Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O
congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Yea, in heart
ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as
they be born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a
serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Psalms 58:1-4
I believe it is
appropriate that we should cover this Psalm at a time when the National
Election is on the minds of so many. These verses speak to those
that are in power and deal wickedly in their position. The
Psalmist speaks of the wicked judges. After he speaks about them
and to them, he deals with wickedness of people in
general.
The Misappropriation Of Justice By The
Wicked
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O
congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Psalms 58:1
These words are spoken in
bitter sarcasm. The Psalmist indicates that they are ignorant when
it comes to dealing justly with others. They will not speak up for
righteousness, therefore cannot judge uprightly. They pretended to
hold the balance of justice, but violence was the weight with which they
adjusted their scales.
Yea, in heart ye work
wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
Psalms 58:2
It never serves justice
when those appointed to administer justice cannot or will not pronounce
justice according to their conscience or the specifics of law and honor.
Instead they are prone to heed the pleas of their associates and
friends. Not only do they misuse the great trust that is given to them,
but they injure their fellow man. Hypocrites and liars violate justice
rather than administer it. The Bible says that those in power are
to be ministers, but the wicked become like serpents.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Psalms
58:4
The Psalmist makes three charges against
them:
1 – They were silent when they should have declared
righteousness
2 – Their hearts were bent to wickedness
3 – Under
the pretense of justice, they did evil
The result was, in
the place of judgment, there was wickedness and in the place of
righteousness, there was iniquity.
THE CONDEMNATION OF THE WICKED - Continued
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are
like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to
the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Psalms
58:4-5
The adder has no ears to stop, this is a clear
message that wicked men stop their ears to the cause of the righteous.
They are not deaf, but by stopping their ears, they make
themselves deaf. I have heard about some snakes that can be
charmed and I have heard that some snakes cannot be charmed. I
believe there are some men that are so wicked that they cannot be
influenced for good. They harden themselves and their hearts against the
Word and grace of God. They strengthen themselves for evil and
prepare themselves for their inevitable ruin and destruction. The
wicked that are spoken of here are not those that just have a sin
nature, but those that have allowed that sin nature to go on unchecked
and have even nourished it. They have not resisted evil and have
rejected any attempt to help them do so.
Ye
stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Acts
7:51
There are those that continually resist the
influence that God sends upon them and get to the point that they not
only have a tendency to evil, but they are controlled to the point that
evil becomes irresistible.
His own iniquities shall
take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his
sins.
Proverbs 5:22
Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do
good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Jeremiah
13:23
They stopped their ears because they were
eagerly pursing wickedness. They stopped their ears to:
The cries of
men in need of justice
The invitation of God to do right and the
warning of God concerning their wickedness
The working of their own
conscience
Men who willfully close their eyes to the light
will always become blind. Those that willfully close their ears
against God’s voice will always become deaf. The Bible says that
sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
THE CONDEMNATION OF THE WICKED - Continued
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the
great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
Let them melt away as waters
which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let
them be as cut in pieces.
As a snail which melteth, let every one of
them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not
see the sun.
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take
them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
Psalms 58:6-9
Because these men are
wholly given to wickedness and cannot be convinced to change, the
Psalmist now prays that God would destroy their power to continue their
wickedness. He no longer portrays them as serpents, but as lions
that need to have their teeth broken so they can no longer devour their
prey. These verse show us the destination or the consummation of
the wicked:
The Power Of The Wicked Shall Be
Destroyed
These wicked men were like young lions, with
vigor and power to do evil. The Psalmist is praying for God to break
that power.
The Plans Of The Wicked Shall Be
Defeated
The idea here is that the arrows of the wicked
will miss their mark, it would be like their points were broken off.
The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen
to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
Psalms 33:10
The End Of The Wicked
Shall Be Failure And Ruin
Sin always causes a person to
miss the mark for their life and that life is in the end wasted and can
be summed us as a failure.
In the desert the thorns
are gathered to be used for the cooking fire. The indication here is
that the whirlwind will come and blow them away before their heat can
even touch the cooking pots. So shall the wrath of God sweep away
the wicked. The ruin of the wicked is seen as sudden and without
remedy.
May we be reminded today of the wages of sin
and rejoice in the Lord’s absolute control. We have no need to
fret over the wicked; the Lord will see that they get their
due.
THE EFFECTS OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED ON
OTHERS
The righteous shall rejoice when he
seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous:
verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Psalms
58:10-11
It Brings Satisfaction To The
Righteous
The washing of their feet in the blood of the
wicked is an indication of the victor walking in the flowing blood of
the defeated on the battlefield. The righteous rejoice that the wicked
do not see the victory they intended, but are disgraced in utter defeat,
by the mighty hand of God.
It Brings Conviction To
Men In General
When the final account of the wicked is
given and seen by all, men will be convicted and convinced that the
world is in the hands of a righteous God. May we bow before God today
and ask that He be exalted in all that happens and that men may know
that He is in control.
May all men learn before it
is too late that walking contrary to the grace of God will lead to a
bitter end
May all men seek to experience the grace of God that their
wicked nature can be renewed by His Spirit
May those that are
pursuing evil see the end of others that have taken that path and repent
and turn to Christ
May all men understand the love of God for His
people and the wrath of God against wickedness and evildoers
And may
the people of God develop a strong and consistent faith that God’s way
is always the best way