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PSALM 58 - In the Court 29 Dec 2019

Various translations of psalm 58 differ quite a bit. Some translations apply the "judgment" to the court of Saul while other translations position the tribunal in the heavenlies.

It is clear that the largest part of the psalm separates the world in "wicked" and "upright".

Refuge

My world is not a court of justice. Unfortunately there is a lot of injustice. I need a place of refuge. I find it at the altar of God with communal prayer. Catholics call it a mass. The priest intercedes for me.

Psalm 58

1[For the choirmaster Tune:
'Do not destroy'
Of David. In a quiet voice]
Divine as you are, do you truly give upright verdicts?
do you judge fairly the children of Adam?
2 No! You devise injustice in your hearts,
and with your hands you administer tyranny on the earth.
3 Since the womb they have gone astray, the wicked,
on the wrong path since their birth, with their unjust verdicts.
4 They are poisonous as any snake,
deaf as an adder that blocks its ears
5 so as not to hear the magician's music,
however skilful his spells.
6 God, break the teeth in their mouths,
snap off the fangs of these young lions, Yahweh.
7 May they drain away like water running to waste,
may they wither like trampled grass,
8 like the slug that melts as it moves
or a still-born child that never sees the sun.
9 Before they sprout thorns like the bramble,
green or burnt up, may retribution whirl them away.
10 The upright will rejoice to see vengeance done,
and will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 'So', people will say, 'the upright does have a reward;
there is a God to dispense justice on earth.'

Excerpt from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright (c) 1985 by
Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division
of Penguin Random House, Inc. Reprinted by Permission.

Altar = Place of Refuge