John Calvin Commentary Psalms 3:8

"Salvation belongeth unto Jehovah: Thy blessing be upon thy people. Selah" — Psalms 3:8 (ASV)

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Because ל is sometimes used by the Hebrews for מך Min, some appropriately translate this clause, Salvation is of the Lord. I, however, consider the natural and obvious meaning to be simply this: that salvation or deliverance is only in the hands of God.

By these words, David not only claims the office and praise of saving for God alone, tacitly opposing God's power to all human aid, but also declares that even if a thousand deaths hang over his people, this cannot make God unable to save them or prevent him from speedily sending, without any effort, the deliverance he is always able to provide.

In the end of the psalm, David affirms that this deliverance was granted not so much to him as an individual, but to the whole people, so that the universal Church, whose welfare depended on the safety and prosperity of his kingdom, might be preserved from destruction. David, therefore, acknowledges that the dispersion of this wicked conspiracy was due to the care God had for the safety of his Church.

From this passage we learn that the Church will always be delivered from the calamities that befall her, because God, who is able to save her, will never withdraw his grace and blessing from her.