DO YE INDEED SPEAK RIGHTEOUSNESS?

PSALM 58

INTRODUCTION

The psalmist recounts what strong parties and hard oppositions the godly experiences in the defense of a good cause and how necessary it is to exercise faith in the face of trials to get victory in the LORD. These wicked judges are most guilty of doing injustice! Is there no recourse for God's people? The psalmist's recourse is with His LORD as he pronounced - The righteous shall rejoice when he saw God's vengeance. God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. John Calvin provides good encouragement to the godly facing trials when it seemed impossible to find a way out, when he said, "Although the whole world be set against the people of God they need not fear, so long as they are supported by a sense of their integrity, to challenge kings and their counsellors, and the promiscuous mob of the people. Should the whole world refuse to hear us, we must learn, by the example of David, to rest satisfied with the testimony of a good conscience, and with appealing to the tribunal of God." The law of God is our boundary from which we are to tread cautiously lest we too transgress and fall under the wrath of God.

(1) Wicked Judges Reproved (v 1-5 )

To judge righteousness and to judge uprightly is the duty of men vested with authority to make decisions. The psalmist exposes the hypocrisy of these men in authority for in heart, they plot wickedness. He identified the wicked congregation of judges calling them 'sons of men (adam)', the fallen, deprave man made from the dust of the ground and destined to return to dust by the judgment of God for disobedience (v 1-2 ).

The wicked are estranged from the womb - These wicked men were not sinners only now but are sinful from the womb, that is, for as long as he could remember. The inherited sin from Adam continues to bind their heart to commit evil. They are characterized by deceit, speaking falsehood (lies) (v 3 ).

The viciousness of these wicked to falsehood is likened to the poisonous venom of the serpent, striking to kill with their words, most malicious. Their determination is compared with deaf serpents (adder), shutting their ears from the sound of the charmer. The charmer is supposed to have power over the evil side of the snake (v 4-5 ).

(2) Wicked Judges Delivered to God's Judgments (v 6-11 )

This psalmist pours out to God the urgency to stop the mouths of these wicked judges. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth (v 6 ) - he assumes the language of imprecation, and solicits the vengeance of God (Calvin). He pours out his sorrowful heart to his LORD for divine lex talionis. The lex talionis is a law of equal and direct retribution: 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm, a life for a life.'

To the psalmist, the wicked acted like lions - ruthless, dangerous, hostile, almost unstoppable killer, taking the flock at his will frequently worked from ambush, even its roar spreads fear when it is not hunting.

Let them melt away as waters which run continually - This speaks of the swiftness of their destruction that the psalmist calls upon God to exact. It is a statement of faith and courage in the midst of formidable opposition. He asked that the LORD defend him by frustrating the efforts rendering their weapon of warfare (arrows and bows) to inflict pain useless (v 7 ).

Because of the great hostility of the wicked the psalmist calls upon God to make them, like a stillborn baby - like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun and like the snail that drowns itself as it treads on a slime or mud pit (v 8 ).

He refers to the swiftness of that judgment which God would execute upon his enemies, and prays that he would carry them away as by a whirlwind, either before they arrived at the full growth of their strength, like the thorn sprung to the vigorous plant, or before they came to maturity and readiness, like flesh which has been boiled in the pot (v 9 ) (Calvin).

The last two verses is an affirmation of faith upon the faithfulness of God to vindicate His oppressed. Remember the time when Israel was in bondage in Egypt in Exodus 2:23 "And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage." This was the LORD'S response - in Exodus 2:24-25 'And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.' The appeal of the psalmist is to the covenant of God that he shows mercy to their plight. God will certainly show mercy. Therefore, the righteous shall rejoice to see the deliverance of God. The heart of the psalmist is to see the conversion and repentance of the wickedness out of a holy zeal to sympathise with the justness of that vengeance which God may have inflicted (v 10 ).

He has full confidence that God will reward the righteous for his LORD rules sovereign on earth, no injustice can escape His knowledge and His power to make good the wrong done on His people. May every oppressed soul therefore take heart and be comforted. There is recourse with God, wait patiently for Him to act.