Psalms 7 · The Lantern

A meditation by David, which he sang to the Lord, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite. Lord, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

While my son trusts in numbers, weapons, horses and above all the audacity and frenzy of those with him, I hope in you alone, who are capable of saving me not only from him but also from all those conspiring with him against me.

Names are imposed on individual things, so that from the names the things themselves may be known: so too the psalms have been prefaced with titles, so that from the titles the psalms themselves may be understood.

Above, Psalms were set forth for deliverance from enemies; here a Psalm is presented in which he seeks vengeance against them. And the following title is prefixed: "Unto the end, which he sang to the Lord for the words of Cushi, the son of the Benjaminite." The history is found in 2 Sam.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

Who is that one except he who says, "There is no one who can save except me," the one who has come to seek and to save that which has been lost and to give his soul as a ransom for many? These things show that God the Father saves through God the Son.

'Lest at any time he seize my soul like a lion.' This fits Saul, it does not fit Absalom. For how could he call Absalom a lion, of whom he says, 'Spare my boy Absalom'? If there he calls him a boy, and as it were a little child and one that knows nothing, how here does he proclaim him a lion? This, so far, according to the history.

He sets forth the reason for the petition when he says, "Lest he seize," etc.; as if to say: unless you come to my aid, Absalom will devour me like a lion. 2 Sam.

Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,

This must everywhere be our concern, not simply to pray but to pray in such a way as to be heard. It is not sufficient that prayer effects what is intended, unless we so direct it as to appeal to God. For the Pharisee too prayed and achieved nothing, and again the Jews prayed but God turned away from them in their prayer. They did not pray, you see, as they should have prayed.

And that it might be clear that the already perfect soul, which is to be on her guard against the most insidious snares of the devil only, says this, see what follows. "O Lord my God, if I have done this" [Psalm 7:3]. What is it that he calls "this"? Since he does not mention the sin by name, are we to understand sin generally?

Then he alleges his innocence: "O Lord my God, if I have done this." And this can be understood in two ways: either by way of an oath or of a prediction. If by way of an oath, then it should be known that there is a twofold oath: namely by attestation, as in Rom.

if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),

let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

Arise, Lord, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

The mass of adversaries cannot otherwise be destroyed, if the Lord has not risen on our behalf, and death must by all means precede the resurrection. He, then, who has revealed the resurrection of the Lord has, at the same time, shown that which is bound up together with the resurrection, I mean, of course, the mystery related to the passion.

'Arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which thou hast commanded, and a congregation of peoples shall surround thee.' This we say, this believing we speak. For the persons are always changing in the psalms. It would be a great matter now, if we wished to say in the psalms into how many and how great persons they change.

Above he set forth a prayer for himself, asking to be delivered and saved; here he petitions against the enemies. Here he does two things. First, he asks for their punishment. Second, the fruit of their punishment, at "and be exalted." Let us first read the text according to history, as it could have applied to David.

Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.

The Lord administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Lord, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

These words seem to contain some boastfulness and to be very much like the prayer of the Pharisee who was exalting himself, but, if one considers them reasonably, the prophet will be seen to be far from such a disposition.… "According to my justice" [means] according to that attainable by people and possible for those living in the flesh.

'Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice, and according to my innocence upon me.' This David cannot say; this fits properly the Saviour, who did not sin.

The second part of this Psalm is that in which the hearing of the petition is treated. And because the hearing of the petition takes place by the judgment of God, the divine judgment is introduced. And first he sets it forth. Second, he treats of its delay: "God is a just, strong, and patient judge; will he be angry every day?" Concerning the first, he does three things.

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

'Let the wickedness of sinners be consummated, and thou shalt direct the just.' My justice cannot be directed, unless their iniquity — namely, of the Jews — be fulfilled.

"But let the wickedness of sinners be consummated" [Psalm 7:9]. He says, "be consummated," be completed, according to that in the Apocalypse, "Let the righteous become more righteous, and let the filthy be filthy still." [Revelation 22:11] For the wickedness of those men appears consummate, who crucified the Son of God; but greater is theirs who will not live uprightly, and hat…

Against this petition -- that good things be his and that he suffer nothing evil -- it sometimes seems good and useful to be oppressed by the wicked, and even beyond this, the good have evils in this world and the wicked have goods: Lk. 16: "Remember that you received good things in your life," etc.

My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

My help is not from wealth or from corporal resources or from my own power and strength nor from human ties of kinship, but "my help is from God." What assistance the Lord sends to those who fear him, we have learned elsewhere in a psalm that says, "The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him and shall deliver them." And in another place: "The angel who ha…

"My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart" (ver. 10). The offices of medicine are twofold, on the curing infirmity, the other the preserving health.

Then he infers, "My just help is from the Lord," etc. Here the confidence conceived from the judge is set forth, from whom help is to be hoped for. For there is a twofold help of God: namely, of mercy, and another of justice. The help by which one is freed from evils and sins is of mercy, and it is not just, because it is not from merits.

God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.

God alone is the just Judge, he alone is the one who sees hearts. He gives to each one according to his works. Truly, "man looks at the outward appearance," but the Lord is a judge of thoughts and the feelings of the spirit. There is no judgment hidden from him.

"God the righteous judge, strong (in endurance) and long-suffering" (ver. 11). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the people? He is righteous; who "shall render to every man according to his works." He is strong (in endurance); who, being most powerful, for our salvation bore even with ungodly persecutors.

Above he set forth the divine judgment; here, however, he treats of the delay of the future event, namely of punishment. And first he shows the cause of the delay. Second, the preparation for vengeance: "unless you are converted," etc. He proposes, moreover, three causes why God might be thought not to punish sinners.

If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.

Just as men who are polishing up their arms indicate by this action the attack in war, so Scripture, wishing to bespeak a movement of God toward vengeance, says that he polishes his sword. "He has bent his bow." … There is no bowstring that stretches the bow of God, but a punitive power, now strained tight, again loosened.

"Unless ye be converted," He says, "He will brandish His sword" [Psalm 7:12]. The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God's double-edged sword, that is, His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hides as it were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will brandish it, when at the second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His glor…

Then when he says, "Unless," he shows that the Lord prepares himself to inflict punishment, even though he delays for a reason.

He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

'And in it he hath prepared the vessels of death.' They fit the person of the devil. 'He hath made his arrows for them that burn.' Beautifully he said, 'for them that burn': for those whose hearts burn with lust and passions, these have been conquered by the devil.

"And in it He has prepared the instruments of death: He has wrought His arrows for the burning" [Psalm 7:13]. That bow then I would readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine preachings are shot.

Scripture enlightens a posteriori through strict judgments. For God always imposes strict judgments upon transgressions of the precepts, as in the cases of Lucifer, Adam and his wife, the depraved upon whom came the flood, the prideful who built the tower of Babel, the Chananeans and Israel. Likewise, the New Testament is full of judgments.

Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.

We do not find the name of "pit" ever assigned in the divine Scriptures in the case of something good or a "well" of water in the case of something bad. As to the reason for the pits being assigned among the worse things and the wells among the better, we think it is this.

'He hath opened a pit and dug it out, and he is fallen into the ditch which he made.' The pit is the devil's own, which is also the ditch. 'He hath opened a pit': but since it cannot hold water, according to Jeremiah, therefore his pit has been turned into a ditch. 'He hath opened a pit, and dug it out.' All the conventicles of heretics are ditches of the devil.

"A pit." He treats of the punishment. And first he sets forth the metaphor. Second, he explains it, at "It will be turned back." Hunters set traps to capture wolves in pits. The enemies themselves likewise, to capture men, employ their devices; and this is done through treachery, and therefore it is like a pit. Among the Hebrews, a pit is called "lacus" (cistern): Zech.

The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

These words seem to me to have been fulfilled literally in Ahithophel. At the time of the uprising of Cush, he was a man harboring envy, branded by disgrace, falling out as the watchman, who used his skill to be able to see ahead and predict future events that the affairs of Absalom would fail.

'His sorrow shall be turned upon his own head, and his iniquity shall come down upon his own crown.' Just as if someone throws a stone on high, and is not careful, and the stone comes down upon his head, he is wounded by his own wound; so too the devil is slain by his own pride, he exalts himself and falls in ruin.

"His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall descend on his pate" [Psalm 7:16]. For he had no mind to escape sin: but was brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord says, "Whosoever sins is a slave." [John 8:34] His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the innocent and upright say,…

I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

He has built traps for no one. He has dug a pit for no one. He has despised iniquity. Knowing the future destruction of the wicked at judgment, he said, "I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness," my righteous works having been brought forth at the tribunal; and "I will sing to the name of the Lord most high," bound by the hope that I am going to be receive…

"I will confess to the Lord according to His justice" [Psalm 7:17]. This is not the sinner's confession: for he says this, who said above most truly, "If there be iniquity in my hands:" but it is a confession of God's justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, You are just, in that You both so protect the just, that You enlighten them by Yourself; and so order sinners, th…

"I will confess." This is the third part, where he sets forth the thanksgiving according to God's justice, because merit preceded: Ps. 110: "Confession and magnificence are his work." "And I will sing with the Psaltery": Ps. 80: "Take up the Psalm and give the timbrel," etc.

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