Psalm 7

Where do we run when we face desperate trouble? “O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge.” God is able to do far more than we can ask or even think. There is no one wiser than God, and there is no one who loves us more than He does. Our chief problem with God is not with Him at all but with us. We struggle with unbelief. The righteous worshiper has put off unbelief. He has rested in a life of faith, and has found God to be His refuge.

This man faces a lion who is ready to tear his soul apart. Peter writes in the New Testament that “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against fallen heavenly powers. Just as we cannot see God, we cannot see angels and demons. It is in the Word from heaven that we have certain knowledge of a realm of life that is more real than the earth, since the present earth and our current mortal bodies need resurrection renewal in order to remain. Heaven is forever. Decay and death we know by sight. We know heaven and heaven's God by faith.

There is a connection between what the righteous worshiper sees and what he does not see. He cannot see the demonic lion that is seeking someone to devour. He sees his mortal enemies who charge him with stealing what he has not taken. He calls upon the Lord, who knows all things. He tells God to judge him if he is lying. This solemn declaration would mean nothing coming from a man who has no belief in what he cannot see, but from a man of faith it is a frightening thing to call upon God to judge. Yet the worshiper knows that, concerning this charge, he is innocent, and so he speaks with holy boldness.

He calls upon God to rise up against those who are falsely accusing him, seeking his destruction. A man of consistent unbelief would not be concerned to hear that his victim was calling upon the Lord to come as a judge against the oppressor. But it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God who would rise up in wrath to defend the innocent. Vengeance belongs to Him. The true worshiper does not take vengeance into his own hands. He calls God to judge. If there is no God, then no one should be afraid. But God is, and all the earth will tremble before Him.

The Lord will judge all the nations of the earth. Who would dare to say what this worshiper does: “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.” These are words for a man who knows himself to be innocent, not in just one instance, but in all things. Christ could say this to the Father, yet that perfectly righteous Worshiper knew that He would face the judgment that we deserve, so that the Lord's worshiping people could be granted the true heritage and title of those who are now called “the righteous.”

This is the way that the Lord intends to establish His righteousness on the earth. The necessary payment of the fearful wrath of God has been given for them by the Son of God on the cross. But what will happen to those who refuse the call of God through His Word and through His messengers, and who will not sing to the Lord? What will become of those who do not believe and who will not obey the Lord and His gospel? They will come to an end on the earth, retaining the title of “the wicked,” and the righteous will dwell there with God. The meek will inherit the earth.

God himself is the Righteous One. He has determined that through Christ He will be a shield for those whom He calls to be His righteous people forever. A shield against what? Against Himself. In His justice He must punish the guilty. We could not stand His holy wrath. In mercy He has sent His Son to be our propitiation, a sacrifice that functions as a true shield for the worshipers of the Lord, deflecting His wrath by taking that heavy blow upon Himself.

The way for a man to have Jesus as his Shield is to repent of His sin. If a man does not repent, God will get his sword ready to use against that man. He will bend His bow, and place a deadly arrow within it. When Jesus came preaching the good news, He called people to repent. That call is still in effect today, but only those who trust God and hear His voice will turn away from sin and repent toward God. See Acts 20:21.

The man who will not worship, the man who will not repent and believe, continues to work up evil plans in his heart. A deadly plot is his precious child conceived deep within his soul. He is pregnant with a vicious idea that he cherishes, and that baby is growing within him. When he begins to give birth to this evil, lies come forth. Lies grow up to be schemes, and soon there is a pit to catch an innocent man. But he will not ultimately succeed. Evil has a way of falling into its own pit. The unseen God he denied is the God who rules over all.

Therefore the righteous worshiper, the man who knows that God is, the man who repents and trusts in the Shield of God, that man will sing for joy to the Lord. He will give thanks not only for the God of providence, but for the Son of God who has become to him the God of his righteousness. He will sing praise to the Most High God forever, and he will live with God and His people upon the earth.