The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"congregation," Hebrew elem (אֵלֶם), read by many as "ye gods," "ye mighty ones," the ruling judges. David arraigns the judges and rulers who were meant to defend justice, and he does it with stinging irony. He addresses them by the honoured title of those who sat on the bench, thought of almost as gods, wielding the power of life and death over others.

"judge uprightly," tishpetu meisharim (תִּשְׁפְּטוּ מֵישָׁרִים). "Do ye indeed speak righteousness... do ye judge uprightly?" The questions are an indictment, not an enquiry; the answer is no.

"sons of men," bnei adam (בְּנֵי אָדָם). In the same breath he pins them with the truth. However exalted their office, they are only adam, mortal men, and they will answer to One above them. That is the whole force of the opening: there is a Judge over every judge.

"work," tif'alun (תִּפְעָלוּן). Their wickedness is not a mood but a labour, something they do and go on doing. The verb makes their injustice an occupation carried out from the seat of authority.

"weigh," tefallesun (תְּפַלֵּסוּן), you weigh out, mete out. Here is the precise nature of their corruption. Justice was pictured as a balance-scale, the judge carefully weighing the evidence to reach a fair verdict; David says these men are indeed weighing something with great care, but not justice, "ye weigh the violence of your hands." They bring all the deliberate precision that should serve righteousness to the service of oppression instead.

Explanation

There is a stinging irony packed into how David addresses these men. He calls them, in effect, "ye mighty ones," the honoured title of those who sat as judges, thought of almost as gods on their benches, wielding the power of life and death over others; and then in the same breath he pins them with the truth, "O ye sons of men." However exalted their office, they are only adam, mortal men, and they will answer to One above them. That is the whole force of the opening: there is a Judge over every judge. And notice the precise nature of their corruption, caught in the word "weigh." Justice was pictured, then as now, as a balance-scale, the judge carefully weighing the evidence to reach a fair verdict. David says these men are indeed weighing something with great care, but not justice, "ye weigh the violence of your hands." They bring all the deliberate precision that should serve righteousness to the service of oppression instead; they mete out cruelty as carefully as an honest judge measures truth. It is a portrait of calculated, official injustice, evil not in a fit of passion but coolly administered from the seat of authority. And the first two verses quietly guarantee its reckoning, for the men who "weigh" wickedness on earth stand before the God who weighs all hearts in a truer balance.

Gospel Focus

"Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?", the corruption of human judges is answered by the one perfectly righteous Judge, Jesus Christ, to whom the Father "hath committed all judgment" (John 5:22). Every earthly court, however just or corrupt, sits under His higher court, for God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31), namely the Lord Jesus. He is the Judge who cannot be bribed, deceived, or intimidated, who "shall not judge after the sight of his eyes... but with righteousness shall he judge the poor" (Isaiah 11:3-4). And there is deep comfort here for all who have suffered injustice at the hands of the powerful: your case is not closed, for it will be reheard before a Judge who sees the heart and cannot be swayed. Yet the same Jesus who will judge the world first came to be judged in our place, standing silent before corrupt courts, condemned by unjust judges, "who, when he was reviled, reviled not again... but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). At the cross the perfect Judge took the sinner's sentence, so that all who trust Him escape the condemnation their own "sons of men" deserve. Fear no corrupt court; the God that judgeth in the earth is Christ, and His verdict is the only one that stands.

Word Study

"estranged," Hebrew zoru (זֹרוּ), turned aside, alienated. David traces the wickedness of these men to its root: "The wicked are estranged from the womb." The word is of a turning aside that leaves a man a stranger, and it describes not a late corruption but an original one.

"from the womb," merachem (מֵרָחֶם). The estrangement is dated as early as it can possibly be dated. Sin is deep-rooted, there from the very beginning of us, not a habit picked up along the way.

"go astray," ta'u (תָּעוּ). "They go astray as soon as they be born." The word is of wandering off the path, and the point is how quickly the wandering starts: the straying keeps pace with the living.

"poison," chamat (חֲמַת). Their venom is like a serpent's. What is inside them is not merely unpleasant but deadly to whoever comes near, which is what makes corrupt judges so dangerous to the people under them.

"deaf adder," peten cheresh (פֶּתֶן חֵרֵשׁ), a venomous cobra that is deaf. A snake-charmer could tame a serpent by his voice and playing, quieting its venom; but there was one kind of snake, folklore held, that could not be charmed. David is not merely saying the wicked are poisonous. He is saying they cannot be reached.

"stoppeth her ear," ya'tem ozno (יַאְטֵם אָזְנוֹ). Notice the picture: the adder is said to stop its own ear, as if choosing not to hear the very voice that could calm it. Such an adder "will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely." Their deafness to correction is deliberate, and so the deepest evil turns out to be not ignorance but a chosen deafness, a will that refuses to listen to any voice, however wise, that would tame it.

Explanation

The image of the deaf adder repays a closer look, for it names something more chilling than mere wickedness. A snake-charmer, in the ancient world, could tame a serpent by his voice and playing, quieting its venom, mastering its will. But there was one kind of snake, folklore held, that could not be charmed, the deaf adder, which "stoppeth her ear" so that "it will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely." Now see how David uses it. He is not merely saying the wicked are dangerous, poisonous as serpents; he is saying they are deliberately deaf. Notice the picture: the adder is said to stop its own ear, to press it to the ground, as if choosing not to hear the very voice that could calm it. The point is that the deepest evil is not ignorance but a chosen deafness, a will that refuses to listen to any voice, however wise, that would tame it. God sends charmers, His word, His warnings, His prophets, the pleadings of conscience, "charming never so wisely," and the hardened heart presses its ear shut. Put this beside verse 3, "estranged from the womb," and the diagnosis is complete and sobering: sin is both deep-rooted (there from the very beginning of us) and self-sealing (refusing the cure). It is a portrait not only of these particular judges but of the fallen human heart, and it shows why no amount of good advice can finally save; a heart that stops its own ears needs more than a wiser charmer. It needs to be made new.

Gospel Focus

"The wicked are estranged from the womb", this bleak truth about the human heart is exactly why the gospel of Jesus Christ offers not reform but new birth. If sin were only a bad habit picked up late, better instruction might cure it; but Scripture agrees with this psalm that the trouble runs to the root, "the wicked... go astray as soon as they be born," and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). Paul echoes it: we "were by nature the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). A heart estranged from the womb and deaf by choice cannot save itself, which is why Jesus said, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). The gospel does not merely give the deaf adder a wiser charmer; it gives a new heart and unstops the ear, for the same voice that once could not reach the hardened sinner is the voice of the Good Shepherd, and "my sheep hear my voice" (John 10:27). Christ opens deaf ears, literally in His ministry, "he maketh both the deaf to hear" (Mark 7:37), and spiritually in the new birth, so that those who once stopped their ears now hear and follow. So do not despair over a heart, your own or another's, that seems deaf to every good word. The One who was "manifested to take away our sins" (1 John 3:5) can unseal the ear that chose to close, and give the estranged heart a new birth.

Word Study

"verily," Hebrew akh (אַךְ), surely, truly, an emphatic affirmation. After the dark portrait of triumphant wickedness, the psalm ends in ringing certainty, and the word is doubled for emphasis. Twice David says akh, "surely, surely", the sound of a man who has wrestled with a hard question and at last come to rest.

"reward," peri (פְּרִי), literally "fruit," the harvest of one's way. "Verily there is a reward for the righteous." The promise is not that goodness is arbitrarily paid a wage, but that it bears fruit, as surely as a planted seed; the righteous life is not wasted, whatever it looks like now.

"for the righteous," latzaddiq (לַצַּדִּיק). The answer is addressed to the oldest ache of the believing heart in a crooked world: when corrupt judges prosper and the innocent are trampled, does it actually matter to be righteous? The psalm has stared that doubt full in the face, and it says yes.

"judgeth," shofetim (שֹׁפְטִים). The psalm that began by arraigning corrupt judges ends by naming the Judge who never fails: "verily he is a God that judgeth." The same word that indicted them declares Him.

"in the earth," ba'aretz (בָּאָרֶץ). Notice those last two words. The comfort is not merely that God will settle accounts in some far-off heaven, but that His justice is at work in the earth, in history, in real time, so that evil cannot finally escape.

Explanation

Hear the double "verily," because it is the sound of a doubt finally settled. Twice the man says akh, "surely, surely", the emphatic word of one who has wrestled with a hard question and at last come to rest. And what was the question? It is the oldest ache of the believing heart watching a crooked world: does it actually matter to be righteous? When corrupt judges prosper and the innocent are trampled, when the wicked seem to win, is there any point in being good? The psalm has stared that doubt full in the face, it has not pretended evil is weak or rare, and it answers with two settled convictions. First, "there is a reward for the righteous", the Hebrew is peri, "fruit," so the promise is not that goodness is arbitrarily paid a wage, but that it bears fruit, as surely as a planted seed; the righteous life is not wasted, whatever it looks like now. Second, and underneath the first, "he is a God that judgeth in the earth." Notice those last two words. The comfort is not merely that God will settle accounts in some far-off heaven, but that His justice is at work "in the earth," in history, in real time, a moral order woven into the world itself so that evil cannot finally escape. So the psalm that began by arraigning corrupt judges ends by pointing to the Judge who never fails, and it hands the wronged believer a certainty to rest on: your righteousness will bear fruit, and there is a God who judges, here, now, and at the last.

But we must not skip the prayers that make modern readers wince: "Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth," and the closing word, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance." Is such language Christian? Rightly understood, it is. David does not reach for a sword; he hands the whole matter to God, asking Him -- not himself -- to disarm the violent, exactly as the New Testament commands: "avenge not yourselves... for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). To pray "break their teeth" is to ask God to draw the fangs of the predator, to stop the cruel before they devour the helpless -- a cry for the oppressed, not spite. And the righteous "rejoice" not over a man's ruin but over the triumph of justice, that God has proved true and evil has not won the last word -- the very joy heaven sings when Babylon falls (Revelation 19:1-2). To long for a world where cruelty is finally stopped is not sub-Christian; it is to pray, "Thy kingdom come."

Gospel Focus

"Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth", this certainty is made sure and sweet in Jesus Christ, in whom justice and mercy meet. The "reward for the righteous" is guaranteed in Him, for He has promised, "great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:12), and "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love" (Hebrews 6:10); no cup of cold water given in His name is lost. And He is Himself the proof that God "judgeth in the earth," for at the cross the greatest injustice ever done, the condemning of the sinless Son, became the very place where God's justice was satisfied and His mercy poured out, "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). The believer wronged in this life need not take vengeance into his own hands, for "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19); we may leave every injustice with the Judge who cannot fail. And the day is coming when His judgment in the earth will be complete and visible, when He returns to "judge the quick and the dead" (2 Timothy 4:1) and every wrong is set right. So take heart: righteousness bears fruit, evil will be repaid, and there is a God who judges the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ, just and the justifier, before whom every corrupt court and every hidden wrong will finally answer.