Psalm 58:1-5, 10-11 NIV
Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
Even from birth the wicked go astray;
from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
that will not heed the tune of the charmer,
however skillful the enchanter may be.
The righteous will be glad when they are avenged,
when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded;
surely there is a God who judges the earth.”
Psalm 58 is one of those brutally honest psalms that features a desire for justice in the form of bloody revenge. It's one of those psalms that is a bit embarrassing to read as a person who believes loving your enemies is the path to justice.
The psalm comes from the royal administration of King David of Israel. It's addressed to rulers. I'll assume it's directed at the rulers of other nation states or city states around them. It could be directed at local rulers of towns or regions within Israel.
A ruler has the responsibility of governing people for their benefit and for the security of their nation. But David feels that the rulers he is speaking about are wicked. They are wicked even from birth. He describes them as those who cannot be tamed. Their wanton lust for power and their evil methods go unchecked and unbridled. At least it seems that way.
We free people do not know what it's like to live under a dictatorship that rules by fear, intimidation, torture and murder. I remember hearing the horror stories of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. I heard he literally put men through meat grinders alive and delivered a video tape of the gruesome death to their families.
The intertestamental book of 4th Maccabees tells another horrible story of an evil ruler. Antiochus the fourth, a Greek King, oppressed the people of Israel. One story tells of a mother with seven sons, in which he cuts them to pieces and fries their body parts in a massive skillet. He forces their mother to watch. His desire was to get them to recant their faith in the God of Israel. All her sons died a horrible death without surrendering their faith. She too was executed faithful to God.
I only share these awful stories to give you an idea as to why psalm 58 might be helpful to people who live under such horrid rulers. In what can one hope when an evil ruler seems to have all the power? Hope in God's ultimate justice can bring you through anything!
When God acts to bring you justice, whatever it may be, may you openly praise the God who still rewards the faithful. And may psalms like these help you express to God your rage at the wicked who oppress you and may your rage turn to hope in justice.
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