Psalm 7 is the seventh psalm of the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

, beginning in English in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

: "O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me". In Latin, it is known as "Domine Deus meus in te speravi". Its authorship is traditionally assigned to King

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. The message in the psalm is that the righteous may seem weak, but ultimately will prevail against the wicked. The psalm forms a regular part of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

and other Protestant liturgies. It has been set to music, and has inspired hymns.

Text

Hebrew Bible version

The following is the Hebrew text of Psalm 7:

King James Version

# O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: # Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver. # 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 mine enemy:) # Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. # Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. # So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high. # The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. # Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. # My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. # God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. # If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. # He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. # Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. # He made a pit, and digged it, and is 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 pate. # I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

Structure

The seventh psalm is a Psalm of David, and one of the ''Lamentations of an individual''. A possible outline the psalm is as follows: * Verse 2f: calling upon God for help * Verse 4–6: protestation of innocence * Verse 7–10: achieving desires of the Last Judgment over his enemies * Verse 11f: comforting certainty to

YHWH The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', ''waw'', and '' ...

* Verse 13–17: Comparison of the wicked enemy the world court * Verse 18: Vows.

Superscription

: ''A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.'' This line is verse 1 in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

texts. The Hebrew word ''shiggayon,'' which appears in the superscription, is of unknown meaning, perhaps indicating an emotional song.

Uses

Judaism

Psalm 7 is recited on

Purim Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Boo ...

In Protestant revivalism

Jonathan Edwards used some of the imagery from Psalm 7 in his 1741 sermon ''

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a sermon written by the American theologian Jonathan Edwards, preached to his own congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts, to profound effect, and again on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. The pr ...

''. Psalm 7:12–13 was used in ''Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'' as: A takeoff on this imagery used by the book by Brian Zahnd is ''Sinners in the hands of a loving God''. The arrow imagery will occur 15 times in Psalms, of God, of His enemies and even of children of blessed people.

Catholicism

Around 530, St.

Benedict of Nursia Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...

choose this psalm for the ''Tuesday office of

Prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

''. According to the

rule of St. Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

, it was the first of three psalms.tradiction de

Prosper Guéranger Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (; commonly referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France – 30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the Abbot of ...

, ''Règle de saint Benoît, '' (Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, réimpression 2007) p. 46. This tradition is still respected in a number of monasteries. In the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 7 is recited during the Office of Midday on Mondays in the first week of the four weekly cycle of liturgical prayers.

Musical settings

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

wrote a setting of a paraphrase of Psalm 7 in German, "Auf dich trau ich, mein Herr und Gott",

SWV SWV (Sisters with Voices) is an American R&B vocal trio from New York City whose members are Cheryl (Coko) Gamble, Tamara (Taj) Johnson, and Leanne (Lelee) Lyons. Formed in 1988 as a gospel group, SWV became one of the most successful R&B g ...

103, for the ''

Becker Psalter The ''Becker Psalter'' is a German metrical psalter authored by the Leipzig theologian Cornelius Becker and first published by Jakob Apel in Leipzig in 1602 under the title ''Der Psalter Davids Gesangweis''. Several composers set the psalms contai ...

'', published first in 1628.

References

External links

* * * in Hebrew and English - Mechon-mamre * Text of Psalm 7 according to th
1928 Psalter

A plaintive song of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, the Benjaminite. / LORD my God, in you I trusted
text and footnotes, usccb.org United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

introduction and text, biblestudytools.com
Psalm 7 – Confidence in God's Deliverance
enduringword.com
Psalm 7 / Refrain: Give judgement for me according to my righteousness, O Lord.

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Psalm 7
at biblegateway.com
Hymns for Psalm 7
hymnary.org {{psalms 007 Works attributed to David