Psalm 7
I concur with the OPC/URC proposal on Psalm 7. While “Song 24” is not common in our circles, it is a wonderful fit for this impassioned plea for deliverance.
Text: 10. 10. 10. 10. (compiled from Sing Psalms, 2003, and Book of Psalms for Singing, 1973; MCPC, 2012)
1 O LORD my God, my refuge is in you; deliver me from all those who pursue,
2 lest lionlike they tear ferociously, while there is no one to deliver me.
3 O LORD my God, if wrong is in my hands, 4 if I did evil to my foes or friends,
5 let my pursuer overtake me now, and trample in the dust my life, my soul.
6 Arise, O LORD, in wrath against my foes, against the rage of all who me oppose.
Awake, my God, let justice now abound, 7 for all assembled nations gathered round.
8 Your justice to the people, LORD, decree. According to my righteousness judge me;
9 but let the evil of the wicked end, and be the righteous one’s secure defense.
You test all minds and hearts, O righteous God! 10 My shield is He who saves the upright heart.
11 God is a judge who does what’s right and fair, and ev’ry day God will his wrath declare.
12 If one does not repent, God whets his sword; he stands prepared, and he has drawn his bow.
13 He has made ready instruments of death; he makes his arrows deadly, fiery shafts.
14 See how the wicked evil thoughts conceive, is pregnant with ill will and bears deceit.
15 He makes a pit, he digs it with his spade, then falls into the very pit he made.
16 His scheming will recoil on him instead; his evil will descend upon his head.
17 I’ll thank the LORD for judging righteously, and I’ll sing praises to the LORD Most High.
Tune: Song 24 (Orlando Gibbons, 1623)
Commentary
Psalm 7 is titled, “A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.”
Who is this Cush? Some think that David is using a circumlocution for Saul — since it was considered improper to curse the ruler of Israel (Ex. 22:28). But this doesn’t work: cursing is cursing, whether you name them or not. Others suggest that there was some Benjaminite named Cush who was slandering David (a rather likely scenario). Others — such as Theodore of Mopsuestia and Augustine — suggest that this refers to Hushai the Archite, David’s friend. After all, the superscription does not say whether “Cush” is a friend or a foe. In this scenario, David hears the message from Hushai that Absalom will not pursue him immediately (2 Samuel 17:21), and then writes Psalm 7 in response.
Certainly there are strong Absalom links in the Psalm itself. In verse 4, “if I have repaid my friend with evil” — the word translated “my friend” is sholmi (from shalem — meaning “one who is at peace with me”) — and closely related to the name Abshalom (“father of peace”). We didn’t try to capture this in our translation because it requires a preacher to explain the text.
Structure:
Our eight stanza structure works hard to capture the movement in the Psalm. Stanza 1 and 2 both open with the line, “O LORD, my God” (verses 1 and 3), while stanzas 3-6 each open with references to God (verses 6, 8, 9, 12). Since verses 12-16 then turn to the wicked, it is impossible to open stanzas 7-8 with a divine reference, but the last half of stanza 8 (verse 17) does so.
In contrast, the Book of Psalms for Worship extends the Psalm to nine stanzas, and Sing Psalms has ten stanzas (using the same meter).
Translation Notes:
Some may wonder how we blended two versions that were both longer, and wound up with a shorter text! We did this by following each when they chose to condense, since our goal was to be as succinct as possible. For example:
Psalm 7:5 (ESV) — “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.”
Sing Psalms devotes an entire stanza to this verse: “Then let my foe pursue relentlessly that he may vent his hateful spite on me, and let him trample me into the ground; so will my honour in the dust be found.” [The underlined text supposedly translates “overtake it”]
Our translation — “Let my pursuer overtake me now, and trample in the dust my life, my soul.” [Following the Book of Psalms for Singing in omitting the phrase “my glory.” The Book of Psalms for Worship alters the phrase, but does not reintroduce “glory.”]
Since our goal is to sing the whole Psalm at one time, we strove for economy of language.
In verse 9, the ESV says, “you who test the minds and hearts,” where the Hebrew literally says “the hearts and kidneys.” Sometimes you hear people say that Hebrew has no word for ‘mind’ — and so they claim that the Hebrews were less rationalistic than the Greeks. Or they will say that since Hebrew uses the word “heart” to talk about thinking, therefore Hebrew is more affective — ironically using the Greek concept of heart to define what is “affective”! Given that English has adopted our mind/heart distinction from Greek, it can be a little challenging to render the heart/kidney usage in Hebrew. Here, in Psalm 7, it’s fairly easy — since it is clear that the Psalmist wants God to test his inward self, both his thinking and his feeling.
But this brings us to the central challenge of Psalm 7. Verse 8 has just said, “judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” If God is a righteous judge (v11), then how can the Psalmist expect to pass the test? After all, he is not asking for a test of outward deeds — he is saying that God tests the heart and the mind. The Psalmist says that God tests the inward disposition of men — and yet he expects to pass the test without difficulty! Certainly this was true of Jesus — and certainly Jesus is the best singer of this Psalm! — but David is making a point about the present, and further, he is writing a song for Israel to sing for centuries to come, as they look forward to the greater Son of David.
This is where Hushai and Absalom come in handy. Whether it was the original context of Psalm 7 or not, it provides one clear example of how someone could sing Psalm 7 with a clear conscience. In verses 3-5 David has declared his innocence. He did nothing to deserve the way that Absalom has treated him. David is the rightful king of Israel. While Saul was king, David had always been careful not to mistreat the LORD’s anointed — but now Absalom and his conspirators have betrayed him. With respect to the case at hand, David is innocent. And so David prays, “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!” (v9)
And then he warns the conspirators in verses 12-16 that if they do not repent — if they do not turn back from their path — then they will fall into their own pit. Or, to use one of the most memorable lines in the Psalm: “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.”
This is a good reminder that there are times when we are innocent! And especially since we have been justified in Christ, we stand before God as his innocent people (remember the point in verse 12 — “if one does not repent…”!). Again, the Absalom story is helpful: what if Absalom had repented? Is it not obvious from the story that if Absalom had repented, David would have forgiven him? But God does indeed “whet his sword” and “make ready his instruments of death” against those who refuse to repent (v12-13).
Tune Notes:
Song 24 is a wonderfully dark and foreboding tune mostly in the Dorian mode, quite fitting for a lament. Gibbons himself only composed the soprano and bass lines — so the inner parts were added by The English Hymnal (1906).
It is used in the 1987 Psalter Hymnal with an alternate version of Psalm 51 (#167), and with hymn 308, “Come, Risen Lord, as Guest Among Your Own.” While Gibbons’ original tune began with a half note at the beginning of each line, the inflection works better with a quarter rest and a quarter note at the beginning of each line. Since most people are not familiar with this tune, this alteration will not be noticeable to most.
Conclusion
Psalm 7 can be a hard song to sing for those who have been trained that Christians should never pray for vengeance. But Psalm 7 is a good place to learn how — since it includes the reminder that repentance is always an option, and it focuses on how God is the one who brings vengeance (not us), and on how sin invariably trips itself and destroys itself.
You can hear a choir singing a different text to Song 24 at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4GAJQCn-Sg
(starting at the 4:30 mark)
I have not yet preached on Psalm 7.
— Peter J. Wallace
