Chapter Seven

The meaning of the Hebrew inscription “shiggaion” is not precisely known. It is supposed that by this term is designated a song composed amid particularly difficult circumstances of the writer’s life and expressing the troubled state of his spirit, and therefore distinguished by the lack of strict sequence in the exposition of thoughts. The psalm is composed “concerning Cush, a Benjamite.” “Cush” or Kush means an Ethiopian, a resident of Middle Egypt. Who exactly is meant by this name cannot be definitively established. It is reasonable to agree with the supposition that under this name should be understood Saul, equally dark, hostile, and hostile in his disposition toward David, as is the dark skin of an Ethiopian. The origin of the psalm from the time of Saul’s persecution is confirmed by the psalm’s indication of David’s difficult situation, unjustly persecuted by enemies and in no way guilty before God (Ps 7:5). David’s confession of his innocence before God and the complete undeservedness of the persecution is a characteristic of all his psalms from this period.

David prays to God for protection in view of his complete helplessness before enemies and his innocence both toward the latter and toward God Himself (2-6). Let the Lord pronounce His judgment before all peoples so that David’s righteousness may be revealed (8-10). Since God is a righteous judge, David is confident that He will punish his enemies, those who dug a pit for him (11-18).

Psalm 7:2. O Lord, my God, in You I trust; save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me; Psalm 7:3. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is no one to rescue [and save me]. “In You I trust.” David, pursued by Saul, was unable to offer any resistance, for his side was a negligible handful of people, while Saul came against him with a tried in battle and large army, and therefore his only defense could be only God, not human help or skill. “Lest he tear my soul like a lion.” The comparison to a lion indicates the degree of cruelty of David’s enemies, who sought to take his life (“soul”).

Psalm 7:4. O Lord, my God, if I have done this; if there is iniquity in my hands; Psalm 7:5. If I have repaid him who was at peace with me—I, who have rescued even those who without cause became my enemy— Psalm 7:6. Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; let him trample my life to the ground, and lay my glory in the dust. “If there is iniquity in my hands.” David denies having committed any wrongdoing against God or people, and therefore his present persecutions are entirely undeserved by him. David was never false, did not deceive his friends (“if I have repaid him who was at peace with me”), and even “rescued those who without cause became my enemy,” that is, Saul, toward whom David not only did nothing wrong, but even saved him from the shame of defeat, for instance, by his single combat with Goliath, and did not take his life, when during Saul’s persecutions of David, the latter had many opportunities to do so (see 1 Sam 26). Saul’s persecutions of David were the fruit of the latter’s morbid suspicion toward David concerning false accusations of power-hungry schemes, and therefore in the psalms from the epoch of these persecutions David always confesses both his complete innocence before God and people, and the complete undeservedness of the persecution. Verse 6 presents the form of a curse pronounced by a person upon himself. Such self-curse was very widespread in antiquity (see Job 31) and it had the character of a voluntary obligation imposed upon oneself before the face of God, the Supreme and Almighty Judge. Such an obligation, as voluntary, testified to the deep and sincere concern of a person for his own moral purity. The whole address of David to God thus has this meaning. Let the enemy destroy me if I am wrong in anything before people and God. To investigate the case of David with his enemies, a trial is needed, and it is about this trial that David prays further.

Psalm 7:7. Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; lift Yourself up against the rage of my enemies, and awake for me to the judgment You have commanded, Psalm 7:8. A throng of peoples shall surround You; over it rise on high. Psalm 7:9. The Lord judges the peoples. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to my integrity within me. Psalm 7:10. Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; You who test the hearts and minds, O righteous God! “Lift Yourself up against the rage of my enemies”—a precise characterization of Saul’s and his associates’ attitude toward David. Saul’s hatred had no justification or reason, it was blind and in its blindness menacing and indiscriminate in its means. “Awake for me to the judgment.” God seemed to have abandoned David, does not pay attention to him, as if asleep, and left him to his enemies unjustly persecuted, while He Himself had commanded “judgment,” that is, strictly just evaluation of the actions of each, which (justice) should guide everyone in their deeds and judgments. In the prevalence of the wicked, David sees the violation of God’s law, for the restoration of which he prays to God. If the Lord rises to the defense of the trampled justice in the person of David, then “a throng of peoples shall surround You,” all nations and, in particular, the Hebrews (“throng”—assembly) will reverence, bow down before Him, as the only Judge. The defense of the innocently persecuted will exalt God “on high” before the peoples, will instill and establish faith in the people that in Him alone is righteousness and protection. The Lord is judge not only of the individual man, but of all peoples. The history of the Hebrews’ conquests of Palestine and their struggle with pagan peoples clearly showed that the Lord powerfully rules all the world and His judgment, His sentence, no one can resist. Confessing before Him “his righteousness and integrity,” David prays to “let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end,” that is, the persecution of his enemies.

Psalm 7:11. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. Psalm 7:12. God is a righteous judge, [strong and patient,] and God who is angry every day, Since God is a righteous judge and patient, not immediately punishing enemies, David entrusts himself to Him and sees in Him his “shield,” his support and protection.

Psalm 7:13. If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready, Psalm 7:14. He has also prepared for him instruments of death; He makes His arrows fiery. Psalm 7:15. Behold, he conceives iniquity, and is pregnant with mischief, and gives birth to falsehood; Psalm 7:16. He has dug a pit, and hollowed it out, and has fallen into the hole which he made: Psalm 7:17. His mischief will return upon his own head, and his violence will come down upon his own pate. Psalm 7:18. I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. The enemies of David, in their unjust persecution of him, are enemies of the Lord; God will not permit the triumph of unrighteousness, and therefore the wicked will inevitably be punished and perish, as they perish from “instruments of death,” instruments of death, that is, arrows that inflict the wounded “fiery,” inflamed, purulent, and deadly wounds. The deeper the hatred in relation (“he conceives iniquity, is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to falsehood”—an image of the strength of the enmity) toward David, the more terrible will be the wicked man’s punishment from God. Malice and iniquity will be turned upon “his own head,” upon him and become the cause of his destruction. This faith of David in the inevitable destruction of his enemies, the wicked, evokes in him an extraordinary uplift of spirit and serves as a source of composing in honor of God, as the defender of righteousness, a hymn of praise (“I will sing praise to the name of the Lord”).