Psalm Seven

SPIRITURAL DIARY FOR 12/25/2011 7:37:23 PM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 7

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 7

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver. 3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah. 6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries, And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. 8 The LORD judges the peoples; Vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

    “10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. 13 He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, he travails with wickedness, And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. 15 He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made. 16 His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate. 17 I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

 

            We will start off with the word Shiggaion and tell you that the meaning is not really known, but it could mean a passionate psalm with strong emotion.  It is used here and in Habakkuk 3:1 and nowhere else in Scripture.

            Dr. Wiersbe says that the theme of Psalm 7 is God’s vindication of His servant and judgment on his enemies.  He also writes “The psalm described four different judgments.”

            This has to be an early Psalm of David as it is about one of the men under Saul who was telling lies about David and in the process making Saul’s hatred of David grow, and so Saul would hunt David more and more.  David knew that this Benjamite was lying about him and so he writes this psalm speaking to the Lord about Cush, the Benjamite.

 

            Other People Judge us Wrongly:  (vv.1-2):  “1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 Or he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.”

            We see in verse one (NASB) that David uses a plural reference to those who were pursuing him and in verse two he uses the word “he” speaking of Saul who is the one who is pursuing David.  In this we can see that David was being judged wrongly.  David knew that Saul’s judgment of him was wrong and so he cried out to the Lord about being falsely accused.  When people judge us wrongly we first should cry out to the Lord, but we must make sure that we are innocent before doing this.

 

            We Judge Ourselves Honestly:  (vv.3-5):  “3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.”

            David is making sure that he has done nothing wrong and if he did do something wrong then he asks the Lord to have his enemies trample him to the ground.  David knew that he was innocent but we know that David was not sinless, as we are not sinless, and David was not claiming to be sinless.  David was stating that he was sinless in his motives and actions. 

            As we remember the life of David at this time period we know that David had two opportunities to kill Saul, but he could not do so because he could not kill the Lord’s anointed, and so this was reason enough to have a clear conscience when it came to the things of Saul. 

 

            God Judges Sinners Righteously (vv. 6-13):  “6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries, And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And over them return on high. 8 The LORD judges the peoples; Vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me. 9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds. 10 My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. 13 He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.”

 

            I have had people do me wrong on more than one occasion and when this happens I have a desire to handle the situation on my own without consulting the Lord, and then I begin to think about it and at that point trust the Lord to handle the situation.  This is a hard thing to do, but we can see in this section that David asks the Lord to do to these men, Saul and his men who are wronging David, what should be done to them as punishment from the Lord.  Now when this tape of things happens to me and I allow the Lord to handle it then it will be done right even though I have to remember that it will be done on the Lord’s timetable and that takes patience.  In the end all the wrongs that were done to David and also the wrongs that are done to the Lord’s children will be made right and we can see this in this section.  God does know about the wickedness that goes on each day and there is much wickedness that goes on.  He allows sinners to reap the sad consequences of their sins day after day; however when these men continue to be rebellious God may send special judgment when His longsuffering has run its course. 

 

            Sin Itself Judges Sinners Ultimately (vv. 14-17):  “14 Behold, he travails with wickedness, And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood. 15 He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made. 16 His mischief will return upon his own head, And his violence will descend upon his own pate. 17 I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”

 

            Let us take a look at James 1:13-15 to help us understand this section better:  “13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”  This is an example of how pregnancy is used in Scripture as an image of sin.  Sin will eventually destroy the sinners who do not repent to the Lord and turn from their sins.  The Bible says that “The wages of sin is death,” the wages of sin is always death.  God told Adam that when he would eat of the forbidden fruit he would die, and as soon as he ate of it he died spiritually and eventually physically. 

            Friedrich von Logau writes, “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”  We read in the Scriptures that the same day that the Holy Spirit left Saul He came upon David.  Now that does not mean that Saul was not a believer because in the OT the Holy Spirit did not come upon those who were believers the same way that He does to those of us who are living after the cross. 

            My wife is reading the book of Psalms too as she read the book of Job, and she pointed out a quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary that is fitting especially for this time of the year:  “for what every reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine.”  I know that today is Christmas but the reason for Christmas was to bring God’s Son into the world in order to (as Dorothy Sayers put it in the quote I just made) to take His own medicine.

            David speaks at the end of this psalm about sinners being judged and so the reason for the paragraph that is above this one is to say that there is only two ways sinners are going to be judged through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for those who accept it or by each sinner that refuses this pardon to be judged for their own sin.  Which will you choose?

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Christmas day 2011 is a reminder to everyone that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, to do as Dorothy Sayers writes, to take His own medicine.  I am thankful for the reminder of what this day means, to give me something that I will never deserve as a free gift, and that is the best Christmas present that anyone can ever have.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.       Make sure that when I ask the Lord to avenge those who have wronged me that I am innocent.

2.       Trust the Lord to take care of all those who avenge me in His own way and in His own time knowing He will do it the best way it can be done.

3.       Continue to learn contentment.

 

12/25/2011 8:50:48 PM