More On Psalm Cursing & Psalm 58

Most cursing psalms are laments or cries for social justice (or both). As such, the sentiments they express are quite familiar to modern ears. “I’m deeply wounded. The pain is killing me. I did nothing to deserve this. Those who hurt me are arrogant and greedy. Vicious, wicked people, they take advantage of the weak and poor, wantonly destroying anyone they can. Stop them. Make them nothing. Demolish them as they have demolished others.” And so on.

As my last post was on the snail melting line of psalm 58, here is a bit more about it.

Psalm 58 is a straight-out plea for social justice. It starts by condemning the wickedness of rulers (“the mighty” or “the gods” in some English translations - though notably, the King James twists this into “the congregation.” Wouldn’t do to let the ruled to get wrong ideas about the rulers!).

From the New International Version (except they just lo-o-o-ve semi-colons. There’s no punctuation in the Hebrew so I put in periods. I also changed “men” to “people.”):

“Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge uprightly among people? No. In your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. Even from birth the wicked go astray. From the womb they are wayward and speak lies. Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.”

Many good-heated, modern people shake with similar, indignant passion as they consider the suffering caused by the greedy rich and self-important powerful. I have friends and family who speak at least that harshly of the present US administration. They fervently wish for results not unlike those desired by the psalm writer:

“Break the teeth in their mouths, O God. Tear out the fangs of the lions! Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted. Like a slug melting away as it moves along, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.” (Note: this translation makes the whole snail/slug slime thing a little more transparent.)

And many virulent Bush haters have no less violent of a vision for the future than that of the writer who ends this psalm:

“Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns - whether they be green or dry - the wicked will be swept away. The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. Then people will say, ‘Surely the righteous still are rewarded. Surely there is a God who judges the earth.’”

It all depends on who you call wicked and who righteous… And what you think causes suffering and what you think will end it.