“A PSALMIST’S CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S PROTECTION” PSALM 57:1-11

The psalm before us is called an imprecatory psalm in which David is calling upon a curse upon his enemies; thus, he pleads with God to destroy them. David often prayed in this fashion to vindicate his own cause and to pray that God vindicate His righteousness by destroying the enemies of the righteous. David’s prayer in Psalm 58 is extremely heartfelt and sincere – he wanted his enemies destroyed! Are we to pray in this manner today? The answer is a definite no!

Notwithstanding, there are times in which we are persecuted by others and we are really burdened, wishing that the Lord would bring us relief by discarding our enemies. As believers, when our enemies are doing vicious deeds against us, don’t retaliate, but take the situation to God. Jesus Christ exhorts us to pray for our enemies, for Matthew 5:43-45 states, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

It is so tempting to retaliate against those who maliciously do you wrong; however, we must deter from retaliating and give the situation to God, for Romans 12:19-20 says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” As the Lord’s representatives on earth, we are to be vibrant testimonies of how we are to deal with our enemies – we are not to retaliate when others wrong us. Our righteous Judge will defend our cause!

The superscription of Psalm 58 reads, “To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.” The term “Altaschith can mean “destroy not”; and the word “Michtam” means “to cover or protect.” David begins verse 1 by raising some questions to the unjust rulers who perverted justice, for verse 1 says, “Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?” These judges were unrighteous; therefore, justice was not administered in the land. In our day, there is a need for leaders who will be fair and equitable in administering justice for all people. Because of the inherent wickedness of these judges, justice was not carried out. From the very beginning of their existence, they were wicked and their aim was to destroy (vv. 2-5).

Using very descriptive language, David calls on God to destroy these wicked judges (vv. 6-9). David calls upon God to destroy their venomous influence of evil. David asks God to: “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.” David desires that God would swiftly destroy these evil rulers. This psalm concludes with joy in verses 10-11, for David anticipates that the righteous will be rewarded and the unjust judges will be judged by God -“So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth.” (v. 11).

May God Bless!