Why read Psalm 7?
Read Psalm 7 when you face accusations or persecution and want to ask for justice. The psalmist examines his own conduct and entrusts judgment to God rather than taking personal revenge.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
The full text of Psalm 7 (17 verses), from the First Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — "O Lord my God, in Thee have I put my trust..." — are also the traditional "name" of the psalm: our grandmothers did not say "psalm 7", but called it by name, after its first words.
The text of Psalm 7
1. O Lord my God, in Thee have I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me,
2. Lest at any time he seize my soul as a lion, while there is none to redeem me, nor to save.
3. O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands,
4. If I have requited with evil them that requited me with evil, and if I have stripped mine enemies without cause,
5. Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust.
6. Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger; lift up Thyself to the borders of mine enemies; arise, O Lord my God, with the commandment which Thou hast commanded,
7. And an assembly of peoples shall compass Thee about, and over it do Thou return on high.
8. The Lord shall judge the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine innocence that is in me.
9. Let the evil of the sinners come to an end, and establish Thou the righteous, Thou that searchest the hearts and reins, O righteous God.
10. My helper is from God, who saveth them that are upright in heart.
11. God is a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering, not bringing forth wrath every day.
12. If ye turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow and made it ready,
13. And in it He hath prepared instruments of death; He hath fashioned His arrows for those who burn.
14. Behold, he hath desired injustice, he hath conceived violence and brought forth iniquity.
15. He hath opened a pit and dug it, and he shall fall into the hole which he hath made.
16. Let his injustice return upon his own head, and his violence come down upon his own crown.
17. I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
When Psalm 7 is read
- when you are slandered unjustly.
- At the end of each psalm, the tradition adds: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Neighbouring psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
