Psalms 7

Psalms 7:1-17

A pleading for righteous judgment upon the persecutors of the innocent. Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto Jehovah concerning the words of Cush a Benjamite. The fifth psalm of this series closes it with another appeal for judgment upon the persecutor. This is now at hand, and the last verse celebrates Jehovah in millennial character as the Most High. The next psalm, as we have seen, carries us beyond the judgment to see the Son of man making God’s name excellent on all the delivered earth. Thus all these psalms are linked together. The word Shiggaion is said to mean a “wandering ode,” -perhaps a loud enthusiastic hymn, in which the writer is carried away with his enthusiasm; and this would not be unsuitable to the character of the composition. Of Cush we know historically nothing; with which the descriptive “a Benjamite” agrees, not “the Benjamite,” -any noted person. On the other hand, Cush, the “black,” or sun-burnt, may be a symbolic name, an enigma to be read through; and so in any wise we must take it. The Benjamite was, as we know, in power in those days of David to which the psalm belongs; and thus far, at least, Cush was connected with the unhappy Saul. In the days to come a darker power will have arisen in Israel, whose words" will be against both God and His people alike. This “wicked one” is to be consumed with the breath of the Lord’s mouth and destroyed with the “manifestation of His presence.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Gk.) The fear and the triumph that this psalm expresses, though not confined to him, are such as might well be called forth by the tyranny and overthrow of this antichristian oppressor.

1. In the first division of the psalm, faith takes refuge in God from man, sheltering itself as in a rock in the immutability of its covenant-God. All through the last psalm, when that very immutability might seem to be against it, Jehovah was the name clung to and pleaded; and now it abides in its shelter in the Abiding. Will He cast off this soul that trusts Him? No; “the name of Jehovah is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” Outside, the “lion” lies in wait, and there there is “none to rescue.” Only Jehovah can avail to deliver from those cruel and remorseless jaws; and surely the experience will be repeated, “Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the jawbone: Thou has broken the teeth of the ungodly.”
2. There follows the protestation of innocence as far as these enemies are concerned, and that is a matter of immense importance in view of the government of God. “With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you” is still true under the reign of grace itself, and the lips of perfect grace they were that said it. The apostle also says, “If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here with fear; knowing that ye are redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 1:17-19.) So then it is the redeemed who are in this way under the Father’s government, as who should be if not the children? Happy are they, then, who can plead what the psalmist here does, that it is absolutely unprovoked, this malice of the enemy. There are no dues to be made up, as far as he is concerned. Nay, he can say more than this, and we recognize clearly David’s conduct toward Saul as that which furnishes the text here, -he can say, “I have delivered him that without cause oppressed me.” He then puts his seal upon this in the solemn appeal to Him who knows the truth to let the enemy have his way with him if this be not so, -tread down his life upon the earth, and lay his glory in the dust.
3. Now he breaks out in an ardent prayer for Jehovah to come in, set up His throne in judgment, gather the nations round Him, and in this great assembly judge openly his cause, and do him right. In fact, this is what is to take place at the close of the period to which prophetically the psalm looks on. But the judgment will not be a sessional one, but an outbreaking of divine wrath like the flashing of the storm to which the Lord Himself compares His coming. (Matthew 24:27.)
4. The psalmist turns from the thought of his own vindication and deliverance to cry out for the cessation of evil upon the earth, the righteous being established in it, God with perfect knowledge of men making proof of all in the innermost truth of heart and reins. The great tribulation, of which our Lord speaks in the same prophecy, will accomplish this, not only in Israel, which will be in the centre of it, but largely also in the nations round, which will he affected by it. The day of the Lord of hosts will be upon all the pride of man to abase it, and upon all the objects with which he fain would satisfy the void in a heart that has turned from God. “The idols he shall utterly abolish.” “And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem, when Jehovah shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” (Isaiah 2:18; Isaiah 4:3-4.) Well may the soul rejoice if it can say, as to that day, “My shield is upon God, who saveth the upright in heart”! Who, indeed, but He could use the shield for any at such a time?
5. The psalm goes on to contemplate the government of God, which is for righteousness, though patient in a way that may be misunderstood on both sides, -by righteous and wicked alike. Though patient, His anger burns against the impenitent, day by day stored up, until at last it flames forth. The sword is being sharpened, the bent bow makes no sound until the arrow is discharged: then it is a weapon of death, all aflame with divine vengeance.
6. The result as to the enemy of the righteous shows the hand that is over him. He toils to produce what is vain labor, has his toil for his pains, an end which deceives the laborer. It is not merely vain, it is his own undoing: the ditch dug for another is the trap to catch the digger. And thus the fruit of his toil he harvests in unwelcome fashion and most perfect retribution: for God is Master of all, and will be glorified in all. So the psalm ends in praise to Him who is righteous and Supreme as well. And the millennial name -the “Most High,” King of kings and Lord of lords, -shows, as already said, whereto we have arrived. The series is manifestly complete, and its moral purpose is as manifest. The way of the Lord is seen in the abasing of the proud, in the lifting up of the lowly. Therefore the lesson which we find the remnant of Israel here learning. The “sacrifices of righteousness” which we have heard them press on others, include and imply the sacrifices of God," which “are a contrite spirit,” the “broken and contrite heart” which He will “not despise.” This is produced in them by the discipline of the awful day which seems now so near at hand for Israel and the earth. They “endure,” bow under the rod, and are saved at the end when the rod smites. All this is the utterance of the remnant that shall be, in which the Spirit of Christ has anticipated for them their need, and ministered to it beforehand, showing His intimacy with all their condition, and providing for its expression in words which they will have no difficulty in appropriating, and which lead on to the answer of peace of which the same psalms assure them. How gracious is this special ministry to special need; while the need of any at any time is provided for also. These psalms give us, as others have pointed out, a morning (Psalms 3:1-8) passing into evening (4) and night (5), -a night at its deepest in Psalms 6:1-10, but in the seventh showing the commencement of the dawn. The full day is come in the psalm following.