by Jeremy J. Lundmark
“Arise, O Lord, in Your anger;
Lift up Yourself against the rage of my
adversaries,
And arouse Yourself for me;
You have appointed judgment.”
(Psalm 7:6)
“Do you long for that? Do
you wish for wrong to be stopped and righteousness to be rewarded? Christian, if you have no emotional disdain
for injustice I’m not sure Christ can be in you. His disdain for injustice drove Him to the
cross.”
Have you ever been
wronged? Ever felt like the world was against you and justice never
prevailed? In Psalm seven David is under the thumb of his enemies and
nothing seems to be going right. His enemies seem to have an advantage
over him and he is lead to write, or sing, this psalm. The psalm begins
with a simple cry for deliverance. David declares that he will take
refuge in His God. David will trust in Him alone to deliver him from his
enemies. There is an important lesson to be learned here. When we
are in distress we need to take refuge in God and not in our own devices.
Spurgeon writes:
“Whatever may be the
emergency of our condition we shall never find it amiss to retain our reliance
upon our God. “O Lord my God,” mine by a special covenant, sealed by Jesus’
blood, and ratified in my own soul by a sense of union to thee; “in thee,” and
in thee only, “do I put my trust,” even now in my sore distress. I shake, but
my rock moves not. It is never right to distrust God, and never vain to trust
him.”
Next, David addresses the
accusations of his enemies. He declares his innocence of the charges laid
against him and he calls for judgment against himself if the charges are
true. David is a man calling for justice in this Psalm. He is not
simply calling for justice against his enemies. In fact, to call for justice
against only one’s enemies is itself unjust. If we call for justice, we
call for justice against all injustice. David is right to begin with his
own heart. He lays his heart before God and says “If I have done any of
these things then let my enemies crush me.”
His confidence is
compelling. When we go to God against our enemies we would do well to
examine our own hearts first. If we want justice against our enemies, we ought
to want it upon our own heads as well. Let us be certain that the charge
we bring against our enemies can not also be laid against us! If we
desire grace from our sinfulness we ought not to be surprised if God has grace
on the sinfulness of our enemies. Here, we see David confidently
expunging himself of all the charges and submitting to the judgment of God if
he is wrong about himself.
Spurgeon brings out
another point from verses 3-5
“From these verses we
may learn that no innocence can shield a man from the calumnies of the wicked.
David had been scrupulously careful to avoid any appearance of rebellion
against Saul, whom he constantly styled “the Lord’s anointed;” but all this
could not protect him from lying tongues. As the shadow follows the substance,
so envy pursues goodness. It is only at the tree laden with fruit that men
throw stones. If we would live without being slandered, we must wait till we
get to heaven. Let us be very heedful not to believe the flying rumours which
are always harassing gracious men. If there are no believers in lies there will
be but a dull market in falsehood, and good men’s characters will be safe.
Ill-will never spoke well. Sinners have an ill-will to saints… and they will
not speak well of them.”
Though we may be just in
all our actions we shouldn’t expect others to be just towards us in all their
actions. After all, Christ who was perfection incarnate was mocked,
beaten, and crucified. We should expect nothing less if we follow Him.
Next, David makes an
appropriate turn in the psalm. He suggests that if the accusations are
false God ought to “Arise” and judge those who persecute him. If
injustice is prevailing he calls on the just judge of the universe to rise up,
take His throne, and execute judgment. It is a bold series of
verses. David speaks to God as if God has fallen asleep and gotten lazy
on the judgment seat. He says “Arise… Lift yourself up…Awake.” This
is not mockery. It is David calling God to action. Notice in verse eight
that David doesn’t simply call on God to execute justice against his enemies:
“…judge me, O LORD,
according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.”
~Psalm 7:8
David’s inward desire is
for pure justice. He loves the law and if there is uncleanness in him he
wants it gone. If there is injustice in the world, he wants it gone.
If there is injustice in the universe, he wants it gone. David is crying
out to God for justice against ALL injustice. He longs for a world where
justice prevails and injustice is executed. Do you long for that? Do you
wish for wrong to be stopped and righteousness to be rewarded? Christian,
if you have no emotional disdain for injustice I’m not sure Christ can be in
you. His disdain for injustice drove Him to the cross. If you are
not in the slightest bit angered when a woman is raped, a child is molested, or
a thief steals there’s a real problem there. Why? David goes on to say
that God is a righteous judge and He is indignant against unrighteousness all
the time. We are called to be “Like Christ” and be “Holy as He is Holy.”
David’s Psalm goes on to
describe the way of the wicked and its inevitable outcome. God is a just judge
and will most certainly execute judgment.
“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
The best words in this
verse are “If a man does not repent.” Those words give hope to all who
have offended God. They give hope to all who are in Adam. It has
always been the case that if we repent and believe in the provision of God for
salvation, Christ, that we shall be spared. However, woe to the one who
does not repent. In Genesis God flooded the earth and wiped out the vast
majority of all living creatures and we are told that He put His bow in the
sky. That is a sign of the covenant. Know this, His bow is still
bent and readied against the wicked. Those who do not repent have set
themselves to war against the Almighty. That is a war that they can never
win.
“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.” ~Psalm 7:14-16
“What mean things men will
do to wreak revenge on the godly. They hunt for good men, as if they were brute
beasts; nay, they will not give them the fair chase afforded to the hare or the
fox, but must secretly entrap them, because they can neither run them down nor
shoot them down. Our enemies will not meet us to the face, for they fear us as
much as they pretend to despise us. But let us look on to the end of the scene.
The verse says, he “is fallen into the ditch which he made.” Ah! there he is,
let us laugh at his disappointment. Lo! he is himself the beast, he has hunted
his own soul, and the chase has brought him a goodly victim. Aha, aha, so
should it ever be. Come hither and make merry with this entrapped hunter, this
biter who has bitten himself. Give him no pity, for it will be wasted on such a
wretch. He is but rightly and richly rewarded by being paid in his own coin. He
cast forth evil from his mouth, and it has fallen into his bosom. He has set
his own house on fire with the torch which he lit to burn a neighbor. He sent
forth a foul bird, and it has come back to its nest. The rod which he lifted on
high, has smitten his own back. He shot an arrow upward, and it has “returned
upon his own head.” He hurled a stone at another, and it has “come down upon
his own pate.” Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
Ashes always fly back in the face of him that throws them.” ~C.H. Spurgeon
Source: http://jeremylundmark.com/psalm-7-a-cry-for-justice-against-all-injustice/
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