Psalm 7; The Righteous God Who Establishes the Righteous

PastorRodney’s Weblog

2025 05/11 Psalm 7; The Righteous God Who Establishes the Righteous; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250511_psalm-7.mp3

Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible

Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible. Whatever circumstance we are facing, whatever our struggle, however we feel, the Psalms can help us find words to seek help from the Lord in prayer. He is our very present help in times of trouble, and he is able to establish us in his own righteousness.

Slander and Lies

Have you ever been slandered, falsely accused? Your own conscience is clear, maybe you were misunderstood, maybe you are simply being lied about, but you know you own heart.

In Psalm 7, David finds himself falsely accused, attacked, threatened. Psalm 7 is a song of David which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjaminite. We aren’t told anything else about this Cush or what the context was. We do know that Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, and when David was anointed by Samuel to replace Saul as king, it seems among the Benjaminites there was loyalty to Saul. In 1 Samuel 22, when Saul was hunting David; Saul in frustration said:

1 Samuel 22:7 And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, 8 that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day.”

We know later on, during Absalom’s uprising, as David was fleeing Jerusalem,

2 Samuel 16:5 …there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. 6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8 The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” …13 So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust.

Take It To The LORD

We don’t know who Cush was, or what his accusation was, but we see David taking it to the Lord in prayer.

Psalm 7:1 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.

David is being attacked. He feels defenseless, as if he were pounced upon by a ravenous lion. He feels hopeless, helpless, about to be destroyed. But he knows where to turn; his continual practice is to run to YHWH for refuge. This is not his last resort, out of desperation, when nothing else is helping; no, he has made this his habitual practice. The LEB translates the tense ‘in you I have taken refuge’. In his fleeing from Saul, he hid in strongholds, in caves, in walled cities, in the wilderness; but ultimately his refuge is the Lord.

He appeals again to the Lord for rescue, for deliverance. The stakes are high. Either the LORD rescues him, or he will be torn apart.

I Am Innocent

In verse 3, he defends his own innocence and integrity.

Psalm 7:3 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

Where in Psalm 6 David does not defend his own innocence but in the face of God’s wrath he appeals for undeserved grace, here in Psalm 7 he argues his own integrity. He appeals to God’s justice to defend him, because in this matter he has done nothing wrong.

In 1 Samuel as Saul hunted David, on two different occasions he was given the opportunity to kill Saul, but he demonstrated undeniably his own innocence, and sought to clear his name from slanderous accusations;

1 Samuel 24:9 And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’? 10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’ 11 See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. 12 May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. 13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you.

1 Samuel 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. 24 Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.”

David pleads his own innocence in the face of false accusations. He is willing to pay the consequences if he is proven to be in the wrong before the LORD. But he is confident that if God hears his case, he will be acquitted.

-Selah; pause, reflect, worship.

YHWH The Warrior King

Psalm 7:6 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.

David is calling out to YHWH the Warrior-King to go out to battle for him. In Numbers 10, Moses was instructed to make two silver trumpets to communicate with the camp of Israel, to assemble them, or to call them to battle.

Numbers 10:9 And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.

The trumpets were a way to communicate with all the people, but also as a symbol to arouse God’s attention and invite him to act. Throughout their time in the desert, the glory cloud indicating the presence of YHWH would lead them and be their protection. When the people departed from Sinai for the first time;

Numbers 10:34 And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp. 35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” 36 And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

This battle cry for YHWH to arise and scatter his enemies is what David uses here to invoke the Lord to action. His circumstances make him feel as if the Lord is not paying attention, as if the Lord is asleep. He calls on God to arise, lift yourself up, awake! Remember me and save me! And he looks for God the Lord to return from battle victorious, enthroned in victory, seated, ruling over his people,.

Let the Judge of All the Earth Bring Justice

Psalm 7:8 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.

Here he acknowledges the justice of God who is the judge of all mankind. God is not passively ignoring injustice; he feels indignation every day, as Paul says in Romans:

Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

There is a day appointed, a day of wrath;

Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Retributive Justice

Psalm 7:12 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.

We are often uncomfortable with the idea of God’s wrath, but that is the necessary outflow of God being just and righteous. A just God will punish sin. Evil is fertile, reproducing, filling the earth, but it is also fatal. There is poetic justice here; the one who digs a pit will fall into it; the wicked one who stirs up trouble will bring that violence down crushing his own skull. In the law it says:

Deuteronomy 19:18 …if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

Often our sin creates its own consequences. God is just, and a just judge must punish sin. But as we saw in Psalm 6, God not only just. He is also gracious, extending kindness in place of his wrath to those who humbly ask for his grace.

The ‘If’ of Repentance

David holds out an incredible ‘if’ even to his enemies, even to the wicked. If a man does not repent, there will be wrath and fury. You will get what you deserve. But the implication is that if even a wicked evildoer repents, turns from his wickedness, turns to the Lord humbly asking for mercy, there is a way for God’s wrath to be turned away.

How can God be just and judge the wicked, but also extend grace to sinners like me who simply ask for it? How can he be just and the justifier of the sinner who cries out to Jesus?

The Gospel Refuge of God’s Righteousness

In this psalm, David invites YHWH the righteous judge to judge him. That is a bold move for a sinner. Although in this particular situation, David had a clear conscience before God, we know David was not perfect. He was guilty like the rest of us, of lust, greed, pride, falsehood, even betrayal and murder. And yet he turns to God as his judge, his salvation, his shield. He acknowledges that God is absolutely just and feels righteous indignation toward our sin every day. And yet instead of fleeing from God, he runs to the Lord as his only refuge.

David recognizes that it is God who brings the evil of the wicked to an end, and establishes the righteous, and he invites the righteous judge to bring justice.

I am wicked. I am a treasonous lawbreaker. But when I cry out in humility and faith ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’, God brings my evil to an end – it is finished; paid in full. God establishes me as righteous; not intrinsically righteous as if the righteousness were based on my perfect record, but based on the perfect record of Jesus credited to me. The only way for integrity to be in me is for Jesus, who is perfect righteousness, perfect integrity, to be in me. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Gal.2:20)

Jesus in Psalm 7

In this Psalm David is unjustly accused, threatened by those who, like lions, would tear apart his soul, and he feels as if God is not paying attention to his plight. He cries out for salvation. The greater Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed, falsely accused, acknowledged innocent by the governmental authority, yet condemned to execution. He cried out to the Lord who had seemingly forsaken him, but instead of being saved, he bore in his body on that cursed tree the just wrath of Almighty God poured out against my sin. The appointed judgment that I deserve came to him. His glory was laid in the dust. There was no rescue for him so that today, for all who cry out to him, he is our refuge, our shield, he brings my evil to an end and establishes me as righteous in him. He is the one who was lifted up, not lifted up to fight against his enemies, but lifted up on a cross in place of his enemies, paying my price in full. He is now enthroned over us today, and we, the redeemed, worship him. We gladly bow the knee, as we wait expectantly for him to return from on high.

Our response?

Psalm 7:17 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.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org