Summary
This psalm is addressed not to private enemies but to the bench: those who hold office and use it to weigh out violence. They are charged as men deaf by choice, like an adder that will not hear the charmer, and as poisoners from the womb of their office.
The sentence asked is a series of pictures rather than a programme — teeth broken, water poured out, a snail dissolving, an untimely birth — six figures for one thing: let this power come to nothing before it ripens. The verdict follows in two verses: the righteous will see the judgment and men will say that there is, after all, a God who judges in the earth. That is the psalm’s aim, and the reason a congregation may sing it.
Outline
Do you judge uprightly? No — you weigh out violence; venom from the first, and deaf to every charm.
Six figures of undoing: teeth broken, waters poured out, arrows cut off, a snail melting, an untimely birth, a fire quenched before the pot is warm.
The righteous rejoice at the vindication, and it is publicly acknowledged that God judges in the earth.
Stanza divisions provisional — to be conformed to the Book of Psalms for Worship. References NASB.