Psalms 7:1-17
1 O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
5 Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.
6 Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.
7 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.
8 The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.
9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
10 My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
11 God judgetha the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
15 He made a pit,b and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
17 I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.
The title of this psalm is similar to that of Zechariah 3:1. It is called, not a psalm, but Shiggaion or Shigionoth of David; which he sung to the Lord concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite. Whether Shiggaion designates a musical instrument, or a mode of music, as the air, the symphony or melody, is uncertain. But who is Cush? We find no such name in Saul's court; the word is always the name of a country or of its black inhabitants, who were often servants to the Israelites. But here Cush is like a lion, who would tear David to pieces: Psalms 7:2. Therefore Cush is but a disguised name for Saul himself. It was a métonymy: the wise man says, “Curse not the king, no not in thy thought.” Ecclesiastes 10:20. This figure is then a full but delicate appeal of injured innocence, to the bar of a righteous God.
Psalms 7:5. Selah; which falls here after David's attestations of innocence, and before he asks God to arise in anger. The change of subject requires a change in the melody, that the music might be the echo of the heart. It justifies the remarks of a Hebrew scholar, cited Psalms 3:4.
Psalms 7:7. So shall the congregation, literally, the tribes of Israel, compass thee about, with songs of praise for showing thy righteousness to David.
REFLECTIONS.
This psalm, like the last, is a continuous pleading with heaven for deliverance. It opens with David's confidence in God, that he had sought the good of those who now sought his harm. By consequence, he knew that the God of truth would in due time avenge his cause: and no man can approach him with iniquity in his hands.
He associates his prayers with those of the congregation of Israel, whose eyes were over him, and whose hearts were with him. And though afraid, lest their voice should be heard on earth, they were the more earnest that their prayers might be heard in heaven. They therefore awaited the day when they might once more see David's face, and hear the sweet sounds of his harp in the house of God.
From the righteous, he glances at the other family, and says of the wicked, if he turn not, God hath whet his sword, and bent his bow, and prepared his vasa mortis, his artillery of death. Like the great conquerors, who ravage nations, the Lord is preparing a grand expedition against the ungodly. Those who delight in war he overthrows in war; the populous and effeminate cities he destroys with pestilence; the profligate and the lascivious he wastes away by slow disease. Men who fight against Omnipotence had better pause, and reflect on the issues of their warfare. But let the saints join the choir of David, and sing, “I will praise the Lord, according to his righteousness, and magnify the name of the Most High.”