A Prayer Through Psalms: Chapter 7

In You Do I Take Refuge

Psalm 7

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

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 friend 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,

   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 man does not repent, God 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.

The psalmist behind Psalm 7 has been falsely accused of a crime and is constantly surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy him. Though he was falsely accused of murder he is able to find peace in God by bringing his case to the best judge. Keep in mind that the protestations of innocence made by the Psalmist are not claims of perfection (he doesn't claim to be sinless), rather he is simply speaking out against false accusations.

7:2- Lions, though not present in that area today, were plentiful during the time of this Psalm. The Lion symbolizes power, cruelty, and ruthlessness.

7:5- The psalmist is not afraid of calling on a curse because he knows that he is innocent and God knows he is innocent.

7:6- Remember in Psalm chapter 3 when the psalmist used the phrase "arise" during the war Psalm? The phrase is used again here, calling on the Lord to fight for the innocent.

7:8- This plays into the Judicial setting of this psalm with God as the Judge. Because God is perfect and righteous, he will not bring judgement on the innocent, but he will punish the guilty.

7:14-15- Every sin has a consequence, whether it be a temporary physical consequence or an eternal spiritual consequence.

My prayer for this morning is going to come from the end of the Psalm 7. I pray that we "will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteoussness, and we will sing praise to the name of the LORD. the Most High."