Commentary on Psalms - Volume 5

To the Chief Musician. Destroy not. Michtam of David

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

2Yea rather in your heart wickedness ye plot, On the earth violence your hands weigh out.

3Estranged are the ungodly from the womb, They have gone astray from their birth speaking falsehood.

4They have poison like the poison of a serpent, [They are] like the deaf adder which stoppeth her ear;

5Which listeneth not to the voice of the enchanter, — Of him who exerciseth enchantment skillfully.

6O God! break their teeth in their mouth: The jawbones of the lions break, O Jehovah!

7Let them melt away like water, let them be gone: Let them bend their bow, and let their arrows be as if broken.

8Like a snail which melteth away let them vanish; Like the untimely birth of a woman which doth not see the sun.

9Before your pots can feel the fire of the bramble, Like flesh yet raw as a whirlwind he shall carry him away.

10Rejoice shall the righteous when he seeth the vengeance; His hands he shall wash in the blood of the ungodly.

11And men ³³⁴ shall say, “Truly there is fruit for the righteous, “Truly there is a God who judgeth in the earth.”