Psalm Chapter 58 - To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David

Psalm 58: The Snail and the Judge

This is one of the hard psalms, the kind we tend to flinch from at polite dinner parties. David prays that wicked judges — the very men charged with upholding justice — would melt like snails and vanish like untimely births. It is not comfortable, and it is not meant to be. But notice what the psalm is actually insisting on: that somewhere, finally, there is a Judge who is not corrupt. The wickedness of those who weigh violence in their hands does not get the last word. "Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth." That double "verily" is the sound of a man who has watched injustice for too long and needs to say it twice just to believe it. The snail imagery shocks us, but perhaps that is because we have made peace with the snail-men in our own time. David has not.

00:00 Do Ye Indeed Speak Righteousness

00:20 The Poison of the Deaf Adder

00:40 Break Their Teeth, O God

01:00 Melt Away as Waters

01:20 The Snail That Vanishes

01:40 A God That Judgeth in the Earth