Psalm 7
Song for the Slandered Soul
A passionate song to the Lord To the tune of “Breaking the Curse of Cush, the Benjamite,” by King David
1 Yahweh my God, I turn aside to hide my soul in you.
Save me from all those who pursue and persecute me.
2 There is none to deliver me but you!
Don’t let my foes fall upon me like fierce lions with teeth bared.
Can’t you see how they want to rip me to shreds?
3 Lord, my God, if I were doing evil things, that would be different,
for then I would be guilty, deserving all of this.
4 If I have wronged someone at peace with me,
if I have betrayed a friend, repaying evil for good,
or if I have unjustly harmed my enemy,
5 Then it would be right for you
to let my enemy pursue and overtake me.
In fact, let them grind me into the ground.
Let them take my life from me and drag my dignity in the dust!
Pause in his presence
6 Now, Lord, let your anger arise against the anger of my enemies.
Awaken your fury and stand up for me!
Decree that justice be done against my foes.
7 Gather all the people around you.
Return to your place on high to preside over them
and once more occupy the throne of judgment.
8 You are the Exalted One who judges the people,
so vindicate me publicly and restore my honor and integrity.
Before all the people declare me innocent.
9 Once and for all, end the evil tactics of the wicked!
Reward and prosper the cause of the righteous,
for you are the righteous God, the soul searcher,
who looks deep into every heart
to examine the thoughts and motives.
10 God, your wrap-around presence
is my protection and my defense.
You bring victory to all who reach out for you.
11 Righteousness is revealed every time you judge.
Because of the strength of your forgiveness,
your anger does not break out every day,
even though you are a righteous judge.
12-13 Yet if the wicked do not repent,
you will not relent with your wrath,
slaying them with your shining sword.
You are the conqueror with an arsenal of lethal weapons
that you’ve prepared for them.
You have bent and strung your bow,
making your judgment-arrows shafts of burning fire.
14-15 Look how the wicked conceive their evil schemes.
They go into labor with their lies and give birth to trouble.
They dig a pit for others to fall into,
not knowing that they will be the very ones
who will fall into their own pit of failure.
16 For you, God, will see to it that every pit-digger
who works to trap and harm others
will be trapped and harmed by his own treachery.
17 But I will give all my thanks to you, Lord,
for you make everything right in the end.
I will sing my highest praise to the God of the Highest Place!
My brother is 3 years older than me, and he only hit me one time, just once. We were in an intense game of Monopoly, and he hated to lose. I always bought up all the light blues, yellows, and purples, and he was always more of a Park Place and Boardwalk kind of guy. Somehow, I had managed to be the banker in this particular game, which was a rarity. As he landed on one of my cheap properties with hotels on it, he knew his bankroll had met its end. And, he was not happy about it. He punched me right in the mouth and knocked me straight into the piano bench behind me. Now, before you call CPS or my parents, there’s one detail I feel is somewhat important to this story.
I cheated.
Throughout the entire game.
I was the banker, and I had been keeping my bank account full a few hundred dollars at a time.
And he had no idea.
So, if we’re being really honest here, the reality is, I probably deserved to be punched in the face! And, sometimes, in life, we deserved to be punched in the face too! Sometimes, we do stupid things, or terrible things, or even seemingly unforgivable things, and we deserve the consequences that come from those. We see David here discussing this very concept. In the beginning of this psalm, David is crying out to God for rescue (a common theme, if you haven’t noticed that yet) from enemies who are pursuing and persecuting him. David does something after this initial cry that sometimes I think we take for granted: he searches himself. He stops to take a hard look at his own actions before he goes on. He says to God, “Lord, my God, if I were doing evil things, that would be different, for then I would be guilty, deserving all of this. If I have wronged someone at peace with me, if I have betrayed a friend, repaying evil for good, or if I have unjustly harmed my enemy, then it would be right for you to let my enemy pursue and overtake me. In fact, let them grind me into the ground. Let them take my life from me and drag my dignity in the dust!” David’s response is admirable here. After he searches himself, he realizes he has not done anything wrong in this particular instance; however, he calls on God telling him how just it would be for his enemy to pursue and overtake him if he wronged someone or treated them unjustly. Not only would this be fair, but it would be just if his enemy ground him and his dignity into the ground. Wowzers. Those are some strong words and some strong declarations on David’s part, and I believe the reason David was able to make this statement is because he did know his heart and his motives, and he knew they were pure.
David goes on to ask God for justice and punishment for his enemies, another common theme throughout his psalms, as David commonly found himself pinned down and just out of the clutches of his enemies. He begs God to return to his judgment seat, to judge him, to declare him innocent, and to restore him to a place of dignity and integrity. This is a really interest contrast David presents here between God’s punishment for the wicked and restoration of the righteous, and at the core of the contrast is one thing: what is in the depths of the individual’s heart. Throughout psalms and proverbs, David and his son Solomon discuss the righteous and the wicked regularly. When you read these scriptures, you might wonder, what makes some wicked and some righteous? We all sin. We all mess up. We are all trainwrecks in our own rites. So, what makes one sinner any more righteous than another? What makes one any more wicked? I think the answer to that question lies in these verses. David was a man after God’s own heart. But he was also a sinner. He was a King. But he was also a murderer. He danced in his underwear before God, but he also cheated on his wife (wives, but that’s another story). So, you might be scratching your head and wondering how an adulterous murderer could write this psalm and be so confident that he had done no wrong and that God would find him righteous and return him to a place of dignity and respect. And, the answer to that question is simple: God knew David’s heart. Just like God knows your heart. And my heart. Your enemy’s heart. Your child’s heart. Your ex’s heart. Your boss’s heart. Your frenemy’s heart. Your pastor’s heart. And some of them might be wicked. And some of them might be righteous.
David knew where he stood in God’s eyes, but he also knew where he stood in this situation. He knew he wasn’t guilty. Despite any of his other missteps, this was not one of them, and he did not deserve the treatment he was getting. He didn't deserve to be punched in the face. He knew his enemies were wicked. He knew his heart was pure. And, he understood God’s propensity for forgiveness. David knows God’s forgiveness. He understands the process of repentance, and he knows there is still hope for his enemies to receive that gift as well; however, he also sees what the future looks like for those who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes, ask God for his forgiveness, and truly repent. And, you see, this is one of the most important aspects of this verse and our Christian life. We have to be able to acknowledge our mistakes. We have to be able to understand our own roles and take responsibility for our own actions. David got it. He demonstrates this in the very beginning of the psalm when he searches his heart! And, we have to do the same thing. We have to search our hearts too and check our motives. Are we guilty of wrongdoing? Are our motives impure? Are our hearts and minds in the wrong place? Why is it that we are doing what we’re doing? Are we hurting each other? Are we punishing each other? What role did we play in this situation? And, if we are honest in our assessment, we can either go to God for forgiveness and make the change, or we can go to God with pure hearts and know that we are righteous and ask God to judge us without fear of the result!
I’m sure you’ve heard the term, “you reap what you sow,” and that is precisely the message David ends this psalm with. Do you know there are over 60 scriptures that discuss reaping and sowing? This isn’t just a random idea someone came up with to try to scare people into being good. No, it is a biblical concept with earthly and eternal consequences. Like David says, the wicked don’t understand they are digging pits that they will eventually fall into. They don’t understand they will eventually fall prey to their own treachery. We inevitably reap what we sow. If we sow goodness, we will reap goodness. If we sow love, we will reap love. If we sow joy, we will reap joy. But, the converse is true as well. If we sow anger, we will reap anger. If we sow hatred, we will reap hatred. If we sow punishment, we will reap punishment.
We reap exactly what we sow.
It might not be immediate.
But, it will happen.
I know it’s kind of a silly example, but I definitely reaped what I sowed in that stupid Monopoly game with my brother. I deserved to get punched in the mouth. Okay, that might have actually gone a little too far, but still. I cheated the entire game, and I reaped what I sowed. And, while Monopoly is just a game, the same thing is true about life. If you cheat through life, life will eventually punch you in the face! David understood that. In the very last verse of this psalm, David says, “but I will give all my thanks to you, Lord, for you make everything right in the end.” David understood that God was and is the ultimate judge, that the wicked would reap wickedness, and the righteous would reap righteousness.
As we continue through this Lenten season, I wonder what your heart looks like. I wonder what it is that you’re reaping and you’re sowing today. If God were to examine your heart and your motives and your thoughts today, what would he find? Is there something there that you need to lay down before God, repent of, and ask forgiveness for? Is there someone you need to apologize to for the role you played in their lives? Is there something keeping you stuck in the realm of the wicked instead of the reward of the righteous? Wherever you find yourself today, know that you will reap what you sow, and it is my prayer that it will ultimately be righteousness.
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