Radak

A Psalm of David when he fled from before Absalom his son: – Our teachers of blessed memory have explained (Midrash, Shoher Toh, ad loc.; Babli, Berakhoth 7b) that David gave utterance to this Psalm as he ascended the Mount of Olives, as it is said (2 Sam. 15:30), “And David went up by the ascent of the (Mount of) Olives and wept as he went up.” If weeping, why singing, and if singing, why weeping? (Nay) but as soon as the prophet said to him (ibid. 12:11): “Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house” he said, “Perhaps it is a slave [or a nathin] or a bastard, one of the members of the household, who has no pity on me?” As soon as he saw that it was his son he thought that he certainly would have pity upon him, and he said: A Psalm. Further they say (Midrash, Shoher Tob, ad loc.): “[Thus] David said: Jacob our father fled (Gen. 27:43); as it is said (Hos. 12:13): ‘And Jacob fled into the field of Aram.’ Moses fled, as it is said (Exod. 2:15) ‘and Moses fled;’ and I am a fugitive as they were. I thought that I was condemned to death, and now that I am going into exile, exile atoneth for iniquity” (Babli, Berakhoth 56a; Sanhedrin 37b). He says: “I have remembered Thy judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself” (Ps. 119:52). I remember the men of old time – and Thou hast borne with ine as Thou didst with them – and am comforted, knowing that through my flight the iniquity has been pardoned me. He begins and says A Psalm of David, (to be taken) according to the literal sense. For the Psalms were not so named (called) at the time of (the actual) event, but because they were sung in the Sanctuary. So, “When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul” (Ps. 52:2); and “When the Ziphites came” (Ps. 54:2); and “And they watched the house to kill him” (Ps. 59:1). Similarly, those which have reference to the Exile and the Destruction of Jerusalem, as, “A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance” (Ps. 79:1). So all those which were uttered with reference to David, on an historical occasion when David was in danger, but after he had been delivered from them all they became Psalms and praise and confession to God – Blessed be He! – while those which were uttered concerning the Exile became Psalms on the Return of the Exiles. Now it is possible that this Psalm is connected with the preceding because the Philistines had come against David to contest his right to the kingdom and fight with him; and so Absalom his son proposed to take the kingdom from his father and kill him, but [David] conquered all and was left in possession of the kingdom. Our rabbis of blessed memory who have interpreted the Second Psalm of Gog and Magog have said (Babli, Berakhoth 1o a), “Why is the passage about Absalom (Ps. iii) connected with the passage of Gog and Magog? For this reason. If a man should say to thee, Is it possible that a servant would rebel against his master? say to him, Is it possible a son would rebel against his father? But so it was – it really was so.”