Psalms 7 - Introduction

A.M. 2942. B.C. 1062.

David, being maliciously aspersed and calumniated, expresses his trust in God, and prays for deliverance from his enemies, 1, 2. Appeals to God for his innocence, Psalms 7:3. Prays to him to judge his cause, Psalms 7:6. And to abolish sin and establish righteousness, Psalms 7:9; Psalms 7:10. Bears witness to God's wrath against sinners, and resolution to punish them, Psalms 7:11. Describes the progress and end of sin, with the joy and triumph of the faithful, Psalms 7:14.

Title of the Psalm. Shiggaion of David A song or hymn of David. Shiggaion is rendered by Houbigant, cantio erratica, a wandering song, or song of wanderings, so Parkhurst after Fenwick. It was probably composed by David in his wanderings, when persecuted by Saul and his servants: “in which,” says Dr. Dodd, “the psalmist stands as a type of Christ and his church, persecuted by Satan and his adherents.” Which he sang unto the Lord Which he not only composed, but which he himself sang, in a devout and religious manner, unto the Lord; concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite Who this Cush was we are nowhere told. Some think he was the same with Shimei, because he appears, from the third and fourth verses, to have reproached David, in the same manner as Shimei did, with his ingratitude to Saul. Some again are rather of opinion that Saul himself, the son of Cis, is meant by Cush, to which conjecture the Chaldee title of the Psalm gives some countenance, terming it “a song of David, which he sang before the Lord when he delivered a poem upon the death of Saul, the son of Cis.” But as this opinion seems to be formed on the supposed resemblance of the two names, Cush and Cis, it must be observed, that in the original they bear no resemblance whatever; קישׁ, kish, the name of Saul's father, differing totally in two of its radical letters, from כושׁ, Cush, here spoken of. It seems more likely, therefore, that not Saul, but, as Bishop Patrick has observed, one of his courtiers, captains, or kinsmen, is intended. What the things were, of which he accused David, we know not. But the strong terms in which David declares his innocence, and, “indeed, the whole subject matter of the Psalm seems to assure us,” as Dr. Dodd justly remarks, “that on whatever occasion David wrote it, the Holy Spirit led him to use words which, in their full and proper sense, must have been designed for the mouth of him who was perfectly righteous, and in whose hands there never was any iniquity.”