Psalms 57 (DRB)

Chapter Text

57:1 Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title.

57:2 If in very deed ye speak justice: judge right things, ye sons of men.

57:3 For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.

57:4 The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.

57:5 Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:

57:6 Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.

57:7 God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.

57:8 They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.

57:9 Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.

57:10 Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.

57:11 The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.

57:12 And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "gone astray", "destroy", "david", "inscription", "title", "very", "deed", and "speak". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "gone astray" and "destroy", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local DRB text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "gone astray" and "destroy" carries the first interpretive weight. In Psalms context, the local focus is worship, trust, the LORD's kingship, and covenant mercy.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "gone astray" and "destroy" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.