To the chief musician, al-taskith, a micktam of David
58:Title Al taskith probably indicated the tune to be used in singing this psalm. It means “Do not Destroy”. Miktam was probably a literary or musical term.⚜
58
📚Do you indeed speakrighteousness, O rulers?
Do you judge uprightly,
you sons of men?
58:1 The Hebrew word here translated “rulers” is an adjective meaning “silent” or “in silence” (it comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to bind” or “to be dumb”). Perhaps this verse could be well translated “Do you indeed speak righteousness, O silent ones?”⚜
2 📚No, in heart you devise
wickedness.
You weigh out the violence
of your hands in the earth.
58:2 David’s experience with such people was sad indeed. They behaved as if they represented Satan rather than God.⚜
3 📚The wicked are estranged
from the womb 📖;
they go astray as soon as
they are born, speaking lies.
4 📚Their poison is like the poison
of a serpent.
They are like the deaf cobra
that has stopped up
its ear,
5 📚Which will not listen to the voice
of charmers,
charming ever so skillfully.
58:4-5 Can men be like poisonous snakes? In many ways, yes (Ps 140:3; Deut 32:33; Matt 3:7; 12:34; 23:33; Rom 3:13). In some ways they can be worse than snakes. Snakes can be charmed and controlled and rendered harmless for a time. But the unruly depravity of the wicked is uncontrollable. It will always break out in some form or other (Prov 27:22; Jer 13:23; Rom 8:7). They are deaf to law, to reason, and to God.⚜
6 📚Break their teeth in their mouth,
O God!
Break out the fangs of the young lions,
O LORD!
7 📚Let them flow away like waters
which run continually.
When he bends his bow to
shoot his arrows,
let them be as though cut in pieces.
8 📚May they be like a snail
which melts away
as it goes along,
like a woman’s stillborn child,
so that they may not see
the sun.
9 📚Before your pots can feel the fire from
the thorns,
he will sweep them away
as with a whirlwind,
in living wrath.
58:6-9 Note at 35:8. God will deal with incorrigible sinners in perfect justice. If a man tries to sink his venomous fangs in others it will be no surprise if God should break his teeth out. And God, David says, will sweep them away while they are in the process of cooking up some scheme or other.⚜
10 📚The righteous will rejoice
when he sees this vengeance;
he will wash his feet in the blood
of the wicked,
58:10 The righteous will not rejoice in a spirit of personal vengeance and should not take vengeance themselves, but they will rejoice when justice triumphs. They will not rejoice to see the wicked tormented, but they will not make the mistake of siding with God’s enemies or accuse Him of injustice in punishing them. Note at Num 31:2-3.⚜
11 📚So that a man will say,
“There really is a reward
for the righteous;
God really is one who judges
in the earth”.