July 28, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Job 6:1-8:22; Acts 17:32-18:17

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Psalm 7

1     O Lord my God, in You I have taken refuge;

Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

     2     Or he will tear my soul like a lion,

Dragging me away, while there is none to deliver.

     3     O Lord my God, if I have done this,

If there is injustice in my hands,

     4     If I have rewarded evil to my friend,

Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary,

     5     Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;

And let him trample my life down to the ground

And lay my glory in the dust.     Selah.

     6     Arise, O Lord, in Your anger;

Lift up Yourself against the rage of my adversaries,

And arouse Yourself for me; You have appointed judgment.

     7     Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You,

And over them return on high.

     8     The Lord judges the peoples;

Vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.

     9     O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;

For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

     10     My shield is with God,

Who saves the upright in heart.

     11     God is a righteous judge,

And a God who has indignation every day.

     12     If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword;

He has bent His bow and made it ready.

     13     He has also prepared for Himself deadly weapons;

He makes His arrows fiery shafts.

     14     Behold, he travails with wickedness,

And he conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood.

     15     He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,

And has fallen into the hole which he made.

     16     His mischief will return upon his own head,

And his violence will descend upon his own pate.

     17     I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness

And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

NASB95^[1]

At first, this looks like another of the Psalms where David is fleeing for his life before his enemies. This is a misconception; David is not speaking about physical enemies at all.  Verse 1 speaks of the enemy in plural, but in verse two, he is spoken of in the singular.  Who is it that can attack the soul?  Isn't that the devil?  Read this Psalm with that thought in mind, it makes a lot more sense.  David is not struggling against flesh and blood, but rather struggling against the powers of the darkness.

Ephesians 6:12

12     For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

NASB95^[2]

David displayed a sensitivity that went beyond the macho man, he was very sensitive toward the leading of God, and toward spiritual warfare in his life.

Consider the segments of this psalm from that viewpoint.  Verses 3-5 are a discernment process where David searches his soul to see if he was injust, treated others wrongly, or took advantage of his enemies.  If he was in the wrong, he was willing to take his punishment for it.

Verses 6-11 are a cry for righteousness, David stood by his integrity.  He asked God to deal with his enemies directly proportional to the way that David exercised righteousness and integrity in his life.  He prayed for victory over evil, and that God would shield his heart, then judge the wicked.  Consider that for a moment, Paul must have been thinking along these same lines when he spoke of spiritual warfare in the New Testament, continuing from above:

Ephesians 6:13-18

13     Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

     14     Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

     15     and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

     16     in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

     17     And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

     18     With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

NASB95^[3]

Notice that Paul spoke of many of the exact things that are addressed in this Psalm.  I wonder if he was reading through this Psalm when he wrote to the Ephesians about spiritual warfare.

Closing out the Psalm there is a short section where David contrasts God's readiness to judge sin, verses 12-13 with man's propensity to fall into sin, verses 14-16.  God equips us for spiritual battle, it is the battle for our soul, and the battle against the devil.  What are we going to do about it?  Are we going to follow after God and learn His way of doing battle, or are we going to fall into the pit of our own destruction? 

To wrap up the Psalm, David praises God for being righteous and deserving praise.  He gives thanks to the Lord. 

I will close here, consider as you read this psalm today, David was flesh and blood and he struggled with sin, just like we do.  David wrote this Psalm as a word picture of how that we cry out to God for spiritual armor, and for victory over the evil one.  All comments are welcomed.

Father, as we consider Your word, enable each of us to understand and apply Your word to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Andrew Holybee