Psalms 7:3

3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

Psalms 7:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 7:3

O Lord my God, if I have done this.
] The crime which Saul and his courtiers charged him with, and which was made so public that every body knew it; and therefore it was needless particularly to mention it; namely, that he lay in wait for Saul, and sought his life to take it away, ( 1 Samuel 24:9 ) . The Targum interprets it of this psalm, paraphrasing it, "if I have made this song with an evil intention"; to give an ill character of any, and lead them with false charges;

if there be iniquity in my hands;
not that he was without sin, he had it in his heart; nor that he lived without the actual commission of sin: but his sense is, that there was no iniquity, as not in his heart, purpose, and design, so not in his hand, nor attempted by him, of the kind he was accused of, ( 1 Samuel 24:11 ) . Otherwise, we often hear him complaining of the depravity of his nature, and acknowledging his sins and transgressions, ( Psalms 32:5 ) ( Psalms 38:3 Psalms 38:4 ) ( 51:1-5 ) .

Psalms 7:3 In-Context

1 A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush a Benjaminite. O LORD my God, in thee do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they rend me, dragging me away, with none to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have requited my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue me and overtake me, and let him trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. [Selah]
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.