Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Tom Lowe
PSALM 58
Title: THE DOOM OF THE GODLESS
(To the choirmaster; Altaschith {2], Michtam of David, according to Due Not Destroy.)
Theme: An imprecatory prayer against the enemy
Psalm 58 (KJV)
1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As 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.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Introduction
Psalm 58 is classified as an imprecatory psalm {1], chiefly because of the sixfold curse in verses 6-9. In it, David is calling for judgment, but not because of some personal wrong done to him. It is rather the failure of the rulers to administer justice, and the abuse of judicial power. They were silent when they should speak up. (Doesn’t that sound like today’s politicians.) Their judgments are neither honorable nor reasonable, and some are down-right immoral. Evil in heart, they lie in word. The poem calls for public vindication of God’s righteous judgment. A holy God cannot tolerate evil. This truth must be so clearly proved that none can doubt. It is to this end that David pleads for justice.
Psalm 58 is also another of David’s michtam psalms, one written to be engraved upon the mind and conscience. This psalm carries a footnote addressing it to the chief Musician; it is to be incorporated into the repertoire of the temple choir. And, as in the previous two psalms, it carries the words al-taschith, “destroy not!” With all these signals flashing we can be sure that this is an important intersection as we journey through the psalms.
The tune recommended for this psalm is entitled “Do Not Destroy.” That seems odd, when, at first glance, it would appear that the psalmist is imploring God to do the very opposite. But what this psalm offers us is a deep insight into the meaning of God’s perceptive far-sighted rule (government).
It is impossible to say when David wrote it. Some think it was just after he had ascended the throne that he realized just how corrupt the administration of justice in Israel really was. With his passion for justice the stories of judicial arrogance, dishonesty and oppression that filled his ears must have made his blood boil.
Some think David wrote this psalm during the Absalom rebellion. Absalom had stolen the hearts of the men of Israel by pretending to be far more concerned for their social welfare than David was and by promising the people that, when he came to the throne, he would see to it that the wheels of justice moved swiftly, smoothly, and sympathetically. All the time he was devising the most monstrous crimes, many of which he executed during that brief time when he sat upon the throne.
But others believe the psalm was written when David was being hunted by Saul and that it expresses David’s deep contempt for the way Saul was handling the affairs of the kingdom—setting in judgment on others while he violated every principle of judgment.
There is yet another opinion which holds that the psalm was probably written late in David’s exile, or very early in his reign in Hebron and may have grown out of his pondering the mess he had inherited from his father-in-law (King Saul).
One reason there is so much difficulty with the date is because the subject matter deals with a perennial problem: the unjust judge and corruption in the courts—a theme that touches us today.
(58:1-5) David begins with an explosion of righteous indignation at what he sees and at what he personally has experienced. He starts off with a question, and who is asking it? I believe it is God who is speaking, using the pen of David. He paints a vivid picture of rampant evil in verses 1-5.
Commentary
1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
The psalmist is deeply disturbed by the miscarriage of justice throughout the world. He asks these pagans rhetorical questions, which are uttered in scornful tones. The psalmist scoffs at the thought that such “judges” may be the fountain of any “justice,” for their reign on the earth only enhances the way to oppression. The psalmist enquires, “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye the sons of men?” Everyone already knew the answer was no. The judges are addressed as “ye the sons of men” to remind them that, in spite of their high and mighty ways, in spite of their godlike powers they are only men after all. There is a higher judge to whom ultimately they must render account, a high court before which they, in turn, will have to appear. David is serving notice that, as God’s representative, he is opening a court of inquiry right now.
“O congregation” signifies a band or company of men, and seems to point at Saul’s judges and counselors; who met together to consult about what they should do against David, and probably passed a sentence upon him, “guilty as charged” of treason and rebellion. The expression should be understood to mean “O you judges” or “O you mighty ones” (Amp. OT). “You god’s” (RSV) is misleading. The statement is not made to divinities but to men charged with the responsibility of administering justice (“sovereign rulers”), yet corrupt in spite of all their declarations of righteousness—silent when they should have spoken up on behalf of righteousness.
He calls this group “sons of men,” either (1), to indicate their contempt and opposition to the sons of God, or good men, or (2), to remind them that they too were men, and must give an account to God for all their slanderous speeches and unrighteous decrees against him.
(58:2-5) It doesn’t take David long to see through them. He has suffered so long at their hands. If, as some think, this psalm was written when David first came to the throne, the men who had legislated against him might well have trembled, for he now has them in his power. But David does not act as they acted; they will get a fair trial. David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells them just what kind of a trial they can expect. The abuse of power is one thing he will not tolerate.
He goes right to the heart of the matter.
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
That is exactly what injustice is— “wickedness.” “Yea, in heart ye work wickedness.” “In heart”; or, with your “heart,” that is, with free choice and consent, and in compliance with Saul’s wishes. In their hearts they have concocted all sorts of crookedness. Then their “hands” have dealt out the violence that their hearts had planned—wrong in the heart leads to the violence of the hands. The land is filled with perversion of justice. Moreover, the “wickedness” was deep and ingrown, a matter of the heart. Jesus said: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and the Old Testament prophet said: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Theunjust judge is a wicked man. God has no other word for it. It is not a question of weakness but the wickedness rooted in an evil heart.
“Ye weigh the violence of your hands” means, “You weigh out” oppression and injustice instead of righteousness and equity. Justice, from time immemorial, has been pictured as a blindfolded woman holding scales in one hand—balancing evidence and impartiality; weighing both sides—and a sword in the other. It is an appropriate symbol. David points to the scales. He says: “Ye weigh the violence;” that is to say, they did it with a great deal of craft and caution and they called it justice. There is a bitter irony in the picture of the judges using the scales of justice to dish out injustice of the worst kind—violence.
In those years when David fled from Saul, injustice had become ingrown. It was the cornerstone of Saul’s domestic policy to hunt and kill David. It says much for David’s survival techniques that for two or three decades he was able to avoid Saul’s attacks.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Verse 3 is a vivid statement of the inherent depravity of man. Evil is not learned. It comes as a natural expression of man’s fallen state. “The wicked,” says David, “are estranged from the womb. “They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies;” that is to say, they are wicked and liars from their birth; they are the wicked offspring of sinful parents. Their parents were sinners; therefore, their union could only produce another sinner; they did not only convey a corrupt nature to them, but made it much more so by giving wicked council and by being a wicked example.
All people are born totally depraved. Without being made new creatures in Christ by God’s power, they are prevented by their wicked nature from pleasing God— “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (51:5) (also Romans 3:9-18; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
The word translated “go astray” is the same word we have in Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray.” No one has to teach a sheep to “go astray.” Born and bred into the very fiber of its being is the urge to “go astray.”
“The wicked . . . go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” Injustice and deceitfulness was not only ingrown in the nation; it was ingrained in their natures. Thus their wickedness is exposed by the Holy Spirit who reads the human heart like an open book. This all means that God gives evil freedom to act. He has created man free to obeyed himself or to listen to whatever or whoever they have made their god. But the subtlety of their tricks is such that poor humans let themselves become slaves without knowing it. This is obvious in the realm of economics and big business, in the case of drug-taking or of sexual license. Faceless, beastly powers now have such people in their grip.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
The godless are like the “deaf adder” (a poisonous snake), that cannot be brought under control (v. 5) by the “snake charmers” art—mesmerizing snakes by playing music and by rhythmic body movements. Snake charming is a very ancient practice. It was common in Egypt and was evidently practiced by the magicians in the days of Moses. All snakes are deaf, though they have some capacity to sense vibrations received through the ground. The snake charmer holds their attention not by his music but by the movement of his pipe. The cobra is a quick, irritable reptile, rearing up upon the slightest disturbance and repeatedly striking at its victim with sharp hisses. This dangerous creature usually has had his fangs extracted by the charmers. The godless are like the “deaf adder,” since they are deaf to anything David says, to the dictates of their own consciences, and to the voice of God’s law. Instead of venom, their poison is slander, lies, cursing, etc.
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
In David’s eyes unjust judges and rulers were as dangerous as poisonous reptiles, but immune to all the usual methods employed to charm them into dispensing justice instead of injustice, truth rather than lies. He saw them as obstinately and incurably evil. It was essential that their fangs be removed, so that they’d be rendered harmless to the society upon which they had preyed.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
The sixfold curse of verses 6-9 describes the payback which will come from the hand of God against the type of evil described by the psalmist. So David asks God, in verses 6-8, to do what people seem unable to accomplish; to rid the land of all those who are abusing their positions and meting out violence rather than justice. If they see themselves as Lions (v. 6), may their teeth be broken. If they perceive themselves as soldiers (v. 7), may they discover their arrows dulled and useless. David wishes them the same end as water evaporating in desert heat (v. 7), a slug (v. 8) that starts across a hot surface and doesn’t make it, or as a stillborn child (v. 8).
“Break their teeth,” is a prayer in figurative language asking God to render them powerless to harm others. On “break out the great teeth of the young Lions”see 17:12; 34:10; 35:17; 57:4. “Annihilate them, Lord!” he cries. Pour them away like water (v. 6), tread them down like grass in a hot, dry summer, let them dissolve like a snail in its own slime (v. 8), let them be like an abortion (v. 8) that never becomes a human child. And quickly to! Quicker than the time it takes to heat water on an open fire, using either nice dry sticks or wet green ones.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
“Let them melt away as waters which run continually.” The picture now is that of a Palestinian wady {2]. During a sudden storm the waters will swell and rage, tearing down the gully and seemingly there forever. But these torrents soon dry up and then vanish, as the last of the water soaks into the sandy ground, leaving the stream bed empty and dry. He is referring, of course, to his enemies. He wants God to make them disappear like a stream during a dry season.
“When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.” The phrase “cut in pieces” can be rendered “cut down” (like grass). A bow with all the arrows snapped off and cut up like so much kindling is a useless weapon. David is saying that the power of the unjust judges will be broken in a similar way.
8 As 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.
“As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away.” What a graphic picture—a snail which seems to melt away as it goes, leaving a trail of slime behind it. Whether snails actually dissolve in slime is an unimportant technicality. No one objects when we say that a burning house “goes up in smoke.” Then why quibble over a figurative expression in the Bible? Another idea suggested by this picture is that of the common snail of Palestine which adheres to fissures in walls, there to be overtaken by the heat and dried up, but with the outer shell still remaining. Such is the doom of the unjust judge.
“Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.” Whether a miscarriage or an abortion, the figure is graphic. Here was a life so full of promise, so laden with hope for the future—suddenly cut off before even seeing the light of day. A terrible and a tragic picture indeed—the waste of a life. Such is the life of an unjust judge.
The ancient Israelites desired children so much that a live birth was considered extremely precious. Alternatively, a stillborn child would cause great Sorrow.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
“He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,” striking so suddenly that the “pots” set over a fire of “thorns” (a quick, hot flame) would not even be warm. This is how David saw the wicked magistrates and judges of Israel. All their plans and schemes were to be frustrated and brought to nothing and God Himself would descend upon them in wrath. He is visualizing justice.
The picture before the psalmist seems to be that of a company of travelers relaxing around their camp, preparing a meal. They heap brushwood under the pot, and expect to satisfy their hunger; but before the pot is warmed through, before the water boils or the meal is cooked, down comes a whirlwind, which sweeps away fire, pot and all.
Allow me to elaborate, just a little, on the six destructions to come upon his enemies in this psalm (vs. 6-9):
(1) “Break out the great teeth of the young Lions” (v. 6).We have already found that the enemy is like a lion. There are those who say that a Christian cannot pray this way. I have prayed that the lord would absolutely deal with the Muslim terrorists. They are like roaring Lions attacking anyone who does not believe in their religion. I hope God breaks their teeth. I don’t consider that unchristian at all. David is speaking of his enemies, and he is under law; so he is asking for justice.
(2) “Wickedness” was like a flood! He asked that this flood of wickedness might just melt away (v. 7).
(3) “When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces” (v. 7). The enemy is like a marksman who is shooting at him. What a picture we have here!
(4) “As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away” (v. 8). There is a certain snail in that country called a “slime worm” which actually melts away in the heat of the sun. David is saying, “The enemy leaves a slimy trail, but evaporate him! Get read of that slimy trail through the world.”
(5) “Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun” (v. 8). That is, may they not come to fruition in the things they plan in the evil womb of their mind. Make it come to nothing.
(6) “Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away” (v. 9)—the twigs of the bramble bush are gathered together and put under the pot to heat it, then a wind comes along and blows them away. David says, “Oh, God, remove them before they can do their dirty work, before they can burn and sear.” This is a tremendous prayer.
9 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Verse 10 brings a sudden change in the psalm. From issuing sharp, passionate curses we come to the calm certainty that God, the righteous Judge, will take vengeance upon these pagan instruments of heathen divinities; not simply for himself, but for the blessed effects of it, the vindication of God’s honor, and the deliverance of himself and of all good men.
We feel the fierce barbaric realism of the victor’s exultation— “he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” The picture of the righteous bathing “his feet in the blood of the wicked” is a disturbing one. But then God is dealing with the drastic power of evil. Accordingly, it is no more of a drastic statement than are the New Testament words, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb.” Their destruction will bring joy to the righteous and will strengthen their faith that the whole earth is in the hands of a just God. This is not a vengeful spirit. This is the psalmist taking sides with a righteous and holy God against the evil and wrongdoing which is the plague of our planet.
We are constantly reminded in Scripture that it is not given to us to take vengeance on those who do wrong. “Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.” When we take matters into our own hands we often seek to remedy wrongs with wrongs which are just as great. When God deals out His vengeance it will be in a manner which will bring praise to Him because what He has done will be seen to be absolutely right, proper, and just. That is why again and again in the book of Revelation we see the four and twenty elders falling down in worship. They are adoring God for His magnificence which is so glorious because it is obviously just and right. It is justice vindicated.
The reaction of “the righteous” will be to “rejoice.” If this seems less than Christian, let it be acknowledged. But also let it be remembered that the wrath of God is strongly pictured in the New Testament as well as in the Old, and the rejoicing is more over the public vindication of divine justice than over the fate of the people involved. The fact that the righteous rejoice at this is no more sinful than prisoners of war rejoicing at their release from a death camp or downtrodden citizens rejoicing when they are set free from a cruel dictator. After all, heaven rejoices at the fall of Babylon (Revelation 18:20-19:6). God vindicates Himself, His law, and His people, and He does it justly. So effective is His judgment that outsiders will say, “Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he (there) is a God that judgeth in the earth.
God has, up to now, allowed evil to persist “in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). On earth, however, that’s not the case, because God judges humanity, which is not the same thing as condemns. The righteous must rejoice on the day when God vindicates their faith. For unless God triumphs in the end, then God Himself is not just and true. When God does act it will be in such a way that people will be forced to acknowledge that He was at work all the time. Ezekiel 38-39 is the classic biblical example.
The climax is a promise that all people will see that right ultimately prevails under God’s just rule. The righteous can be confident that “there is a reward” for them. So in the certainty of faith that God will intervene to take vengeance upon the wicked, the psalm comes to its triumphant close.
Notes:
{1] Imprecatory Psalms,contained within the Book of Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, are those that invoke judgment, calamity, or curses, upon one's enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God. Major Imprecatory Psalms include Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, while Psalms 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40, 52, 54, 56, 58, 69, 79, 83, 137, 139, and 143 are also considered imprecatory.
{2] A “wady” is a valley, ravine, or channel (in certain Arabic-speaking countries) that is dry except in the rainy season.