Psalm 7
notes
Summary:
A prayer of trust in
Yahweh for vindication, for justice and for deliverance from enemies.
Uses:
When persecuted or opposed
unjustly
To focus on God’s
character in difficult circumstances
Praising God’s
righteousness and judgement
Giving thanks for
deliverance or in the confidence of future deliverance
Prayer:
Lord, you search me and
you know me.
I confess that I am a
sinner, entirely dependent on your grace.
Make me a person of
righteousness and integrity, I pray.
May I be faithful and
consistent, as you are, keeping my word, honouring my friends and partners,
always dealing fairly with others and fulfilling my responsibilities.
May I never give others
cause to hate me or to hate you.
Lord, I pray for justice
for myself and for the world.
Vindicate me, and all who
are wronged.
Deliver your faithful
people who are persecuted without cause.
I look to you as my refuge
and shield, my only confidence in this world and in the next.
Arise and fight for your
people, I pray.
Yours, Lord, is the battle
and the victory.
May your kingdom come and
your will be done.
May your just rule be seen
upon the earth.
Thank you, Lord, for your
righteousness, that I can have complete confidence that the judge of all the
world will do right.
Thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ: the only perfectly innocent one who suffered unjustly for me and
whom you delivered from death and hell, triumphing over all his enemies.
Thank you for the
vindication of his resurrection and ascension and that all evil will be undone.
All praise to your high
and holy name.
Amen.
Outlines / structure:
Expositor’s Bible:
The righteous God loves
the righteous
(1) A - Prayer for refuge (vv1-2)
(2) B - Oath of innocence
(vv3-5)
(3) C - God’s righteous judgement
(vv6-13)
(4) B’ - Judgement of the
guilty (vv14-16)
(5) A’ - Praise of God’s
righteousness (v17)
Goldingay, Baker
Commentary
On trial, in battle,
hunted
Wilcock, BST:
(1) Concerning Cush: a
lion (vv1-5)
(2) Concerning God: a
courtroom (vv6-9)
(3) Concerning God: an
armoury (vv10-13)
(4) Concerning Cush: a
pregnancy and a pit (vv14-17)
Kidner, Tyndale:
A cry for justice
Vv1-2, The hunted man
Vv3-5, The oath of
innocence
Vv6-11, The righteous
judge
Vv12-16, “Sin, when it is
finished…”
V17, Thankful praise
Dale Ralph Davis, The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life
Just Justice
Take care with your prayer
(vv1-5)
Find hope in God’s anger
(vv6-11)
Watch Judgement take place
(vv12-16)
Remember praise is due
(v17)
Notes:
Title:
Goldingay calls a siggayon
a lament on the basis of the Akkadian sigu
Shiggaion – Wilcock
guesses it could be related to the verb to wander and therefore wild, rhapsodic
music
David
Sang to the LORD
Davis has “on account of
the words of Cush”
Cush – Sudan (Goldingay) –
the area south of Egypt not Ethiopia
2 Sam 18:20-32 the
Sudanese – Shimei and or Sheba both styled Benjaminites (Goldingay) – see
Goldingay p144 for verbal links between this story and the Psalm
Cf. 1 Sam 24
Concerning Cush, a
Benjamite – not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible
When David was pursued by
Saul the Benjaminite?
Or during Absalom’s
rebellion the latent hostilities of the Benjaminites resurged – 2 Sam 16:5-14;
20:1-22
How is God pictured and
described in this Psalm?
Movement from lament to
thanksgiving
A broadening out to God’s
eschatological rule over the nations? – then God’s people will no longer be
troubled
2 Thess 1:5-10 – the
coming judgement
Themes / genres:
individual lament (vv1-2), oath (vv3-5), kingship psalm (vv6-12), thanksgiving
hymn (v17)
Justice and salvation go
together here
From intensely personal to
global (v7-8)
Cf. Naboth
Num 5:11-28; Dt 8:7-20; 1
Kings 8:31-32
Vivid pictures of David’s
opponents: a lion, a pregnant man (!), and a digger of holes
Of God: judge and warrior
(Wilcock, p35)
Wilcock: 4 chiastic
stanzas: Cush / God / God / Cush (p35)
David lays out before the
Lord his position (v1a), his danger (vv1b-2) and his conscience (vv3-5) (Davis,
p86)
V1 – Yahweh, My God
(repeated in v3) – an initial note of confidence
V1 – I take refuge in you
– loyalty, trust
Cf. other supposed
refuges… “Other refuge have I none” (Charles Wesley, Jesus Lover of My Soul)
Kidner says the tense
shows that “while David’s preservation and deliverance were still matters for
prayer (v1b), his unseen refuge was already a fact”
Vv1 & 2 – repetition
of save
V2 – lion imagery
V2 – God his only hope –
an argument for God to act
Vv3-4 – If, ‘im, 3x in MT
V3 – “this” – whatever his
enemy is accusing him of
Dt 25:16
V3 – awel – guilt (NIV) is
meanness, deception, hostility, unfaithfulness
Cf. Is 1:15; 59:3, 6
Vv3-5 – an appeal to God’s
justice – of course the Psalmist cannot claim sinless perfection but he knows
himself to be in the right with respect to his enemies. They are baddies and he
is a goody. Their opposition is undeserved.
Cf. Job’s claim to
righteousness – 1 Cor 4
Is the Psalmist at all
confused about this / really questioning it or is this rhetorical?
He who is at peace with me
equivalent to a close friend Ps 41:9; Jer 38:22 – cf. Judas?! – an ally?
2 Kings 7:17
Perhaps david feels
slandered, misunderstood, falsely accused of bribes, treachery etc. – cf. Absalom’s
smear campaign – 2 Sam 15:1-6
Cf. God’s knowledge and an
illustration from the art of spying – CIA photos from 1973 in which one can
make out the time on the soldiers watches (Davis, p86f)
V4 – David’s supposed
betrayal of Saul?
Vv4-5 suggest a war
context
V4 – solem - friend,
strictly, ally – someone in a committed salom relationship
Ex 23:4f; lev 19:17f; 1 Sam
24:10f; Prov 25:21
V4b – Goldingay, “but
released my watchful foe without cause” – says halas never elsewhere means to
plunder – a former ally who has become a foe?
Unprincipled leniency to
foes? – cf. Saul to Agag 1 Sam 15
V5 – kebodi, kabod, my
glory – personal worth? – can sometimes refer to the liver or inner being,
heart – cf. 4:2 / honour – 3:3
Cf. Job 31
V5 – evil as an army
V5 – Selah – Goldingay
translates this “(Rise)” – Willock: an interlude for music or meditation? – a
pause to read related Scriptures? (Goulder)
Vv6-11 – Kidner: breadth
of vision here; concern for universal justice
V6 – God’s anger
V6 – An appeal to God’s
anger against the anger of the enemies – God’s anger is the Psalmist’s hope;
the attackers’ anger is the Psalmist’s threat (Goldingay)
Cf. Heb 4:13 – God as all-knowing
judge – There’s no fooling him!
Cf. 5:5; 6:1
V6 – appeal to God to
arise and awake – God does not sleep of course, but it can seem like he does!
V6 – God, you must have ordered
a decision
God is more powerful than
any enemies and he cares
Cf. Acts 17:31
V6 – repetition: arise,
rise up, awake
Cf. Num 10:35-36 and Ps
3:7
V7 – MT suba, return, not
seba, rule – return on high, LORD
Return to your judgement
seat throne / sit as judge
Vv7-8 – an appeal to God
to exercise his rule and judge, to God’s righteousness and integrity /
character
A prayer for vindication,
declare me in the right – judge my case and find for me, Lord
Cf. 2:8-9
V9 the hinge of the Psalm
– movement from prayer to expressions of confidence and praise
V9 – The righteous God
searches minds and hearts – both David and his enemies are open books to the
LORD
God not grandfatherly and
mildly indulgent! (Wilcock)
A court with teeth!
(Wilcock)
Vv9-11: 6 descriptive
phrases of God: righteous God, tester (one who searches my heart, v9), my
shield, saviour, righteous judge, God who expresses his wrath
The ungodly will
experience God’s sword; the repentant will benefit from his shield. It is
precisely by dealing with the wicked that God delivers the innocent. We ought
to be grateful for the fierceness of the Biblical God because it guarantees
that eventually all will be as it ought to be (Wilcock, p37)
Chiasm:
A Tester
B Righteous
C Shield
C’ Saviour
B’ Righteous judge
A’ Indignant
(Expositor’s Bible
Commentary, p132)
The confidence of a
believer before God
Heb 10:19-23; 2 Tim 8:8
V9 – mind and heart, lit.
hearts and kidneys, inmost being, the deepest part of a person, innards, Ps
26:5; Jer 11:20; 17:10; 20:12 – God knows the heart Jer 17:9
V10 – God as shield – cf.
3:3; 18:35 – Heb. Lit, my shield is on God
The Lord as righteous
judge with the nations gathered around him a familiar image in the kingship of
Yahweh Pss 95-99
V12 – God’s delay has given
an opportunity for repentance
V12 – God as warrior – cf.
Ps 98 – he will fight his peoples’ battles on their behalf
V12 – darak, maybe lit. he
treads his bow, pulling the string with his foot
V13 - God’s lightnings
like flaming arrows – Ps 18:14
Judgement inescapable and
deadly. David’s predicament will be reversed.
Vv14-16 cf. Prov 26:27;
28:10
V14 – pregnancy and birth
metaphor
Wickedness may be allowed
a gestation period
V14 – The first verb in
the verse, habal, elsewhere describes
the pain and anxiety of actually giving birth. There are several roots: a
common one denotes “act corruptly” or “destroy” (Goldingay).
Cf. begetting and digging
– Is 51:1-2 – pregnancy and digging (hara
and kara) sound like one another
Evil is fertile but futile
(after Kidner)
V14 – NIV disillusionment
= saqer, lie, falsehood
Cf. James 1:14f
V15 – word play in the Hebrew
– wayyippol, falls, yipal, made
Falls back, yasub, the same as turns (v12)
The lion of v2 falls into
the pit of v15
V15-16 – they provoke
their own downfall – their plots rebound on themselves – they fall into the pit
they have dug – no doubt they think themselves so very clever and well prepared
– perhaps they gloat over how they will ruin their enemies, not knowing that a
great downfall awaits them
Sin comes home to roost
Wrongdoing is a boomerang
– Prov 26:27; Mt 26:52
God stands behind all
things – no such thing as merely natural consequences but the way God has
established and governs the universe
Davis p90 – an Eskimo
technique of getting a wolf to lick itself to death on a knife covered in
frozen blood
Cf. the cross – the
innocent unjustly suffering one delivered, the evil of his persecutors will
rebound on them
V16 – the abcc’b’a’
structure of the verse mirrors the reversal it describes (Goldingay)
V17 – Application: resolve
to thank and praise God
Mk 7:37
V17 – the exact expression
Yahweh Most High only elsewhere in 47:2
V17 – The name of the LORD
most high – note in Expositor’s Bible Commentary on the Name of Yahweh (p135) –
The Creator-Redeemer-King God who has revealed himself, the God of the covenant
– reliable, promise-keeping, God’s people who call on him can expect his
blessing and protection – God’s name recalls his perfections and mighty acts
and will be praised – list of other Psalms which use The name of the Yahweh on
p136
Name / character
Hope in God’s faithfulness
and power
Trial / war / hunt imagery
often used together (Goldingay, p152)
Isaac Watts: O bless the
Lord, my soul, nor let his mercies lie / forgotten in unthankfullness, and
without praises die.
Troubles à prayer à
deliverance à praise
Whether in trouble or in
thankfulness, pray!
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