Psalms 58:1

The Bible says in Psalms 58:1-2, “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?[2] Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.” These verses are about the sinfulness of man. It is hard to overstate just how sinful human beings are. The Bible says it many times. Jesus said, “There is none good but God.” It says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” It says in Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” It says in the last part of Psalms 14:1, “…there is none that doeth good.” Psalms 58:1 addresses itself to those who think they are righteous based upon their own deeds and actions and works. They are wrong. They might make the outside of the platter clean, but “in heart” they work wickedness. That is why true conversion to Christ must involve a change in heart. When you accept Christ into your heart, then you have His goodness credited to your account. We call that the imputation of righteousness. That is how ungodly sinners like you and me will be allowed into a perfect heaven. It says in Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Notice the last phrase of verse two: “ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.” Where does all the violence in the earth come from? It comes from the sinful heart of man. How can we fix that? Here is the best way: more people to come to know the love of God by trusting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and finding the forgiveness of sins from Jesus.

The Bible says in Psalms 58:3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” This verse reminds us of where all this sin comes from. Why are people sinners? We are born sinners. We inherited a sinful nature that is manifest in our common extreme selfishness. People who do not recognize this will never be a part of the solution. Jesus is the solution. He said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Talking about those that are wicked, the Bible says in Psalms 58:4, “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.[5] Which will not heaken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.” What do the wicked accomplish with their lives: they destroy. A human being who is wicked and does not serve God is compared to a poisonous snake in the Bible. Jesus used the same comparison. Jesus said to the religious leaders of the first century in Matthew 23:33, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Why do people become so wicked? The last part of verse four tells us: “they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.” They will not listen to the truth. They reject God’s Word, and they refuse God’s Spirit, and they deny Jesus Christ. That is why they are wicked. If they do not allow the goodness and love of God into their hearts, then what will take its place: wickedness.

Verse five gives an interesting analogy to Christians and preachers who spread the gospel and think of all kinds of ways of expressing the gospel of Christ and inviting all the world to come to Christ. We are snake charmers. Because we have the power of the Spirit, we are the wisest of snake charmers. But these are poisonous snakes around us, and we are trying to charm them into responding to our message and coming to Christ.

But if they refuse to hear the charming words of the gospel, their destiny is made clear. The Bible says in Psalms 58:6-9, “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.” God’s judgment will eventually come, and it will not be pretty. That is why every person must be born again and must be saved through faith in Christ. Verse seven calls the wicked “young lions” because the wicked are strong in this world and they are vicious. But if their teeth are broken, they will die. It will take a violent strike against them to break their teeth: it will take the sure judgment of God to ruin them and to make them nothing. All that it will take is for God to aim an arrow at them and to let it fly. God does not miss. They will “pass away” because everyone dies, and then they will face the judgment of God in hell. Since God determines when everyone dies, maybe God will take the wicked even sooner. That would solve a lot of problems. Of course, the Lord will do that eventually. That is what the Battle of Armageddon is all about.

Notice that in verse eight David says that he hopes the wicked will pass away like “the untimely birth of a woman.” That is a miscarriage. The death of a living human being is compared to the death of a child before it is born. How can the two be compared in that way: because both are living human beings. A child in the womb is a living human being.

Verse nine means that it will not be long and God’s judgment will come. Before you put a cooking pot on the fire, God’s judgment can come. God can strike any moment of any day. We know that is true concerning the frailty of life. God can take anyone on any day, including the wicked. It is true concerning the rapture. Jesus might come any day to take His believers off the earth when we will meet Him in the air. After the rapture will come the seven-year Great Tribulation. After the Great Tribulation is the Second Coming of Christ when He slaughters the enemies of God at the Battle of Armageddon. Verse nine ends by mentioning the “wrath” of God. That sounds like wrath to me. It says in Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” The day will come when that wrath will be unleashed. It will not be pretty. For believers it will be beautiful to behold because we will agree with God: the time of opportunity will be over and the time of vengeance and judgment will have come.

The Bible says in Psalms 58:10-11, “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.[11] So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.” Now we pray for the wicked, but when God’s time of judgment comes, we will rejoice when we see the vengeance. And there will be a lot of blood. All the armies of the world gathered in the Valley of Mediddo in Israel. The slaughter is described in Revelation 14:19-20, “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.[20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”

There are two truths found in Psalms 58:11 that every believer should remember. The first is that “there is a reward for the righteous.” Once we are saved through faith in Christ, we will go to heaven. But we do not want to go there empty-handed: we want to win rewards from the Lord Jesus. Salvation is by grace through faith, and there are no works involved in that because we are saved by faith in Jesus; but there are works involved in gaining rewards. In the New Testament the rewards are called “crowns.” It says in First Corinthians 6:11-15, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.[12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;[13] Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.[14] If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.[15] If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” Even if you have no good works, you will still be saved because salvation is a free gift by grace through Jesus. Thus, after you go through your judgment concerning your works, even if the works are burned up at the judgment, you will be saved and allowed in to heaven. You will “suffer loss” in that you will lose your rewards that you could have had, but you will still be saved. Also, because there are rewards, your work for the Lord is not in vain. Anything that you do for Jesus will be rewarded.

The last part of verse eleven says that God “judgeth in the earth.” Do not get discouraged when you see the works and words of the wicked. God sees them also, and God is the Judge of the whole earth. They will not escape His righteous indignation when He decides to let it fall. Their only possible escape is the same one that we found: to run to the arms of Jesus and find forgiveness before it is too late.

___________________________________________________