Psalm 7 Study Notes

7:9-11 Protection, pictured as a shield, is guaranteed by God’s righteousness. The thoughts and emotions are literally “hearts and kidneys,” imagery used to describe the inner parts of man that are not seen. In this case, they refer to inner thoughts and motives. Another text using a similar concept is Ps 139:13 where the idea is that God knows every part of a person; nothing is hidden from him.

7:12-13 The imagery changes from God as a Judge to God as a Warrior. Such an image of God was part of Israel’s history since he was the one who fought for his people (Dt 32:41-42). God was primed and ready to attack (i.e., judge) anyone who remained unrepentant.

7:14-16 The terms pregnant and birth picture the wicked as creating, incubating, and unleashing their evil on the world as if their evils were their children (see Jb 15:35; Is 59:4, and Jms 1:15 for similar imagery). The plots of the wicked backfire (Ps 9:15; 35:8; 57:6; 141:10). This poetic justice is also described in Pr 26:27 and in the apocryphal book Sirach 27:25: “The one throwing a stone upward throws it on his own head.”

7:17 Most High (Hb ‘elyon) as a title for God first occurs in Gn 14:18-22, but it is also used throughout the OT to emphasize God’s sovereignty over all humanity (Dt 32:8; Ps 47:2; Dn 4:17).