A psalm of David.
When he fled from his son Absalom.

David
1 How many are my foes, O Lord!
How many rise up against me!
2 How many are saying of me, 
“God will not deliver him.”

God
3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; 
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
4 To the LORD I cry aloud, 
and He answers me from His holy hill.

David
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again,
because the LORD sustains me.
6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.

God
7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw; 
break the teeth of the wicked.
8 From the LORD comes deliverance.
May Your blessing be on Your people.

       ~          ~           ~            ~

The poem’s verses alternates between David thinking about Himself and David thinking about God.

How many are my foes, O Lord!
How many rise up against me!
How many are saying of me, 
“God will not deliver him.”

They say that God has abandoned him, but in each verse you can clearly see David’s close relationship and reliance on the Lord.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again,
I will not fear the tens of thousands

How much sleep would you get faced with losing everything and being betrayed on every side?
David sleeps and does not fear:

because the LORD sustains me

Mikveh in Herodium

He got up from an afternoon nap went for a stroll on the roof and spotted a woman taking her monthly ritual cleansing bath in a mikveh. This was not a love affair – David didn’t even know Bathsheba’s name and had to ask. She was “the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 2 Samuel 11:3.   If you read the list of David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23 – his most trusted brothers in arms – there in the list you will find ‘Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite‘ and ‘Uriah the Hittite‘. He sent for her, had sex with her, she became pregnant, he tried to cover it up and when that failed he had Uriah and some of his men killed 2 Samuel 11:15-17. Years later, the cycle of rape and murder repeated with his sons. Ammon, David’s older son, raped Tamar – his 1/2 sister.  Tamar’s brother, Absalom, David’s favourite son, waited 2 years for his Dad to do something about it, then took matters into his own hands and killed his brother himself.  Absalom then fled to his maternal granddad’s city and lived in exile, waiting for his father’s to pardon him – it took another 5 years.  In the course of time, Absalom rebelled against his father David, and after gaining support approaches Jerusalem with his army. 

David loves Absalom, and rather than face him in battle he abandons Jerusalem.  As David runs away:- Ahithophel, David’s Chief advisor (and Bathsheba’s granddad) defects to Absalom’s side.  Then, he is told that Mephibosheth has also defected, (Mephibosheth is his best friend Jonathan’s son – whom he adopted as his own after Jonathan’s death).  Then, Abishai one of Saul’s family pelts him with stones and dung calling him a murder and saying that The Lord has done this to him.  There is betrayal on every side. 2 Samuel 13-16