Psalms 58

During David’s exile years, Saul led the nation down a path of political and spiritual ruin as he disobeyed God’s law and opposed God’s anointed king. Saul was surrounded by a group of fawning flatterers who fed his ego and catered to his foolish whims (1 Sam. 22:6ff.), and he put into places of authority people who used their offices for personal gain and not for the national good. They wanted to get as much as they could before the kingdom collapsed. David himself had been treated illegally, and it’s likely that many of his men lost all they had because they followed David (1 Sam. 22:1–2). This 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. (See 82 for a parallel psalm by Asaph.) The prophets often preached against the lawlessness of the leaders in Israel (Isa. 1:23–28; 5:22–25; 10:1–4; Amos 5:7–13; Mic. 3:1–4, 9–12; 7:1–6). Certainly nations, corporations, and even churches today need to take this kind of leadership crisis seriously. This is an imprecatory psalm (see 6).

David addressed the lawless leaders and asked them if their words were just, their decisions legal, their sentences fair, and their silences honest. Were they upholding the law and defending the righteous or twisting the law and benefiting the wicked? He knew the answer, and so do we. When they should have spoken, they were silent, and when they spoke, they ignored God’s law. The problem? They had evil hearts, for they were born in sin just like the rest of us (51:5; Gen. 8:21). However, they made no effort to seek God’s help in controlling that sinful nature but gave in to its evil impulses. It’s because humans are sinners that God established government and law, for without law, society would be in chaos. It’s from the heart that evil words come out of our mouth and evil deeds are done by our hands.

These unjust judges were liars. Their words were like venom that poisoned society instead of like medicine that brought health (Prov. 12:18; 15:4). David compared them to snakes (vv. 4–5) and lions (v. 6), both of which are images of the devil (Gen. 3; 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Peter 5:8). Like the cobra, they obeyed the charmer only when they got something out of it, but they had a mind of their own. Snakes have no visible ears or internal eardrums, but they do have small bones in the head that conduct sound vibrations. The cobra responds more to the movements of the charmer than to the tune he plays.

Seeing innocent people suffer because of unjust judges made David angry, and rightly so. There is a righteous anger that ought to show itself whenever innocent people are condemned or helpless people are abused. David didn’t do any of the things he mentioned but instead asked the Lord to do them. He knew that vengeance belongs to the Lord (Deut. 32:35; Heb. 10:30; Rom. 12:19). A lion without teeth is severely limited in his attacks; water that has soaked into the ground has lost the power to destroy (2 Sam. 14:14); and arrows without points won’t penetrate the body. The snail doesn’t actually “melt away” while moving along the rock, but the trail of slime left behind makes it look that way. The stillborn child is dead and can’t function at all. “Let these unjust leaders be gone!” said David.

David added a sixth image to describe their ultimate judgment, which would happen suddenly and without warning. A desperate traveler in the wilderness could cook a meal over a fire of thorns, but the fire might suddenly go out because the fuel burned quickly—or a whirlwind might come up and scatter fuel, fire, and cooking pots. To use a modern colloquial expression, these godless leaders are only “a flash in the pan.” There is coming a day of judgment and they will not escape (118:12; 2 Sam. 23:6).

David’s seventh picture comes from the battlefield and is even more vivid (v. 10). When victorious soldiers walked around the field and picked up the spoils of battle, their feet were stained by the blood of their enemies. Walking in cream and oil was a picture of wealth (Job 29:6), and walking in blood was a picture of great victory (see 68:23; Isa. 63:1–6; Rev. 14:17–20). The fact that the righteous rejoice at this is no more sinful than that prisoners of war rejoice at their release from a death camp or that downtrodden citizens are set free from a cruel dictator. After all, heaven rejoices at the fall of Babylon (Rev. 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, “Surely there is a God who judges on earth” (v. 11 nasb).