By Rony Kozman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
GOD IS JUST
Psalm 7:1–13
When injustice rears its head, look to God. (1–5)
When we pray this psalm, we ask God to rescue us from our enemies. The psalmist pleads with God to intervene so that he is not destroyed by his enemies. There is no one else to whom he can appeal. Only God can help.
But as part of his plea for God’s aid and rescue, the psalmist asks only for God’s just intervention. He is not asking for special treatment or for God to treat him better than he deserves. He only asks for God to right the wrong that he is experiencing.
The psalmist is innocent, and he simply asks God to act justly and to save the innocent.
If he is guilty, then he concedes that God should not rescue him but let him be defeated and killed by his enemy. The psalmist expresses confidence in his own righteousness in this situation — that he has not done wrong — and he pleads for God to rescue the righteous.
We must seek to live just lives and to be just in our dealings so that if others despise or mistreat us, we can plead with confidence like the psalmist for God’s justice to intervene.
James urges his audience to persevere in doing good even when they are mistreated, knowing that God’s judgment and justice are coming. He says they must strive to ensure that they land on the right side of God’s coming judgment and receive His compassion and mercy. (See James 5:7–11.)
This psalm also speaks with the voice of Jesus, the Son of David, the Righteous One who suffered unjustly and cried out for God not to forsake Him but to intervene and to rescue Him. (See also Matt. 27:46, Ps. 22:1.)
God alone is the Righteous Judge. (6–9)
As we pray this psalm, may we be such a people who seek God’s justice and Kingdom that we can join this voice and confidently plead with God to rise up against those who conspire against God’s people.
But most especially as Paul tells us, may God ultimately vanquish our enemies — not those who have flesh and blood but the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12) and the power of sin and death that seeks to destroy us (1 Cor. 15:25–27, 56–57).
Without repentance, judgment awaits. (10–13)
God is righteous. He is the Righteous Judge who will make all things right. No one is more committed to justice than God is. No one is more opposed to and angry with injustice than God is. His armaments are ready to defeat evil and to establish justice, to ensure that the wicked receive what they rightly deserve.
But even with God’s readiness to defeat the wicked, He is ready and eager to turn His wrath away from anyone who repents of their evil ways and turns to fear the Lord and to live in justice with their neighbors.
In Christ, God has defeated our great enemies of sin and death. God has sent His Son and Spirit to liberate us from the reign of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), and He has placed His Spirit in us so that we do the justice that God requires and so that our mortal bodies will be resurrected to eternal life when the Lord returns to establish justice.
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