November 9
Reading: Psalm 7
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!
10 My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15 He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
This Psalm is an imprecatory psalm. You need to be acquainted with this word, “imprecation.” It means a curse upon someone else. In the Psalms, however, it is deeper than that. When David prays imprecation upon another person or group of people, he wants God to find them, get them, judge them, and destroy them. David is asking God to destroy those who hurt him.
You might think that this is excessive, an ugly look for a praying man like David. But life is messy, and evil is real, and David is not playing spiritual games. David’s enemies are seeking to do him real harm. There is a war on, good verses evil, and David intends to do battle in prayer.
This is all strangely consistent with Romans 12:17-20.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
The Lord calls you to deal with others in kindness and peace. Why? Because God is the one who will take vengeance on your account. This is why David appeals to God’s justice.
Verses 6-7 depict Yahweh (the Lord) sitting on high in judgment over all. No one escapes this judgment. But David looks forward to it.
Now, you might be somewhat put off by David’s protestations of his own righteousness in verses 3-8. “Judge me according to my righteousness,” he says, “according to the integrity in me.” Then in verse 10 he clearly sees himself as “upright in heart.” How can David be so confident before God?
There are three reasons. First David is trusting the God will pay for his sins and make him perfectly righteous. Second, in the particular dispute at hand, David is in the right. His attackers are wrong. David is righteous in this instance. Finally, David is not proclaiming his own perfect sinlessness. That is not what “my righteousness” means in the Bible. He means that his heart is right before God, He seeks God. And when he fails, he repents, makes it right, gets right with God and keeps seeking God. David’s life path is the path of righteousness. He is living out Psalm 1.
And, so, David prays God’s vengeance upon his enemies because David knows that God is the ultimate judge and avenger and that God will vindicate His own beloved people. In fact, the Lord will bring the actions of these people who are assailing David back around on their own heads.
Are you looking to God as your avenger? Or are you trying to do it yourself?
Is the path of your life a pursuit of the Lord, who tests hearts and minds, and His righteousness?