As with the previous psalm, this one uses the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” And like many other psalms, the Hebrew poetic grammar is quite difficult. In this case, I cannot go with the NET Bible’s translation work, so we will follow here the NKJV and the MKJV.
We dare not forget that apparent real-world outcomes are not the priority among the ancient Hebrew people. If all you have are your senses and intellect, you’ll never really understand anything that matters. David’s lyric expressions echo so very much of what we find in other Ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, in that the desired result of a good life is the assurance in your heart of moral certainty that comes only from Heaven. It may not look successful to mere human perception, but when you have genuine peace in your soul, that is what counts most of all.
We also need to remember that context is everything and David presumes here living in the covenant society of Israel, not as a stranger among Gentiles. Thus, in the latter we would be careful what we speak about a heart-led drive for divine justice without first establishing the credibility to speak. We would give far greater emphasis to “mind your own business” among sinners. However, in Israel, the Covenant demands you speak the moral discernment of your heart to a nation required to care about revelation. Thus, David’s first lines use typical Hebrew parallelism to berate those who act like mere men of flesh with no heart because of their silence in the face of sin. Whatever happened to righteous moral indignation? It lies silent when human reasoning has corrupted the heart. In the second verse David castigates these silent ones who are too focused on their own desires to care about justice. If you don’t serve Jehovah with a fully committed heart, then you serve the Devil and his violence.
In the next three verses David characterizes the sinful hearts. Men are born into sin, but these folks have no consciousness of it. Their earliest cries do not reflect any genuine human need, just a desire to make others miserable. It’s like trying to charm a deaf snake. The best serpent charmer’s skills mean nothing if the snake cannot hear the music and other sounds used to keep them calm. Just so, the sweetest words of truth seem to pass right over these folks’ heads.
Three more verses follow in which David calls on God to pour out His wrath on such people. Defang them; let them run down to the sea like a stream channel that rushes without encountering any flat spots or turns. Let their weapons of harm be too fragile for use. David uses a common image of his people — it’s not as if they actually believed a snail was dissolving in leaving the slime trail, but it looked for all the world like that. So let it be with the wicked who closed their hearts to the truth. Like someone who never saw the light of day, take away what little savvy they might posses to harm others. These are things God promised to do when His people were faithful to the Law.
In the final three verses, David declares that God is not idle. All the more so in a society where the people care what God wants, they give Him room to act against sin. It was common to use dried thorn branches as kindling for a cooking fire, so before they even start to crackle, God is preparing His wrath like a whirlwind strong enough to blow out the flames and carry the pot away. Westerners tend to balk at the image of rejoicing in God’s vengeance, but it’s a common expression in the Old Testament. It’s wider implication is celebrating the death of your own sin nature, too. Who wouldn’t delight in that? But these are things visible only from an awakened heart of moral perception. Mere intellect cannot measure the genuine truth of God’s character revealed in His Word. But people who are committed with to a heart-led life in His truth will rejoice at how He manifests Himself in these ways.
