Psalm 7

A David Psalm

1-2 God! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild. If they catch me, I'm finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered.
3-5 God, if I've done what they say— betrayed my friends, ripped off my enemies— If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt.
6-8 Stand up, God; pit your holy fury against my furious enemies. Wake up, God. My accusers have packed the courtroom; it's judgment time. Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel, throw out the false charges against me. I'm ready, confident in your verdict: "Innocent."
9-11 Close the book on Evil, God, but publish your mandate for us. You get us ready for life: you probe for our soft spots, you knock off our rough edges. And I'm feeling so fit, so safe: made right, kept right. God in solemn honor does things right, but his nerves are sandpapered raw.
12-13 Nobody gets by with anything. God is already in action— Sword honed on his whetstone, bow strung, arrow on the string, Lethal weapons in hand, each arrow a flaming missile.
14 Look at that guy! He had sex with sin, he's pregnant with evil. Oh, look! He's having the baby—a Lie-Baby!
15-16 See that man shoveling day after day, digging, then concealing, his man-trap down that lonely stretch of road? Go back and look again—you'll see him in it headfirst, legs waving in the breeze. That's what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs.
17 I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God.

Psalm 7

A musical composition by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning3 a Benjaminite named Cush.4

1 O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter.
Deliver me from all who chase me! Rescue me!

2 Otherwise they will rip me to shreds like a lion;
they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me.

3 O Lord my God, if I have done what they say,
or am guilty of unjust actions,

4 or have wronged my ally,
or helped his lawless enemy,

5 may an enemy relentlessly chase me and catch me;
may he trample me to death
and leave me lying dishonored in the dust. (Selah)

6 Stand up angrily,Lord!
Rise up with raging fury against my enemies!
Wake up for my sake and execute the judgment you have decreed for them!

7 The countries are assembled all around you;
take once more your rightful place over them!

8 The Lord judges the nations.
Vindicate me, Lord, because I am innocent,
because I am blameless, O Exalted One!

9 May the evil deeds of the wicked come to an end!
But make the innocent secure,
O righteous God,
you who examine inner thoughts and motives!

10 The Exalted God is my shield,
the one who delivers the morally upright.

11 God is a just judge;
he is angry throughout the day.

12 If a person does not repent, God sharpens his sword
and prepares to shoot his bow.

13 He prepares to use deadly weapons against him;
he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows.

14 See the one who is pregnant with wickedness,
who conceives destructive plans,
and gives birth to harmful lies –

15 he digs a pit
and then falls into the hole he has made.

16 He becomes the victim of his own destructive plans
and the violence he intended for others falls on his own head.

17 I will thank the Lord for his justice;
I will sing praises to the sovereign Lord!