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7:? The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Psalm 7 General Notes

Structure and Formatting

- Superscription- verses 1–5 Injustice Rejected- verses 6–9 Justice Requested- verses 10–16 Justice Expected- verse 17 Justice Praised

About the Psalm

Purpose: to invoke justice from Yahweh towards both the righteous (specifically, himself) and the wicked (false accusers).Content: God is a righteous judge. He saves the upright, and he brings the end to the wicked’s violence.Message: King Yahweh will see to it that the wicked receive their punishment and that the righteous are vindicated.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Heights and Depths

Provides the structure of the Psalm.1. The Psalmist is brought down (vv. 1-5)2. Yahweh goes up to the highest place (vv. 6-9)3. The enemies are brought down (vv.10-16)4. Praise to the Most High God (v.17)

Other

- There are a number of explicit and implicit references to Yahweh as both warrior and judge, which are both important functions of a king, especially King Yahweh—a metaphor that runs throughout the Psalms.- The subject in verses 12-16 is ambiguous, only the pronoun “he” is used (but it must be the wicked in verses 14-16). The psalmist might have chosen to leave the participants grammatically ambiguous in this entire section to create tension in what is a prominent section of the psalm (which is it, Yahweh or the wicked?!), as well as to teach an important lesson in line with the meaning of this psalm: to be wicked is to bring death upon oneself; but Yahweh is the one who ensures the destruction. In the UST and notes, the most likely persons are identified.

Cush the Benjamite

Note the superscription and the specific circumstances. There is no other reference to this incident in the Scriptures. But there are references to David being opposed by those of the tribe of Benjamin during the time he was serving King Saul.See: writing-poetry

CCBYSA

Portions of the ULT, UST, and TNs for this psalm are derivative from “Psalms, Layer by Layer”, Psalm 7 by Cambridge Digital Bible Research, Katie Frost, Meaghan Smith, Nikki Mustin et al, used under CC BY

(Occurrence 0) A musical composition of David

(A musical composition of David)

Alternate translation: “This is a song that David wrote”

Parallel PSA 7:0