Psalms
Chapter 58
God Judges Rulers
You gods, are your decrees just; and are your judgments upright?
No, you willfully commit crimes; you deal in violence and corruption.
Even from the womb, the wicked go astray; from birth, they are wayward liars.
They are poisonous, like deadly snakes; deaf as the adder
that blocks its ears, so as not to hear the charmer’s voice casting spells.
Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; tear out the fangs of the lions, O Lord.
Let them vanish, like spilled water; let them be trodden down, like grass that withers.
Let them be like snails that sink into slime, like untimely births that never see the sun;
like green grass that is burned before the thorns are dry— let them be swept away!
The upright will rejoice when they are avenged; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
Then will people say: “Surely, the righteous are rewarded; surely, there is a God, who gives judgment on the earth.”
Commentaries
58
The Psalmist is troubled by all the evildoers around him. The gods and the wicked are blocking God’s supremacy in the world and distorting his image. Yet, he is confident that the upright will ultimately succeed. For there is a God, and he alone rules and knows whom and how to judge. Let us not be burdened by such people because Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 invites us by saying, ‘Come to me’… and ‘My yoke is good, and my burden is light.’
We cannot ignore Evil. It exists only because human beings are willing to commit atrocities. What can we do? We express our prayers without fear of our passions. We ask the just God to intervene. The expression of anger is not incompatible with Jesus (cf. Mk 3:5). This psalm can nourish our hunger for justice. It is not anti-Christian as long as the beatitude of those who hunger and thirst for justice remains.