1Do you indeed speak righteousness,
you silent ones?
Do you judge uprightly, you
sons of men?
2No, in heart you work wickedness;
You weigh out the violence of
your hands in the earth.
3The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies.
4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra
that stops its ear,
5Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.
6Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
Break out the fangs of the
young lions, O Lord!
7Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
When he bends his bow,
Let his arrows be as if cut in
pieces.
8Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes,
Like a stillborn child of a
woman, that they may not see the sun.
9Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
He shall take them away as
with a whirlwind,
As in His living and burning
wrath.
10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the
blood of the wicked,
11So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for
the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in
the earth.”
Vs. 1-2 1Do you indeed speak righteousness,
you silent ones?
Do you judge uprightly, you
sons of men?
2No, in heart you work wickedness;
You weigh out the violence of
your hands in the earth.
Psalm 58 opens with a scathing rebuke of “the silent ones”, of those sinister and scheming people who know how to keep a low profile while they work out their evil and wicked desires in the earth. For you will never here their voices in the public square; at least not to proclaim, exalt, and expound people to live righteously, as God would have us all do. And yet their gaze always becomes fixed on those who do, who seek to live righteous, honest, honorable, and Godly lives. David then was a victim of such people, and so this Psalm shows his frustration with them, with being their victim, as they work out their evil and unjust plots against him (and whoever else they dislike or distrust) in the earth.
Vs. 3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies.”
Their nature then is not something that developed later on in their lives, but it is what they were born into, for from the womb the wicked are estranged from God, but not like all of us who have also been born into Adam’s sin, no these are those vessels of wrath which God has prepared for destruction, for as soon as they can they begin speaking lies and progressively practicing their evil desires in the earth, and as this psalm reveals, not always brazenly, but silently, sinisterly (consider Job 21:30; Prov. 16:4; Rom. 9:22-24; 2 Peter 2:9 etc. antithesis Isaiah 43:7). These kinds of people then often become the skilful manipulators of others, for they can read people like an open book, and they can use this ability to their own evil desires advantage.
Vs. 4-5 4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra
that stops its ear,
5Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.
Their words are now described as being like the poison of snake, which obviously doesn’t help anyone, but will hurt anyone they set their tongues against. Not only are they’re words likened to the poison of snakes, but their ears are described as being like the serpents which obviously does not hear, and so they cannot hear a correction or a rebuke no matter how skilfully spoken. These then are unchangeable. For you can tell a snake not to bite and it will still bite no matter how skilfully you “charm” it. Therefore without Holy Spirit regeneration through the Gospel there can be no change in them, in their essential nature and person.
Vs. 6 “Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
Break out the fangs of the
young lions, O Lord!”
David now cries out to God, to our Lord, to break their teeth in their mouths, to break out the fangs of the young lions, to render them harmless to others, which He will fully complete on His Day when He comes to Judge and Rule the earth!
Vs. 7 “Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
When he bends his bow,
Let his arrows be as if cut in
pieces.”
Yes, Lord make them flow like the waters which run continually, so make them flee by Your hand. And when he bends his bow to shoot at others let his arrows be as if cut in pieces, no longer able to harm the one he has set up as his target.
Vs. 8 “Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes,
Like a stillborn child of a
woman, that they may not see the sun.”
And as they are fleeing, let them all melt away like a snail which cannot move fast enough to escape the burning sun! Yes, let them all then be like a stillborn child which will never see the sun.
Vs. 9 “Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
He shall take them away as
with a whirlwind,
As in His living and burning wrath.”
Such
then will be God’s wrath and vengeance against them that a campfire metaphor is
now used to describe just how quickly He will consume them when He unleashes
His living and burning wrath upon them!
Vs. 10-11 10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the
blood of the wicked,
11So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in
the earth.”
Not only will the righteous rejoice when we see the vengeance taken for us all, but God Himself will rejoice when He washes His feet in the blood of the wicked! Such then will it be on His Day that all men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.
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