Psalm 58: Human Judges Are Unjust

Psalm 58 contrasts duplicitous human judges with God, the righteous Judge. David sarcastically asks earthly judges, “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?” (v. 1). He answers, “Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth” (v. 2). Like adders, they pretend to be deaf to the song of charmers. They stubbornly refuse to follow truth (vv. 4, 5).

They have always been this way, and it is doubtful they will ever change (v. 3).

The psalmist uses multiple metaphors asking God to destroy these ministers of injustice. David likens corrupt judges to young lions wreaking havoc upon the innocent (v. 6). He asks God to break their teeth so they might no longer harm the innocent (Psalm 3:7).

He wants them to melt away like water soaking into the desert sand or see them evaporate under a hot summer sun (Psalm 58:7). David wants them destroyed like a snail trapped under a hot sun (v. 8). It matters not how God destroys them, just that He does it quickly.

Verse 9 is an interesting metaphor: “Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind.” “The picture is not entirely clear. Some think it is that of desert nomads building a fire in the open air; a gust of wind puts out the fire before the cooking vessels are warmed.” The righteous shall rejoice in the destruction of the wicked (v. 10), and a reward awaits those who overcome (Isaiah 3:10; John 14:3; 1 Timothy 4:8).

“Although it may at times seem that God permits the wrong and injustice of earth to continue unhindered, the fact remains that His eye is upon all the misdeeds of sinful men, that He is keeping a strict account, and that in due time He will interpose.” “When Jesus shall gather the nations, / Before Him at last to appear, / Then how shall we stand in the judgment, / When summoned our sentence to hear?”