Do You Truly Speak Justice

Psalm 58 is a psalm of David and a fierce cry against the twisting of justice. David turns to the judges and the powerful and asks a sharp, direct question: do you really judge fairly? In this first part he exposes the wide gap between fine words and real deeds, and he describes the nature of the wicked, people who seem born into evil, venomous as a serpent, and deaf to every rebuke. It is one of the most piercing chapters in the whole book, and a timeless call for justice that cannot be silenced.

The images in this psalm are unusually strong. The wicked are pictured as a venomous snake, as a deaf cobra that seals its own ear, unwilling to hear even the one who tries to calm it. David does not soften his words. He names things plainly, out of faith that truth is stronger than power, and that even when justice looks weak, there is One who sees everything.

This psalm carries the same heading as the neighboring Psalm 57: "Al-Tashchet" (Do Not Destroy) is the name of an old melody, and "Michtam" marks a precious kind of psalm.

The central verse, chosen as the title of this song, is:

"Do you truly speak justice, do you judge people with fairness?"

David asks those in power a piercing rhetorical question: are your words truly just, and do you judge people honestly? The question itself is the accusation, because in practice they twist judgment and abuse their position to harm the weak. It stays true in every generation: a demand that the words and the deeds of those in authority be one and the same.