Psalm 7:2

Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Lest he tear.—The poet turns from the thought of his enemies generally to the one who has just made himself conspicuous. Such a change from plural to singular often occurs in the Psalms. (Comp. Psalm 41:5-6.)

Rending it in pieces.—The LXX., followed by the Vulg. (so too the Syriac), take the verb in its primitive sense of “snatch away,” and translate, “there being none to redeem or deliver.” So Milton: “Tearing, and no rescue nigh.” Notice the comparison of human enemies to beasts of prey—a reminiscence of the lion and the bear of his youth, so constantly present to David. (Comp. Psalm 3:7; 1Samuel 17:37.)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 7:2. Lest he — That is, mine enemy, as it is expressed, Psalm 7:4. The singular number here used, evidently proves that one particular enemy is referred to, whom some suppose to be the great enemy and accuser, whose agents and tools wicked men are. But it is much more probable that either Saul or one of his followers is intended; tear my soul — Out of my body: or destroy me and my life, for soul sometimes signifies the life, of which it is the principle, and sometimes the person himself; either of which senses agrees to this place. Like a lion — To which he compares his enemy, both for power and cruelty. While there is none to deliver — While I have no power to defend myself, but am forced to flee to mountains, and caves, and woods, for my safety.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lest he - Lest "Cush" should do this. See the title, and the introduction to the psalm, Section 2.

Tear my soul like a lion - Tear or rend my "life" - that is, "me" - like a lion. The word rendered "soul" here - נפשׁ nephesh - refers, as it properly does elsewhere, to the "life," and not to the soul, as we use the term, denoting the thinking, immortal part. The simple idea is, that David was apprehensive of his "life," and, in order to indicate his great peril, he uses language derived from the fierceness of the lion. Such imagery would be well understood in a country where lions abounded, and nothing could more strikingly denote the danger in which David was, or the fierceness of the wrath of the enemy that he dreaded.

Rending it in pieces - Rending me in pieces. Or rather, perhaps, breaking or crushing the bones, for the word used - פרק pâraq (from our English word "break") - means "to break, to crush," and would apply to the act of the lion crushing or breaking the bones of his victim as he devoured it.

While there is none to deliver - Denoting the complete destruction which he feared would come upon him. The figure is that of a solitary man seized by a powerful lion, with no one at hand to rescue him. So David felt that if God did not interfere, he would fall into the hands of this fierce and wrathful enemy.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 7

Ps 7:1-17. Shiggaion—a plaintive song or elegy. Though obscure in details, this title seems to intimate that the occasion of this Psalm was some event in David's persecution by Saul. He prays for relief because he is innocent, and God will be glorified in his vindication. He thus passes to the celebration of God's righteous government, in defending the upright and punishing the wicked, whose malignant devices will result in their own ruin; and, confident of God's aid, he closes with rejoicing.

1, 2. Though many enemies set upon him, one is singled out as prominent, and compared to a wild beast tearing his prey to pieces (compare 1Sa 20:1; 23:23; 26:19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Lest he, i.e. mine enemy, as it is expressed, Psalm 7:4, even Saul, or any of his followers,

tear my soul out of my body; or destroy me and my life, as Psalm 6:5.

Like a lion; to which he compares him both for power and cruelty, and withal intimates his own inability to oppose or escape his rage without God’s almighty help.

While there is none to deliver; whilst I have no considerable force to defend myself, but am forced to flee to mountains, and caves, and woods for my safety.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lest he tear my soul like a lion,.... That is, one of his persecutors, the chief of them; it may be Saul, whom the psalmist compares to a lion for his majesty and greatness, the lion being the king among beasts; and for his authority, power, and might, and for his wrath and cruelty, which he feared; and which, should it be exerted on him, would tear his soul, or himself, in pieces; would rend his soul from his body, and dispatch his life; see Proverbs 19:12. So the Apostle Paul calls the Roman governor, before whom he was, and from whose hands he was delivered, a lion, for his power and fierceness, 2 Timothy 4:17. And so our adversary the devil, the chief of all persecutors, and who instigates others against the saints, is by Peter said to go about like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8;

rending it in pieces, as the lion does his prey when hungry. So Homer (s) compares Polyphemus to a mountain lion, which devours and leaves nothing, neither the intestines, nor flesh, nor bones; and represents (t) it first taking hold of the creature with its strong teeth, and breaking its neck, and drawing out its blood and all its inwards; see Isaiah 38:13;

while there is none to deliver; no saviour, no deliverer: for if God does not save and deliver his people out of the hands of their persecutors, none can; especially out of the hands of such an one as is here described tearing and rending in pieces. As there is no God besides the Lord, there is no saviour besides him: there is no temporal nor spiritual saviour but he: salvation is not to be expected from any other; and were it not for him, saints must fall a prey to their enemies.

(s) Odyss. 9. v. 292, 293. (t) Iliad. 11. v. 175, 176. & Iliad. 17. v. 63.

Geneva Study Bible

Lest {a} he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

(a) He desires God to deliver him from the rage of cruel Saul.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. His enemies are many, but one is conspicuous above all for merciless ferocity. Cush, or perhaps Saul himself, is meant (1 Samuel 20:1). For the simile cp. Psalm 10:9, Psalm 17:12, Psalm 22:13; Psalm 22:21.

my soul] My life: me regarded as a living individual.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Lest he tear my soul like a lion (comp. Psalm 5:6, where there is a similar abrupt transition from the plural to the singular number). On both occasions David fears one special enemy - then probably Ahithophel, now Saul. The simile of the lion is one frequent in the Psalms (see Psalm 10:9; Psalm 17:12; Psalm 22:13, 21; Psalm 35:17; Psalm 54:4, etc.). Rending it in pieces. As the lion does a sheep. While there is none to deliver. No human helper, at once willing and able to give deliverance. Psalm 7:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 7:2-3) With this word of faith, love, and hope בּך חסיתּי (as in Psalm 141:8), this holy captatio benevolentiae, David also begins in Psalm 11:1; Psalm 16:1; Psalm 31:2, cf. Psalm 71:1. The perf. is inchoative: in Thee have I taken my refuge, equivalent to: in Thee do I trust. The transition from the multitude of his persecutors to the sing. in Psalm 7:3 is explained most naturally, as one looks at the inscription, thus: that of the many the one who is just at the time the worst of all comes prominently before his mind. The verb טרף from the primary signification carpere (which corresponds still more exactly to חרף) means both to tear off and to tear in pieces (whence טרפה that which is torn in pieces); and פּרק from its primary signification frangere means both to break loose and to break in pieces, therefore to liberate, e.g., in Psalm 136:24, and to break in small pieces, 1 Kings 19:11. The persecutors are conceived of as wild animals, as lions which rend their prey and craunch its bones. Thus blood-thirsty are they for his soul, i.e., his life. After the painful unrest of this first strophe, the second begins the tone of defiant self-consciousness.