Running to God for refuge

One time I was arrested in Nebraska. I was at the right place at the wrong time.

I was attending Nebraska Christian College while living at home.

I had gotten up that Saturday morning to go for a run with my brother. He decided to sleep in so I went for a run by myself.

It was still dark. I had only run 2 or 3 blocks when all the sudden a bright light shone on my eyes and someone shouted “stop!”

I was relieved to find out that it was a police officer. He told me that somebody in the neighborhood had called to police to report a break in. They were looking for two individuals.

I told the officer that I haven’t seen anything suspicious.

He then asked me if I mind coming with them to have the neighbor cleared my named. I said “sure”

When we got the neighbor’s house, the officer knocked on the door and out came an older lady in her 80s.

Officer: “We found this young man running about a block away. Is he one of them.”

Lady: Looking at me for a few seconds… “Yeh, he is one of them.”

Officer: “you are under arrest”

That morning my life changed because somebody falsely accused me.

In our passage this morning we David in a situation where is falsely accused. David is going through a very difficult season in his life (Psalms 3-7)

We don’t know the specific details, but we know from the superscription that Psalm 8 was written “concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.”

Do you know who else was from the tribe of Benjamin? King Saul, David’s predecessor. Because Saul was jealous of David, he tried to kill him on more than one occasion. Saul called on his tribe to stay loyal to him which they did (1Sam 22:7-8) When King Saul died, the country was divided between the house of Saul and the house of David (2 Sam 3:1).

The people of Benjamin held their grudge against David.

2 Samuel 16:7-8 “And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8 The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.””

In 2 Samuel 20:1 we learn that another man named Sheba from the tribe of Benjamin led a revolt against David (2 Sam 20:1).

And now we have this man named Cush from the tribe of Benjamin who falsely accuses David.

David describes Cush like a relentless lion seeking to tear him into pieces.

Perhaps many of you can relate.

Blamed for something you didn’t do

Being on the receiving end of slander

Falsely accused.

What is Cush accusing David of? V.4 gives us a cue where David writes “if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,”

“David, Saul welcomed you and you betrayed his trust by turning on him and you stole his kingdom.”

What to do?

Key lessons

God is a refuge for his people

God hears the prayers and the songs of his people. The superscription says that David sang this psalm to the Lord.

The opening sentence, “O Lord my God.” expresses a personal relationship with God.

What a vivid contrast: a soul finding refuge in God vs a soul being torn apart.

Who do you run to when you feel your soul being torn apart? Run to God in prayer. He is a refuge for his people.

God knows the truth

David protests the false accusations that Cush is making about him. David is not claiming to be sinless.

LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? (Ps 130:3 NLT)

Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you. (Ps 130:2, NLT)

In Psalm 7 David is not claiming to be sinless. He is simply claiming that he is innocent of this particular charge.

In fact, he acknowledges in the previous Psalm (Psalm 6) that he deserves God’s discipline for other things he has done, but in Psalm 7, David claims that Cush’s accusations are completely false.

You can hear his defense and claim of innocence:

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, 5 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. ”

God knows the truth. I prayed in the back of the police car for the truth to prevail. Thankfully that’s what happened. The police were able to find the two individuals they were looking for before I was taken to the police station.

When you find yourself in a situation where you are being falsely accused ask God for the truth to prevail.

God is a God of Justice

This is clearly stated in v. 11, “God is a righteous judge”

In English, righteousness and justice are two different words, but in Hebrew, Greek and Spanish there is only one word group.

Ask God to act on your behalf. Ps 7:6-8 “6 Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. 8 The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” Once again, David is not saying, “I’m sinless.” Rather he is asking God to act on his behalf and reveal that he is innocent and that he was walked in integrity all along thus putting the false accusations to rest.

Ask God to bring down wicked people and to establish people with integrity. Ps 7:9 “9 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!” This is going to be my prayer for the USA

Leave justice in the hands of God. God is a God of justice. He will not let anyone get away with anything. Ps 7:11-16 “11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”

Notice how David depicts God as an armed judge.

The odd picture of an armed judge means that he is active, and effective, in the pursuit of justice. This court has teeth; it does not deal in idle threats. (Michael Wilcock)

Bottom line: You can take justice into your own hands or you can leave it in God’s hands but you cannot do both.

Our response: Praise God that he is a God of justice.

Ps 7:17 “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.”

We ought to be thankful that God guarantees that justice will ultimately prevail. We worship and we serve a God who does not wink at evil. He is the Lord, Most High. Therefore, we are not driven into despair, for one day God will establish justice and completely eradicate evil.

While this psalm is comforting when facing a situation where one is being falsely accused. It also presents a bigger a challenge.

One day will establish justice and completely eradicate evil. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

God has provided a way of salvation. There are two types of people in the world according to Psalm 7. There are those who don’t repent and feel the edge of God’s sword to punish them and there are those who trust in God’s shield to protect them from his wrath.

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On the cross Jesus took God’s wrath that I justly deserve. Now instead of dreading the sword of God I delight in God’s shield, Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:9 “9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”