Psalms 7 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Psalm 7

In You Do I Take Refuge

A Shiggaion¹ of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

7:1   O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
    save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2   lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
    rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3   O LORD my God, if I have done this,
    if there is wrong in my hands,
4   if I have repaid my friend² with evil
    or plundered my enemy without cause,
5   let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
    and let him trample my life to the ground
    and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
6   Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
    lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
    awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7   Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
    over it return on high.
8   The LORD judges the peoples;
    judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
    and according to the integrity that is in me.
9   Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
    and may you establish the righteous—
  you who test the minds and hearts,³
    O righteous God!
10   My shield is with God,
    who saves the upright in heart.
11   God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who feels indignation every day.
12   If a man⁴ does not repent, God⁵ will whet his sword;
    he has bent and readied his bow;
13   he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
    making his arrows fiery shafts.
14   Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
    and is pregnant with mischief
    and gives birth to lies.
15   He makes a pit, digging it out,
    and falls into the hole that he has made.
16   His mischief returns upon his own head,
    and on his own skull his violence descends.
17   I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
    and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Footnotes

[1] 7:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
[2] 7:4 Hebrew the one at peace with me
[3] 7:9 Hebrew the hearts and kidneys
[4] 7:12 Hebrew he
[5] 7:12 Hebrew he

Commentary

Trusting God to vindicate His own people. Cush the Benjamite had attacked David when he was fleeing, either from Saul (1 Sam 23; 27), or from Absalom (2 Sam 16).

v1-2: Although the title of the Psalm refers to a single man, David knew that there were many. Cush was seeking to persecute, tear in pieces (he was like Shimei, 2 Sam 16.5-14). David's only response was to trust in God.

v3-5: Compare Job 31; here is confidence in personal integrity.

v6-8: "Arise...rise up...awake, my God," asking God to act to vindicate the godly, and to judge the wicked. He is totally just, and will judge in perfect righteousness. The prayer of the godly is that God will judge him according to his righteousness and integrity, knowing that God will not condemn the righteous.

v9-13: God is righteous, in contrast with the deceitfulness of the wicked. He is active in judgment, but He gives opportunity to repent, and He will relent.

v14-16: See Gal 6.8; the wicked sows to the flesh, and will reap corruption.

v17: The righteous will praise God, for He is righteous.