To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.

1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness: ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear:

5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in His wrath.

10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

The Point:

We rejoice in the justice of God executed in the destruction of His enemies.

How do we feel in the recitation of this psalm?

The sentiment felt is that of righteous indignation. When Elijah opposed the prophets of Baal at Carmel and when Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables in the temple, neither was expressing sadness or even joy. What sentiment do you suppose was operating in the hearts of Jesus and Elijah in these situations? Obviously, there must be something besides sinful anger that operates in men who have a keen moral sense of justice in the face of injustice. How does one react when faced with the wicked deeds of the descendants of Cain? The cruel murder of the innocents has continued throughout history at the hands of tyrants such as the Pharaoh of the Exodus or Herod in Bethlehem. While there may be sinful responses, including hypocritical judgmentalism and sinful forms of anger, shouldn’t we include complacent acceptance of the evil as an inappropriate response as well? Moral outrage is a wholly acceptable emotional response towards men who commit wicked acts and yet receive both social acceptance and state sanction for their deeds. This moral outrage leads us to call for God’s interdiction, but we do not linger in this state of emotion. Inevitably, God will judge and we will rejoice in His triumph over all evil.

What does this psalm say?

Verses 1–5. The psalm begins with a description of the wicked, some of whom may associate themselves with the congregation of God’s people. These are men who refuse to speak the righteous standards of God’s law. Their words are not measured by God’s truth revealed in His Word. But where is the root of the wicked violence these men bring about in the earth? Verse 2 points directly to the human heart. Violence is first planned in the heart. Wickedness begins with ideas formulated in men’s hearts and then these ideas are taught in the schools, the universities, and the media (such as television or newspapers). Upon their conception, these ideas bring forth unspeakable evil. You may remember the two young men at Columbine High School in 1999, who saw themselves as the agents to facilitate Darwin’s theory of natural selection. By the time they had finished their work at the high school, they had murdered 19 students and teachers in cold blood.

Some have tried to teach us that man is basically good when he is born, and that he is entirely shaped by his environment. In other words, they teach that men start out with a good nature but they pick up sinful habits by watching the examples of others. This is patently unbiblical. Verse 3 tells us that the wicked wander away from God as early as when they come out of the womb. On the day that a mother delivers a six pound, four-ounce baby, that little one has a heart that already hates God and His truth. Though the little child may seem harmless as just a cute, cuddly baby, the Bible clearly states that this little person speaks lies as soon as he is born. On the first day of his life, before he has learned any bad habits from his brothers and sisters, that little child is ready to lie. He might cry for food when he is not hungry at all. His sinful heart begins operating from day one. Now do you see the depth of man’s problem? Sin is a heart problem and it is rooted in man’s corrupt nature, inherited from Grandpa Adam.

The evil that these men do is like the poison of a rattlesnake. Whenever they fulfill the evil intentions of their hearts, the results are catastrophic. Even as a snake bite produces tremendous pain, extraordinary swelling, infection, and even death, so the works of these men will break up relationships and produce pain, misery, and death.

Now, all of us are born with a corrupt nature and short of the regenerating work of God’s Spirit, we would be counted among the wicked. But by the grace of God, the righteous man responds to the truth. His heart is bent by the Word of God and he submits to its truth as a snake responds to the voice of a charmer. What marks the wicked man is that he refuses to be corrected. When faced with the truth of God’s Word, he stops his ears, rejects the words of truth, and walks away.

Verses 6–11. This section opens up with what could be considered the most shocking pronouncement in all of David’s writings. With reference to the wicked men he has described thus far, he says, “Break their teeth, O God!” Is this too harsh? How else should we address the unrestrained evil that men do? Are we happy to see it continue? David prays that God would blunt the destructive effects of these wicked men. Mountain lions cannot effectively bite into their hapless victim with broken teeth, and a warrior cannot do much with broken arrows. In effect, David prays for the total and rapid destruction of the wicked. From this psalm and others (including Ps. 1 and 37), we know that the destruction of the wicked comes quickly in the grand scheme of things. Verses 8 and 9 compare their quick demise to a still born child, a snail that melts away, and as dry thorns that burn up quickly in the fireplace.

The response of the righteous to the destruction of the wicked is not sadness, nor is it a complacent disinterest. The right response is joy. Verse 10 describes that response in these amazing words: “The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”

The Psalmist, in this passage, clearly speaks of God’s enemies and not ours. In the final analysis, we do not know who is and who is not an enemy of our Lord, because we do not know who will and who will not humble himself and repent before God. Nevertheless, the righteous will rejoice in the final and absolute judgment of God. Those who refuse to hear the Word of God, humble themselves, and be corrected by it (vv. 4–5) will be utterly destroyed.

How do we apply this psalm?

1. When we pick up the newspaper and read of the evil things that men do—their fearsome murders, the schools that promote homosexuality, and the despotism of their governments tyrannizing the people (not to mention the proud boasting in this evil)—what do we do? We may legitimately respond with the sentiments and the words of this psalm. Of course the secular newspapers in our major cities today could care less what God thinks about any of their deeds, and they feel they can sin with impunity. But the righteous man says with faith, “I know that God will avenge every sin to the utmost degree. As sure as God lives, He will come quickly and wipe out all of His enemies. In that day we will wash our feet in the blood of the wicked.” It may be only 100 years from now that God will wipe this Sparta or that Rome or this San Francisco off of the map. The influence of the wicked who have taken our country away from the standards of God’s law will be short-lived in the scheme of history. For now they appear to retain great reservoirs of power, but in just a few generations their influence will fade away.

2. We still need to retain a very important distinction in this matter of vengeance. As the Psalmist testifies, we do rejoice in God’s vengeance, but that vengeance does not belong to us (Rom. 12:19–21). The fiery vengeance that visits the wicked is entirely God’s vengeance. Through it all, it is our responsibility to love our enemies and, at the same time, hate God’s enemies (Matt. 5:44: Ps. 132:21).

How does this psalm teach us to worship God?

Verses 6 and 10 make for strange words in the context of contemporary worship. It is doubtful you will hear any modern chorus bopping along to the words of verse 10, “We will wash our feet in the blood of the wicked!” Words like these will change the tenor of our worship, especially if we have grown accustomed to a weaker form of emotion in modern worship. As we employ psalms of this sort in our worship, we will begin to regain a wider range of sentiments, a more reverent sense of God’s justice and judgment, and a deeper sense of the antithesis between good and evil.

Questions:

1. Name several Imprecatory or Judgment psalms.

2. What is a biblical basis for moral outrage?

3. What characterizes a wicked man?

4. How early does a person begin to sin in his life?

5. What happens when a rattlesnake bites your arm, and how does this compare to the wicked works of wicked men?

6. What is the response of the righteous to God’s judgment of the wicked?

Family Discussion Questions:

1. What is the emotional content of our worship? Is it mainly joy? Triumph? Sadness? Do we ever worship with a godly, holy indignation?

2. How do we respond to the wicked deeds of men recorded in newspapers or other media sources? Is it an appropriate response? Do we get angry? Is this anger a holy anger? Do we really trust that God will deal with the evil in the world?