Psalms 58

¹To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

Psa 58:1-11. David’s critical condition in some period of the Sauline persecution probably occasioned this Psalm, in which the Psalmist teaches that the innate and actual sinfulness of men deserves, and shall receive, God’s righteous vengeance, while the pious may be consoled by the evidence of His wise and holy government of men. 1. O congregation--literally, “Oh, dumb”; the word used is never translated “congregation.” “Are ye dumb? ye should speak righteousness,” may be the translation. In any case, the writer remonstrates with them, perhaps a council, who were assembled to try his cause, and bound to give a right decision.

²Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

2. This they did not design; but weigh ... violence--or give decisions of violence. Weigh is a figure to express the acts of judges. in the earth--publicly.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

⁴Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

⁵Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

3-5. describe the wicked generally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly, and stubbornly.

⁶Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

6. He prays for their destruction, under the figure of ravenous beasts (Psa 3:7; 7:2).

⁷Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

7. which run continually--literally, “they shall go to themselves,” utterly depart, as rapid mountain torrents. he bendeth ... his arrows--prepares it. The term for preparing a bow applied to arrows (Psa 64:3). let them ... pieces--literally, “as if they cut themselves off”--that is, become blunted and of no avail.

⁸As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

8-9. Other figures of this utter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than pots feel the heat of thorns on fire--

¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

10-11. wash ... wicked--denoting great slaughter. The joy of triumph over the destruction of the wicked is because they are God’s enemies, and their overthrow shows that He reigneth (compare Psa 52:5-7; 54:7). In this assurance let heaven and earth rejoice (Psa 96:10; 97:1, &c.).