They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen _themselves_. Selah. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I _myself_ will awake early. I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people; I will sing unto thee among the nations: For thy mercy _is_ great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, _let_ thy glory _be_ above all the earth. This Psalm is a prayer; in which David again complains concerning Saul, and those around him; on account of whose plots and snares, he was compelled to flee into a cave. It is nearly of the same purport as the Psalm preceding. _We_ ought to make use of this Psalm also against tyrants, and against sycophants, and certain powerful ones, about the palaces of kings and princes; who persecute us on account of the word and name of God, and persecute our doctrine also; interpreting every thing that we do in the worst sense; and traducing and hating all that fear God. And David here paints forth the cruelty of these characters; “Their teeth (says he) are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” Thanks be to God therefore, that he does not forsake his people, but makes their enemies fall into the pit which they themselves have made; so that they are utterly subverted and taken in their own craftiness! PSALM LVIII. _David reproveth wicked judges, describeth the nature of the wicked, devoteth them to God’s judgments, whereat the righteous shall rejoice._ To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison _is_ like the poison of a serpent; _they_ are like the deaf adder _that_ stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. Let them melt away as waters _which_ run continually: _when_ he bendeth _his bow to shoot_ his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail _which_ melteth, let _every one of them_ pass away: _like_ the untimely birth of a woman, _that_ they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in _his_ wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, verily _there is_ a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.