Ps 58 4Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, 5that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be. The key question is why do the Psalms carefully teach an proper attitude of instinctive distrust and caution toward civil rulers? When God placed man in the garden, he was effective to rule himself. Therefore, God delivered each man the gift of ruling over the earth. Man was equipped to rule without being constrained by God. We must reasonably understand the Bible faithfully upholds free will. Gods satisfactorily established the moral law as the secure foundation of ideal unity. The practice of the law achieved the increase of the glory of man. This is why the law does not measure the quality of the action but it is a pronouncing of blessing to those who embrace it. Simultaneously, it pronounces a curse upon those who divide it. But do not believe the law maintains two purposes. It does not pronounce violent destruction to merely destroy the valuable good that God has produced. Rather the curses prevent more isolated destruction because the law is Gods instrument of the sovereign preventing. The work of the law in the judgement of God is to separate the wicked from the righteous to terminate the war and punish the guilty. Hence, we can mention the curse of the law in the ultimate sense is shown in earthy wars. God provided nations the ethical responsibility to exercise the eternal curse in declaring a legal war. The legal war eliminates the wicked opposition. But man was fiercely opposed in the private garden by the most beautiful and violent fallen angel. The devil tempted man by an evil curse. Man had never been opposed by criminal violence. We can say the first overpowering temptation by the devil was violent. The devil promptly ended mans blessed meaningful relationship to God and the fruitful earth by cursing man. The Psalmist is carefully teaching the devil instantly became the prince of the air by a violent attack. What endure the first criminal violence? It was twisting the sacred word. The Devil was the first ruler who unlawful merely exercised his prosecuting authority. Its like the legitimate exercise of moral authority between a responsible adult and a child. The responsible adult carefully explains the necessary conditions of the ethical conduct to naturally induce the child to willingly comply. God does not exercise His moral authority in this way toward His divine creation. Gods word is sufficiently self-attesting it is not a direct interaction of direct violence. The Psalmist is carefully teaching that withstanding temptation is not really giving in because of the acute pleasure. We are aggressively confronted with a violent attempt of a violent assault to our souls. This is why the Psalms are filled with wisdom of eternal curses. Our first blessed estate was without official opposition or creative tension. When man sinned, he overwhelmingly received the violent tension. Sin bought self-violence and social violence. Man was pronounced as a free moral creature because he properly applied the axioms perfectly. But when sin entered the corrupted man incorrectly applies the axioms with criminal violence. The Psalmist teaching the political violence is our incorrect application of Gods Law. God had to respond defensively to the miss application by cursing the violator. This is why the apostle earnestly exhorts us to put sin to death. The Psalmist teaches we must curse all opposition because we live precariously with corrupted desires and in a oppressive culture of personal violence. When we get to the exposed root of sore temptation, we are strenuously opposing the perverse desire with the violent curse. All communication in fractious relationships is mixed with frail humanity and personal violence. Every enslaved person merely gives into sore temptation because of destructive violence. In this acute sense we merely live in the wicked world which the wicked prince and the power of the air is viciously assaulting all notorious sinners. We must be capable to dissociate the personal attack of the criminal violence from the universal struggle with the violence of pervasive corruption. We are effective to properly contain the excessive violence by bitterly cursing the wicked curse. This is why the Psalmist is carefully teaching that with criminal authority inevitably follows corrupted applications of the axioms that viciously assault the soul. All authorities are inevitably given the offensive position which they can irretrievably ruin the lives of many oppressed people. And they are placed in isolation in the political position where it is facile to become self-serving. They are merely withdrawn from the people who they rule over. The Psalmist never presents the social struggles in this ideal world in the moral context of the active avoidance of genuine pleasure but of political destruction and criminal violence.
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