He digged a pit, and hollowed it out, and is fallen into the hole that he made.
Psalm 7 is a cry for God to judge. This verse shows one way that judgment comes: a man digs a trap for someone else, and then drops into it himself.
The verse does not describe an accident. It shows how God governs the world.
The godly soul waits in the middle of abounding evil for God to step in. What holds it up is knowing the character of God and how He governs. God saves the upright in heart; God is a righteous judge; so far from being indifferent to evil, God is angry with the wicked every day. God gives space for repentance. But if the wicked "will not turn back," the sword of judgment is ready for its work. That work is against the one who labours with iniquity, who conceives mischief, and speaks what is false. In the government of God the one who devises mischief will fall into the pit he has dug for others.
That patience is not softness. Something is building up during the delay.
Though patient, His anger burns against those who will not repent. It is stored up day by day, until at last it flames out. The sword is being sharpened. The bent bow makes no sound until the arrow flies. Then it is a weapon of death, all aflame with divine vengeance.
A pit is not dug by mistake. It takes planning, and so does the evil behind it.
The character of the wicked is exposed in his actions: he "brings forth iniquity," for he conceives trouble (v. 14). This is no sudden slip into wrongdoing. The trouble was intended and planned in advance, so falsehood comes with it — the deceit that tries to hide his motives behind well-planned actions. Absalom used such actions when plotting the overthrow of his father David. The coming antichrist will be of the same character. But just as Absalom in effect prepared a pit for his own downfall, so the antichrist will fall by his own proud plotting against the Lord.
All that work produces nothing the digger wanted. It turns on him instead.
He toils to produce what is vain labour, has his toil for his pains, an end which deceives the labourer. It is not merely vain, it is his own undoing: the ditch dug for another is the trap to catch the digger. So he harvests the fruit of his toil in an unwelcome way, in the most perfect retribution — for God is Master of all, and will be glorified in all.
The contrast with the godly man is sharp.
The man to whom grace has given clear, single-minded sight sees the way straight before him. The wicked man needs no executioner: he will die by his own evil.
This is not theory. Daniel's accusers schemed to have him thrown to the lions, and ended up in the den themselves.
They laboured with iniquity, conceived mischief, and gave birth to falsehood. They made a pit and fell into it themselves (Ps. 7:14-16). They fell easy victims to the hunger of the beasts of prey. How true it is that "He catches the wise in their craftiness" (Job 5:13).
The pattern is not finished. Commentators expect it again at the end.
This still instructs us, for this has been God's way, and will be so still. Daniel's accusers are themselves thrown into the den they had prepared for him. And the flame of the fire killed the men who threw the captives into the furnace. And so it is foretold of the enemies and apostates of the last days in this world's history: "Their own iniquity shall be brought upon them" (Ps. 7, Ps. 9, Ps. 10, Ps. 35, Ps. 57, Ps. 141). Satan himself, who has the power of death, is destroyed through death.
Read at its widest, the verse reaches the first deceiver of all, and the promise God made against him.
The deceiver himself must come under the curse of God. He must also hear that from the weak woman he deceived, One will come who will end his wicked schemes and destroy his power forever. A Deliverer is promised. He is to be the seed of the woman. The humbling of the enemy is to be absolute. The victory of God is to be complete. Truly the triumph of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment (Job 20:5)… His head is to be bruised.
- Dug — no one falls into this pit by accident. The wicked man conceives the mischief and dresses it in falsehood long before anyone gets hurt.
- Delayed — God gives space for repentance, but that patience is a bow bent in silence, with anger stored up day by day.
- Dropped — the digger's work is worse than wasted. His own trap catches him, and he needs no executioner but his own evil.
- Displayed — Daniel's accusers fell into the den they dug. Commentators expect the same in the last days.
- Defeated — the same rule reaches the oldest enemy of all. His head is to be bruised, and his triumph lasts only a moment.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violence shall come down upon his own pate.
The picture in this verse is of a man ruined by his own weapon: what he aimed at someone else lands on his own head. Psalm 7 sets that reversal inside a larger question. How does God govern a world where the wicked hold the upper hand, and how should those they hunt wait?
The verse follows straight on from the image of a man digging a hole. His scheming is work that produces nothing he wanted:
The result as to the enemy of the righteous shows the hand that is over him. He works hard, but the labour is empty. His only reward is the toil itself, and the outcome cheats the worker. It is not just empty, it is his own undoing: the ditch dug for another is the trap to catch the digger. So he harvests the fruit of his toil in an unwelcome way, and the retribution is perfect: God is Master of all, and He will be glorified in all.
The recoil often looks slow in coming. Earlier in the psalm God is angry every day. He sharpens a sword and bends a bow. Patience and gathering anger belong together here:
The psalm goes on to consider the government of God. That government is for righteousness, though it is patient. Both sides may misunderstand that patience — righteous and wicked alike. Though patient, His anger burns against the impenitent, day by day stored up, until at last it flames forth. The sword is being sharpened. The bent bow makes no sound until the arrow flies. Then it is a weapon of death, all aflame with divine vengeance.
The man hunted in this psalm cannot arrange this outcome himself. What steadies him is what he knows about God:
The godly soul waits in the middle of abounding evil for God to step in. What sustains him is knowing the character of God and His governmental dealings. God saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge. He is so far from being indifferent to evil that He is angry with the wicked every day. God gives space for repentance. But if the wicked "turn not," the sword of judgment is ready for its work. It is ready for the one who labours with iniquity, who conceives mischief, and speaks what is false. In the government of God the one who devises mischief will fall into the pit that he has dug for others.
The men who plotted against Daniel ended up in the lions' den themselves:
They had laboured with iniquity, conceived mischief, and given birth to lies. They made a pit, dug it out, and fell into the hole they had made. Their mischief returned upon their own head, and their violence came down upon their own skull (Ps. 7:14-16). They fell easy victims to the hungry beasts of prey. How true it is that "He catches the wise in their craftiness" (Job 5:13).
Sometimes the guilty man sees the hand behind it. One king, crippled in the way he had crippled others, said who had done it:
Notice what Adoni-bezek did. He went through the ordeal of losing his thumbs and his great toes, which left him crippled. Yet he traced what had happened to him back to God: "God has repaid me." The boomerang he had so often thrown at others had hit himself. This is always so.
Commentators also read the verse forward, to an enemy greater than any human plotter:
A Deliverer is promised. The humiliation of the enemy is to be absolute. The victory of God is to be complete. Truly the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment (Job 20:5). "He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends" (Ps. 7:15-16). His head is to be bruised.
That fall signals that morning has come:
But here, as the day approaches, He looks ahead more fully and with greater glory to the destruction of the great enemy. That destruction is his fall into the ditch that he made for others. Like the dawn, it is the herald of the day. The gathering of the congregation around the Lord will follow, and that is what this psalm looks for.
- Sown. The harm a man plans is a crop he plants; the ditch he digs for another becomes the trap that catches the digger.
- Stored. God's patience is not indifference. He stores up anger day by day while He gives the wicked space to turn back.
- Returned. What the plotter aimed at others comes back on him. Daniel's accusers met the lions, and Adoni-bezek suffered what he had done to others.
- Crushed. The same pattern reaches its end in the great enemy: a Deliverer is promised, and the enemy's head is to be bruised.
- Praised. That fall comes like dawn. It heralds the day, and the congregation gathers around the Lord.