Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?
Man in many aspects
I. The character of depraved men portrayed.
1. Unrighteous in judgment.
2. Wrong in heart.
3. Violent in the treatment of men.
4. Early in apostasy.
5. False in life.
6. Malignant in spirit.
7. Deceitful in heart.
II. The destruction of wicked men invoked.
1. Their entire destruction.
2. Their quick destruction.
III. The spirit of righteous men misrepresented. The psalmist utters a calumny in representing them as delighting in blood. If righteous Noah had delighted in the sufferings of his enemies, would he have built an ark? No; righteous men are not men of vengeance, they are not men of blood.
IV. The verdict of all men anticipated. “So that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous.”
1. This is a testimony that often seems to be at variance with the providential government of the human race.
2. This is a testimony that every man sooner or later will be bound by his own conscience to render. Retribution is inevitable--
(1) From the law of causation. We are to-day the result of our conduct yesterday, and the cause of our conduct to-morrow; and thus ever must we reap the works of our own hands.
(2) From the law of conscience. The past works of our hands are not lost. Memory gathers up the fragments of our life; and conscience stings or smiles, according to their character.
(3) From the law of righteousness. There is justice in the universe; and justice will ever punish the wicked and reward the good (Galatians 6:7). (Homilist.)
Faith in righteousness
This is a difficult psalm. It is difficult even to read; the most advanced scholarship can make hardly anything of some of the verses. Besides, the situation which it describes is very foreign to us; and here and there when it expresses delight in the destruction of enemies, the sentiment jars on the Christian sense. Yet it is a psalm of high originality, the poetic imagery being both abundant and uncommon; and it gives such clear expression to the voice of eternal righteousness that it is worth while to make an effort to extend our sympathies widely enough to comprehend it.
I. The throne of iniquity (Psalms 58:1-5). Perhaps the opening words ought to be as they are given in the margin of the Revised Version, “Is the righteousness ye should speak dumb?” The psalmist is accusing the administrators of justice of bribery. In the second verse, he describes them as weighing out violence in the scales in which justice ought to be weighed. That is, they observed all the solemn forms of justice, but had no regard for the interests of those who could not pay for their verdicts. In the East this has always been, and is at the present day, one of the leading features of an evil time. Justice cannot be procured; the well-doing man is harassed by his wicked neighbours, and has no redress. The effect of this condition of things on the general community is given in Psalms 58:3-5. Society is poisoned in every department. Lying especially is everywhere rife, as it will always be where there is a corrupt administration of justice. Insensibility to the voices of reason and of the spirit is universal. Men are, he says, like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ear and will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so wisely. There have been epochs in history like this--when at the top of society there has been a corrupt court with a profligate aristocracy, and down through all ranks of the people the poison of falsehood and worldliness has been so diffused that there has been apparently no audience for any one speaking for God, and no career for any one wishing to be simple and true. On the small scale, such a situation often exists. The individual finds himself in a position where those above him are false, reckless and profligate; success seems to be obtainable only by lying and selfishness; and a tender conscience has no chance.
II. The throne of God (Psalms 58:6-9). What is to be done in such a situation? The natural thing is to conform, and this is what the majority in all ages do: being at Rome they act as Rome does. Indeed, without religious conviction it is difficult to see how any one can act otherwise, where sin is strong and tyrannical, occupying all the high places, speaking through the organs of public opinion, and exhibiting to the young hundreds of examples. But it is here the Bible helps us. The writer of this psalm, though surrounded by prosperous wickedness, saw, over against the throne of iniquity, another throne lofty and eternal. It was the throne of the living and righteous God. He fixed his eyes on it till his soul was filled with faith and strength; and then, when he turned his eyes to look again on the images of the evil world’s power, their glory and stability had disappeared, and they looked fleeting and paltry. In a series of striking figures of speech he expresses his disdain of them. They are like toothless lions and fangless serpents (Psalms 58:6); like a torrent which for a moment may seem to be a river, but immediately disappears in the sand (Psalms 58:7); like an abortion; for their plans will come to nothing (Psalms 58:8); they are cooking the flesh of their pleasure in a pot, but, before it is ready for eating, a whirlwind from the desert will carry the fire away (Psalms 58:9).
III. The spectacle of justice (Psalms 58:10-11). Not only does the psalmist, inspired by the vision of the eternal throne, foresee that this must be the issue, but he earnestly pleads for it; and he does so on two grounds--that the righteous may obtain the reward of their righteousness, and that all men may see that there is a God that judgeth in the earth. The triumph of injustice can only be temporary. There is a day coming when all the unjust judgments both of corrupt tribunals and of unrighteous society will be reversed. Even now God asserts Himself and vindicates His own; and, when He does so, the instincts of every honest heart must rise up to welcome Him. (J. Stalker, D. D.)
The perversion of justice
Agesilaus, indeed, in other respects was strictly and inflexibly just; but where a man’s friends are concerned, he thought a rigid regard to justice a mere pretence. There is still extant a short letter of his to Hydreius the Carian, which is a proof of what we have said: “If Nicias is innocent, acquit him; if he is not innocent, acquit him on my account; however, be sure to acquit him.” (Plutarch.)