Psalm 7
17 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Habakkuk 3×21 Samuel 24×2Nahum 1×2Psalms 31×11 Peter 4×1Psalms 50×1
Summary
Chapter summary
A shiggaion of David concerning Cush a Benjamite. He pleads innocence before the righteous Judge: if there be iniquity in my hands, let the enemy overtake me. God is a righteous judge who hath indignation every day; the wicked travaileth with iniquity, diggeth a pit, and falleth into it: his mischief returns upon his own head. David gives thanks according to Jehovah's righteousness and sings praise to the name of Jehovah Most High.
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 7The history
The whole psalm is built as a legal proceeding. When a charge could not be settled by witnesses at the town gate, Israel's law sent the case "before the Lord" at the sanctuary, where the priests handled it. The oath of innocence in verses 3–5 is the standard form: the accused calls down a specific curse on himself if the charge is true — let the enemy tread my life down and lay my honor in the dust.
"Shiggaion" in the heading is a musical or literary term of uncertain meaning, possibly indicating an impassioned, irregular song. The related word appears in Habakkuk 3. It is honest to say the term's precise sense has not survived.
The weapons in verses 12–13 are the real kit of the day. A war bow was strung by bracing it and bending it against the body — "he hath bent his bow" describes a deliberate, two-handed act, not a casual one. Arrows were sometimes wrapped with tow and pitch and lit; "ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors" pictures a bowman making his shafts ready.
The trap in verse 15 is a hunting pit. Hunters dug a pit in a game trail, covered it with brush, and drove animals over it. Digging one badly, or forgetting where you put it, was a known way to break your own leg — and it became the standard proverb for a scheme that recoils.
What it meant to them
For first hearers, this psalm handed the case up. A man with no way to prove his innocence in front of his neighbors asks the God who "trieth the hearts and reins" — the inmost thoughts and the deepest feelings — to hold the hearing himself.
Notice what it does not do: it never asks for permission to take revenge. It asks God to arise, and then waits.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 7
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.