Bird's-eye view
Psalm 58 is one of those psalms that makes modern Christians nervous. We are taught, rightly, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. So what are we to do with a prayer that asks God to shatter the teeth of the wicked? The answer is not to rip these pages out of our Bibles, or to dismiss them as some sort of pre-Christian, sub-standard spirituality. These are God-breathed prayers, and they are in our songbook for a reason. They teach us to hate evil as God hates evil. This is not a personal vendetta; it is a righteous cry for cosmic justice. The psalmist is not asking for permission to go out and bust some heads himself. He is appealing to the ultimate Judge of all the earth to do right. He is asking God to render the wicked harmless, to make their threats as impotent as a lion with no fangs. The vivid, visceral imagery is meant to show us the true horror of sin and the glorious finality of God's judgment upon it. This is a prayer for the day when all wrongs are righted, when evil is finally and forever defeated, and when the righteous can rejoice in the perfect justice of God.
In these verses, David piles up a series of graphic metaphors to describe the end he desires for the wicked judges he condemned in the first part of the psalm. He wants them disarmed, dissolved, and discarded. He wants their evil to be nullified completely, like water soaking into the ground, like a blunted arrow, like a snail that melts as it moves, like a stillborn child. The final image of the whirlwind sweeping away the cooking pot before it even gets hot is a picture of swift, sudden, and complete judgment. This is not about personal revenge; it is about a profound longing for God's holiness and justice to be vindicated in a world that is shot through with rebellion.
Outline
- 1. A Prayer for Divine Disarmament (v. 6)
- a. Shatter Their Teeth (v. 6a)
- b. Break Out the Fangs (v. 6b)
- 2. A Prayer for Utter Dissipation (vv. 7-8)
- a. Like Water That Runs Off (v. 7a)
- b. Like Headless Arrows (v. 7b)
- c. Like a Melting Snail (v. 8a)
- d. Like a Miscarriage (v. 8b)
- 3. A Prayer for Swift Judgment (v. 9)
- a. Before the Pot Feels the Heat (v. 9a)
- b. Swept Away by a Whirlwind (v. 9b)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 58 belongs to the category of imprecatory psalms, which are psalms that call for judgment, calamity, or curses upon one's enemies. Other examples include Psalms 35, 69, and 109. These psalms are often troubling to contemporary readers because they seem to contradict the New Testament command to love our enemies. However, it is crucial to understand them within their covenantal context. The enemies in these psalms are not merely personal rivals; they are covenant-breakers, enemies of God and His anointed king. They are those who pervert justice and oppress the righteous. The psalmist, as the Lord's anointed, is praying for the establishment of God's kingdom, which necessarily involves the overthrow of God's enemies. These are not prayers of personal spite but are official, liturgical prayers for the vindication of God's name and the establishment of His righteous rule. The New Testament does not abrogate these psalms; it fulfills them in Christ, who is the ultimate Judge and who will one day return to execute perfect justice.
Verse by Verse Commentary
6 O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.
The prayer begins with a startling and violent image. David asks God to shatter the teeth of his enemies right there in their mouths. This is not a polite request. It is raw, guttural, and honest. The enemies are then identified as "young lions," a common biblical metaphor for powerful, predatory, and ruthless foes. What does a lion do with its teeth and fangs? It rips and tears its prey. So, this is a prayer to disarm the wicked. It is a plea for God to render them powerless to harm the righteous. David is not asking for a fair fight; he is asking for a divine intervention that makes the fight completely one-sided. He wants God to step in and neutralize the threat entirely. This is a prayer that takes the reality of evil seriously. It recognizes that some people are like ravenous lions, and the only safe place is under the protection of the God who can break their jaws.
7 Let them flow away like water that runs off; When he aims his arrows, let them be as headless shafts.
The imagery shifts from violent confrontation to utter dissolution. David prays that his enemies would simply vanish, like water poured out on the dry ground. One moment it is there, a puddle, a threat, and the next it has soaked into the earth and is gone. This is a prayer for the complete and total disappearance of the wicked's power and influence. The second line continues the theme of impotence. The enemy archer draws his bow, takes careful aim, but the arrow he shoots is useless, like a shaft with no point. It cannot pierce, it cannot wound, it cannot accomplish its malicious purpose. This is a prayer of faith in God's ability to frustrate the plans of the wicked. No matter how well-aimed their attacks, God can make them utterly ineffectual. He can turn their deadliest weapons into harmless toys.
8 Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along, Like the miscarriages of a woman which never behold the sun.
Here we have two more images of futility and non-existence. The first is a snail, which was thought in ancient times to dissolve or melt as it moved, leaving a trail of slime behind it until nothing was left. The picture is one of self-destruction. The wicked, in their very activity, bring about their own demise. Their evil path is one that consumes them until they are no more. The second image is even more stark: a stillborn child who never sees the light of day. It is a picture of a life that never was, a potential that was never realized. David is praying that the plans and legacies of the wicked would be like this, that they would come to nothing, that they would be utterly forgotten, as if they had never existed. This is a profound request for their influence to be erased from the earth, so that their evil finds no root, bears no fruit, and leaves no memory.
9 Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns He will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the living and the burning alike.
This final verse is a bit tricky to translate, but the picture is one of sudden, overwhelming judgment. The image is of a traveler setting up a quick camp. He gathers thorns for a fast, hot fire to cook a meal. But before the pot can even get warm, before the meal can be prepared, a whirlwind comes out of nowhere and sweeps everything away, the green, living thorns and the ones that have already caught fire. The point is the speed and surprise of God's judgment. The wicked think they have time. They are settling in to enjoy the fruits of their injustice. But God's judgment will come upon them so swiftly that their plans will be violently interrupted mid-stream. The whirlwind of God's wrath will not distinguish between the "living" (their ongoing schemes) and the "burning" (the evil they have already set in motion). All of it will be swept away in one sudden, catastrophic event. This is a reminder that God's timing is not our timing, and when He decides to act, judgment will be both swift and total.
Application
So how does a twenty-first-century Christian, who is commanded to love his enemies, pray a psalm like this? First, we must recognize that our ultimate enemy is not flesh and blood, but the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our fight is with sin, with Satan, and with the world system that is set up in rebellion against God. We can and should pray these imprecations against those spiritual enemies. We should pray that God would shatter the fangs of the demonic lions that seek to devour the church. We should pray that the plans of Satan would be frustrated and come to nothing.
Second, when we do face human enemies who are implacably set against the gospel and the church, we must pray for them in two ways. We should pray for their conversion, that God would grant them repentance and turn their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. This is the ultimate way to love our enemies. But if they persist in their rebellion, if they continue to persecute the church and blaspheme the name of Christ, then it is right and biblical to pray that God would restrain their evil and bring their wicked plans to nothing. We are not praying for their damnation out of personal spite. We are praying for the glory of God's name, the good of His church, and the establishment of His justice. We are entrusting vengeance to the only one who can wield it perfectly. We are asking the Judge of all the earth to do right, and we are leaving the specifics of how and when He does that in His sovereign hands.
Ultimately, all of God's judgment against sin was poured out on Christ at the cross. He took the full force of the whirlwind of God's wrath so that we would not have to. When we pray this psalm, we do so as those who have been rescued from that same judgment. We pray with gratitude for the cross, and with a sober understanding of the terrible reality of sin and the perfect justice of God. And we pray with longing for the day when Christ will return to sweep all evil away forever, and the righteous will rejoice in His final victory.