Psalms 58

This Psalm was Composed, as very many others were, upon the occasion of those wickedly Calumnies, and unjust Censures, and Sentences which were passed upon him by Saul and his Courtiers.

DO ye indeed speak righteousness The question implies a Denial: You censure me freely without any Regard to Truth or Justice., O congregation The word signifies a Band, or Company of men; and seems to point at Saul's Judges and Counsellers; who met together to Consult what they should do against David; and probably passed a Sentence upon him, as guilty of Treason and Rebellion.? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men So he calls them; Either, 1. In Contempt and opposition of the sons of God, or good Men. Or, 2. By way of Admonition, to mind them that they also were Men, and must give an Account to God for all their hard Speeches, and unrighteous decrees against him.?

Yea, in heart Or, with your Heart, with free choice and Consent, and not only by Constraint, and out of Compliance with Saul. ye work wickedness, ye weigh the violence of your hands Or, you weigh Violence, or injustice with your Hands. The Phrase of weighing has respect to their Office, which was to administer Justice, which is usually expressed by a pair of Ballances. So he intimates that they did great wrong under the pretence, and with the Formalities of Justice, and whilst they seemed exactly to weigh and consider the true and fit Proportion between the Actions, and the Recompences alloted to them, they turned the Scale; and Partly, to curry Favour with Saul; and Partly, from their own Malice against David; pronounced an unjust Sentence against him. in the earth Or, in this Land, where God is present, and where you have righteous Laws to govern you, and you profess better things..

The wicked are estranged Either, 1. Hyperbolically: even from their tender years. Or, 2. Strictly and Properly. So the Sense is. No wonder they Act so unrighteously, for their very Natures and Principles are corrupt, even from their Birth: They are the wicked offspring of sinful Parents. And this Hereditary and Native corruption, though too common to all Men, he particularly ascribes to these Men; Either, because their immediate Parents were such as did not only Convey a corrupt Nature to them, but greatly improved it by wicked Counsel and Example: Or because they themselves had improved that stock of Original Corruption, and instead of mortifying it, had made it their great Design, and Constant business to gratifie and obey it. from the womb By actual sins, the Fruit of their Original sin., they go astray, as soon they be born From their Child-hood, as soon as ever they were capable of the Exercise of Reason, and the Practise of sinning., speaking lyes. f To wit, from God, Eph. 4. 18. and from all Goodness.

Their poison Their virulent and Malicious Disposition. is like the poison of a serpent Partly in it self, being natural and inveterate, and incurable: and Partly, in its most pernicious Effects., they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear:

Which will not hearken to the voyce of charmers, charming never so wisely This similitude does neither justifie the Practise of Charming, which, in the very Word here used is Condemned, Deut. 18. 11. no more than those which are drawn from unjust Steward, Luk. 16. 1. &c. and 18. 2. &c. and from a Thief, Revel. 16. 15. nor yet affirm the Truth of what is Reported, concerning the Asps or Adders, are said to lay one Ear close to the ground, and to cover the other with their Tail, that so they may avoid the Danger of Enchantment; but only was taken from the common Opinion, which he Poetically mentions to this purpose. As they commonly say of the Asps or Adders, &c. such really are these Men: Deaf to all my Consels, and to the Dictates of their own Consciences, and to the Voyce of Gods Law. And yet of the Charming or inchanting of Serpents, mention is made both in other places of Scripture, as Eccles. 10. 11. Ier. 8. 17. and in all sorts of Authors, Antient and Modern, Hebrew, and Arabick, and Greek and Latin. [Of which see my Latin Synopsis.] And particularly the Arabick Writers (to whom these Creatures were best known) name some sorts of Serpents; among which the Adder is one, which they call Deaf, not because they are dull of Hearing, but, as one of them expressly says, because they will not be Charmed..

Break their teeth Their Power and Instruments of doing Mischief. He mentions Teeth; Partly, because the Adders poison lyes in its Teeth; and Partly, to make way for the following Metaphor., O God, in their mouth: break, out the great teeth Called the Grinders; which are more sharp and strong than the rest, and more used in breaking and tearing what they are about to Eat. of the young lions, O LORD.

Let them melt away as waters, which run continually As waters arising from melted Snow, or great Showers, or some other Extraordinary cause, which at first run with great force and Noise, and throw down all that stands in their way, but are suddenly gone, and Run away and Vanish, and return no more.: when he To wit, any or every one of mine Enemies, as appears from the foregoing and following Words. bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pietes (i. e.) Like Arrows broken asunder, whilst a Man shoots, which can do no hurt..

As a snail which melteth Which thrusts forth, and seems to Threaten with its Horns, but is quickly dissolved: For when it goes out of its shell, it spends its Vital moisture, until by degree it waste away and Perish., let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun Which indeavouring violently and unseasonably to break forth from the Womb is choaked in the Attempt, and does not Live to see the Light of the Sun..

Before your pots can feel the thorns (i. e.) The heat of the Fire kindled by the Thorns put under them for that purpose: Before your Pots can be thoroughly heated., he shall take them To wit, mine Enemies: Whose sudden Destruction, he describes under this similitude. away as with a whirlwind (i. e.) Violently and irresistibly., both. living, and in his wrath Heb. as Living (i. e. Alive, as he did Korah, Numb. 16. the Particle, as, being here not a Note of similitude, but of Truth or Asseveration, as it is, Ioh. 1: 14. and oft elsewhere, as has been noted:) as in (which Proposition is frequently understood) Urath, (i. e.) As a Man moved with great Wrath, destroys his Enemy without Mercy, and is ready to devour him alive, if it were possible: Or, both that which is raw (as the Hebrew word Chai signifies, Levit. 13. 16. 1 Sam. 2. 15. to wit, the raw Flesh, which is supposed to be put into the Pot, that it may be boyled) and the burning Fire. There is indeed great Variety of Construction, and Interpretation of these Hebrew words; which is not strange, especially considering the Conciseness of the Hebrew Language, and that this is a proverbial Speech; nor is it of any great importance, because it is not in any great point of Faith, and because the Sense of it is agreed, the only difference being about the manner and ground of the Phrase. The learned Reader may see more upon this place, in my Latin Synopsis..

The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance: (i. e.) The Vengeance of God upon his implacable Enemies; not simply for himself, but for the Blessed Effects of it: The Vindication of God's Honour, and the Deliverance of himself and of all good Men. he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked (i. e.) There shall be so great a slaughter of his Enemies that he might, if he so pleased, wash his Feet in their Blood. See the same or like Expressions, Psal. 68. 23. Isa. 63. 3. Revel. 14. 20..

So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth And these Administrations of God's Providence shall be so Evident and Convincing, that not only good Men shall be sensible thereof, but any man that sees them, yea, even such as were apt to Dispute or doubt of Gods Providence, shall upon this Eminent occasion, break forth into such Exclamations as this, Now I see, that Religion is not a Vain and unprofitable thing, and that there is a God who does now observe and Govern, and when he sees fit, judgeth the Inhabitants of the Ear... h, and will hereafter judge the whole World in righteousness, and Recompence every man according to his Works..