Psalms 7:2

_LEST HE TEAR MY SOUL LIKE A LION, RENDING IT IN PIECES, WHILE THERE IS NONE TO DELIVER._ Lest he tear my soul. He singles out one among his many persecutors (Psalms 7:1) as prominent: evidently the same one as is enigmatically described in the title "Cush," unchangeably black at heart, as the Ethiopian is unchangeably black in skin. "The Benjamite" evidently identifies him with Saul (1 Samuel 20:1; 1 Samuel 23:23; 1 Samuel 26:18). The singular may be an ideal personification of the many enemies of whom Saul was the foremost. So the antitype, the last enemy of the son of David, shall "tear, like a lion, rending the sheep

1-9 David flees to God for succour. But Christ alone could call on Heaven to attest his uprightness in all things. All His works were wrought in righteousness; and the prince of this world found nothing whereof justly to accuse him. Yet for our sakes, submitting to be charged as guilty, he suffered all evils, but, being innocent, he triumphed over them all. The plea is, "For the righteous God trieth the hearts and the reins." He knows the secret wickedness of the wicked, and how to bring it to an end; he is witness to the secret sincerity of the just, and has ways of establishing it. When a man has made peace with God about all his sins, upon the terms of grace and mercy, through the sacrifice of the Mediator, he may, in comparison with his enemies, appeal to God's justice to decide....

Verse Psalms 7:2. _LEST HE TEAR MY SOUL LIKE A LION_] These words seem to answer well to _Saul_. As the _lion_ is _king_ in the forest; so was _Saul_ king over the land. As the _lion_, in his fierceness, seizes at once, and tears his prey in pieces; so David expected to be seized and suddenly destroyed by _Saul_. He had already, in his rage, thrown his javelin at him, intending to have pierced him to the wall with it. As from the _power of the lion_ no beast in the forest could deliver any thing; so David knew that _Saul's power_ was irresistible, and that none of his friends or well-wishers could save or deliver him out of such hands. "Lest he tear my soul (my life) like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." All this answers to _Saul_, and to none else....

LEST HE - Lest “Cush” should do this. See the title, and the introduction to the psalm, Section 2. TEAR MY SOUL LIKE A LION - Tear or rend my “life” - that is, “me” - like a lion. The word rendered “soul” here - נפשׁ _nephesh_ - refers, as it properly does elsewhere, to the “life,” and not to the soul, as we use the term, denoting the thinking, immortal part. The simple idea is, that David was apprehensive of his “life,” and, in order to indicate his great peril, he uses language derived from the fierceness of the lion. Such imagery would be well understood in a country where lions abounded, and nothing could more strikingly denote the danger in which David was, or the fierceness of the wrath of the enemy that he dreaded. RENDING IT IN PIECES - Rending me in pieces. Or rather, perhaps, breaking or crushing the bones, for the w

EXPOSITION THE composition of this psalm by David, asserted in the title, is generally allowed. Internal evidence seems to indicate for its date the earlier portion of David's public life—that during which he suffered persecution at the hands of Saul. There are two considerable difficulties connected with the title: (1) the meaning of "Shiggaion of David;" and (2) the determination of the identity of "Cush the Benjamite." "Shiggaion" is connected by some with the "Shigioneth" of Habakkuk 3:1, which is commonly explained to be a particular kind of tune or tunes. But the identity of the two words is uncertain, and the identity of their meaning, at an interval of nearly six centuries, is still more open to question. The meaning of "Shiggaion" has really to be _guessed _from the context; and the most proba

LEST HE TEAR MY SOUL LIKE A LION,.... That is, one of his persecutors, the chief of them; it may be Saul, whom the psalmist compares to a lion for his majesty and greatness, the lion being the king among beasts; and for his authority, power, and might, and for his wrath and cruelty, which he feared; and which, should it be exerted on him, would tear his soul, or himself, in pieces; would rend his soul from his body, and dispatch his life; see Proverbs 19:12. So the Apostle Paul calls the Roman governor, before whom he was, and from whose hands he was delivered, a lion, for his power and fierceness, 2 Timothy 4:17. And so our adversary the devil, the chief of all persecutors, and who instigates others against the saints, is by Peter said to go about like a roaring lion,...

Psalms 7 _ 1. Confidence and prayer (Psalms 7:1)_ 2. Unjust persecution (Psalms 7:3) 3. Arise Jehovah! (Psalms 7:6) 4. God's dealings in government (Psalms 7:11) 5. Thanksgiving (Psalms 7:17) Psalms 7:1. It has been suggested that over this Psalm should be written the sentence, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” David appealed to God to judge His cause, that a rig

VII. A AND VII. B. Here two Pss. have been welded together. In Psalms 7:1; Psalms 7:12 a man hard bestead in spite of his innocence pleads his cause before God. In Psalms 7:6 Israel personified asks for justice at God's hands and begs Him to summon all nations to the great assize, that they may attest the Divine sentence which declares Israel innocent. A. PSALMS 7:1; PSALMS 7:12. The parenthesis in Psalms 7:4 is difficult. Read with slight change of MT and with support of

HE: i.e. Cush. TEAR. Hebrew. _taraph._ Refers to _living_ prey. MY SOUL. me. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. WHILE THERE IS NONE TO DELIVER. Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulg, read "and there be no deliverer to rescue". Better, no sign of. rescuer. Compare Lamentations 5:8....

LEST HE TEAR MY SOUL— The singular here evidently proves that one particular enemy is referred to; Fenwick supposes it to mean the great enemy and accuser, whose agents and tools wicked men are. _Soul_ sometimes signifies _life_ itself, of which it is the principle; and sometimes it implies the _person_ himself; both which senses are agreeable to this place....