Studies in Psalms - Psalm 7

Let God Be your Judge

“Do not judge me”, one of those oft heard refrains from people in the world. Psalm 7 speaks of judgment and in it we find David crying out to God about the judgment of him that led to Saul’s pursuit on his life. So, David cries out to God.

Psalm 7:1-2

O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

The secret to judgment in our lives is honesty with ourselves and with God. In response to his ordeal, David goes to God in a soul-searching appeal. David knows that God sees the truth and has enough faith in God to allow Him to be His judge. Like David, we’re not getting away with anything. God sees all sin, even the sin we hide from others.

Psalm 7:3-5
O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, 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

David speaks here to the truth of God being the righteous judge. He is willing to accept the judgments of our righteous God. David knows the importance of repentance.

Psalm 7:6-13
Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. 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! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.

David also understands that sin will in the end, bring its own judgment. He knows a man can dig his own hole and it can get so deep that he cannot get himself out of it. This is why we need a savior. This is why we need Jesus.

Psalm 7:14-16
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

The lesson for us? Examine yourself daily as scripture tells us to in 2 Corinthians 13:5. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal you own sin, then confess and repent of it. Then by faith in Christ, let His blood cover your sin. Rejoice and praise God for the gift of Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you and be restored to relationship with your heavenly Father.

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.