After the Last Great Battle – Love, Joy and Peace – Psalm 58

“To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” A Michtam of David.” Psalm 58:1

Psalm 57-59 and Psalm 75 “are characterized by a plea for safety from enemies, trusting in God’s protection, and the ultimate, destruction of the wicked while the righteous are preserved. All four Psalms are set to the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” “Do Not Destroy” or “Destroy Not” is believed to be a popular song or musical phrase of the era.” [1]

In Revelation 9:11, the name of the king of the bottomless pit is Apollyon in Greek and Abaddon in Hebrew. His name means Destroyer. In what ways are destructive forces at work in your life and in the world?

In 1 John 5:5, the Apostle John asks and answers a question about overcoming the destructive forces in the world. He wrote, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” When we believe in and profess Jesus Christ, God saves us.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? I do. I hope that you do too.

“Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent one’s? Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men? No, in heart you work wickedness. You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.” Psalm 58:1-2

In Psalm 58:1-2, David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, declares his judges guilty. He does so with the gavel of God’s Word. He judges them with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. [2]

Saul’s government was evil. In 1 Samuel 22:6-23, he gave the orders for an entire village of godly priests and their families to be put to death by the sword, and those orders were carried out without hesitation. Saul’s congregation was a collaboration of corrupt officials. His department of justice was a department of injustice. His convention was a convention of criminals. His learned lawyers were masters at vindicating criminals and prosecuting the innocent.

According to 1 Samuel 22:7, Saul incentivized men to hate David. “He said to them, ‘Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?’”

In Ecclesiastes 3:16, God expresses His grief over the miscarriage of justice, saying, “I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there.”

According to Romans 13:3, God authorizes earthly governments to be a terror to those who do wrong but not to those who do right. In Romans 13:4, the Word of the Lord says, “They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

“The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear, which will not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skillfully.” Psalm 58:3-5

In Matthew 3:7, when John the Baptist “Saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?’” In Matthew 23:33, Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” Apart from Christ, religious leaders deceive their followers because Jesus is the Truth. In Romans 3:13, Paul wrote of his own people, the ones who rejected Christ, saying, “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

The Pharisees focused their listeners on symbolic acts of holiness rather than conversion and transformation by God. In John 3:5, Jesus told one of them named Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” Salvation is not solely based on a formula that one follows. It is based on a relationship with the living God. God must do the converting and transformation. We must abide in Christ to be holy.

In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Jesus is the Seed from which justice, mercy and faithfulness grow. Without Him, crime, cruelty and betrayal spring up like weeds, and takeover.

“Break their teeth in their mouth, O God! Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Let them flow away as waters which run continually. When he bends his bow, let his arrows be as if cut in pieces. Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun.” Psalm 58:6-8

David asks God to defeat enemies of righteousness. Remove their teeth! Sanction their food intake! Change the course of their stream! Let them be thirsty! Make their arrows miss their mark so they doubt the validity of their actions. Let them crawl and melt away! Hinder their advances! Let them not see the light of day! Disorient them!

In Acts 13:6-12, a false prophet tried to stop Barnabas and Paul from sharing the Gospel with a Roman official. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at him and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” He immediately did become blind. Then, the Roman official believed in Christ.

“Before your pots can feel the burning thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, as in His living and burning wrath.” Psalm 58:9

“The Hebrew of these lines is difficult but the thought may be that David considered how quickly a bunch of dry thorns burn in a fire under cooking pots. David prayed that God’s judgment would come upon his enemies like a flash of fire.” God’s judgment is sudden, unavoidable, and complete. [3]

God is able to bring down a mighty empire in a moment.

For example, in Daniel 5:1-6, King Belshazzar was having a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles. “As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.” God’s Word to Belshazzar was that his days were over. Daniel 5:30-31 states, “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.”

“The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that men will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous. Surely He is God who judges in the earth.’” Psalm 58:10-11

The imagery here is of the righteous walking victoriously with God at the end of a bloody battle. The wicked seemed invincible. Their propaganda promised a better life, but behind the scenes, they used bribes, blackmail and torture to ensure their agenda was accomplished. They killed millions of preborn people. They enslaved millions with drug and sexual addictions. They sent greatly loved children off to die in their wars. Finally, after one great battle, they ceased to exist.

In Revelation 12:17, God reveals to us that the devil is at war with those who keep His commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

In Revelation 20:8-10, God reveals to us that Satan will deceive the nations to gather against “the camp of the saints.” But at the very moment, when all seems lost for Christ’s faithful followers, fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them. Then, the devil, who deceived the nations, will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where he “will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

In Revelation 21-22, after the devil’s days of destroying people are over, Christ’s followers enjoy a new heaven and a new earth. We shall live in a kingdom that is eternal. Perfect in splendor! A paradise where hatred, crime and death no longer exists! We will never hunger nor thirst again. God will abundantly provide for our eternal existence. In God’s presence, there is love, peace and joy forevermore. God will be to us as a loving Father. God does delights in our happiness.



[1] Enduring Word Commentary
[2] Matthew Henry’s Commentary
[3] Enduring Word Commentary