seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Psalm 7: (a)(b)1 Lord my God, I take refuge in you;
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
3 Lord my God, if I have done this
and there is guilt on my hands—
and there is guilt on my hands—
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil
or without cause have robbed my foe—
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life to the ground
and make me sleep in the dust.[c]
6 Arise, Lord, in your anger;
rise up against the rage of my enemies.
Awake, my God; decree justice.
7 Let the assembled peoples gather around you,
while you sit enthroned over them on high.
8 Let the Lord judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity, O Most High.
9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked
and make the righteous secure—
you, the righteous God
who probes minds and hearts.
rise up against the rage of my enemies.
Awake, my God; decree justice.
7 Let the assembled peoples gather around you,
while you sit enthroned over them on high.
8 Let the Lord judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity, O Most High.
9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked
and make the righteous secure—
you, the righteous God
who probes minds and hearts.
10 My shield[d] is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who displays his wrath every day.
12 If he does not relent,
he[e] will sharpen his sword;
he will bend and string his bow.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he makes ready his flaming arrows.
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who displays his wrath every day.
12 If he does not relent,
he[e] will sharpen his sword;
he will bend and string his bow.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he makes ready his flaming arrows.
14 Whoever is pregnant with evil
conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them;
their violence comes down on their own heads.
conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
15 Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit they have made.
16 The trouble they cause recoils on them;
their violence comes down on their own heads.
17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.
I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.
a.Psalm 7:1 In Hebrew texts 7:1-17 is numbered 7:2-18.
b. Psalm 7:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
c. Psalm 7:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.
d. Psalm 7:10 Or sovereign
e. Psalm 7:12 Or If anyone does not repent, / God
There is a beautiful commentary on this chapter at the bible-studys.org site. I left a link here to click on.... it's beautiful but too long to post here. The description of the lion is vivid.
This is from the easy English site.
When David was young he worked for King Saul. Saul was King of Israel 1050 years before Jesus came to earth. Everybody liked David. This made Saul angry. He wanted to kill David. So David ran away from Saul. David lived in the fields and woods and mountains. Saul tried to catch David, but he could not.
David had other enemies. One was Cush. Cush was from the people of Benjamin. They were one of the 12 tribes (or large families) that made up Israel. Cush told Saul, "David wants to kill you". This was not true.
Someone told David what Cush had said. This hurt David very much. What David felt is in Psalm 7. The psalm says, "If I want to kill Saul, then Cush must kill me. If I do not want to do it, then Cush must die".
In the psalm David asked God to say who is right. God must be the judge. In this psalm judges were not as they are today. Today judges decide if somebody is bad. In the psalms judges gave help to people. They also led the Jews when they fought their enemies. They were political leaders. This means government leaders.
Three kings ruled Israel. They were Saul, David and Solomon. Then Judah and Israel became separate countries. They had a king each. One king ruled Judah and Benjamin; the other king ruled the other 10 tribes.
Verses 1 – 5: David asks God to keep him safe from his enemy. In verse 2 the wild animal is a lion. David probably means that Cush is like a wild animal. David says that Cush can kill David if Cush is right. David says this because he knows that Cush is wrong! The friend in verse 4 is probably Saul. In verse 5 "him" is probably Cush.
Verses 6 – 11: David asks God to be the judge. This means David wants God to give David help. This help will show everybody that David is right. David does not want to kill Saul. In verse 6 David tells God to wake up! He thinks God is asleep as God is not doing anything. But then David remembers that God never sleeps. In verse 11 David says that God gives help to people every day. He does this by showing his anger in many ways.
Verses 12 – 16: Here are three pictures:
verses 12-13 God uses weapons as a soldier does. This is a picture. God has many ways to punish people. Punish means "hurt people who do wrong".
verse 14 Cush is like a woman having a baby. Cush is not having a real baby. The "baby" is the bad things that he does.
verses 15-16 Cush digs a hole and falls in it himself. This means that God judged that David was right. So God punished Cush. We do not know how God did to Cush what Cush wanted to do to David.
Verse 17: The end of the psalm looks back to the LORD Most High. David probably wrote this part later.
So... I need to remember.... Judah was a Theocracy. Judges and Levites were appointed by God to use the Mosaic Law to govern. Everyone... absolutely everyone in the districts of Judah and Benjamin were ruled by God. This guy Cush.... he wanted Saul to be king. After all.... Saul was from an excellent family.... one with wealth and prestige.... Saul would be the kind that knew every fork on the Queens Table if he would to visit Buckingham Palace [which he wouldn't because they are from two separate places in history... but it's still a good analogy]. David was just a shepherd... probably ate with his hands. Cush wanted Saul to be king and he kept whispering in Saul's ear about David's success. Cush told Saul a lie. Saul was hunting David down because of Cush. David's paying for the lie. That's why David's calling God in to the battle. David knows God can take care of Cush.
