Psalm 58

Inspired by Dr Kenny Tan (link), who decided to embark on a one-year project in 2021, where he would reflect on the book of Psalms and write a poem each in response to each Psalm.

I’m not going to write a poem, but I would like to reflect over each Psalm and pen my thoughts. Today is the first day that I’m starting on this and since my home church is going through the book of Psalm, I decided to pick up from where we left off – Psalm 58.

My thoughts

Righteousness vs wickedness

Sometimes, we can be overwhelmed by evil and wickedness.

Sometimes, it seems like the wicked are winning.

Sometimes, we find that righteousness has been overshadowed.

At those moments, perhaps, the only thing we can do is to pray for God to move, to work, to interfere.

We can pray and ask God to fight our battles.

We can pray for His righteousness and justice to overcome sin and wickedness.

We can call upon our God to destroy sin and evil.

Surely there is a reward for the righteous.

Surely there is a God who judges on earth.

Surely righteousness will prevail.

Surely good will triumph over evil.

Did you know?

I learnt something new too…

Miktam or Michtam (Hebrew: מִכְתָּם) is a word of unknown meaning found in the headings of Psalms 16 and 56–60 in the Hebrew Bible. 

Miktam corresponds to the Babylonian nakamu, lid, a metal cover for a vessel, but efforts to derive a meaning for the term in the Psalms have not been convincing. “When Eben Esra connected the Hebrew miktam with the word kéthem, gold, he was at any rate inspired.  In modern Hebrew, the word has come to mean “epigram”.

Therefore, we can make a guess that miktam is a valued object made of gold, or something containing a special teaching. Six Psalms in the psalter are introduced as a Miktam of David.