine and up the Mount of Olives, and the account in 2 Samuel says the king climbed it weeping, barefoot, with his head covered — the standard posture of public mourning. Covering the head and going unshod were what Israelites did at a funeral. He was, in effect, burying his own reign as he walked.

"Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God" was political commentary, not just cruelty. In the ancient world a king's fortunes were read as his god's verdict on him. A ruler chased out of his capital by his own household looked, to everyone watching, like a man his God had dropped. Shimei shouted precisely that at him along the road.

The line about lying down and sleeping is a soldier's detail. A fugitive party in open country slept in shifts with sentries out, and a hunted man does not sleep. Lifting up the head is the opposite of the covered, bowed head of mourning — it is the gesture of a man restored to standing.