Bible Commentaries
Psalms 58

Verse 1

Psalms 58:1

In the Prayer-book version this text stands, "Are your minds set upon righteousness, O ye congregation?" This includes the other, and goes deeper. We shall not speak of that upon which our minds are not first set.

I. Take these words in their large and general signification, and what do they mean? Are you in earnest? Are you in earnest about your own spiritual concerns? Are your affections "set on things above, not on things on the earth"? Have you concentrated your minds upon religion as upon a focus?

II. But the words have evidently a further distinctiveness. The word "righteous" in the Bible at least, in the New Testament application of it generally refers to that perfect righteousness which Jesus has both made and purchased for His people. The inquiry therefore in its true force runs thus: Are your minds set on finding pardon and justification through that Saviour who shed His very blood for us, that we, poor, banished, but not expelled, ones, might come back and find a home in our heavenly Father's love?

III. He who is, or wishes to be, righteous in his Saviour's righteousness is always the man who is also the most righteous in the discharge of all the duties of this present life. The question therefore takes another easy and necessary transit: In this very place, at this very moment, are you honest honest to God and to your own souls in the work in which you are engaged? You have received the stewardship of many talents; where is the capital, and where is the interest ready to be given back to the Proprietor when He comes? "Are your minds set upon righteousness, O ye congregation?"

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 123.

Verse 4

Psalms 58:4

Deaf adders may seem very stupid creatures to be teaching lessons to human beings, but they are certainly able to do it. There is quite a variety of deaf adders in the world.

I. Lazy schoolboys and girls are like deaf adders.

II. Hard-headed people are like deaf adders.

III. Hard-hearted people are like deaf adders.

IV. Ungodly people are like deaf adders.

J. N. Norton, The King's Ferry Boat, p. 126.

Reference: Psalms 58:0 J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 212.