The tongue is a fire. It’s the very world of iniquity. With the tongue, men simultaneously bless God and curse those made in his image. The tongue is out of control. Even powerful things like ships and horses can be tamed and directed. But no one can tame the tongue. This is what the book of James in the New Testament teaches us.
And so it’s no surprise that the psalmist is experiencing what’s he’s experiencing in Psalm 7 here. David is being slandered by a particular man. And he needs the Lord to vindicate him – because he’s innocent of the charges.
Psalm 7 is a lament psalm.
(lament means – a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.)
I must say that the invocation – which is what we usually see first in lament psalms – it’s not very distinct. The psalmist calls out to God multiple times in Psalm 7. But we don’t really see a separate unit of invocation in this psalm. So, the invocation is there – all throughout the psalm. We just don’t see an extended version of it anywhere in particular.