Psalm 58

Do you indeed decree righteousness, you rulers? do you judge the peoples with equity? No; you devise evil in your hearts, and your hands deal out violence in the land.

A righteous man is praying, and he is not pulling any punches. He is praying from the gut. He is praying from his heart. He is praying with disgust. He is praying to a righteous God. He is praying with a sense that he is aligned with the heart of God. It is a heart of righteousness. It is a heart that desires equity.

The psalmist is convinced that God’s concerns are for righteousness justice equity and peace. It is to that end he prays. He prays for those things, and he prays against wicked rulers.

He does so because he believes that the rulers of his day and time are at odds with the heart and the purposes of God. These are untruthful people. These are wicked and ruthless people. These are violent people. These are rulers who rule for their own purposes and their own desires. They trample over the rights and dignity of the people they rule.

Therefore, the desires of the people and their gut reactions are a cry for justice and a cry for vengeance against the evil rulers.

They rejoice when judgment comes and when God uplifts the cause and the dignity of the righteous and just. That is the sense of Psalm 58. That is its very human prayer.

Yes, it is human but it also an awareness of the of the nature of God. God is just. God is merciful. God cares about the welfare of the people. God is the righteous ruler who sets things right.

It is not the whole story. God can and does have mercy on repentant wicked rulers. This prayer is from the perspective of the oppressed. As such the picture of bathing one’s feet in the blood of their oppressors is appealing. God does not rebuke their prayers. God enters into their suffering.

God’s orchestra plays for them as they sing in mighty chorus, “And they will say,
 “Surely, there is a reward for the righteous; surely, there is a God who rules in the earth.”

God rules. That is good news. God rewards righteousness. That is good news. God is for the people and with the people.

That is very good news.

The wicked are so powerful it’s so invincible in the eyes of the people who are at their mercy that it seems only God can break their power. Only God can bring judgment upon them. Only God can make impotent and moot their evil decrees. Only God can take sides with the people and bring about the ruin of the powers of evil.

The psalmist knows that people have but one weapon at their disposal that is reliable consistent and invincible. That is the weapon of heart felt unified and consistent prayer from the heart the soul and the gut. That prayer is raw, and it is honest.

“Break them and lift us.”

We know and understand that it is God who judges and not we ourselves. However, we can know this as well for certain: God hears us, and God is with us! Amen.

The wicked are perverse from the womb; *

liars go astray from their birth.

They are as venomous as a serpent, *

they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears,

Which does not heed the voice of the charmer, *

no matter how skillful his charming.

O God, break their teeth in their mouths; *

pull the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.

Let them vanish like water that runs off; *

let them wither like trodden grass.

Let them be like the snail that melts away, *

like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

Before they bear fruit, let them be cut down like a brier; *

like thorns and thistles let them be swept away.

The righteous will be glad when they see the vengeance; *

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

And they will say,

“Surely, there is a reward for the righteous; *

surely, there is a God who rules in the earth.”