Psalms 58
Big idea: One of the hardest psalms to read, and it is aimed at judges. Do you indeed speak righteousness? No — in your heart you plot injustice; you measure out the violence of your hands on the earth. The images that follow are of a corruption that cannot be reached: a deaf cobra that stops its ear, which doesn't listen to the charmer no matter how skilled. Then it asks God to break their teeth. The psalm is not personal revenge; it is a demand that courts which rule for the violent be stopped, and its closing line is what the whole thing is for: surely there is a God who judges the earth.
Psalm 58 wants corrupt judges stopped. Psalm 59 has soldiers outside the house.
58:1–5 — Like a deaf cobra that stops its ear
An indictment of judges, and the opening question is sarcastic — 'do you INDEED speak righteousness?' The charge is not incompetence but design: injustice plotted in the heart, then measured out by hand. And the image the psalm settles on is a snake that deliberately stops its own ear, which is a claim about wilful deafness rather than inability to hear.
1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David. Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men? 2 No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands on the earth. 3 The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear, 5 which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the charmer may be.
58:6–11 — There is a God who judges the earth
One of the imprecatory passages readers most often skip, and it is worth reading for what it is: a demand for a court that actually works, from someone with no access to one. The curses are all about disappearance rather than pain — water draining, a snail dissolving, an arrow going blunt. And the reason it wants any of it is stated in the last verse: so that people can say there is a God who judges.
6 Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh. 7 Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt. 8 Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away 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 men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).