Psalm Seven "God the Righteous Avenger, and the Rightous Defender"

Scripture Reading

2 Samuel 16:5–14 (ESV)

When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 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.”

Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ ” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.

Introduction

Good morning, Redemption Church. My name is Noah Toney; I am the pastor here. If this is your first time, welcome; if you are watching on the live stream, I am glad you are here with us this morning. Here at Redemption Church, We Exist to proclaim the gospel and make disciples for the glory of God. If you have a copy of God's word, please turn to Psalm 7. We have lots of new people with us this morning, so please allow me a moment to recap what we have learned.

Psalm One teaches us about the blessed man who is the perfect citizen of God's kingdom, who walks in the way of the righteous and turns from the way of the wicked.

Psalm Two teaches us about God's Messiah-King, who will reign forever despite the raging nations.

Psalm Three teaches us about God's chosen king, David, who, when the nations are raging against him, responds in faith and trust in God.

Psalm Four teaches us that when God's people are in distress, we should reflect on God's past faithfulness to find future hope.

Psalm Five teaches us that God's people can find comfort in the character of God.

Psalm Six teaches us that God’s people will experience anguish and despair yet we find our hope in God’s steadfast love.

This week: Psalm seven teaches us

Psalm 7:1-17

A SHIGGAION OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG TO THE LORD CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH, A BENJAMINITE. 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 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! 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. 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.

Pastoral Prayer

Context

If you are new to church and don't know much about psalms, that is okay. The Psalms are like a photo album. People often think about the Psalms as a random collection of 150 poems. I want to argue that the Psalms are arranged in a specific way that tells a story. It is like a photo album. You can have a photo album of 150 photos, but chances are that those photos are not random; they are of particular events and people from your family. Chances are that they are arranged in a way that tells a story of your family history. This is how the psalms work. Most psalms have a specific place for a specific reason, to tell us something about the story of God's people.

I have been arguing that Psalms 3-9 are all related in one way or another to "Absaloms revolt." So the context of the Psalms is all the same. Remember Absalom was standing at the gate for four years, and as people would come to see his father, King David, they would pass by Absalom. When they passed the gate, he would steal their hearts with lies and ultimately politicking. After four years, Absalom felt comfortable with his fame and glory. He devised a plan to steal the kingdom. David finds out about this plan, and it is too late. He must get up and flee from Jerusalem. He leaves Jerusalem, takes his valor men, and heads into the wilderness. All of these Psalms 3-9 were most likely written from the wilderness or reflections of David's time in the wilderness fleeing from his son.

"A SHIGGAION OF DAVID, WHICH HE SANG TO THE LORD CONCERNING THE WORDS OF CUSH, A BENJAMINITE"

Psalm seven opens with this superscription. The word "Shiggaion," has a footnote at the bottom of my ESV that says, "likely a liturgical term." We have discovered that we don't know what it means, I even took some extra time in my week to look this up in my Hebrew lexicon, and it had a word with no entry next to it. It was blank. This word occurs one more time in the Bible, in Habbakuk three. It is used to introduce a very similar prayer to PSalm seven in its theme and tone. Habbakuk three is a war song that sings about God marching into battle. Interestingly, our morning passage also depicts God as a warrior fighting for the innocent. So we have no idea what this term means; don't take anything I say to the bank, but I think it is a type of war song.

"Which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite." This line is the key to interpreting this Psalm. Last week we looked at Psalm 6, where David is guilty, and he knows that he is dealing with the consequences of his sin. This week is the opposite, David is innocent, yet he still suffers from false accusations, and his enemies persecute an innocent man. Think back to the scripture reading that Tony read. In that passage, 2 Samuel 16, David is fleeing from Jerusalem, which is bad enough, and as he leaves the city, he passes by a town called Bahurim. A man named Shimei comes out and curses David continually. He throws stones at him and cusses him like a scolded dog. Shimei curses him and throws rocks at David and his followers, saying, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 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." Long story short, this man named "Shimei" is from the house of Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamine, and is accusing David of taking the throne of Israel by force. He is accusing David of murdering Saul and killing Saul's household. If you know the story, this is not true. David had many chances to kill Saul, but he would not lift his hand against the Lord's anointed king. David didn't murder Johnathan, they were best friends, and he loved him like a brother. The Bible goes out of the way to make it clear to us that David was not at the battle when Saul was killed. Not only that, but usually, when a king takes over a kingdom, he kills everyone associated with the last ruler and all of their children so they might not lay claim to the throne. David invites Saul's children to forever sit at his table, eat what he eats, and drink what he drinks. David was innocent in the demise of Saul, yet these Benjaminites are coming and cursing him, saying, "its about time someone took the throne from you, because you took the throne from Saul." These are the false allegations and charges that are being brought against David.

Save Me or Else

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."

David is in trouble. Every Psalm we have looked at since Psalm three has slowly built in intensity. In Psalm three, David mentioned laying down and sleeping, Psalm five is the morning prayer of David afterwords, but his trust is in God. In Psalm 6 David is in deep personal anguish, but Psalm seven is different; David is in immediate trouble. He calls out to the Lord, "Save me, or else I am doomed." When he is in immediate trouble, David looks to God as his refuge. I know that we have seen this every week, but I still want to draw this out because David is an excellent example of how we should respond to the highs and lows of life. When he is surrounded by enemies who want to kill him, David turns to God. You might not have enemies trying to knock down your door and kill you, but you know what it is like to be in trouble, on the brink of financial ruin, or on the verge of marital disaster. When you are in a tight spot, where do you turn? Don't look to self-help schemes or how other people bail you out, go first to God in prayer.

David then gives us a graphic picture of the trouble he is in. "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."  This is a Hebrew play on words that's actually very graphic. Our English translation renders this "soul," but this same word also means "throat." So it's a pun, my enemies want to destroy my soul, but they also want to destroy my physical body like a pack of lions. David is saying, "Lord, you have to save me, or else I am defeated." "Oh God you must save me, I am out of ace's in the hole, I have no more tricks or ways to save myself. Save me, oh God."

A Petition 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, 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"

Listen to the words of David, "if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if i have repaid my friend with evil, let them trample my soul to the ground." Who does this sound like? It sounds like an innocent man. David is crying out to the Lord, saying I am innocent of these charges. David's enemies have surrounded him and are throwing rocks at him as he is on his way into the wilderness. They are cursing him continuously. They are saying something to the effect of, David you brought this upon your self for being a war monger. David is not perfect, he is not sinless, but he is innocent in this charge. David’s plea of innocence teaches us a few things about the christian life.

First, David is not pleading for a perfect innocence. The bible constantly bares witness to the sinful nature of man. No one is born innocent, no one lives innocent, no one is innocent enough that they can have a righteousness on their own. I.e, There is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10), “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. David is not saying that he is morally perfect of any guilt, but he is claiming that he is innocent of the charges that are brought against him.

Second, David does not take revenge into his own hands. David has an army with him, and as he is passing by Shimei’s home he is cursed and has stones thrown at him, and David’s men jump up to David’s defence just like Peter ready to strike these men down. But David says “It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today (2 Sam 16).” David, who has the full power as the king of Israel to take revenge, instead takes the mocking and the scorn, knowing and trusting that the Lord is going to hear his plea. One more note, we might not see this on the surface, but in verse four, it says in Hebrew “if i have done evil with the one I have Shalom with, then lay my crown in the dust.” This is irony, because this is what Saul did and this is how Saul died. Israel had peace for 400 years with the Gibionites, and Saul went into battle against them, and as a result the philastiens rose up against him and laid his crown in the dust. So it is like David is saying, if i have done this, do so to me. David is not going to take vengeance into his hands, instead he is going to wait on the Lord. Look at the next verse

When YWHW Stands the Wicked will Fall

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.

David is taking this injustice to the Lord, because David knows that the Lord will not allow injustice to stand forever. God is merciful kind and loving, but he is also just and righteous and perfect. First, God is angry at injustice. Verse Six, “Arise oh Lord, in your anger lift up yourself up against the fury of my enemies." David does not take vengeance into his own hand, because he knows that God is not sleeping, he knows that God is not just idoly sitting by twiddling his thumbs, not God is arise, he is lifting up, he is awakening. God see’s injustice, slander, lies, deception, violence and it makes God angry. This word for anger, is a very interesting word. If you were here for Psalm 2, this is the word that is translated “wrath.” When the king responds in anger to the kings of the earth who will not trust in the Son. Therefore let us be very carful that we do not opress the poor, or spread rumors or lies about others, because when the Lord returns you do not want to be caught throwing stones at the Lord’s anointed.

Second, God make all things right in the judgment. “you have appointed a judgment. let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.” Here is a Psalm one reference. Psalm one ends with a picture of the righteous and the wicked being separated. The righteous will be gathered into a congregation that belongs to the Lord, but the wicked will perish. Psalm 1:5, “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” This word for stand is the same word we have here in Psalm seven for “Arise.” The application of this, the reason we do not take vengeance into out own hand is because we know that God will make everything right one day. When the Lord’s Anointed stands up in the judgment, the wicked shall fall by their own devices.

(8-11) God the Righteous Defender

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! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

In verses 8-11 David depicts God as a judge who saves the righteous and condemn the wicked. Is this not fair. Do we not want judges like this in our courts. What if our judges always handed down faithful and good verdicts. David looks to God and he knows that when Christ is no the bench, there is no mistakes, there are no mess ups, there is no bribery that can turn the eyes of the Lord. He is the God who test the hearts and souls of men, seeing and weighing every word and deed of our lives. Look at verse 8, “The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” Now hold on one moment, this might just seem presumptuous to stand before the Judge of the universe and say judge me according to my innocence. In fact we have seen from last week in Psalm 6, that David is guilty. He is really guilty. Psalm 6 is a psalm of repentance and David is dealing with the consequences of his actions. David commited adultery, and then murdered uriah the Hittite. What grounds does David have to claim innocence? What grounds does he have to claim a righteousness? I think that this passage gives us two clues about David’s ground’s of hope. First, David is confidant in God’s past promises. Look at verse 10, “My shield is with God.” We have seen this shield language several times already in the Psalms. Where does this image first show up in scripture? Turn to Genesis 15:1-6 “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

David knows that God, made a promise to Abraham and he was faithful and kept his promise so he will keep his promise to him. David knows that Yahweh is not a God who breaks promises. Second, David is confident that God saves those with upright hearts. Look at Abraham, he believed the promise and it was counted to his as righteous. David is not claiming to be morally perfect, or to be the sum of moral perfection, but he is claiming to have a changed heart. Psalm 7:10 “My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.” If you have an upright heart, if you have a new heart than God surrounds you with protection like a shield. But those who trust in their own devices and schemes will come to an end. Look at verse Psalm 7:11 “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” Those who serve themselves as master, those who refuse to turn and worship God, stand under the full weight and wrath of God’s constant indignation. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about this, for those who will not repent and turn to worship the king, his vengeance is faced at you. Look at the next stanza.

(12-16) God the Righteous Avenger

“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. 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.”

In verse 6 David asked God to rise up in his anger, and now the time is at hand the Lord has arisen and it will be swift and violant judgment upon the enemies of his kingdom. Look at 12- 13, “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.” Look at the first word’s, “if a man does not repent,” look at the grace. Over and over again we see warnings, and flashing lights screaming at us to repent. Remember last week this word for repentance is the word “shov.” To turn, it is like David is saying one more time, “turn, turn, turn, there is still a chance that if you turn from your ways, Yahweh is faithful to save.” Yet, for those who will not repent God is not a shield of protection, he is a mighty warrior who is standing against them. In the bible God has many names, “El shadi- God almighty, Adoni El Roi- the God who sees, Great comforter, wonderful councilor, Emmanuel- God with us. But there is a name of God not many people know. Jeremiah 20:11, is quoting psalm 7 and he gives God a name, God the “dred champion.” This is who David is depicting, God as a mighty warrior who is sharpening his sword sharp-enough to divide mountains like butter. He is bending and Redding his bow with flaming darts. One more reason we can guess that David is reflecting upon his own life and Saul is because of this reference to arrows. In 1 Samuel 31, Saul is shot under the ribs with arrows and he asks his armor barer to strike him down.

David sees God as fighting on behalf of his people. Who is the enemy of the the great dread champion? look at verse 14, “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.” It is the wicked, all who refuse to serve the Lord’s anointed. Those who are plotting against David, those who spread lies and deception. God is imagined as a warrior, but look at 15-16, “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.” Gos is a mighty warrior but he doesn't even need to lift a finger, because the results of Sin always lead to death on their own. This is the same thing that we learned last week. We are our own worst enemies. God doesn't need to reign down fire from the heavens to judge sin, no we do that ourselves. When we sin, we are only hurting ourselves. The schemes and plans of man, is like digging a pit for others, and jumping into it. It is like setting a trap, and getting caught in it. This is maybe best illustrated by the Vietnam war. The Viet kong were notorious for setting booby traps in the thick jungle. But there were many times when they would set traps and forget where they were in the thick underbrush and they would fall to their own demise. If you are constantly entrapping others, its only a matter of time before you entrap yourself in a situation that you cannot get out of. What is amazing about this prayer, is that David has his real enemies in mind. He is thinking about Absalom and his army who are trying to kill him. David calls on the lord to fight for him, and guess what happens. In 2 Samuel 18, Absalom and 20,000 men go out to kill David and this is how the battle goes, “2 Sam 18:6-8 “So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.” David’s men didn't even have to fight, for the wilderness killed more men than the sword. The Lord fought for David. The victory belongs to the Lord, always. Praise the Lord.

True Confidence in the Lord’s Righteousness

“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.”

David breaks out in thanks to the Lord, because of His Righteousness. This whole psalms David has been talking about his righteousness and his upright heart, but at the end. David places his confidence in God’s righteousness. Because God is righteous he says, “I will sing Praise/Psalms to the name of the Lord, the Most high.” David burst out in song, because God is righteous and he is the most high.

We started this morning, with the scripture reading of David fleeing Jerusalem. As David is passing though with his servants they threw rocks at him and cursed him continually making claims that were not true. Throwing stones, mocking, slandering an innocent man. One of David’s servants jumps up and says, “Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” David rebukes Abishai and takes the scorn and the stones quietly like a sheep lead to slaughter, and David says this “may it be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” There is going to be a later king, who is going to come from the line of David, who is going to be mocked and scorned and people are going to pick up stones to stone him. Jesus is going to be along the way, and his servant peter is going to jump up with a sword and cut off someone ear only for Jesus to rebuke him. Then Christ freely hands himself over, to his own brothers and kinsmen. Who will slander him, they will bring charges against an innocent man. They will actually take this innocent king and they will mock him, disrobe him, and crucify him. The only way God is able to show us sinners good and make us righteous, is by unleashing the full weight and fury of God’s wrath on Christ our substitute. God does not deal with us as the “Dread Champion,” because he already has expended his wrath. God the Father, whet his sword and struck christ. God took his fiery darts of vengeance and he delt a deadly blow to Christ upon Jesus and not us. Christ is our mighty shield, because he took the fury of the battle. Christ is our defender, because he took woulds of vengeance from the father. David was defended, because God did not defend Christ, but he was like sheep lead silently to the laughter. So that from his suffering, he might deal good with us because of the cursing. Praise the Lord.