Fathers

Psalms 7

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Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver. Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary), let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Arise, Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment. Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high. Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God. My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day. If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head. I will give thanks to Yahweh according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 7:17

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"I will confess to the Lord according to His justice" [Psalm 7:17]. This is not the sinner's confession: for he says this, who said above most truly, "If there be iniquity in my hands:" but it is a confession of God's justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, You are just, in that You both so protect the just, that You enlighten them by Yourself; and so order sinners, that they be punished not by Your malice, but by their own. …

Exposition on Psalm 7 ↗

Jerome

He shall be condemned in this way. But we who have believed in Christ, who received the inheritance in the fifth psalm; who in the octave, that is, on the day of resurrection, say, 'O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, neither chastise me in thy wrath'; since Chus, that is, our Ethiopian, is himself the lion of whom it was said, 'Lest at any time he seize my soul like a lion'; who bent his bow and made it ready, and in it prepared the vessels of death that he might slay us; since he conceived sorrow and brought forth iniquity, opened a …

Homily 3, on Psalm 7 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"I will confess." This is the third part, where he sets forth the thanksgiving according to God's justice, because merit preceded: Ps. 110: "Confession and magnificence are his work." "And I will sing with the Psaltery": Ps. 80: "Take up the Psalm and give the timbrel," etc.

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗