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 7:5

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Let the enemy" therefore "persecute my soul and take it" (ver. 5). By again naming the enemy in the singular number, he more and more clearly points out him whom he spoke of above as a lion. For he persecutes the soul, and if he has deceived it, will take it. For the limit of men's rage is the destruction of the body; but the soul, after this visible death, they cannot keep in their power: whereas whatever souls the devil shall have taken by his persecutions, he will keep. …

Exposition on Psalm 7 ↗

Jerome

'Let the enemy pursue my soul, and take it.' 'The last enemy, death, is destroyed.' 'And let him tread down my life into the earth.' Life cannot be trodden down. 'And let him bring down my glory into the dust.' 'If,' he says, 'I have rendered evils to my enemies for evils, may I not rise again.'

Homily 3, on Psalm 7 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Next, when he says, "Let me fall," he determines the punishment that follows, as if to say: if these things I say are not true, let these things happen to me. And first he sets forth the loss of goods. Second, of person. Third, of glory. He says, therefore, regarding the first: let this evil befall me, namely, that I fall deservedly, that is, justly, before my enemies -- that is, let my goods be taken from me. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗