You rulers, do you know what justice is?

Among mankind do you judge uprightly?

No, you devise injustice in your hearts,

and on the earth you mete out cruelty.

[Sing to the Lord 58]

2. Even from birth the wicked go astray,

and from the womb untruthfully they speak;

their wayward thoughts well up within their hearts,

and havoc with their lying words they wreak.

3. Their poison’s like the venom of a snake;

they’re like a cobra that has closed its ear –

however great the charmer’s skill may be,

it pays no heed because it does not hear.

4. Destroy, O God, the teeth within their mouths;

LORD, smite the lion’s jaw a mighty blow.

Make them disperse as water flows away,

and blunt their arrows when they draw the bow.

5. May they be like the snail that melts away,

or like a stillborn child that sees no sun.

Before a pot can boil on burning thorns,

so swiftly shall the wicked be undone.

6. The just will tread the blood of wicked men;

when they’re avenged, the righteous will be glad.

Then all will say, “The just have their reward;

surely the judge of all the earth is God.”

Sing to the Lord 58Used with permission

Text: Sing Psalms, © Psalmody Committee, Free Church of Scotland, 2003

Tune: James Langran, 1861