Have you ever been sure? No, not like the early '90's deodorant commercials, but sure that you had done something. Sure that you had turned off the stove. Sure that you had let the dog out before you left. Sure that you were in the right and the other person was clearly in the wrong. Would you bet your life on it? David did in Psalm 7. He was that sure.
The whole Psalm starts out being described as a song that David sang to the Lord concerning a guy named Cush who is of the tribe of Benjamin. So straight off we are talking about an Israeli on Israeli crime here. Which I think, given what's to come, makes this Psalm all the stranger. It's not like we are talking about taking out the Hittites or the Egyptians here. We are talking about going up against your next door neighbor.
Or to put it in today's terms: a fellow church member.
In the context of the Psalm, we aren't really sure what has happened, but it must not have been good. David starts off by calling the Lord his "refuge" and points out the obvious that without God, he will be torn to bits by his enemies. Nothing too revolutionary here. We need God in all that we do or else we are nothing. It's a theme that David will acknowledge over and over again in all of his writings in the hope that we may acknowledge the same in our lives. Next though, he gets into the meat of what this Psalm is really about: Justice.
Amazingly, David goes on to ask the Lord to be just in his judgment of the situation, and that if David is in the wrong, "then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground; and make me sleep in the dust." Wow, strong words from a man who is King over all of Israel! He is sure that he has done no wrong that he asks God to let his enemy (Cush from the tribe of Benjamin) trample on him until he dies and sleeps in the dust. Now, I have been sure of some things in my life, but I have rarely been sure enough of my actions that I would call out to God and say that if I am wrong, may he take my life right now, and knowing that he would. That is the kind of confidence that doesn't come around every day. Then David flips to the other side of the coin: what if David is right and Cush is wrong?
Now David calls upon God to become a righteous judge of both David and Cush. The funny thing is that for all the very heavy language that David uses, he never asks God to kill Cush. There are plenty of times in other Psalms where David uses the allegory of battle to ask the Lord to kill his enemies, but not here. Instead David stays true to hi first request that God will be just in his judgment. Read carefully the last half of the Psalm. For all the violent images of sharpening swords and flaming arrows, David never asks God to go to war against Cush. Check out verse 6: "Arise, O Lord, in your anger; rise up against he rage of of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice."
See that? David asks God to rise up against Cush's rage, not against Cush himself! David doesn't want harm to come to someone within his own house. Instead he calls on God to do battle against Cush's emotional reactions. To me this speaks to much of what we are called to do against others we fight against who are members of the body of Christ.
There is a big difference between praying for God to make Sister So-and-So's life miserable and praying that God will go to battle against the injustice between the two of you and the unhealthy anger that the situation is bringing about. David may have bet his life that he was right, but he did so not against Cush's life, but against Cush's heart. This the kind of sure, compassionate, and dramatic request that David often asked of God. Upon close examination of the Psalm, you can truly see the love behind the anger that David has for Cush, who is his spiritual brother.
In the end, David asks for two things. One is that above all, justice will be served on either himself or on Cush. And two, that the evil that is being caused by the person's actions be turned around on them. The last few lines of the Psalm talk about the person falling into a pit of their own digging, or that "the trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head." While it is not made clears as to who the Lord found to be right in this particular situation, the lesson of how to deal with intra-faith disagreements rings true. Ask not for the Lord to kick Brother Busy-Body from the Church, instead ask the Lord hat justice be served and that the wrong be righted. It takes a lot of faith to ask God to judge you honestly, but the reward can be just what is needed. As always we must remember that this life is not about our body, but about the Lord's Body, and he will do anything to protect it.
- submitted by Nolan Davis
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