2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
2 or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
2 If they catch me, I'm finished: ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions, dragged into the forest and left unlooked for, unremembered.
2 Lest they tear me like a lion, Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
2 If you don't, they will maul me like a lion, tearing me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
12 They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a fierce lion crouching in cover.
12 He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.
12 Lions ready to rip me apart, young lions poised to pounce.
12 As a lion is eager to tear his prey, And like a young lion lurking in secret places.
12 They are like hungry lions, eager to tear me apart- like young lions hiding in ambush.
(Read Psalm 17:8-15)
Being compassed with enemies, David prays to God to keep him in safety. This prayer is a prediction that Christ would be preserved, through all the hardships and difficulties of his humiliation, to the glories and joys of his exalted state, and is a pattern to Christians to commit the keeping of their souls to God, trusting him to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom. Those are our worst enemies, that are enemies to our souls. They are God's sword, which cannot move without him, and which he will sheathe when he has done his work with it. They are his hand, by which he chastises his people. There is no fleeing from God's hand, but by fleeing to it. It is very comfortable, when we are in fear of the power of man, to see it dependent upon, and in subjection to the power of God. Most men look on the things of this world as the best things; and they look no further, nor show any care to provide for another life. The things of this world are called treasures, they are so accounted; but to the soul, and when compared with eternal blessings, they are trash. The most afflicted Christian need not envy the most prosperous men of the world, who have their portion in this life. Clothed with Christ's righteousness, having through his grace a good heart and a good life, may we by faith behold God's face, and set him always before us. When we awake every morning, may we be satisfied with his likeness set before us in his word, and with his likeness stamped upon us by his renewing grace. Happiness in the other world is prepared only for those that are justified and sanctified: they shall be put in possession of it when the soul awakes, at death, out of its slumber in the body, and when the body awakes, at the resurrection, out of its slumber in the grave. There is no satisfaction for a soul but in God, and in his good will towards us, and his good work in us; yet that satisfaction will not be perfect till we come to heaven.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 7:2
Commentary on Psalm 7:1-9
(Read Psalm 7:1-9)
David flees to God for succour. But Christ alone could call on Heaven to attest his uprightness in all things. All His works were wrought in righteousness; and the prince of this world found nothing whereof justly to accuse him. Yet for our sakes, submitting to be charged as guilty, he suffered all evils, but, being innocent, he triumphed over them all. The plea is, "For the righteous God trieth the hearts and the reins." He knows the secret wickedness of the wicked, and how to bring it to an end; he is witness to the secret sincerity of the just, and has ways of establishing it. When a man has made peace with God about all his sins, upon the terms of grace and mercy, through the sacrifice of the Mediator, he may, in comparison with his enemies, appeal to God's justice to decide.