Psalm 58 is quite a sombre psalm, with a considerable number of accusations running throughout most of it. It's about the hypocrisy of those who seem to speak righteously but, in their hearts, they work wickedness. It's only when we get to verse 10 of 11 that the mood changes slightly to the rejoicing of those who are righteous over the vengeance carried out on the wicked, leading to a sense of assured reward for the righteous. It is not a happy psalm at all.

One reason for this is that this psalm is one in a group of five (Psalms 56-60 and Psalm 16) which are headed as being a Michtam of David. All of them are confessional, and unburdening of sinfulness, and it is thought that they are psalms of atonement or the need for reconciliation through admissions of wrong.

This helps us understand the mood of the psalm and the spiritual meaning of the words and images used in it. It is about our need to practise repentance, to see our human nature and our proprium (selfness) and the evils they will design. Having seen them we are to turn from them emphatically and shun them as sins against God. (See New Jerusalem 163) and (Doctrine of Life 21 22). The psalm then is being addressed to ourselves.

This helps to explain the last two verses about the rejoicing of the righteous when vengeance is brought about and that there is a reward for being righteous. The language here is strong; it talks about the righteous man washing his feet in the blood of the wicked. But spiritually it is talking about the assurance of our will to serve the Lord in finding strength, knowing that the Lord is then in control of our proprium’s violence and subtle manoeuverings. (Arcana Caelestia 210)

Verse 2 says that the wicked ‘weigh out the violence of their hands’. Spiritually, weighing out is to act calculatedly and in proportion to the amount of harm that is desired. (Arcana Caelestia 7984.3)

The following verses (3 to 5) point out that our human state is geared towards evil from our birth and our first state (before regeneration) is not aligned towards good, heaven or the Lord. This initial state is certainly not damning, because it is not a chosen state but rather an inherited one in which we are unaware of higher motives. (Heaven and Hell 296 and Arcana Caelestia 8552)

The charmers spoken of here in verse 5 are not the typical evil devious charmers; they stand for those who wish to introduce the person to the way of the Lord and the life of truth and its joys. (See Apocalypse Revealed 462).

The deaf cobra represents the will within our unregenerate mind to resist hearing about this new life.

The intensity continues with breaking their teeth and their fangs, shooting broken arrows, being as snails which melt as they go, and finally like the still born child of a woman which will not see the sun. These extreme images convey the fervent wish in us that any evil states that exist within our hearts be utterly destroyed and made powerless and dead. (Heaven and Hell 506)

The psalm closes by first saying that the Lord will take away our evils from us if we seek them to be taken. Then the final outcome is described in graphic language which needs to be understood spiritually, that ‘the righteous shall wash their feet in the blood of the wicked’. Spiritually this means that those who serve the Lord will be purified from all evils by the Lord’s redemption, and this is the reward mentioned in the last verse. (Arcana Caelestia 8214 end)

7984. 'Four hundred and thirty years' means the essential nature and state of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'thirty' as a state when the quantity of remnants is complete, for that number is the product of three and ten multiplied, and 'three' means a state made complete, 2788, 4495, 7715, and 'ten' means remnants, 576, 1906, 2284 (what a state made complete is will be explained below); and from the meaning of 'four hundred' as the duration of vastation, dealt with in 2959, 2966, and from this the joining together of goodness and truth, 4341, The fact that all numbers mean real things and states, and that a compound number is similar to the simple ones of which it is a product, see above in 7973.

[2] As regards vastation, meant by 'four hundred years', there are two kinds, namely the vastation of evil and falsity and the vastation of goodness and truth. With those suffering damnation it is the vastation of goodness and truth, but with those who are being saved it is the vastation of evil and falsity, vastation being the taking away of those things. So far it has been shown that the evil who have belonged to the Church undergo vastation of all goodness and truth, for stages of vastation one after another are meant by the plagues in Egypt. But the good undergo vastation of evil and falsity. Evil and falsity residing with them are gradually separated, that is, removed to the sides, and forms of good and truths are gathered towards the middle. The term 'remnants' is used to describe goodness and truth gathered together in that way. And when their state of remnants has been made complete the good are raised to heaven. This state is what is meant by 'thirty', and vastation what is meant by 'four hundred'. With the good the vastation of evil and falsity and the instilling of goodness and truth is effected by means of molestations and by means of temptations. By means of both these, falsities and evils are removed and forms of good and truths are inserted; and this process continues until the state is made complete.

[3] What a state made complete is must also be explained briefly. Everyone, whether damned or saved, has a certain measure that can be made complete. The evil, or those who are damned, have a certain measure of evil and falsity, while the good, or those who are saved, have a certain measure of goodness and truth. This measure that everyone has is made complete in the next life, though with some the measure may be quite large, with others rather small. People acquire that measure in the world through the affections belonging to their love. The more anyone has loved evil and the falsity arising from it, the greater is the measure acquired by him; and the more anyone has loved good and the truth springing from it, the greater is his measure. The breadths and heights to which that measure can go are clearly apparent in the next life. These limits cannot be exceeded there, but they can be reached, and in fact are reached; that is to say, those whose affection has been for goodness and truth have their measure made complete with forms of good and truths, while those whose affection has been for evil and falsity have theirs made complete with evils and falsities. From this it is evident that this measure is a propensity acquired in the world to receive either evil and falsity or goodness and truth.

[4] This state is what a state made complete refers to and what is meant by 'thirty'. It is described by the Lord in the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30, and in that of the minas, Luke 19:11-27, and at length by these words in Matthew,

To everyone who has, it will be given, so that he may have in abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Matthew 25:29.

And in Luke,

To those standing by he said, Take the mina from him, and give to him who has ten minas. They said, Sir, he has ten minas. I say to you, that to everyone who has, it will be given; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Luke 19:24-26.

That everyone's measure is made complete is the Lord's teaching elsewhere in the same gospel, Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over they will give into your bosom. Luke 6:38.

From all this one may now see what is meant by a state made complete.