Psalms 58:1-11·~1 min

God Judges the Earth

David addresses those who should judge uprightly and exposes them instead as people who devise injustice and weigh out violence with their hands. He portrays the wicked as alienated from righteousness from the womb and compares their poison to that of a serpent, stubbornly refusing all correction like a cobra that will not hear the charmer.

F¹or the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. ²No, in your hearts you devise injustice; ³The wicked are estranged from the womb; ⁴Their venom is like the venom of a snake, ⁵refusing to hear the tune of the charmer

David then prays for God to smash the power of the wicked, breaking their teeth and making them disappear like water that runs away or arrows that fail to wound. He asks that they melt like a slug or perish like an untimely birth, and that before their plans can even heat the cooking pot, God would sweep them away in sudden judgment.

⁶O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; ⁷May they vanish ⁸Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, ⁹Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—

The psalm ends with the righteous rejoicing when they see vengeance and with a wider public acknowledgment that righteousness is not empty, because there is a God who judges on the earth. Divine judgment becomes the proof that moral reality has not vanished and that the righteous are not forgotten.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice ¹¹Then men will say,

Section summaryDavid opens by exposing unjust judges who should speak rightly but instead devise and distribute violence from the heart, then describes the wicked as estranged from birth and as venomous as deaf serpents that refuse every charming voice. On that basis he asks God to shatter their teeth, make them vanish like runoff or miscarriage before their schemes mature, and sweep them away before the heat of their plans can be felt. The psalm closes with the righteous rejoicing when vengeance is seen and with the public confession that there is reward for the righteous and a God who truly judges the earth.

Role in the chapterThis section functions as both indictment and imprecation aimed at systemic wickedness. It directs outrage over corrupt judgment toward God's own decisive intervention and final public vindication.