Commentary on Selected Psalms

                                Psalm 7:8-10 (KJB)

Christian writers seem to believe that the Old Testament writers knew a lot about salvation by grace and a coming, suffering Messiah. While God did reveal to king David and Isaiah that the Messiah would suffer for humanity's salvation, probably they did not understand much about what they had written. Psalm 22; Isaiah 53 (KJB). The Jews looked for a conquering Messiah, and they were right to do so because at the end of the Tribulation period Jesus will return to earth with His armies from Heaven to destroy the evil armies that will come against Jerusalem, and He will save Israel from destruction. Revelation 19:11-21 (KJB). Even to this day, most Jews ignore the doctrine of the suffering Messiah in the Old Testament because they cannot believe that God would deign to become a human or that He would allow mere humans to humiliate Him. The Old Testament doctrine is that God created humans in His image, that God chose the Israelites to be His special people chosen by Him to bring knowledge of Him to the rest of the world, and that God will enact a general resurrection in the end of the world where He will judge all people, and He will save the just and condemn the ungodly. Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 26:17-19; Isaiah 66:22-24; Daniel 12:2-3 (KJB). Jesus affirmed His belief in a general resurrection when He spoke about Daniel 12:2 in His own words. John 5:28-29 (KJB). All of the Old Testament writers believed in the Old Testament doctrine, but some of them had but a vague understanding of a suffering Messiah who would bring salvation by grace. All of the Old Testament doctrines are true doctrines, but God would reserve His full revelation of a suffering Messiah for the New Testament.

These facts can only mean that most of what king David and the Old Testament writers wrote must be interpreted in light of the Old Testament doctrines. This means that when the Holy Spirit inspired king David to prophesy that "the Lord shall judge the people," God had to have meant His judgment of all of humanity in the end of the world. Psalm 7:8 (KJB). King David, not realizing that he had already been saved by grace, prayed that God would judge him "according to my righteousness" and his "integrity that is in me." King David could only have written about God's created righteousness that God had given to him when He created him. That created righteousness was a gift from God that He separated from Himself so that king David could rightly call it his own. God gives this gift of created righteousness to every human that He creates in His image. Psalm 7:8; John 3:21; Genesis 1:27 (KJB). God does give the righteousness of Christ to believers saved by grace so that He can accept them into Heaven to live with Him there forever, but they cannot own that righteousness because it belongs solely to the Lord Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:21 (KJB). Jesus' given righteousness happens to be a kind of borrowed righteousness.

King David continued to pray that God would put an end to all wickedness and that He would "establish the just." King David further prayed that he knew that God would judge the "hearts" and "reins" of all humans in His final judgment. The hearts and reins are inside of every person, and therefore, the wicked and the just are inside of every person. King David actually prayed that in God's final judgment, He will separate the wickedness inside of every human from the image of God in every human. Psalm 7:9 (KJB). Jesus Himself taught a Pharisee, who certainly could not have been saved by grace, that he should do good works because he would be rewarded "at the resurrection of the just." Jesus could only have meant that the image of God in this Pharisee would be resurrected back to life from the regions of the dead. Luke 14:12-15; Revelation 22:11-12; John  5:28-29 (KJB). The Apostle Paul affirmed his belief in a general resurrection "both of the just and the unjust." Acts 24:14-15 (KJB).

All of this put together comports exactly with God's description of His general resurrection and final judgment in the end of the world. Christ will appear to all living humans on the earth and confined to the regions of death, and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God will then use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve; that is, to melt down every living human on the earth and under the earth in order to separate His repentant, living humans from their dead natures for Him to recreate so that He can cast their dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB). Christ will raise all of His repentant, living humans back to eternal life. Revelation 20:5 (KJB). Christ will recreate all of His living humans with new bodies to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). Christ will reward His resurrected, living humans according to the good works that they did while on the former earth. Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29; Matthew 10:42 (KJB). This fact can only mean that Christ's promise and prophecy that, "Behold, I make all things new" cannot fail. Revelation 21:5 (KJB).

King David's defense of himself before God happens to be certainly true when he prophesied that God "saveth the upright in heart." These upright can only be all living humans that God creates in His image. Psalm 7:10 (KJB).

Certainly, "the just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:4 (KJB). But of equal certainty is the fact that a God who has an Infinite Intellect can devise a plan to save all of His living humans either by His grace or by returning them to faith in Him in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God's Will cannot fail. When God had the Apostle Peter to write "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," He had to have meant exactly that which He said. When God had the Apostle Paul to write that God "is the Savior of all men," He had to have meant exactly that which He said. Mere feeble human will was not added to that verse. God cannot lose anything He has ever created, and His Almighty Love cannot fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8; I Timothy 4:10; II Peter 3:9 (KJB).