Psalm 7

 

Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

 Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands— if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe— then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.

Arise, Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice. Let the assembled peoples gather around you, while you sit enthroned over them on high. Let the Lord judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.

Bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure—
you, the righteous God who probes minds and hearts.

My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.  God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day.  If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow. He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows. Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.

Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made. The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads. I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High. (Psalm 7)

 

According to the references, David wrote this song as a response to a Benjaminite named Cush. I don’t find any reference to a Benjaminite named Cush, but King Saul was a Benjaminite, so he and his relatives, who generally had no great love for David could be “Cush.” In Genesis, Cush was listed as a son of Ham, and the father of Nimrod. Nimrod built Nineveh, which became the thoroughly wicked city against whom Jonah prophesied. Interestingly, Kish was the father of Saul, whom God appointed, and then rejected as ruler of Israel. My theory, then, is that the Cush who was oppressing David in this psalm was Saul.

David is all over the place in this psalm.

Save me.

If I’m guilty, let him destroy me.

Protect me, be glorious, vindicate me. 

End the violence.

God is on my side and He’s really powerful!

Hey, you guys, what goes around comes around (Karma.)

God is wonderful again!

I’ve said before that one of the things I like about David’s psalms is that he doesn’t hesitate to express himself. If he’s angry, sad, happy, or whatever – at whoever – we hear about it, even if it’s God that he’s angry with. And in one psalm, he can go through a whole range of emotions. Sometimes that is irritating to me, but who of us hasn’t experienced such fluctuations?

Today, for me, the focus is on God’s on my side and He’s really powerful. Some would say that’s arrogance. When Joshua asked the armed stranger whose side he was on, the Israelites or the Jerichoites, the stranger had said, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” (Joshua 5:14) Given that David was a man after God’s own heart, maybe he could get away with saying “My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.  God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day.  If he does not relent, he will sharpen his sword; he will bend and string his bow,” but can I?

And yet, is it possible? Am I sufficiently on God’s side so that God could say “I’m on Karen’s side”? If so, about what? When? Right now, I think I need to just practice thinking that it’s possible and let the “when” present itself.