What is the meaning of Psalm 58:7? May they vanish like water that runs off • David pictures the wicked dissolving as effortlessly as a puddle drained by dry ground—here is a literal prayer that their power and influence would simply disappear. • The same image of swift, irreversible depletion appears in Psalm 37:20, “But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures; they will vanish—like smoke they will vanish away.” • 2 Samuel 14:14 echoes the thought: “For we will surely die and be like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered.” Once God releases His judgment, there is no rewinding the clock. • This is not vindictive rage but a cry for righteous order: when evil collapses, the innocent are protected (Psalm 58:10–11). When they draw the bow • The picture now shifts from passively disappearing to actively plotting harm. Drawing the bow signals a readiness to attack. • Psalm 11:2 notes, “For behold, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrow on the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.” David knows exactly how real and imminent such threats are. • By naming the action—“when”—he affirms that God’s people can expect hostility in real time, not merely in theory (John 15:18–20). • Yet every hostile preparation is still under God’s surveillance: “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous” (Psalm 34:15). May their arrows be blunted • A blunted arrow falls harmlessly; the prayer asks that every scheme aimed at the godly would fail before it can inflict damage. • Psalm 64:3–7 sets the pattern: the wicked “aim bitter words like arrows,” but “God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be wounded.” Divine counter-fire nullifies human weaponry. • Proverbs 25:18 warns that a false witness “is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.” David effectively asks God to turn those sharp points into rubber tips. • Ephesians 6:16 applies the same principle spiritually: “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” God not only protects but de-fanges the attack. summary Psalm 58:7 is a heartbeat-fast plea for God’s swift, decisive justice. David longs for evildoers to lose their strength as quickly as water seeps away and to find their weapons useless the moment they try to shoot. The verse assures believers that the Lord can both remove the wicked from the stage and neutralize their assaults, preserving His people and displaying His righteous rule for all to see. |