My Shield is God Most High. Psalm 7, Day 13, Jan 13, | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

My Shield is God Most High

Psalm 7

A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite (who slandered him. According to the ESV Study Bible, the Psalm provides a vehicle by which those unfairly criticized and persecuted may call out to God for help.

¹ LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
² or they will tear me apart like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

LORD my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me. Wonderful words of peace—hiding from one’s enemies in the Lion of Judah, the strong tower.

³ LORD my God, if I have done this
   and there is guilt on my hands—
⁴ if I have repaid my ally with evil
   or without cause have robbed my foe—
⁵ then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
   let him trample my life to the ground
   and make me sleep in the dust.

The Psalmist protests his innocence and asks God for protection. (NB, as children of God, we can request his protection even when we are not entirely innocent. And who is?) However, the ESV notes that this Psalm expresses the prayer of the innoncent one suffering from the malice of his enemies.

⁶ Arise, LORD, in your anger;
   rise up against the rage of my enemies.
   Awake, my God; decree justice.
⁷ Let the assembled peoples gather around you,
   while you sit enthroned over them on high.
⁸ Let the LORD judge the peoples.
Vindicate me, LORD, according to my righteousness,
   according to my integrity, O Most High.
⁹ Bring to an end the violence of the wicked
   and make the righteous secure—
you, the righteous God
   who probes minds and hearts.

¹⁰ My shield^[d] is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart.

To run behind the shield of God is an option open us to us. And a very safe place it is.

¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
   a God who displays his wrath every day.
¹² If he does not relent,
   he^[e] will sharpen his sword;
   he will bend and string his bow.
¹³ He has prepared his deadly weapons;
   he makes ready his flaming arrows.

¹⁴ Whoever is pregnant with evil
   conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
¹⁵ Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
   falls into the pit they have made.
¹⁶ The trouble they cause recoils on them;
   their violence comes down on their own heads.

This is so true, both when I have been the one who have dug a hole for someone else, and when people have “dug a hole” for me.

¹⁷ I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness;
I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.

And this is what the movement of prayer should be. We lay our requests before God, and then give thanks, and sing praises to him.