Psalm 7 Continued…
“O Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands — if I have done evil to him who is at peace with me or without cause have robbed my foe — then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.” (Psalm 7:3-5)
In these verses David uses a three-fold oath to lay the truth of his personal character and moral standard. The standard form of an oath begins with the conjunction “if” and concludes with the curse that should befall the individual if the terms of the oath are not kept. Here is David’s three-fold oath and following curse: 1. If I have done this and there is guilt on my hands – 2. (If) I have done evil to him who is at peace with me… 3. (If) without cause (I) have robbed my foe –
THEN
1. Let my enemy pursue and overtake me 2. Let him trample my life to the ground 3. (Let him) make me sleep in the dust
David is literally willing to stake his own life on the truth of his character in this matter before the Lord. David has had false allegations made against him for which he is being pursued and persecuted and he brings all of it before the Lord. He is, in essence, swearing to the Lord about his own innocence.
One interesting note about that last part of the curse that the NIV renders “make me sleep in the dust,” in verse 5. In Hebrew it literally reads: “lay my glory [Hebrew – KABOD] in the dust.” This is actually a Hebrew idiom referring not to his life but to his good name or his reputation…maybe even his memory. So, in essence David says that if these allegations are true then I deserve to have my good name dragged through the mud.All we have in the end is our name and our reputation. But, sometimes, people will falsely accuse us and say things about us that are not true. Sometimes you can fight back and defend your name and reputation, and sometimes, you cannot. I’ve been there. I’ve literally had news articles written about me that said things about me that were verifiably false. But I couldn’t do anything about it.
But, like David, we can bring it before our Heavenly Father. We can talk to him plainly about it because He knows the truth. In this day and age of social media where so many rant and rave about so much on a daily basis, let us be a people who go to a closet and whisper our tears to heaven’s ear.
PRAY
Father help us to have unassailable character so that those who try to malign us will be seen as liars.