Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Psalm 58:1) (To the chief musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.) Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O you sons of men?
There is no evidence that this psalm was written at this particular time, but its theme following the murders of Saul, Abner, and Ishbosheth, make it plausible. First of all, Altaschith literally meant "do not destroy." Some early commentators think it might have been the name of a song to which tune David's psalm was to be sung. I rather think he literally meant not to destroy that psalm as it was important to him. A michtam, although its meaning is uncertain, the word coming from a root meaning "to engrave," probably meant it was something to be recorded and written, making it of some importance to David. David began his psalm by asking if mere men judged righteously.
(2) Yea, in heart you work wickedness; you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
David declared that the heart of man was wicked, and therefore men worked wickedness. I believe the meaning of weighing the violence of their hands referred to the scales of justice and that they pretended what they did was just.
(3) The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
David said that the wicked were estranged from God from birth, but actually all men are born wicked since the fall of Adam. It is only because we accept salvation in the blood of Jesus and choose to follow God and His Holy Spirit that we may be considered righteous.
(4) Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear, (5) Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Their poison was like the poison of a serpent because it was from the great serpent Satan, the same that was in the garden tempting Eve. That serpent would not be charmed by even the most skilled snake charmers.
(6) Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
David prayed that the Lord break the fangs of the serpents and the teeth of the lions which was symbolic of the power and means of the wicked; he prayed that God take away their means of pursuing their wickedness.
(7) Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow, let his arrows be as cut in pieces.
Let the teeth or the actions of the wicked melt away as water that flows downward until it is gone. When the wicked bent his bow to do evil, let his arrows be cut to pieces and of no effect.
(8) As a snail melts, let them pass away; like the untimely birth of a woman, they may not see the sun.
The snail leaves a slimy path and appears to have melted away when it dies at the end of its slimy trail. David wished for the wicked or their wicked devices to melt or pass away like that. A woman's untimely birth refers to a premature birth, the miscarriage of a baby who will never live to see the sun. David wished that the evil schemes of the wicked never come to fruition.
(9) Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in wrath.
I believe the sense is that dry thorns make a great blaze, and before the pots above the blaze can feel the heat, that quickly will God take away the wicked in the very midst of the man's life and in the fury of his rage.
(10) The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
The righteous would rejoice when they saw just punishment inflicted on the wicked and saw that wickedness did not triumph. I don't believe that washing their feet in the blood of the wicked means they delight in their great slaughter, but rather that the entire overthrow of the wicked would be so great that that might be a result. David was a man of war, and he often used wartime images in his psalms. However, bloody vengeance by man and delight in the killing of men is not the lesson here. Vengeance belongs to the Lord (Romans 12:19), and the righteous may rejoice when they see the Lord deliver them in His righteous judgment and when they see that wickedness did not triumph, but the love of Jesus taught us that we do not rejoice in the killing of anyone. It is actually a very sad thing that a spiritually lost person will be eternally tortured in hell. That is why we should pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44).
(11) So that a man shall say, "Verily, a reward for the righteous; verily, He is a God who judges in the earth."
And that is what we rejoice in, that we have a just God who delivers us from evil and blesses and rewards us. Even if it seems not in this life, you can be sure it will be in the next. However, we can rejoice that we have a righteous God who does indeed judge in the present on the earth and not just in the afterlife.
(Psalm 93:1) The Lord reigns; He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength in which He has girded Himself; the world also is established that it cannot be moved.
This short psalm logically follows the last verse of Psalm 58 that spoke of our God who judges in the earth. He currently reigns and is clothed in majesty and strength, as He always has been. And because He reigns, the world also cannot be moved, but what He has willed will come to pass.
(2) Your throne is established of old; You are from everlasting.
God's rule and His plan have been from the beginning. He is in control, and nothing takes Him by surprise. We may take comfort in this.
(3) The floods have lifted up, O Lord; the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
The enemies of God's kingdom are compared to floods because of their numbers, force, and rage. They have lifted up their noise and their waves as if they might sweep everything away.
(4) The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.
However, the Lord is mightier than the floods of enemies. Even the most powerful empires of enemies cannot prevail against Him; therefore those who trust in Him have nothing to fear.
(5) Your testimonies are very sure; holiness becomes Your house, O Lord, forever.
The Lord's words are true and trustworthy. Holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, love, mercy, and all good unchanging attributes of the Lord adorn His house forever, and therefore in Him, we may forever have faith.
(Psalm 95:1) O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.
And because the Lord is mightier than our enemies and faithful and just, and we may forever trust in Him, it logically follows that we should sing praises to Him, to Christ who is the cornerstone, the very foundation, and the only means to our salvation.
(2) Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.
David encourages us to come before the Lord, and in His presence, with thanksgiving and joyful songs. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3), and where two or three are gathered in His name, He will be there (Matthew 18:20).
(3) For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.
Our Lord is a great God, above all the false gods and idols, over everything and everyone in heaven and in earth and in all the universe.
(4) In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also.
Nothing on earth is out of God's reach; He is Lord over all.
(5) The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
Not only is nothing out of His reach, but He made everything there is.
(6) O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
David encourages us to worship, bow down, and kneel before the Lord, the One who made us and knows us through and through. We must give ourselves wholly to Him.
(7) For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, (8) Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
Our God is the Shepherd of His people. We are sheep to be led by Him. Then David made a remarkable invitation to all people to hear the word of the Lord and to not harden their hearts as in the days of God's people provoking Him in the wilderness.
(9) "When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work."
David spoke the words of His Lord when he said that the people's forefathers had tempted and tested Him and saw the results of it.
(10) "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, 'It is a people who do err in their hearts, and they have not known My ways, (11) Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.'"
David continued speaking the words of the Lord as He said He had been grieved by that generation of Israelites for forty years in the wilderness. They were a people who erred in their hearts and had not known the ways of the Lord, and the Lord had sworn in His wrath that they would not enter into the land of Canaan, their rest that God had promised to them when He led them out of Egypt.
These three psalms woven together gave us a beautiful illustration of the Lord who reigns over all. Only He is the righteous Judge, and we are fortunate to have Him working in our lives in the present, and because He does, we worship Him and sing praises to Him. Unlike the Israelites in the wilderness, we have precious Jesus who covers our sins and intervenes for us. We will sin as they did because we are all sinners and that is what sinners do, but if we harden not our hearts and look to Jesus, making Him Lord of our lives, He forgives us and guides us with His Holy Spirit, and we are assured of that eternal rest in Him.
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