Strike Me With Kindness - Psalms 6-8

Psalms 7:3-5 (ESV)

O LORD my God, if I have done this,

if there is wrong in my hands,

if I have repaid my friend with evil

or plundered my enemy without cause,

let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,

and let him trample my life to the ground

and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

In this song of David, he is singing out to God for refuge from his enemies.   He knows if God doesn’t deliver him from them he would be torn into pieces by them (vs. 1-2).   But before he simply comes boldly to God to find relief from them (vs. 6-17) he makes the above confession.   He is willing, if it is the case, to suffer punishment for a wrong he committed, if, indeed, he committed it.   He is not afraid to suffer discipline for a wrong he committed.   That is not how many people face their situations in life.  Most are always blaming others.  They are not taking responsibility for their own actions.   There is always a cause.  There is always someone else to blame.  Before David cries out for mercy and grace from God for protection against those who wish to harm him, he confesses that IF he did wrong he would accept their rebuke.     Here is what he said about being disciplined in another line of a psalm:

Psalms 141:5 (ESV)

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;

let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;

let my head not refuse it.

Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.

David was not afraid of rebuke.  He was not fearful to be punished if he needed the correction.    But, in Psalm 7 he simply doesn’t believe the attacks from his foes is warranted.  He confesses that before God.   But not all people are like that.  Note how Jeremiah addressed this in his song of lament after the fall of Israel because of their wicked acts: 

Lamentations 3:37-39 (ESV)

Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

In today’s society we lack personal accountability.  We are always trying to blame others when it is ourselves who are falling short.