David prayeth against the malice of his enemies, professing his innocency. By faith he seeth his defence, and their destruction.
Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.
Title. לדוד שׁגיון Shiggaion ledavid. Shiggaion of David— Cantio erratica. Houbigant. A wandering song, says Parkhurst, after Fenwick; a song of wanderings, probably composed by David in his wandering, when persecuted by Saul and his servants; in which the Psalmist stands as a type of Christ and his church, persecuted by Satan and his adherents. Who this Cush was, we are nowhere told, if he be not the same with Shimei. He seems by the 3rd and 4th verses to have reproached David, much in the same manner as Shimei did, with his ingratitude to Saul. Some are of opinion, that by Cush, or Cis, is meant Saul himself, the son of Cis; and they have some countenance for their conjecture from the title of the Chaldee; "The interpretation of an ode of David, which he sung before the Lord, when he delivered a poem upon the death of Saul, the son of Cis, who was of the tribe of Benjamin." The full and strong terms, however, in which the person speaking in this psalm declares his innocence, and indeed the whole subject matter of it, seems to assure us, that, on whatever occasion David wrote it, the Holy Spirit led him to use words which, in their full and most proper sense, must have been designed for the mouth of him who was perfectly righteous, and in whose hands there was never any iniquity. He begins the psalm with praying for deliverance from his enemies who pursued him; one more eminently beyond others, we may imagine, from his frequently recurring to the singular number: He then protests his innocence, and proceeds to pray God to do justice to the world and himself; supposes him sitting in judgment, Psalms 7:8 and petitions him, as he is sitting, to judge impartially both good and bad. Accordingly he does so from Psalms 7:9-13. His enemy is defeated and falls into his own snare; 14-16 upon which he praises God for this act of justice.