Do Not Destroy (Part 2) Series

TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID.

Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands deal out violence on earth.

The wicked are estranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

They have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

so that it does not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!

Let them vanish like water that runs away;

when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.

Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,

like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who judges on earth.” [1]

David was under severe pressure when he wrote this Psalm. It seems apparent to any serious student of Scripture that the king, though anointed by the LORD, recognised that the pressure he was then facing was motivated by far more than the hostility of mortal opponents. Reading this Psalm, it seems as though David pulls aside the curtain to see that those opposing him and his work on behalf of the Lord GOD were motivated by a force far greater than that which could be generated by men.

As I develop the message, I’m struck by a theme underlying what David has written. Though he was the king, there were multiple people who openly acknowledged his position, even as they secretly sought to overthrow his government. David knew their evil intent, but they were furtive in their conduct, shifty in their speech, secretive in their attempts to undermine his reign. In this Psalm, David openly confronts their sly opposition, exposing them to God as the king commits them to divine scrutiny.

David outlines for us a model for responding to those who would attempt to weaken us and who would destabilise the work we are seeking to perform. Though it is quite likely that the king knew who opposed his reign, just as he knew the evil they wished to perpetuate, David doesn’t attack them directly. He is willing to trust in God. His patience is not a mark of weakness or cowardice, The king doesn’t attempt to mount a coup in order to drive these people from office; rather, David’s reliance on the LORD reveals a strength that is too rare in the lives of contemporary Christians. I am confident that our study of this Psalm will encourage any one of us when we are facing such surreptitious attempts to injure us or to slyly drag our name through the mud.

Perhaps you can relate to this. There have been times when pressures against you were far greater than mere opposition from people. While you might be reluctant to say that Satan opposed you, the pressure you were experiencing was so great that it was hard to think that any person could be so vicious. You knew that you would be destroyed if something wasn’t done quickly. Where would you turn? What could you do? Crying out to the Lord, you found relief! That is what we witness in this Psalm.

THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL —

Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands deal out violence on earth.

The wicked are estranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

They have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

so that it does not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

[PSALM 58:1-5]

A contemporary English translation of this Psalm provides the following understanding of what is written.

Do you rulers really pronounce just decisions?

Do you judge people fairly?

No! You plan how to do what is unjust;

you deal out violence in the earth.

[PSALM 58:1-2 NET BIBLE]

David does not name names, but he makes it evident that he knows who is seeking to harm him and even something of what they are doing. He is openly naming the evil, though he does not necessarily name the individuals who are in his sights. We can only imagine that the people David is exposing would argue they were doing good. They would plead that David just didn’t understand what they were doing. They are not unlike many of the civic leaders in this day who seek to stifle the work of the churches.