Run a mySQL query as a cron job?

I personally find it easier use MySQL event scheduler than cron.

Enable it with

SET GLOBAL event_scheduler = ON;

and create an event like this:

CREATE EVENT name_of_event
ON SCHEDULE EVERY 1 DAY
STARTS '2014-01-18 00:00:00'
DO
DELETE FROM tbl_message WHERE DATEDIFF( NOW( ) ,  timestamp ) >=7;

and that’s it.

Read more about the syntax here and here is more general information about it.