John Calvin Commentary Psalms 7:1-2

"O Jehovah my God, in thee do I take refuge: Save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver me, Lest they tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." — Psalms 7:1-2 (ASV)

At the beginning of the psalm, David speaks of having many enemies, and in the second verse he identifies a single individual. And certainly, since the minds of all people were inflamed against him, he had very good reason for praying to be delivered from all his persecutors.

But as the wicked cruelty of the king, like a firebrand, had kindled the hatred of the whole people against him, though he was an innocent person, he also had good reason for directing his writing particularly against him. Thus, in the first verse, he describes the true character of his own circumstances—he was a persecuted man; and, in the second verse, the source or cause of the calamity he was enduring.

There is great emphasis in these words which he uses in the beginning of the Psalm: O Jehovah my God, in You do I trust. The verb, it is true, is in the past tense in the Hebrew; and, therefore, if literally translated, the reading would be, In You have I trusted. But as the Hebrews often use one tense for another, I prefer to translate it in the present, In You I do trust, especially since it is abundantly evident that a continuous act, as it is called, is indicated.

David does not boast of a confidence in God from which he had now fallen, but of a confidence which he constantly maintained in his afflictions. And this is a genuine and an undoubted proof of our faith: when, faced with adversity, we nevertheless persevere in cherishing and exercising hope in God.

From this passage, we also learn that the gate of mercy is shut against our prayers if the key of faith does not open it for us. Nor does he use superfluous language when he calls Jehovah his own God; for by setting this up as a bulwark before him, he beats back the waves of temptations, so that they may not overwhelm his faith.

In the second verse, by the figure of a lion, he more vividly illustrates the cruelty of Saul, as an argument to induce God to grant him assistance, just as he ascribes to God the special role of rescuing His poor sheep from the jaws of wolves.