Psalm 7 deals with the sure destruction of all who live in wickedness and seek not God’s righteousness. But it begins by assuring God’s people of his care for and deliverance of them.

O LORD my God, in you do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: Lest they tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. (Psalms 7:1-2 KJ2000)

Remember Peter’s words, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Satan’s goal is to “tear our soul, rending it in pieces.” He desires to destroy our mind, our will, and our emotions. He uses wicked men to achieve these ends.

Three groups of men currently exist on earth, the wicked, the righteous, and the double-minded (the double-minded are the lukewarm believers that Jesus rebukes in the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22). In our present time God’s final call to repent before the Tribulation begins has just gone forth to the wicked and the Laodicean Church.

David makes it clear in Psalm 7 that he does not consider himself among the wicked or among the Laodiceans.  He says,

O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is my enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay my honor in the dust. Selah. (Psalms 7:3-5 KJ2000)

Think carefully about what David prays here. Remember David’s own gross sins of adultery, betrayal, and murder. David did exactly what he prays here. He did reward Uriah with evil, a man who was at peace with him. David’s own prayer thus asks God to let the enemy persecute his soul, tread down his life upon the earth, and lay his honor in the dust. Why didn’t God do this to him? He did. Just consider the judgments that David suffered after his sins concerning Bathsheba and Uriah. But, God did not utterly destroy David because David repented of his sins. God restored him during his life and qualified him for rule in the Kingdom of God as an overcomer. Therefore, David next prays,

The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity that is in me. (Psalms 7:8 KJ2000)

In Psalm 4 we saw that David’s righteousness consists of Christ’s righteousness by faith. In Psalm 5 we learned that the one who desires to be righteous repudiates the way of the sinner and chooses the way of God. All of David’s words show that he lives like this. Yes, he momentarily lapses into sin, even the grossest of sins, but he always repents and seeks the purification of God’s Word and Spirit. He expects God to perform his word and to finally actually make him righteous. And so he continues praying,

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God tests the minds and hearts. (Psalms 7:9 KJ2000)

It is now time for this prayer to be fulfilled. The prayer even applies to David and all God’s overcomers because God’s goal is that one day the wickedness of all men will come to an end. The difference between overcomers and everyone else is that although they too have done wickedly, they have repented of their sins and they now seek their own righteousness by faith which is the righteousness of Christ. Now it is time for the wickedness of the wicked, that is, all who are not overcomers, to come to an end too.

My defence is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turns not, he will whet his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready. He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death; he makes ready his arrows against the persecutors. Behold, he brought forth iniquity, and has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and dug it, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own crown.

“If he turns not” means that if a wicked or double-minded person will not repent, then  God’s judgment in tribulation will come upon him. This passage also makes it clear that the judgment that comes upon him will be a disaster of his own making, for he will fall into his own pit and the very mischief he has made will return upon his own head. I think of the ways man is destroying God’s creation right now and how that destruction will return to destroy him. Consider, for example, chemtrails, weather modification, genetically modified plants (like corn and soy beans which kill trial animals) and mutant animals (like mosquitoes genetically modified to “eradicate dengue fever” which were released into the environment and called “angels” because of the good they were designed to do according to a recent NPR report), scalar weapons, microwave weapons, radioactivity (from weapon use and the recent Japanese tsunami which caused a nuclear reactor accident), oil spills, and indiscriminate use of poisons like corexit to try to hide those oil spills. It is easy to imagine plagues and famine arising from these engines of man’s stupidity (which he calls wisdom and science) and his callous disregard for the good earth that God created.

We will see in later Psalms that the day may soon come when we will literally see thousands fall in destruction around us, but God will keep us safe because we have made him our refuge instead of man.

I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high. (Psalms 7:10-17 KJ2000)