Psalms 3:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Salvation belongs to the LORD: your blessing is on your people. Selah.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Salvation belongs to the LORD: your blessing is on your people. Selah.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah: Thy blessing be upon thy people. Selah
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Salvation comes from the Lord; your blessing is on your people. (Selah.)
Webster's Revision
Salvation belongeth to the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
World English Bible
Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be on your people. Selah. For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm by David.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing be upon thy people. Selah
Clarke's Psalms 3:8 Bible Commentary
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord - It is God alone who saves. He is the fountain whence help and salvation come; and to him alone the praise of all saved souls is due. His blessing is upon his people. Those who are saved from the power and the guilt of sin are his people. His mercy saved them; and it is by his blessing being continually upon them, that they continue to be saved. David adds his selah here also: mark this!
1. Salvation comes from God.
2. Salvation is continued by God.
These are great truths; mark them!
Barnes's Psalms 3:8 Bible Commentary
Salvation belongeth unto the Lord - That is, it pertains to God alone to save. The psalmist had no expectation of saving himself; he had no confidence in the unaided prowess of his own arm. If he was to be saved he felt that it was to be only by God, and the praise of this was to be given to Him. The particular reference here is to temporal deliverance, or deliverance from the dangers which surrounded him then; but the declaration is as true of spiritual deliverance - of the salvation of the soul - as it is of deliverance from temporal danger. In both cases it is true that God only saves, and that all the praise is due to him.
Thy blessing is upon thy people - Or perhaps, rather, "thy blessing be upon thy people," regarding this as a "prayer" rather than an "affirmation." It is true, indeed, as an affirmation (compare Psalm 2:12); but it accords better with the connection here, and is a more appropriate conclusion of the psalm to regard it as a petition, expressing an earnest desire that the blessing of God might ever rest upon his own people. Then the thoughts of the psalmist are turned away from his own perils to the condition of others; from his individual case to that of the Church at large; and he prays that all others may find the same favors from God which he had so richly enjoyed, and which he hoped still to enjoy. It is one of the characteristics of true piety thus to turn from our own condition to that of others, and to desire that what we enjoy may be partaken of by the people of God everywhere.