Psalm 7

Psalms 7:1-2

The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, names the psalm a Shiggaion of David, sung unto the Lord concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite, an accuser some older writers read as a veiled name for Saul himself, a fellow Benjamite, while others take him as a courtier otherwise lost to history, and no verdict is reached between the two readings. The prayer opens where such attacks belong, in trust rather than argument, O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust, before any defense is offered. The danger named is total, a lion tearing the soul in pieces with none to deliver, so the trust of verse 1 is set against the worst outcome the psalm can picture.

Psalms 7:3-5

if I have done this: If David has actually returned evil for the peace his enemy offered, or plundered a man without cause, he asks God to let the pursuit succeed, treading his life to the ground and laying his honour in the dust. The oath of verse 4 is the strongest kind of self-curse the Psalter carries, staked on a specific denial rather than a general claim of goodness. Selah marks the pause after the vow is sworn, before the prayer turns from oath to summons.

Psalms 7:6-8

The prayer turns to summons, Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies, asking God to act as judge in open court. The congregation of the people compassing him about in verse 7 pictures a public assize, the nations themselves gathered to watch the verdict. David asks not for automatic vindication but that God judge him according to that specific righteousness and integrity his oath has just sworn, and return thou on high asks God to resume the bench the psalm keeps addressing throughout.

Psalms 7:9-11

The prayer widens from David's own case to a general plea, that the wickedness of the wicked come to an end while the just are established, because the righteous God tries the hearts and the reins, the inward affections the Hebrew names as the seat of desire. My defence is of God restates the psalm's opening trust in legal language, a shield rather than an argument. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day sets a standing, daily judgment against any reading of God as a distant or occasional judge.

Psalms 7:12-14

If the wicked man does not turn, God himself is pictured arming for judgment, sword whetted and bow bent and ready, the weapons prepared before they are needed. The instruments of death in verse 13 are named without softening, arrows made ready against persecutors specifically, the same word the psalm has used for David's own pursuers. Verse 14 turns from weapon to womb, iniquity conceived and travailed and falsehood born, the wicked man's own scheming pictured as a birth that delivers only ruin.

Psalms 7:15-17

The pit dug for another becomes the wicked man's own grave, made and digged and fallen into by its own maker, a reversal the psalms and wisdom books return to often. His mischief shall return upon his own head states the law plainly, the violence aimed outward coming down again on the striker's own skull. The psalm that opened in flight from a lion closes in praise, I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness, David's confidence resolved before any answer is narrated.