Psalm 7 : David's logic vs. God's logic

I will praise you, LORD! You always do right. I will sing about you, the LORD Most High.(Psalm 7:17)

David is deeply troubled by the words of Cush from Benjamin, and he turns to prayer. His thoughts are straightforward and concise. He sings the wisdom of planting beans where beans belong and red beans where red beans belong. Good people reap good rewards, and evil people reap evil outcomes. While David's reasoning is not unique, he extends it to God's righteousness. It is evident that God will favor the hand of the righteous, and David believes he is one of them. It is comforting to agree with David's prayer and find solace in it.

However, we should not stop at David's final prayer, "I want to praise the Lord for his righteousness and his name," and assume that his logic applies to our circumstances. We should not become so consumed with our own catharsis that we limit God to David's binary of right and wrong.

Let's take a step back and consider David and Cush from God's perspective. It's not as simple as punishing the wrongdoer or favoring the good man. In other parts of the Bible, God negotiates with Satan and even gives him Job, who is considered righteous. If God only favored the good, then there would be no room for those who have made mistakes. David's logic cannot contain the ways of God.

God deals with each person as they are. Jesus' response to those who killed him was to ask for God's forgiveness, saying, "Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." This includes not just those who sentenced Jesus to death, but also those who carried out the execution, spit on him, insulted him, and fled in disgust. We should not complicate things by claiming that sometimes God uses Satan and sometimes Satan is God's archenemy.

If God can forgive Satan, then we should not be surprised by anything that God does. If David sought God's righteousness with the intention of living righteously, both for himself and for Cush from Benjamin, his prayer could be deemed worthy of inclusion in the Bible.

O God, both good and evil are objects to be forgiven in your eyes. In your loving embrace, guide me to walk the path of righteousness that has been set before me. Amen.