1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.
6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
Comment: What do you make of the word ‘gods’ in the first line? I remember sitting, in the south of Ethiopia, between the King of Bunna and the American Ambassador to Ethiopia as one of two translators. The translator heard the King and translated Bunna into Amharic and then I did Amharic into English! No one there spoke both the Bunna language and English! The King was ‘king’ over a few tens of thousands of people! The word translated here as ‘gods’ in other translations uses words that reflect leadership on an earthly plane. Satan is called ‘the god of this world and he has plenty of demons in his tribe, but the word ‘gods’ here means earthly leaders and David has in his vision those who are unjust and rule wickedly. He says that all their lives they have been venemous from the time they were born and refusing to listen to the most expert of people who could train them!
What about the word squeamish in the title? David speaks in a very harsh and most ‘un-Christian’ way when he is calling God to act! Well, did Paul get it wrong when writing to Timothy he said that ‘All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable,,,,’ Is breaking and pulling out the teeth of your enemy ‘godly action’? Presumably calling for his enemies ‘to dissolve into slime like a salted snail’, is it the way to speak? Is washing your feet in the blood of your slaughtered enemies a thing to be even imagined? David’s final ending is, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.” David spoke his mind, and even if he hadn’t, God would have known his thoughts and attitude in these matters. I think his ending is him saying, ‘Please God act on the behalf of goodness as I know that You are the Judge of everything!’
Ecclesiastes 12; 4 -For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
Prayer: Please keep me honest to You, O God, both in speaking to You in prayer and in my confessions and repentance.
As I read it! 