9 Before your pots discern the bramble, As well the raw as the heated He whirleth away.
That the singing of the wicked `is' short, And the joy of the profane for a moment, Though his excellency go up to the heavens, And his head against a cloud he strike -- As his own dung for ever he doth perish, His beholders say: `Where `is' he?' As a dream he fleeth, and they find him not, And he is driven away as a vision of the night, The eye hath not seen him, and addeth not. And not again doth his place behold him. His sons do the poor oppress, And his hands give back his wealth. His bones have been full of his youth, And with him on the dust it lieth down. Though he doth sweeten evil in his mouth, Doth hide it under his tongue, Hath pity on it, and doth not forsake it, And keep it back in the midst of his palate, His food in his bowels is turned, The bitterness of asps `is' in his heart. Wealth he hath swallowed, and doth vomit it. From his belly God driveth it out. Gall of asps he sucketh, Slay him doth the tongue of a viper. He looketh not on rivulets, Flowing of brooks of honey and butter. He is giving back `what' he laboured for, And doth not consume `it'; As a bulwark `is' his exchange, and he exults not. For he oppressed -- he forsook the poor, A house he hath taken violently away, And he doth not build it. For he hath not known ease in his belly. With his desirable thing he delivereth not himself. There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good doth not stay. In the fulness of his sufficiency he is straitened. Every perverse hand doth meet him. It cometh to pass, at the filling of his belly, He sendeth forth against him The fierceness of His anger, Yea, He raineth on him in his eating. He fleeth from an iron weapon, Pass through him doth a bow of brass. One hath drawn, And it cometh out from the body, And a glittering weapon from his gall proceedeth. On him `are' terrors. All darkness is hid for his treasures, Consume him doth a fire not blown, Broken is the remnant in his tent. Reveal do the heavens his iniquity, And earth is raising itself against him. Remove doth the increase of his house, Poured forth in a day of His anger. This `is' the portion of a wicked man from God. And an inheritance appointed him by God.
Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations. How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors. As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 58
Commentary on Psalms 58 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 58
It is the probable conjecture of some (Amyraldus particularly) that before Saul began to persecute David by force of arms, and raised the militia to seize him, he formed a process against him by course of law, upon which he was condemned unheard, and attainted as a traitor, by the great council, or supreme court of judicature, and then proclaimed "qui caput gerit lupinum-an outlawed wolf,' whom any man might kill and no man might protect. The elders, in order to curry favour with Saul, having passed this bill of attainder, it is supposed that David penned this psalm on the occasion.
Sin appears here both exceedingly sinful and exceedingly dangerous, and God a just avenger of wrong, with which we should be affected in singing this psalm.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David.
Psa 58:1-5
We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through which God preserved him (Al-taschith-Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, Michtams-David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.
In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:
Psa 58:6-11
In these verses we have,