Bible Study Psalms 7 and 8

Psalms 7 ESV

In You Do I Take Refuge

A Meditation of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.

1 O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
 save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,
4 if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust.
Selah
6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
 awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high
8The LORD judges the peoples; judge me,
LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous--
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. 
12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
 and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High

    Most likely written by David during his persecution by Saul before he became king. David seems to be more searching his heart for unknown wrong rather than asking forgiveness for a particular sin. I like the imagery of the wicked falling into their own traps as the Lord's judgement. He is protesting his innocence before God, and asking for God's relief from the persecution, confident that God will hear him and see him through the crisis.

Psalms 8 ESV
     A Psalm of Praise. This psalm was written for a ghittim or gath, which is a joyous tune, most likely a pre-written and well known piece of music. I especially find verse 2 interesting, David as warrior understands the desire for vengeance, but believes that vengeance is the Lord's. I love the imagery of God putting the moon and stars in place by hand, and his awe that God cares about us. Verse 5 is quoted in Hebrews chapter 2 as a part of the Writers discussion of the supremacy of Jesus to men and angels. There are a lot of evocative references to the first and second chapters of Genesis. I also love the reference to the unknown denizens of sea depths.

How Majestic Is Your Name

To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath.  A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
 the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!