The Deaf Adder's Verdict Text: Psalm 58:1-5
Introduction: Justice in a Crooked World
We live in an age that has grown soft, sentimental, and squeamish. We want a God who is endlessly affirming and entirely therapeutic, a sort of celestial guidance counselor. We want a gospel without judgment, a righteousness without wrath, and a savior who saves us from feeling bad about ourselves. Into this treacly fog, psalms like Psalm 58 arrive like a bucket of ice water to the face. This is an imprecatory psalm, a psalm of cursing, and it is in the Bible for a reason. It is here to teach us how to think and pray in a world filled with profound, high-handed, and institutionalized injustice.
David is writing here about a breakdown of justice at the highest levels. The men who are supposed to be the guardians of righteousness have become the architects of violence. The courts have become a criminal enterprise. This is not a psalm about a private grudge; it is a public protest before the throne of God against the corruption of God-ordained authority. David is not simply venting. He is lodging a formal, legal appeal to the Supreme Court of Heaven.
This psalm is therefore intensely relevant. We too live in a time when the very meaning of justice is being twisted into a pretzel. We have judges who legislate from the bench, rulers who call evil good and good evil, and a public discourse where lies are treated as respectable opinions. This psalm gives us a language for our outrage. It gives us a scripturally-sanctioned way to process the crookedness of the world and to appeal to the One who will, in the end, make all things straight. It teaches us that true justice is not found in the pronouncements of men, but in the character of God. And it reminds us that before God can set things right, we must first learn to see them for what they are: utterly wrong.
The Text
Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods?
Do you judge with equity, O sons of men?
No, in heart you work unrighteousness;
On earth you prepare a path for the violence of your hands.
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
These who speak falsehood wander in error from birth.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent;
Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear,
So that it does not hear the voice of charmers,
Or a skillful caster of spells.
(Psalm 58:1-5 LSB)
A Question for the 'Gods' (v. 1)
The psalm opens with a blistering, rhetorical cross-examination of the corrupt rulers.
"Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods? Do you judge with equity, O sons of men?" (Psalm 58:1)
David addresses these men as "gods." The Hebrew is elim. This is not because he thinks they are divine. Rather, he is using a title that Scripture itself applies to human rulers who hold the power of judgment, the power of life and death (see Psalm 82:6; John 10:34). They are called gods because they stand in God's place, delegated to administer His justice on earth. Civil government is a divine institution. The magistrate is God's minister (Romans 13:4). This high calling is precisely what makes their corruption so heinous. They are not just failing at a human task; they are profaning a divine office.
The question "Do you indeed speak righteousness?" is heavy with irony. It is a question that expects, and demands, the answer "No." On the surface, of course, they speak of righteousness. Corrupt regimes always wrap themselves in the language of justice, equity, and the public good. They have their press releases, their solemn pronouncements, and their dignified robes. But David cuts through the pretense. He is asking, "Behind all the pomp and circumstance, is there any substance? Is what you are doing actually just?"
He then calls them "sons of men." This is a crucial counterbalance. Though they hold the office of "gods," they are still mere men. They are frail, mortal, and most importantly, accountable. They will one day stand before the Judge of all the earth, who is not a man, and give an account for every verdict they have rendered. David is reminding them, and us, that no earthly authority is ultimate.
The Verdict from the Heart (v. 2)
David does not wait for an answer, but immediately provides it himself. The problem is not a simple error in judgment; it is a deep-seated corruption of the heart.
"No, in heart you work unrighteousness; On earth you prepare a path for the violence of your hands." (Psalm 58:2 LSB)
The answer to the question is a resounding "No." The issue is not on the surface; it is "in heart." This is the biblical diagnosis of all human evil. Sin is not primarily a matter of external actions, but of internal rebellion. Jesus taught that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, and all the rest (Matthew 15:19). These judges are not just making mistakes. They are consciously, deliberately, from the center of their being, working unrighteousness. Their injustice is not accidental; it is artisanal. They craft it.
And see the result. Because their hearts are crooked, their hands become violent. "On earth you prepare a path for the violence of your hands." The Hebrew word for "prepare a path" can also be translated "weigh out." This is a grim pun. In a true court, justice is weighed in the scales. But here, these judges are weighing out violence. They are using the very instruments of justice to mete out oppression. They are not just allowing violence to happen; they are paving a smooth road for it. They are making oppression systematic, legal, and efficient. This is what happens when the heart is given over to wickedness; the entire system it touches becomes a conveyor belt for evil.
The Root of the Rot (v. 3)
David then traces this corruption back to its ultimate source: a sinful nature that is present from the very beginning of life.
"The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak falsehood wander in error from birth." (Psalm 58:3 LSB)
This is a clear and uncompromising statement of what theologians call total depravity, or more accurately, total inability. This does not mean that every unbeliever is as outwardly vile as he could possibly be. It means that sin has corrupted every part of our being, heart, mind, and will, and that this condition is ours from birth. "Estranged from the womb" means we are born alienated from God. We enter the world not as neutral beings who later choose to sin, but as rebels who are already turned away from our Creator.
David is saying that these wicked judges did not become this way overnight. Their high-handed corruption in their old age is simply the fruit of a seed that was present from their first breath. They "wander in error from birth." The path of sin is the default path. No one has to be taught how to be selfish, how to lie, or how to want their own way. We are naturals at it. Righteousness, on the other hand, must be taught, disciplined, and, ultimately, supernaturally implanted by the grace of God.
This verse is a direct assault on all forms of utopianism and humanistic optimism that believe man is basically good. The Bible says the opposite. The problem with the world is not a bad environment or a lack of education; the problem is the sinful heart of man, a problem we all share from the womb.
The Willful Deafness of the Wicked (v. 4-5)
David concludes this section with a devastating pair of metaphors that describe the active, willful nature of this wickedness.
"They have venom like the venom of a serpent; Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear, So that it does not hear the voice of charmers, Or a skillful caster of spells." (Psalm 58:4-5 LSB)
First, their words and judgments are like "the venom of a serpent." They are not just wrong; they are poisonous. They kill. A corrupt legal decision can destroy a man's life, his family, his reputation. Their lies are not harmless spin; they are toxic, spreading death and destruction wherever they go.
Second, and perhaps more chillingly, they are "like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear." This is not an inability to hear; it is a refusal to hear. The image is of a snake that actively plugs its own ears so that it cannot be swayed by the charmer's song. This speaks to a settled, hardened, obstinate rebellion. These men are not open to reason, to appeal, to the truth. They have made up their minds. They are committed to their wicked path, and they will not be dissuaded. You can present them with evidence, with logic, with pleas for mercy, but it is all useless. They have stopped their ears.
This is the ultimate state of the reprobate mind. It is a willful deafness to the voice of God, whether that voice comes through conscience, through reason, or through the preaching of His Word. They love the darkness and hate the light, and they will plug their ears lest any ray of that light get in. This is why injustice can be so intractable. You are not dealing with a misunderstanding. You are dealing with a militant refusal to understand.
Conclusion: The Only Charm That Works
So what are we to do in a world run by deaf adders? This psalm, in its entirety, is the answer. We are to appeal to the God who can break their fangs. We are to pray that the Great Judge would intervene and bring their wicked counsels to nothing. We do not take up vengeance ourselves, but we do cry out for it. We ask God to do what He has promised to do: judge the world in righteousness.
But there is a gospel note here as well. We must recognize that this description of the wicked, estranged from the womb and deaf to all charms, is a description of every single one of us apart from the grace of God. We were all born with venom in our hearts and our fingers in our ears. We were all deaf to the charming voice of the gospel.
What is the difference for the believer? The difference is that God performed a miracle. He did not simply try to charm us. He reached down and sovereignly unplugged our ears. He performed a divine heart surgery, taking out the heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh. As Paul says, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts" (2 Corinthians 4:6). He did not ask our permission. He invaded.
Therefore, as we look at the gross injustice in the world, we should be moved to two things. First, we should be moved to fervent, imprecatory prayer, asking God to bring justice. And second, we should be moved to profound gratitude, marveling that the God of all grace chose to have mercy on deaf serpents like us, opening our ears to hear the voice of the only Charmer who can truly save, the Lord Jesus Christ.