Psalms 7:7

For their sakes, therefore, return Thou on high.

David’s strong language

David had no difficulty in invoking a tremendous punishment upon his enemies. But the language must be judged by the times in which it was employed. Not only so, but every man has his own language. In a sense there is a private and individual tongue. You must know the speaker before you can understand the speech. The man explains the mystery that is round about him. David’s language was very strong; but David was a poet, and a Hebrew poet, a poet of poets. All the poetry that had gone before him was but as a pedestal, on which he stood to lift himself and his art into a nobler elevation. We must not, therefore, judge David’s language, especially when it is imprecatory, with our critical notions of propriety and measure. No other terms would have expressed his then feeling. Were he with us now, none would be so sweet in song, none so tender in prayer. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)