David reproves wicked judges, 1, 2; describes the nature of the wicked, 3-5; devotes them to God's judgments, 6-9; at which the righteous shall rejoice, 10, 11.
1 [To the Chief Musician. Al-taschith. Michtam of David.]
Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?/
Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?
2 No, in your heart you work wickedness./
You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from their birth./
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 adder that stops her ear,
5 Which will not listen to the voice of charmers,/
charming ever 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 like waters which run continually./
When he bends his bow to shoot his arrows,/
let them be as though they were cut off.
8 Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away,/
like the untimely birth of a woman that has not seen the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns,/
he shall take them away with a whirlwind,/
the green and the burning alike.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance./
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
11 So that a man shall say,/
"Truly there is a reward for the righteous./
Truly he is a God who judges in the earth."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Psalms, Chapter 58[➚]
John Calvin's Chapter Summary:
The following psalm consists of two parts. In the commencement, David vindicates his personal integrity from the calumnies cast upon him by his enemies. Having expressed his sense of the grievous injuries which they had inflicted, their cruelty and their treachery, he concludes by an appeal to the judgment of God, and by praying that they might be visited with deserved destruction.
[v.9a] - "feel the thorns" - From Matthew Poole's Commentary: "That is, the heat of the fire kindled by the thorns put under them for that purpose; before your pots can be thoroughly heated." In this verse, the thorns are being used as fuel for the fire which will be used for heating the pots. From Charles Spurgeon's Treasury of David: "So sudden is the overthrow of the wicked, so great a failure is their life, that they never see joy. Their pot is put upon the hook to prepare a feast of joy, and the fuel is placed beneath, but before the thorns are lit, before any heat can be brought to bear upon the pot, yea, even as soon as the fuel has touched the cooking vessel, a storm comes and sweeps all away; the pot is overturned, the fuel is scattered far and wide. Perhaps the figure may suppose the thorns, which are the fuel, to be kindled, and then the flame is so rapid that before any heat can be produced the fire is out, the meat remains raw, the man is disappointed, his work is altogether a failure."
[v.9b] - The last two lines of this verse are, as described by the Pulpit Commentary, "difficult and obscure" and "variously explained." From Matthew Poole's Commentary: "There is indeed great variety of construction and interpretation of these Hebrew words, which is not strange, especially considering the conciseness of the Hebrew language, and that this is a proverbial speech; nor is it of any great importance, because it is not in any great point of faith, and because the sense of it is agreed, the only difference being about the manner and ground of the phrase."