March 10, 2014
Psalm 7
O Lord, my God in You I refuge take,
Save me from those who would pursue my life.
Like a strong lion they would tear and shake,
Leaving no help in all my painful strife.
If, O my Lord, I’m guilty in Your sight,
If there is guilt and sin upon my hand,
If I’ve robbed friends, or evil done in spite,
May my life be cast down at Your command.
Arise, O Lord, in anger right, arise
against the rage of all my enemies;
Awake, O Lord, rule o’er them from on high;
Let the assembly know Your just decrees.
The righteous Lord, He judges all the earth;
Judge me, O Lord, by Your true righteousness.
Remember me and judge me by my worth,
According to my life of faithfulness.
O God, you search the minds and hearts of men,
You end the violence of the wicked ones;
Oh, how all sin will find its fitting end,
As You establish all Your righteous ones.
My shield is God who saves those in the right;
He is indignant o’er the sins of men.
If we won’t turn, His sword is raised to fight;
His bow is bent, and poised to strike again.
He has prepared his deadly weapons now;
He makes His arrows fly with fiery shafts.
My enemy conceives an evil vow,
Bringing to birth those sins and lies he crafts!
He digs a pit and makes it big and round,
But he falls in the pit that he has made.
His mischief turns, upon him does rebound;
Violence comes down on him and he’s betrayed.
I’ll give to God the thanks that He is due;
His righteousness is high above us all.
I will sing praise to Him, for He is true.
His name is great, His glories I’ll recall.
As a Lenten practice, try singing the Psalm. After all, they were written to be sung. We’ll even provide you the musical accompaniment. CLICK HERE.
CONSIDER THIS. . .
It never would have occurred to me to sing these lines:
The righteous Lord, He judges all the earth;
Judge me, O Lord, by Your true righteousness.
Remember me and judge me by my worth,
According to my life of faithfulness.
If I am remembering correctly, later in this same song book they have us singing something like, “If you O Lord kept a record of sins who could stand.”
The only person who could legitimately sing song #7 is Jesus Christ himself. The amazing thing is he not only sang Psalm #7, he sang it for us and he did so in such a way that we can now sing it with him.
Because Jesus is our righteousness we can boldly sing, “Judge me, O Lord, by your true righteousness.” We are not confident in our own righteousness or faithfulness; only in his. What a gift!
When we sing these 150 songs let us remember we join our voices with both the singer and song writer, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Thank God. All of the Psalms are yes and amen in and through and because of him.