PSALM FIFTY EIGHT UNJUST ACCUSATIONS! The opening verse of this psalm is paraphrased by Alexander in the following way:- "Can it be! Is it possible! Are you really silent? You whose very office is to speak for God, and against the sins of men." In Deuteronomy 1:16-17 God gave a special charge to the judges of Israel, "I charge your judges of that time, hear the causes between your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. He shall not have respect of persons in judgment but he shall hear the small as well as the great, and not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's and the cause that is too hard for you bring it unto me, and I will hear it." That was the command to those who were called to judge. David feeling now that many of the accusations against him were unjust, says to those in the nation who were in charge of judgment, "Can it be! Is it possible? Are you really silent? You whose very office is to speak for God and against the sins of men." If our forefathers were able to see what is happening in today's Society, they would be astonished at the unrighteous judgments often given. It is patently obvious that many an outstanding individual, very rich, can leave a situation where he owes millions, but let a less prosperous man do the same, and he feels the full weight of the law. Too often there is gross unrighteousness following accusations falsely made. Here in this psalm is a bold, unqualified denial of the justice of the accusations made against David. What they are saying is not true. Of course the Bible does warn us that nothing happens to us in this life but what is common to man. If you feel that there are times when folk have made accusations against you which are not true, you are not on your own. There have been many others before you, even one as prominent as David, and even One greater than David. David makes a bold unqualified denial of the justice of the accusations against him. As those men sat as dignified Judges, they were meditating wrong and injury to the man whom God had chosen. "Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth" - what they did, they did deliberately. We should never plot the downfall of another. Even good men have been broken by this. There are three important issues in this psalm:- 1. The characteristics of wicked people. 2. The intervention of God. 3. The reward of the righteous. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WICKED PEOPLE. In verse three the psalmist refers to men's natural corruption. "The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." I recall one little lad I had in a Sunday School years ago. He told us such tall tales, and we knew that everything he said was a pack of lies. We always had to say to him, "Is that the truth?" His reply was always the same, "Of course it is the truth. I've said it haven't I?" He was aware that there was something wrong, but he could never distinguish between a truth and a lie. From his birth he had lied. Then I realised what Christ meant when He said to the Pharisees, "Ye are of your father, the Devil." Satan is the biggest liar of them all, and if he has his way, he will make liars of us all. How wonderful it is to read what the Word of God says to those who have accepted Christ as their Saviour, "Now are ye the sons of God." One of the outstanding characteristics of the believer is that they are truthful, even! if it is to their own hurt. But the ungodly are estranged from the womb, going astray as soon as they are born. It requires the best precepts and the best principles, enforced by the highest authority to save children and youths from growing up arrogant liars. We neglect the coming generation at our peril. We must strictly adhere to the principles of God's Word, because the rot commences from the beginning. In one part of America there is a strange sight which tourists go to see - a field of trees which are all sorts of shapes. Apparently, an early settler when he first cultivated the ground planted the trees and bound them with cords to make them grow into grotesque shapes. Now, the cords have gone, but the trees are for ever misshapen. When he began to form them, the trees were pliable. Now, they cannot be straightened out. There are some things we have to straighten out when we are young. We all need the Grace of God to save us from corruption. There are religions in the world in which it does not matter if you lie. If people lie to their gods, then they will never know how to speak the truth. We worship the one God to whom you cannot lie. His Word is Truth, and we rejoice in Him. In the village where I lived as a boy, I heard people say of one family, "Don't have anything to do with them!" Yet they seemed to be the happiest family in the village. I played with the children of that family. They were not very particular. They were not always scrubbed clean. But there was love in that home, and I discovered that they always told the Truth. They had a bad name without cause - village gossip had seen to that. But no family is rotten. We all belong to the human race. Yet Satan will set one family against another by his whispered lies. He himself is the author of our corruption - the father of lies. But for the forgiveness of God we are all unrighteous. In the third verse the psalmist refers to the "poison" of men. "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent." Elsewhere the word 'poison' is rendered 'rage'-'wrath'-'fury'-'anger'. The world is full of this poisonous stuff. I have heard people boast about their 'Temper.' They are so proud of it when they say, "I have a foul temper." It is nothing to boast in. It is the poison of humanity, destroying the human race - the poison of man's malice. In David's day there was no remedy for the poison of asps (adders). Even today there is no easy remedy for 'Temper.' How peculiar it is that we have the habit of saying, "I lost my temper!" If only we could find it, things would be much better with it under control. There is a rage in mankind which stirs malice. But mankind is deaf to the arguments against wrath. They are like the deaf adder. It is supposed to be deaf to music. David's point was that his enemies were deaf to his reasoning. Man's hearing can be so faulty, when we have ears but do not hear. There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. We have ears but CANNOT hear. Our prejudices often make us deaf to the other person's argument. We have ears but hear amiss. Often we hear only what we want to hear. BUT GOD INTERVENES. The psalmist cries, "Break their teeth!" He is of course referring to serpents. Doing such a thing makes the creatures powerless. With the fangs drawn they cannot bite. "They shall come to nothing," sings the psalmist. They will be like water flowing down. It is a peculiar thing that if you take no heed to malice it becomes totally ineffective. It is like water off a duck's back. If you take malice into your system, it destroys. Shrug it off and it disappears. Those who are malicious will melt away as snails. Put salt on a snail and it will perish; meet the unrighteous with righteousness and he melts away. Salt is emblematic of the Word of God. Salt the injustices of life with the Word of God; it will finish them THERE IS A REWARD FOR THE RIGHTEOUS. The psalm uses a terrible illustration. "The righteous shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." This is an awesome saying, but consider what the Scripture says about our Lord the Christ, who for us, "Trod the winepress of the wrath of God." Treading the winepress is treading your feet in blood. There is One who shed His blood for us that we might be forgiven. He alone has the answer to all the unjust accusations of this world. He is the one of whom it is said, "Whom to know is life eternal." Our reward is to know that He is the God who judges righteously in all the earth. Shall not the judge of the earth do right?. In Christ there is forgiveness, life and joy. Copyright (c) 1996, Hedley Palmer. All rights reserved. ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/hpalmer/psalms: ps-058.txt .