It would be difficult to say anything negative about any one of the psalms, since each is a part of sacred Scripture and is given to us by God for our benefit. Yet we cannot escape feeling that some of them stand out above others. This is true of Psalm 23, probably the most beloved psalm in the Psalter. It is true of the very first psalm, Psalm 19, Psalm 100 and more. It is also true of Psalm 8, to which we come now.

The second half of Psalm 7 is an expression of David's deep confidence in God, a section not much different from what he has said in the preceding psalms and will say many more times in what follows (vv. 10-17). David says that: 1) God will protect him, being his shield against foes; 2) God is righteous, expressing his wrath against evil every day; 3) God will judge his accusers, if they do not repent; and 4) God has arranged things so that evil eventually brings judgment on itself.

Distinguished in this way, between heavenly and earthly justice, Christians naturally embrace the heavenly conception. But Lewis rightly asks us to yearn for earthly justice as well, and to work for it. For one thing, to do this puts us on the side of those who traditionally have had difficulty obtaining justice.

Yesterday we concluded by considering the issue of false accusations, and said that there are two surprising features which can create problems for us. The first is David’s insistence on his own innocence, and how this fits with the Bible’s teaching that we are not innocent.  

David does not report the accusation against him in detail. But it seems, from verses 3 and 4, that he had been accused of doing evil to one whom he had no cause to regard as an enemy and of robbing one whom, though he was an enemy, he had no cause to abuse. There are two things we need to note about this specifically. First, a slander like this was a serious matter for one in David's position.