9 Before your pots feel the thorns, green or burning, -- they shall be whirled away.
They encompassed me like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of Jehovah have I destroyed them.
As a whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked 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, and all that they have, and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall know that these men have despised Jehovah.
He is driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
The exultation of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly man but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He flieth away as a dream, and is not found; and is chased away as a vision of the night. The eye which saw him shall [see him] not again; and his place beholdeth him no more. His children shall seek the favour of the poor, and his hands restore his wealth. His bones were full of his youthful strength; but it shall lie down with him in the dust. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth [and] he hide it under his tongue, [Though] he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it within his mouth, His food is turned in his bowels; it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down riches, but he shall vomit them up again: ùGod shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall kill him. He shall not see streams, rivers, brooks of honey and butter. That which he laboured for shall he restore, and not swallow down; its restitution shall be according to the value, and he shall not rejoice [therein]. For he hath oppressed, hath forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house that he did not build. Because he knew no rest in his craving, he shall save nought of what he most desired. Nothing escaped his greediness; therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; every hand of the wretched shall come upon him. It shall be that, to fill his belly, he will cast his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it upon him into his flesh. If he have fled from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through. He draweth it forth; it cometh out of his body, and the glittering point out of his gall: terrors are upon him. All darkness is laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown shall devour him; it shall feed upon what 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, flowing away in the day of his anger. This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by ùGod.
The east wind carrieth him away and he is gone; and as a storm it hurleth him out of his place.
The wicked, in his pride, doth hotly pursue the afflicted. They shall be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
And thou, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But as for me, I will confide in thee.
Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins. How are they suddenly made desolate! they pass away, consumed with terrors. As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.
The wicked is driven away by his evil-doing; but the righteous trusteth, [even] in his death.
The nations rush as the rushing of many waters; but he will rebuke them, and they shall flee far away, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a whirling [of dust] before the whirlwind:
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,