Or, A Song for the Accused - True or False
Scripture: Psalm 7:1-17
Date: January 5, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The title for tonight’s message is a riff off one of my father-in-law’s favorite statements. When he hears a doctrine or a philosophy that has no good in it he often says, “It’s straight from the pit.” Every sin of the tongue is straight from the pit. The apostle James wrote, “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell” (James 3:6, ESV). The devil does some of his best work with our mouths.
Psalm 7 deals with one sort of specific mouth sin: that of slander and false accusations. False accusations are from the pit. Once accusations are made, it often feels as if a hole has been dug for the accused, a deep hole that’s hard to get out of. In fact, David describes the work of accusers as digging a pit, but it is a pit they will eventually fall into themselves.
False accusations are deadly. An accusation doesn’t need to be true to be effective, it merely needs be well-timed and given to the right audience. Slander can prejudice entire groups of people against one person. The pain of lost relationships and lost opportunities are very real. The sting of accusations can last long after one’s name is cleared. Here is a song for the accused, a song that teaches us how to respond to accusations, whether true or false.
The notation at the head of the psalm identifies it as A Shiggaion of David . No one is really sure what Shiggaion means and the word only occurs here and in Habakkuk 3:1. As the ESV footnotes, it is probably a musical or liturgical term. That’s great, but we weren’t expecting a financial or familial term. The best guess connects the word Shiggaion to the word shagah which means wander, ramble. This song might be described by its erratic form.
It is another psalm by David and, like Psalm 3, it belongs with a particular event. This is a song which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite . While it always colors the lyrics to know the context in which they were written, and while we do have a statement of context, we don’t actually have any record of this story. The Old Testament does not tell us about Cush or about any case Cush made against David. We do know that Saul was a Benjaminite, so Cush was a relative of Saul. The best we could do is suppose that Cush sought to slander David somehow, perhaps to Saul himself.
The song does ramble and dividing the stanzas is a favorite party game because there are so many possibilities. I’m going to propose five stanzas, each identified by its cry.
The opening lines of the song call on God to deliver David from his attackers.
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.
(Psalm 7:1–2, ESV)
Verse 1 and verse 3 begin the same way, O Yahweh, my God . David addresses deity as He revealed Himself in the name of the covenant-making LORD. David claims in you do I take refuge . Refuge returns again and again in the Psalms, a favorite expression of trust for those in trouble. He cries out generally, save me from all my pursuers and deliver me . Save and deliver are also typical words, with the first being similar to what we’ve seen in previous psalms having the idea of “to give width and breadth, to give space” (Williams and Ogilvie).
He expresses his fear in verse 2. Lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver . David was familiar with lions, as well as bears. He used his experience with them as a shepherd when he volunteered to fight Goliath. He told King Saul that he had “struck down both lions and bears” (1 Samuel 17:36) and “delivered [a lamb] from his mouth” (verse 35). Here the tearing is figurative since he wonders if the enemies will tear apart his soul . David who handled an actual lion didn’t believe that he could survive the false accusations. Once the slanderers get ahold of him they might rip up his soul in pieces and there will be none to deliver . The goal of their attack is his destruction.
In the second stanza that begins the same way as the first ( O LORD, my God ) we find out what charges his enemies made against him, perhaps the allegations of Cush. We also see David claiming his innocence by opening himself up for judgment if the charges were true.
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
(Psalm 7:3–5, ESV)
The this in verse 3 is generally summarized as wrong in my hands and then more specifically itemized in verse 4. If I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause . The friend is “him who is at peace with me” (Gaebelein). David seems to be describing a situation in which he allegedly treated the enemy of his ally with peace. The enemies of your friends were supposed to be your enemies. To deal kindly with the wrong people would be to repay one’s friend with evil.
David denies that this is the case. He puts it all in conditional terms: “if I have…if there is…if I have.” In verse 5 he goes so far as to offer a self-imprecation. If any of the above is true, 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 . He already prayed for deliverance from his pursuers (verse 1) so that he would not be torn to pieces. Now he acknowledges that if he has done this evil then let [my enemy] trample my life to the ground , a trampling such as a wine maker stomping and squashing grapes (see Psalm 63:3). He prays that God would see to it that his guilt be cursed with a loss of reputation and maybe even of life itself if he was actually guilty. That’s gutsy.
In the third stanza David envisions a court room where God presides and decides in favor of the righteous.
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.
(Psalm 7:6–7, ESV)
David urges Yahweh to action: Arise , lift yourself up , awake . He depends on Yahweh to respond with vigor to his enemies’ vehemence. in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies . Fight fury with divine, righteous fury. David knows that God judges, and he is eager for God to get the proceedings going. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high . “Come and preside and judge!”
The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
(Psalm 7:8, ESV)
Yahweh has the right over the peoples . He watches and knows and decides. David desires application for himself: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to the integrity that is in me . At least two things are important. First, David does not claim that he is perfect, he only claims that he is not guilty of these allegations. Denying the content of someone’s slander is not the same thing as denying one’s condition as a sinner. We are all guilty before God, but not guilty of every accusation others make.
Second, David urges the LORD to judge because he has a clear conscience. There is freedom and boldness in not trying to hide before God. A clear conscience depends on mercy, a clear conscience depends on knowing the standard, a clear conscience depends on integrity. Perhaps one reason why so many men do not sing like David when they are accused is because they don’t want the LORD looking too closely.
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!
(Psalm 7:9, ESV)
The hope of David went beyond his personal acquittal and all the way to the establishment of all the righteous. He desires for the evil of the wicked [to] come to an end . This is based on God’s character: O righteous God! who tests the minds and hearts or, as the Hebrew text says, the minds and kidneys, the sensitive inner parts of a man. David isn’t singing for anything out of line with who he knows God to be. God’s righteous character is his personal confidence.
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
(Psalm 7:10–11, ESV)
Shield is also a favorite in the Psalms, just as God being our refuge. He protects. He guards. We are under His surveillance and under His security. Men accuse and, when we are upright in heart , their accusations cannot keep us down in the pit.
We must believe that God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day . We feel as if He must not be attending to the trouble. Does He not see it? Does He not care about it? David affirms that he does. That’s how he can be so bold.
In His indignation, God prepares to judge as the fourth stanza declares.
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.
(Psalm 7:12–13, ESV)
David uses military terminology: whet his sword , bent and readied his bow , prepared…deadly weapons , and making his arrows fiery shafts . We could use these analogies, or update them a little. He has cocked His gun, He has locked on to the target, He has lit the fuse. Ready, aim, finger on the trigger.
Then David describes the process using pregnancy as an illustration for gestating evil.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
(Psalm 7:14, ESV)
As Mark wrote (Mark 7:21-22) and the apostle James as well (James 1:14-15), sin starts within and then comes out. The child of evil is lies , the slanderous accusations that have occasioned this song.
And then David references the reversal.
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.
(Psalm 7:15–16, ESV)
The false accusations are like a pit . Meant to catch the accused, the one digging falls into the hole that he has made . Let us not be worried that an accusing ditch digger has great skill, he is only making it a better trap for himself. What’s more, His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends . These are not things that happen naturally, but things that God makes true. These are part of the judgment of God. He makes sin to run in a circular and self-destructive pattern.
The final stanza declares praise.
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.
(Psalm 7:17, ESV)
Yahweh, El Elyon is “LORD, the Most High.” Melchizedek was the first to praise God with this name when Abraham met him after rescuing Lot (Genesis 14). Melchizedek blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” (14:19-20). The name El Elyon “would seem in its origin to have assumed a range (or pantheon) of deities over whom Yahweh ranked as chief” (Gerald Wilson).
The song doesn’t finish the story. We don’t know if David was acquitted or vindicated, quickly or not at all. But we do know how he responded. He wrote and sang a song.
Calling God as a witness only works with a clear conscience, or with a lie. John Calvin put it this way: “we do him great wrong if we wish to engage him as the advocate and defender of a bad cause.”
The LORD will be a refuge for us or we will need a refuge from Him.
As disciples of Christ we should expect false accusations.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11–12, ESV)
How will we rejoice? We can start by singing Psalm 7.