A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM LVIII.
_David reproveth wicked judges, describeth the nature of the wicked, devoteth them to God’s judgments, whereat the righteous shall rejoice._ To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. 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; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. 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. 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. This is a Psalm of consolation against those hardened heretics, and enthusiastic spirits, who pertinaciously defend their own errors, and stop their ears; and who are so blinded and taken captive, that they can hear no one; but pursue, with headlong precipitation, their own designs, and rush on to the accomplishment of them, like a horse at full speed. And these, as if they would devour the godly, cease not to threaten them in the most terrifying manner.—David, however, here makes use of five beautiful similitudes: under which, he represents their vain attempts, and shows, that those very plots which they lay for others, fall upon their own heads. 1. The sudden inundation with which they make their attack, rushes with such violence and roaring, that it seems as if it would tear up and carry away every thing before it: and yet it flows by, and suddenly disappears! 2. Their arrow, fixed on the bow, threatens certain destruction: but, in a moment, the bow and arrows are broken together, and the deadly weapon accomplishes nothing! 3. The snail puts forth his horns from his shell, as if he were just going to do some deadly and mighty injury: but those horns prove to be soft and ineffectual; they do nothing: nor have the power of doing any hurt whatever.
4. An imperfect conception, disengaged by abortion, makes the womb of the mother to extend, as if there were a perfect conception, and as if something great would at length come forth: but before it is brought forth, it perishes, and never sees the sun. 5. You may see a branch of buck-thorn, (which is the most prickly kind of thorn,) filled with young sharp points and prickles, and seeming as if it would one day tear many in pieces at once, and maim persons on every side of it; but, before the prickles are fully ripe and strong, the whole bush is, perhaps, cut down by the woodman, and he burns it in the fire, and reduces it to ashes! So, just according to these similitudes, those enemies of God and truth, plan, plot, and breathe out dreadful things; but like a mighty flame, where there is no more fuel left to feed it, their fury ends in nothing!
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.