Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 7:5

"Let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; Yea, let him tread my life down to the earth, And lay my glory in the dust. Selah" — Psalms 7:5 (ASV)

Let the enemy. — Better, let an enemy.

Persecute. — Literally, burn. (See Note on Psalms 10:2.)

Tread. — This term is used: of a potter treading the clay (Isaiah 41:25); of the trampling of horses (Ezekiel 26:11); of a herd trampling down their pasture (Ezekiel 34:28).

Dust. — This can be understood as in Psalms 22:15, the dust of death, and if so, then khabôd’.

Honour must be the soul or life, as is plain in Psalms 16:9 and Psalms 57:8, where the Authorised Version has glory. The parallelism favors this interpretation.

On the other hand, “to lay one’s honour in the dust” is a common figurative phrase. Shakespeare, for example, in K. Hen. VI.,Acts 1, Scene 5, writes, “Now, France, your glory droops to the dust”; and in Coriol.,Acts 3, Scene 1, “And throw their power in the dust.”

Selah. — See Note on Psalms 3:2. This is one of the places that suggest its interpretation as a musical direction to strike up with passion and force.