9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
They compassed me about like bees; They are quenched as the fire of thorns: In the name of Jehovah I will cut them off.
When the whirlwind passeth, the wicked is no more; But the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
But if Jehovah make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then ye shall understand that these men have despised Jehovah.
He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world.
That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, And his head reach unto the clouds; Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye which saw him shall see him no more; Neither shall his place any more behold him. His children shall seek the favor of the poor, And his hands shall give back his wealth. His bones are full of his youth, But it shall lie down with him in the dust. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, Though he hide it under his tongue, Though he spare it, and will not let it go, But keep it still within his mouth; Yet his food in his bowels is turned, It is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God will cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps: The viper's tongue shall slay him. He shall not look upon the rivers, The flowing streams of honey and butter. That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down; According to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice. For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor; He hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up. Because he knew no quietness within him, He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth. There was nothing left that he devoured not; Therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him. When he is about to fill his belly, `God' will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him, And will rain it upon him while he is eating. He shall flee from the iron weapon, And the bow of brass shall strike him through. He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body; Yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall: Terrors are upon him. All darkness is laid up for his treasures: A fire not blown `by man' shall devour him; It shall consume that which is left in his tent. The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, And the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart; `His goods' shall flow away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, And the heritage appointed unto him by God.
The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth; And it sweepeth him out of his place.
In the pride of the wicked the poor is hotly pursued; Let them be taken in the devices that they have conceived.
But thou, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction: Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in thee. Psalm 56 For the Chief Musician; set to Jonath elem rehokim. `A Psalm' of David. Michtam: when the Philistines took him in Gath.
Surely thou settest them in slippery places: Thou castest them down to destruction. How are they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, So, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou wilt despise their image.
The wicked is thrust down in his evil-doing; But the righteous hath a refuge in his death.
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 58
Commentary on Psalms 58 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 58
It is the probable conjecture of some (Amyraldus particularly) that before Saul began to persecute David by force of arms, and raised the militia to seize him, he formed a process against him by course of law, upon which he was condemned unheard, and attainted as a traitor, by the great council, or supreme court of judicature, and then proclaimed "qui caput gerit lupinum-an outlawed wolf,' whom any man might kill and no man might protect. The elders, in order to curry favour with Saul, having passed this bill of attainder, it is supposed that David penned this psalm on the occasion.
Sin appears here both exceedingly sinful and exceedingly dangerous, and God a just avenger of wrong, with which we should be affected in singing this psalm.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David.
Psa 58:1-5
We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through which God preserved him (Al-taschith-Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, Michtams-David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.
In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:
Psa 58:6-11
In these verses we have,