Psalms

The Psalter is Israel’s hymnbook: lament, praise, thanksgiving, royal psalms, and wisdom. It trains the heart to speak to God in trouble and in joy, and it points ahead to the Messiah.

Author: David and others
Date: c. 1400–400 BC
Theme: Prayers and songs for every season of the life of faith.
Key verses: Psalm 23; Psalm 51; Psalm 119:105
Geneva Bible 1599

Psalms 58

1To him that excelleth. Destroy not. A Psalme of David on Michtam. Is it true? O Congregation, speake ye iustly? O sonnes of men, iudge ye vprightly? 2Yea, rather ye imagine mischiefe in your heart: your hands execute crueltie vpon the earth. 3The wicked are strangers from ye wombe: euen from the belly haue they erred, and speake lyes. 4Their poyson is euen like the poyson of a serpent: like ye deafe adder that stoppeth his eare. 5Which heareth not the voyce of the inchanter, though he be most expert in charming. 6Breake their teeth, O God, in their mouthes: breake the iawes of the yong lions, O Lord. 7Let them melt like the waters, let them passe away: when hee shooteth his arrowes, let them be as broken. 8Let them consume like a snayle that melteth, and like the vntimely fruite of a woman, that hath not seene the sunne. 9As raw flesh before your pots feele the fire of thornes: so let him cary them away as with a whirlewinde in his wrath. 10The righteous shall reioyce when he seeeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feete in the blood of the wicked. 11And men shall say, Verily there is fruite for the righteous: doutlesse there is a God that iudgeth in the earth.

Geneva Bible (1599). Public domain.