Oh Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands.
– Psalm 7:3
So what’s interesting about this verse and why I want to lead us to pray according to it is because it’s in the middle of verses around it in Psalm 7 and other Psalms where the psalmist is being accused and attacked from different sides, from evildoers.
Psalm 7:3 Reminds Us God is Our Deliverer
Even the very beginning of the Psalm says, “Oh Lord my God, in you do I take refuge, save me from all my pursuers and deliver me. Less like a lion, they tear my soul apart, rendering it with pieces, with none to deliver.” But then he says in verse three, “Oh Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands.” And he basically begins to pray for awareness of if he has done this to others, if he has, verse four says, “… repaid his friend with evil or plundered his enemy without cause.” Specifically, has he in any way sinned against God in the way he has responded to others’ attacks?
And what I love about this verse is the way it promotes in us a posture of humility that says, God, help me to see when I sin. Help me not to be so focused even when others are sinning against me on their sin that I lose sight of my own sin, including my tendency to sin against them in response to their sin toward me. I think about Leviticus talking about unintentional sins, ways that we are prone to sin against God and against others in ways we don’t even realize. And so the Psalmist is searching his heart in this verse, “Oh Lord, my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands.”
Psalm 7:3 Reminds Us God is Our Redeemer
That’s a good way for all of us to pray, to pause and say to God, God, open our eyes to any and every way we are sinning against you or against others, whether intentionally or unintentionally. God, we don’t want to be blind to our sin. We don’t want to be blind in any way to how we might be offending others or offending you. And God, we know we are prone to be blind. We’re prone to not want to see our sins.
So search our hearts, we pray. Help us to have a posture of humility, not a posture of pride and defensiveness, but humility and openness to see all sin in our lives, through our lives as you see it, and to confess it quickly. And to be restored to a brother or sister, to someone else when we sin against them. And ultimately to be restored to you.
Jesus, we praise you for paying the price for all of our sins. We praise you for cleansing us from all of our sins. So help us to be honest with all of our sins. We are so thankful for the gospel. None of us could stand if you are not gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love toward us. We praise you for the refuge you are when others sin against us. We praise you for the refuge of your grace when we sin against others.
Praying for the Palestinian Arabs
God, help us to make this gospel known in the world around us today, this week. God, we pray that you help us to make this gospel known among all the peoples of the world. We pray today for Palestinian Arabs of Israel. God, we know there is church presence there. We pray for your blessing on our brothers and sisters in Christ, specifically Palestinian Arabs. And God, we know the level of conflict in that part of the world between different people groups in that land.
God, we pray for your gospel to bring peace with you and peace between others as people humble themselves before you and your grace, confess their sin and receive your mercy and then reflect your mercy in confession and reconciliation with each other. To the extent that is needed, God, we pray for that there in that part of the world. We pray for that in our own lives and our own relationships, all according to your word in Psalm 7:3. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
