Today's Featured Psalm
Psalm 58

Read this Psalm

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.

1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
   Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
   your hands deal out violence on earth.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
   they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
   like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
   or of the cunning enchanter.

6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
   tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
   when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
   like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
   whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
   he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
   surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

Scripture taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm Devotional
God's Judgment

Psalm 58 is almost entirely a malediction upon the wicked, making it an “imprecatory psalm.” The tone is bold, even ferocious, as David prays for the destruction of evil men.

Psalms such as this have given pause to many readers, and even one as influential in the Christian world as C.S. Lewis dismissed them as “petty and vulgar” in comparison to the New Testament emphasis on love and longsuffering (Reflections on the Psalms, Harcourt Brace & Co., p. 21). Surely we can arrive at a better and more balanced vantage point; nevertheless, it is a fair question: How do we square Psalm 58 with the Lord’s gentle admonition to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44)?

First, it must be pointed out that David, the human author of Psalm 58 and chief imprecator of the psalter, did love his enemies. One needs only to review David’s history with Saul and Absalom, or read the words of Psalm 35:11-14, to see examples of a man not given to personal vindictiveness. Yet, in Psalm 58 David is the inspired spokesman for God’s anger at evil men, expressing the reality, severity and certainty of divine judgment. There is no contradiction between believers loving their enemies and, at the same time, longing for true justice.

Listen to this Psalm

Justice album art Gods, Do You Really Speak with Righteousness (Psalm 58A)
The Book of Psalms for Worship | Justice
Justice album art Do You, O Gods, Speak Righteousness (Psalm 58B)
The Book of Psalms for Worship | Justice