Now as much as we might relate to the rest of David’s prayer, we still might struggle with his actual petition to God in Psalm 3:7. This was not a prayer for revenge, but protection. There was no desire for reconciliation on the part of his enemies, no awareness of their own responsibility for what happened. They would stop at nothing to kill and destroy David, this child of God, this anointed king and servant of the Lord Most High. They had shown their true colours. They were not struggling to restore a broken relationship. If Absalom and his conspirators were not stopped, if their jaws were not struck and their teeth not broken, David would have been swallowed up in death. That is why he prayed the way he did, not out of revenge, but for the sake of his own salvation and life.

So if we ever find ourselves in such a circumstance—and God have mercy on us if we do—we too can take this prayer on our lips. When all prayers for reconciliation and forgiveness prove futile with our enemies—even if they be our own children—and they continue to rage against us, we can pray with heavy hearts that the Lord will rise up and deliver us from their grip, that he will snatch us from their deadly jaws so that we will not be dragged down with them into a life of revenge, hatred, and wickedness.