This is the Message translation. I like to go back and forth between the Message and English Standard Version. The comparison is interesting and brings things to my mind that i may have missed.
Psalm 7
A David Psalm
1-2 God! God! I am running to you for dear life; the chase is wild.If they catch me, I'm finished:
ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions,
dragged into the forest and left
unlooked for, unremembered.
3-5 God, if I've done what they say—
betrayed my friends,
ripped off my enemies—
If my hands are really that dirty,
let them get me, walk all over me,
leave me flat on my face in the dirt.
6-8 Stand up, God; pit your holy fury
against my furious enemies.
Wake up, God. My accusers have packed
the courtroom; it's judgment time.
Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel,
throw out the false charges against me.
I'm ready, confident in your verdict:
"Innocent."
9-11 Close the book on Evil, God,
but publish your mandate for us.
You get us ready for life:
you probe for our soft spots,
you knock off our rough edges.
And I'm feeling so fit, so safe:
made right, kept right.
God in solemn honor does things right,
but his nerves are sandpapered raw.
11-13 Nobody gets by with anything.
God is already in action—
Sword honed on his whetstone,
bow strung, arrow on the string,
Lethal weapons in hand,
each arrow a flaming missile.
14 Look at that guy!
He had sex with sin,
he's pregnant with evil.
Oh, look! He's having
the baby—a Lie-Baby!
15-16 See that man shoveling day after day,
digging, then concealing, his man-trap
down that lonely stretch of road?
Go back and look again—you'll see him in it headfirst,
legs waving in the breeze.
That's what happens:
mischief backfires;
violence boomerangs.
17 I'm thanking God, who makes things right.
I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God.
This is a Psalm by David, or sometimes it is thought that it might be a close associate of David writing about him. But anyway, he is panicking! "God! God! i am running to you for dear life!" He is afraid. David is running to God and running away from evil and sin. His sin is like lions that want to rip him to pieces and leave nothing but a dead carcass. it is interesting because David admits to God that he has sinned, "I've done what they say- betrayed my friends and ripped off my enemies. If my hands are really that dirty, let them get me, walk all over me, leave me flat on my face in the dirt." He confesses to God and says that if God chooses to hand him over to his enemies He will be absolutely justified in his judgement.
From verse 6, it picks up with David saying to God, "Ok now God, stand up and destroy my enemies! My accusers have packed the courtroom and they are waiting to see Your verdict for me. And I am ready and confident that I will be proclaimed innocent." (paraphrased to say the least.) David knows that he is innocent in God's eyes and God will protect him.
It takes a bit of a shift in verses 11-14, he talks about how nobody gets away with their sin. God knows and is already in action. I find 14 really amusing, especially in this translation, "Look at that guy! He had sex with sin, he's pregnant with evil! Oh, look! He's having the baby- a Lie-Baby!" Its just so absurd! We can become "knocked up" by sin, if we let it. It can conceive in us and grow into a hideous grotesque being that will consume our entire life. I would have never thought about it like that before, and now my mind is just blown!
David's closing thoughts are this, "I'm thanking God, who makes things right. I'm singing the fame of heaven-high God." God is to be praised and David says that clear as day. He had blessed David so immensely and he knew it. So David would write these beautiful songs and prayers that we sing and read. We get a glimpse into the heart of this man we have heard about since we were little kids. I feel like it is getting to know more of your grandpa after he has passed. When your a kid, you don't know much about him. But as you get older, you hear stories and it really makes you appreciate him and his heart.
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