Ps. 7.1 (prayer in flight)

Ps. 7.1

Diag.

O Lord  /  my God  /  I have  /  sought refuge  /  in you

Save me  /  from all my  /  pursuers  /  and  /  deliver me

            Lest  /  they should  /  rip me  /  like a lion

            Tearing me up  /  with no  /  deliverer

The protector is praying for protection.

The overall feeling of this psalm is one of exposure and vulnerability. This fact alone should give us pause: a king should never feel exposed. When and if it occurs it is because some defense that should have been maintained has either suffered attack or defeat, or, even worse, become a gate for the king’s enemies (in an act of deception and rebellion). The king is supposed to be the ‘shepherd’ of his people; his flock might, at times, feel exposed but it is to him, as king, that they are to call in times of danger. And, a true king, should come to their aid and re-establish the order of justice by punishing the evil-doer (attacker) and healing any wounded sheep. If the king, himself, is exposed, however, the very source of justice itself is under attack.

Were this psalm spoken by a member of David’s flock, we would be able to appreciate this sense of calling out for help. When this prayer is placed on the lips of David, something more terrifying emerges. Like Ps. 3, we must always keep in mind that when the ‘shepherd’ prays he is not merely praying for himself (as, perhaps, we might hear if this psalm were one spoken by a member of David’s flock), but for his entire people. He is the “anointed head” of Yhwh’s family. If he is ‘brought down’ by the lions, the sheep will be scattered and vulnerable. As exposed as David feels, he holds in his heart the exposure that will be experienced by all of “those whom the Father gave him” in his anointing.

David as ‘shepherd’. There is, I think, one unstated observation to be made here: David was Israel’s first ‘real shepherd’. Whenever one sees that image in the OT (and NT), one should realize it means ‘king’; it was a common, almost ubiquitous, imagine in the ancient Mediterranean world. Every reader of this psalm would have pictured David thus. Except now, David has placed himself in the role of the animal needing protection from Yhwh, the Shepherd. It is a beautiful insight into the ‘heart of David’, this ‘son’ of the father-Yhwh. In Ps. 3 we saw how every victory handed over to David, was, in turn, handed back to Yhwh. Here, we see how the shepherd of Israel sees himself as one in need of the Shepherd Yhwh.

“refuge”: a refuge is often portrayed as a contained place wherein one escapes from an ongoing tumult and exposure to danger (shade as a refuge from the sun; a harbor as a refuge from the churning ocean; a cave as a hiding from predators). A refuge is also a place of rest and, often, rejuvenation, like an oasis in a dessert. Those seeking refuge are acutely aware of this pressing need for safety and escape. A refuge is something one runs to; it is not something one attempts to ‘bring into battle’. It is an escape, not an engagement with the enemy. Yhwh is not here described as a sword, which would imply the power to address and defeat the enemy, but as a place of escape and withdrawal. It is a decidedly defensive image, rather than offensive.

David seems, though, from what we have seen, to understand Yhwh from these varying perspectives. In Ps. 2 the “rod of iron” that will smash the nations is placed in his hands as the nations come up to wage war against him. In Ps. 3, however, Yhwh becomes a circular shield around him so as to enable him to sleep (something like a ‘refuge’).

“from my pursuers…lest they rip/tear me like a lion”: The necessity for ‘refuge’ is highlighted in this passage. As a shepherd, David would have doubtless witnessed this type of killing: from the initial and unobserved stalking to the sudden orange bolt and subsequent chase and killing. An exposed sheep (one without a shepherd) has no chance of surviving the attack. Notice how the movement here is from ‘pursuit’ to ‘tearing/devouring’. There is no intermediate attack or the ‘bringing down’ of the animal. The reader only pictures the chase and the ‘tearing flesh’.  By removing this ‘moment of attack’, David points to the inevitability of being pursued by these men (these ‘lions’) and that without refuge he will be torn apart.

Notice too that David is already in full-flight from these men. Just as he does not describe the ‘moment of attack’ he does not describe the hidden stalking of the lion, nor does he describe the moment when the defenseless and exposed lamb first catches sight of his attacker. The lion and the lamb are in full sprint. The attack commenced long ago and this prayer is one that emerges during that flight.