Psalm 7 - Rooted: Those who are planted in the Lord can trust the Righteous Judge

Psalm 7

Good morning church! So far we have gone through the first 5 chapters of the book of Psalms, and have learned through the scriptures how we as Christians can take refuge in the Lord in times of struggle, despair, and how we can be nourished and strengthened by God to overcome life’s most difficult challenges and adversaries. After a lot of prayer and reading through chapter 6, and discussion with Pastor Jonathan we decided it was a chapter that would be tough to preach through due to the style of the chapter, so we will go ahead and jump to chapter 7 this morning. That is not to say chapter 6 has no weight or value, and I do encourage everyone to read and pray over chapter 6 as well as you go through your scripture reading.

The title of today’s sermon is: Those who are planted in the Lord can trust the Righteous Judge.

Before we begin, this sermon is heavy in the sense that Psalm 7 is full of judgement and justice. Too often mainstream and megachurch pastors and social media influencers only highlight the light and happy sections of the Bible, which are all still true, but the God we serve is a just God, and we must not forget that He will punish those who do not follow and serve Him. If you find yourself at a church that only preaches one angle or perspective of the Bible, I would encourage you to find a church that expositionally preaches and doesn’t cherry pick sections of scripture based on what people want to hear.

Lets bow our heads in prayer before we get into the chapter this morning. Heavenly Father, we come together this morning to worship you, the most high God and perfect judge. We praise you for your majesty and might, your sovereignty and your mercy. We pray that this morning you would illuminate the scriptures for our eyes and minds to comprehend and internalize what you have you speak to us today. Please let these words be yours and not mine, and let your gospel and truth be magnified today. In your name we pray, amen.

As we take a look at chapter 7, let us first get a background of what this Psalm is. The title of the Psalm is “A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.” What is a Shiggaion? The exact meaning is unknown, but it's generally interpreted as a type of song or psalm characterized by strong emotion and perhaps a wandering or erratic style. This Hebrew word is only found here at the beginning of Psalm 7 and a second time in Habukkuk 3:1, where it characterizes a prayer of lament and praise. David does typically have strong emotions in the Psalms and that is definitely accurate for Psalm 7. It also includes in the title that this psalm is about the words of Cush, the Benjamite. Now Cush was a close friend to King Saul, and it is thought that Cush accused David of treason or some other treacherous act unjustly, which in turn compounded Saul’s hatred for David and his desire to kill him. It is a longer passage than the first 5 chapters we have gone through, so we will break it down in to 4 points today.

Point number 1: If you are in Christ, you should be devoted to Him even in times of distress.

Lets read verses 1 through 5 together. Psalm 7:1–5 “O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver. 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, 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. Selah”

David starts off this Psalm by glorifying God. He declares again that his hope and confidence for protection is in the Lord. Then he asks for deliverance from his enemy, which is a common theme we have seen in these first several chapters. Seems like a lot of people were out to get David, huh?

He goes on with an image of a lion devouring its prey, with no one to deliver the prey from the attack. Charles Spurgeon expands this idea by describing a lamb being attacked without a shepherd. And David is crying out to his Shepherd for protection, and like any good shepherd, the Lord comes to his defense.

But then David takes a turn, and gives sort of an admittance or repentance, even essentially saying “allow my enemies to conquer me if I have done something to deserve it.” That is a statement I don’t think a lot of us would make. Have you ever been put in a situation where you were falsely accused of something? How bold would we need to be to say to our boss or our parents or teachers “I know I have done nothing wrong, but if I have, punish me to the fullest extent.” What courage and humility that would take for even a small accusation, much less one that has the chance of getting you killed by your biggest adversary.

Also note that David is praying for the Lord to deliver him from false accusations, slander against him. Rumors and lies about a person have immense weight, and can carry on forever. I’m sure everyone has heard a false rumor before, but even if it is proven false, people still talk about it like it was true for months, sometimes years. And at this point in David’s life, he had already had 2 chances to kill Saul, but chose not to. Therefore David can with clear conscience say that he had done nothing to deserve this slander.

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Everyone has heard the expression wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thing about that in the sense of the devil camouflaging himself in the world as desirable things, only to devour the unsuspecting person in sin and evil.

Point number 2: Christians should leave judgement in the hands of the one true and righteous Judge. Lets read verses 6 through 9. Psalm 7:6–9 “Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. 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!”

How often are we quick to try to avenge any wrong doing that is done against us? We often think of our method of retaliation as soon as someone sins against us, and how we can get back at them at an even greater level. But that is sin in itself, friends! Not only does David cry out and plead to the Lord, the righteous God, to carry out judgment, but Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:39 “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Now these words aren’t a call for us to be completely passive in all circumstances, but it can be a call for us to leave all vengeance upon the Lord, to cast all our cares and troubles upon Him, to rely solely on Him to right every wrong.

Point number 3: We can trust in the Lord to defend us. Lets read verses 10-13. Psalm 7:10–13 “My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.”

In this set of verses we see the judgement of the Lord described in action. Whet, or sharpened, his sword, bent and readied his bow, prepared deadly weapons, making fiery arrows. And who will receive this judgement? The man who does not repent. And if we go back to verses 3-5, we see that David has a repentant heart, saying that he deserves the punishment if he has done evil. But brothers and sisters, we too deserve the punishment, we deserve the wrath, but we are blessed to have the punishment taken away from us. Jesus took the sword, the fiery arrows, all the deadly weapons that should have been used against us and willingly sacrificed himself so that we could be spared.

Isaiah 54:17 “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.””

Listen to these words by Spurgeon: “Sinners may have many feast days, but no safe days. From the beginning of the year even to its ending, there is not an hour in which God's oven is not hot, and burning in readiness for the wicked, who shall be as stubble.”

Now that is something that we need to remember, that God is just and is ready to serve righteous judgement at any time. This also attests to the point that we see in Matthew 24:42–44 “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Jesus’ return is imminent, and like Spurgeon says, his oven is hot for those who live in sin.

And lastly, point number 4: Those who are planted in evil dig their own grave. Psalm 7:14–17 “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. 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.”

Here we see a visual representation of what then happens to evil people. First, David gives us this imagery of reproduction of evil. Evil people attempt to drag everyone into the same sin that they are in. We have seen this time and time again in society where sin is being watered down, justified, and accepted. Even in so called Christian churches! When we bend to sin, when we try to make our own interpretations of the commands that God has given us in the Bible, we fall into the trap of Satan. Then verse 15 states that the evil one is who digs a pit, hoping to snare those who follow the Lord, but in turn falls into the pit himself. God doesn’t send us to Hell, our sins and unrepentance and denial of the Savior sends us to Hell. We do it to ourselves.

Then to close the Psalm, David sends praise and thanksgiving to the Lord who is our protector and deliverer. He is worthy and deserving of our utmost praise. Every situation we are placed in, good or bad, we must remember to give the Lord of our lives the utmost praise. Not only because we are thankful for Him, but that He is worthy of it, and we should be eager and excited to worship and praise Him.

As we come to a close this morning, reflect on your own life. Are you like David, reliant on the Lord for deliverance, to fight for you, and to protect you? Are you repentant of your sins and do you strive to live a righteous life? Or are you like Cush or Saul, sewing seeds of untruths, starting or spreading false rumors, living in unrepentant sin? Friends, we all inherently fall in to the second category, but if we follow Christ, our lives will be transformed for the better, we can trust in the Father to guide and protect us, and if we live like Jesus, we will ultimately live with Jesus.

Let us pray.