1 Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually.
2 Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth.
4 You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
KJVKing James Version
1 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.
2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 (52-1) For the Leader. Maschil of David; (52-2) when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him: 'David is come to the house of Ahimelech.' (52-3) Why boastest thou thyself of evil, O mighty man? The mercy of God endureth continually.
2 (52-4) Thy tongue deviseth destruction; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 (52-5) Thou lovest evil more than good; falsehood rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
4 (52-6) Thou lovest all devouring words, the deceitful tongue.
Psalms 120:3(v4)What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?
Psalms 103:17(v1)But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,
James 3:6-9(v4)And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course…
Psalms 94:4(v1)They pour out arrogant words. All the evildoers boast.
Psalms 107:1(v1)Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
Show all 52 cross-references
1 Samuel 21:7(v1)Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the…
Proverbs 18:21(v2)Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
Jeremiah 9:3-5(v3)“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to…
John 8:44(v3)You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand…
Proverbs 6:14(v1)in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
Proverbs 6:16-19(v2)There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed…
Isaiah 59:4(v1)No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to…
2 Timothy 3:4(v3)traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Genesis 10:8-9(v1)Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said,…
Psalms 7:14(v1)Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.
Psalms 36:3-6(v1)The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a…
Psalms 57:4(v2)My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a…
Psalms 137:1-2(v1)By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps.
Proverbs 12:18(v2)There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
Micah 3:2(v3)You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;
Revelation 22:15(v3)Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Psalms 59:7(vv1–2)Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”
Jeremiah 9:8(vv1, 3)Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush…
Genesis 6:4-5(v1)The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them.…
Exodus 22:9(v1)For every matter of trespass, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, about which one…
1 Samuel 22:9-19(v1)Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of…
Psalms 10:2-3(v1)In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak. They are caught in the schemes that they devise. For the wicked boasts of his heart’s…
Proverbs 6:18(v1)a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
Jeremiah 4:22(v3)“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil,…
Jeremiah 9:3-4(v2)“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to…
Romans 1:25(v3)who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
2 Timothy 3:2(v1)For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Psalms 50:19(v2)“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
Psalms 62:4(v3)They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.
Psalms 64:2-6(v2)Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil; who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim…
Psalms 109:2(v2)for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
Psalms 120:2(v2)Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
Psalms 140:2-3(v2)those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather themselves together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a…
Proverbs 30:14(v2)There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among…
Jeremiah 18:18(v2)Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the…
Matthew 26:59(v2)Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death;
Acts 6:11-13(v2)Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” They stirred up the people, the…
Acts 24:1(v2)After five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with certain elders and an orator, one Tertullus. They informed the governor against…
Acts 24:5(v2)For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the…
2 Corinthians 4:2(v2)But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the…
2 Corinthians 11:13(v2)For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
1 John 4:7-8(v1)Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love…
1 Samuel 22:18-19(v4)The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day…
Psalms 54:3(v1)For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them.
Micah 7:3(v1)Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil…
Romans 1:30(v1)backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Revelation 12:10(v2)I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has…
52 distinct cross-references across this passage (54 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 41. Why boastest thou of thy wickedness? The success…
1. Why boastest thou of thy wickedness? The success which crowned the treachery of Doeg must have tended considerably to stagger David’s faith; and he seems to have adopted the strain of holy defiance with which the psalm commences, in order to arm himself more effectually against this temptation. He begins by charging Doeg with an aggravation of his guilt, in boasting of the power which he had acquired by an act of consummate villany. This power may have been sufficiently considerable to attract the notice which is here taken of it; for although he is only said to have been “master of the king’s herdsmen,” the designation does not imply that he was personally occupied in herding cattle, but may have been an honorary title; as in modern courts we speak of “The Master of the Horse.” he is reminded that there was no reason why he should applaud himself in his greatness, so long as he abused it to purposes of wickedness; nor why he should be vain of any new honor which the king might have conferred upon him in consideration of his late crime, as integrity is the only sure pathway to power and preferment. Any triumph which may be obtained by violence, treachery, or other unjustifiable means, is short-lived. In the second part of the verse, he points at the true cause of the blindness and stupidity that lead men to glory in their wickedness, which is, that they despise the poor and the humble; imagine that God will not condescend to interest himself in their behalf; and therefore embrace the occasion of oppressing them with impunity. They make no account of that providence which God exerts over his own children. David, in the exercise of a holy confidence, challenges such proud boasters with dishonoring the goodness of God; and as the Divine goodness does not always pursue the same even course — occasionally appears to suffer an interruption, and sometimes seems as if it were cut off altogether, David repels any temptation which this might suggest, by asserting that, whatever appearances may say to the contrary, it is daily exercised. This is evidently the meaning which he intends to convey, that any partial obstructions which may take place in the display of it can never prevent its constant renewal. He was confident that he would experience, in the future, what he had found in the past; for God cannot become weary in helping his people, or alleviating their miseries; and although he may suffer them again and again to fall into affliction, he is always equally ready to extend them the deliverance which they need.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1–3O Doeg, which hast credit with the tyrant Saul,…
O Doeg, which hast credit with the tyrant Saul, and hast power to murder the Saints of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Psa 52:1 « To the chief Musician, Maschil, [A…
Psa 52:1 « To the chief Musician, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. » Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God [endureth] continually.
A Psalm of David] Or the same time and argument, likely, with Psa 58:1-11
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Maschil] Or, to teach that the end of the wicked is evil; Redarguit pravos mores, saith the Syriac.
When Doeg the Edomite] When Abiathar escaping the slaughter slave, the blood hound (as Edomite may signify), came and told David what was befallen the priests and their city. This was no small affliction to David; the rather, because by telling the priest a lie, himself had occasioned the massacre. Hereupon, for the comfort of himself and other good people who were startled at this sad accident, and might be deterred thereby from helping David, he penned this psalm.
When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, &c.] Doeg is a fit name for a courtier; for it signifieth a solicitous or bushy headed fellow, a petty officier, a progging companion, an informer, one that listeneth after rumours, and carrieth tales to curry favour. An Edomite he was by nation; but a proselyte in pretence at least, and one that was at that time detained before the Lord, either by virtue of some vow, or because it was the sabbath day and he would not travel on it, or to perform some other religious service, 1Sa 21:7 : this dissembled sanctity was double iniquity; and he became a type of Judas, as some make him.
He came and told Saul] Like a parasite and a tale bearer as he was: when as he should rather have told Ahimelech, that David was out of Saul’s favour, and sought for to the slaughter, as Kimchi here noteth on Psa 52:3, but he concealed that, that he might accuse Ahimelech; and so slew three at once (saith another Rabbi), viz. himself, Saul, and Ahimelech, calumniatorem, calumniatum et calumniam audientem.
And said, David is come to the house of Ahimelech] Few words, but full of poison; leviter volant non leviter vulnerant. Verba Doegi erant pauci, sod multum nocua (Kimchi). See the story more at large 1Sa 22:9. The Rabbis say (from Lev 14:44, where the same word is used of the leprous house, that is here, Psa 52:5, of Doeg’s doom) that he was for this fact smitten with leprosy; and afterwards sent to hell, which they gather from Psa 120:4 (Midrash Tillin).
Ver. 1. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, thou mighty man] Or, thou giant; for so he seemed to himself when he had slain tot inermes nec repugnantes, so many naked men, not making any resistance, though they were the priests of Jehovah; and afterwards had smitten the innocent inhabitants of the city of Nob, together with the women, the infants, and the cattle; like another Ajax flagellifer or Hercules furens ; and now vaunted himself in that mischievous prowess.
Egregiam vero laudem, &c.
The Hebrew word for boasting here signifieth also madness, when it is taken in the worse sense, as Jer 46:9 Pro 2:14; and to boast of his heart’s desire is the note of an atheist, Psa 10:3.
The goodness of God endureth continually] Maugre thy spitefulness, God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart, and will be so. The Rabbis make this the sense, If Ahimelech had not relieved me, God would have stirred up some other to have done it (R. Solomon). Some others understand it thus, The goodness of God towards thee, a wicked wretch, endureth all the day. This should lead thee to repentance. But thou, after thy hardness, &c., Rom 2:5.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Why boastest thou thyself, as if thou hadst done…
Why boastest thou thyself, as if thou hadst done a great exploit, which none else durst undertake; and thereby established the crown upon Saul’s head, and thyself in his favour; and broken all David’s designs, by striking a terror into all his favourers by this sad example?
O mighty man! he speak ironically. O valiant captain! O glorious action! to kill a few weak and unarmed persons in the king’s presence, and under the protection of his guards! Surely thy name will be famous to all ages for such heroical courage.
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The goodness of God endureth continually; God’s love and favour to his people, and in particular to me, is not fading and inconstant, but everlasting and unchangeable, and therefore not to be hindered or defeated by any wicked designs or practices. And therefore though he hath permitted thee, and may do others, to rage for a season, yet he will defend, and in due time deliver, his people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1The title is a brief account of the story…
The title is a brief account of the story which the psalm refers to. David now, at length, saw it necessary to quit the court, and shift for his own safety, for fear of Saul, who had once and again attempted to murder him. Being unprovided wit harms and victuals, he, by a wile, got Ahimelech the priest to furnish him with both. Doeg an Edomite happened to be there, and he went and informed Saul against Ahimelech, representing him as confederate with a traitor, upon which accusation Saul grounded a very bloody warrant, to kill all the priests; and Doeg, the prosecutor, was the executioner, Sa1 22:9, etc. In these verses,
I. David argues the case fairly with this proud and mighty man, Psa 52:1. Doeg, it is probably, was mighty in respect of bodily strength; but, if he was, he gained no reputation to it by his easy victory over the unarmed priests of the Lord; it is no honour for those that wear a sword to hector those that wear an ephod. However, he was, by his office, a mighty man, for he was set over the servants of Saul, chamberlain of the household. This was he that boasted himself, not only in the power he had to do mischief, but in the mischief he did. Note, It is bad to do ill, but it is worse to boast of it and glory in it when we have done, not only not to be ashamed of a wicked action, but to justify it, not only to justify it, but to magnify it and value ourselves upon it. Those that glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful; might men are often mischievous men, and boast of their heart's desire, Psa 10:3. It is uncertain how the following words come in: The goodness of God endures continually. Some make it the wicked man's answer to this question. The patience and forbearance of God (those great proofs of his goodness) are abused by sinners to the hardening of their hearts in their wicked ways; because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily, nay, because God is continually doing them good, therefore they boast in mischief; as if their prosperity in their wickedness were an evidence that there is no harm in it. But it is rather to be taken as an argument against him, to show, 1. The sinfulness of his sin: "God is continually doing good, and those that therein are like him have reason to glory in their being so; but thou art continually doing mischief, and therein art utterly unlike him, and contrary to him, and yet gloriest in being so." 2. The folly of it: "Thou thinkest, with the mischief which thou boastest of (so artfully contrived and so successfully carried on), to run down and ruin the people of God; but thou wilt find thyself mistaken: the goodness of God endures continually for their preservation, and then they need not fear what man can do unto them." The enemies in vain boast in their mischief while we have God's mercy to boast in.
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II. He draws up a high charge against him in the court of heaven, as he had drawn up a high charge against Ahimelech in Saul's court, Psa 52:2-4. He accuses him of the wickedness of his tongue (that unruly evil, full of deadly poison) and the wickedness of his heart, which that was an evidence of. Four things he charges him with: - 1. Malice. His tongue does mischief, not only pricking like a needle, but cutting like a sharp razor. Scornful bantering words would not content him; he loved devouring words, words that would ruin the priests of the Lord, whom he hated. 2. Falsehood. It was a deceitful tongue that he did this mischief with (Psa 52:4); he loved lying (Psa 52:3), and this sharp razor did work deceitfully (Psa 52:2), that is, before he had this occasion given him to discover his malice against the priests, he had acted very plausibly towards them; though he was an Edomite, he attended the altars, and brought his offerings, and paid his respects to the priests, as decently as any Israelite; therein he put a force upon himself (for he was detained before the Lord), but thus he gained an opportunity of doing them so much the greater mischief. Or it may refer to the information itself which he gave in against Ahimelech; for the matter of fact was, in substance, true, yet it was misrepresented, and false colours were put upon it, and therefore he might well be said to love lying, and to have a deceitful tongue. He told the truth, but not all the truth, as a witness ought to do; had he told that David made Ahimelech believe he was then going upon Saul's errand, the kindness he showed him would have appeared to be not only not traitorous against Saul, but respectful to him. It will not save us from the guilt of lying to be able to say, "There was some truth in what we said," if we pervert it, and make it to appear otherwise than it was. 3. Subtlety in sin: "Thy tongue devises mischiefs; that is, it speaks the mischief which thy heart devises." The more there is of craft and contrivance in any wickedness the more there is of the devil in it. 4. Affection to sin: "Thou lovest evil more than good; that is, thou lovest evil, and hast no love at all to that which is good; thou takest delight in lying, and makest no conscience of doing right. Thou wouldst rather please Saul by telling a lie than please God by speaking truth." Those are of Doeg's spirit who, instead of being pleased (as we ought all to be) with an opportunity of doing a man a kindness in his body, estate, or good name, are glad when they have a fair occasion to do a man a mischief, and readily close with an opportunity of that kind; that is loving evil more than good. It is bad to speak devouring words, but it is worse to love them either in others or in ourselves.
III. He reads his doom and denounces the judgments of God against him for his wickedness (Psa 52:5): "Thou hast destroyed the priests of the Lord and cut them off, and therefore God shall likewise destroy thee for ever." Sons of perdition actively shall be sons of perdition passively, as Judas and the man of sin. Destroyers shall be destroyed; those especially that hate, and persecute, and destroy the priests of the Lord, his ministers and people, who are made to our God priests, a royal priesthood, shall be taken away with a swift and everlasting destruction. Doeg is here condemned, 1. To be driven out of the church: He shall pluck thee out of the tabernacle, not thy dwelling-place, but God's (so it is most probably understood); "thou shalt be cut off from the favour of God, and his presence, and all communion with him, and shalt have no benefit either by oracle or offering." Justly was he deprived of all the privileges of God's house who had been so mischievous to his servants; he had come sometimes to God's tabernacle, and attended in his courts, but he was detained there; he was weary of his service, and sought an opportunity to defame his family; it was very fit therefore that he should be taken away, and plucked out thence; we should forbid any one our house that should serve us so. Note, We forfeit the benefit of ordinances if we make an ill use of them. 2. To be driven out of the world; "He shall root thee out of the land of the living, in which thou thoughtest thyself so deeply rooted." When good men die they are transplanted from the land of the living on earth, the nursery of the plants of righteousness, to that in heaven, the garden of the Lord, where they shall take root for ever; but, when wicked men die, they are rooted out of the land of the living, to perish for ever, as fuel to the fire of divine wrath. This will be the portion of those that contend with God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Why boastest thou thyself in mischief?.... Or "in evil"…
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief?.... Or "in evil" (w); in that which is sinful; to glory in riches, wisdom, and strength, which are not in themselves evil, is wrong; and to rejoice in such boastings, all such rejoicing is evil; to be a doer of mischief, or sin, is bad; to make a sport of it, worse; but to glory in it, and boast of it when done, is worse still: to be boasters of evil things, is the character of antichrist and his followers, Ti2 3:2; who not only boast of their merit, their good works, and works of supererogation, and of their riches, and honour, and grandeur, saying, "I sit as a queen", Rev 18:7; but of their wickedness in shedding the blood of the saints, thinking thereby they do God good service, and merit heaven, and eternal happiness; as Doeg boasted of his slaughter of the priests, and of his gaining the king's favour by it;
O mighty man! referring either to his office, being the chief of Saul's herdmen, and set over his servants, Sa1 21:7; or ironically, to the mighty deed he had done, in slaying the unarmed priests, and putting to death the very sucklings at the breast, and even the innocent sheep, oxen, and asses; or to his great wickedness and power to commit it; though man has no power and free will to that which is good, yet he has to that which is evil; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the eastern versions render it, "O thou! mighty in wickedness"; and to the same purpose the Targum paraphrases it, "mighty to shed innocent blood"; and the note of Aben Ezra is, "mighty to do evil". A learned writer (x) thinks this relates to Saul, and describes him as a man of power and dignity. The character well agrees with the little horn and Romish beast, Dan 7:20;
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the goodness of God endureth continually: that is, the love, grace, and mercy of God; this is observed as what is the matter of the saints' boasting, in opposition to the wicked boasting of Doeg; they glory in the love of God, and in that they know him who exerciseth lovingkindness, which is the source of all the blessings of grace and goodness; and in Christ, through whom all are communicated to them; and in him, as made every blessing to them, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: they ascribe the whole of their salvation, and all they have, to the grace of God, and glory in nothing as of themselves, and as though not received of the Lord. Moreover, the psalmist may take notice of this, as what was his support under all the persecutions he endured from men; that he had an interest in the grace and goodness of God, which is immutable and everlasting, invariably the same in all states and conditions; and that he was encompassed about with the favour of God as with a shield; and that it was not in the power of his most implacable enemies to separate him from the love of God; and therefore it was egregious folly in Doeg to boast himself in mischief; for, be he as mighty as he might, he could not prevent his sharing in the divine goodness, which always continues.
(w) "in malo", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus. (x) Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 1. p. 119.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–2The wickedness of Doeg, and his doom, ver. 1-5.…
The wickedness of Doeg, and his doom, ver. 1-5. The righteous will see it and fear, ver. 6, 7. David comforts himself in God, ver. 8, 9. To the chief musician, Maschil, A psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.
Continually - God is continually doing good: thou art continually doing mischief. O mighty - He speaks ironically. O valiant captain! To kill a few weak and unarmed persons.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–3The psalmist points out the malevolence of a powerful…
PSALM LII
The psalmist points out the malevolence of a powerful enemy,
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and predicts his destruction, 1-5.
At which destruction the righteous should rejoice, 6, 7.
The psalmist's confidence on God, 8, 9.
NOTES ON PSALM LII
The title is, "To the chief Musician, an instructive Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul, and said to him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech." The history to which this alludes is the following: David, having learned that Saul was determined to destroy him, went to take refuge with Achish, king of Gath: in his journey he passed by Nob, where the tabernacle then was, and took thence the sword of Goliath; and, being spent with hunger, took some of the shewbread. Doeg, an Edomite, one of the domestics of Saul, being there, went to Saul, and informed him of these transactions. Saul immediately ordered Ahimelech into his presence, upbraided him for being a partisan of David, and ordered Doeg to slay him and all the priests. Doeg did so, and there fell by his hand eighty-five persons. And Saul sent and destroyed Nob and all its inhabitants, old and young, with all their property; none escaping but Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who immediately joined himself to David. The account may be found 1Sa 21:1-7; 1Sa 22:9-23. All the Versions agree in this title except the Syriac, which speaks of it as a Psalm directed against vice in general, with a prediction of the destruction of evil.
Though the Psalm be evidently an invective against some great, wicked, and tyrannical man, yet I think it too mild in its composition for a transaction the most barbarous on record, and the most flagrant vice in the whole character of Saul.
Verse 1. Why boastest thou thyself] It is thought that Doeg boasted of his loyalty to Saul in making the above discovery; but the information was aggravated by circumstances of falsehood that tended greatly to inflame and irritate the mind of Saul. Exaggeration and lying are common to all informers.
O mighty man?] This character scarcely comports with Doeg, who was only chief of the herdsmen of Saul, 1Sa 21:7; but I grant this is not decisive evidence that the Psalm may not have Doeg in view, for the chief herdsman may have been a man of credit and authority.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 4Psa 52:1. Why boastest thou thyself &c. — As…
Psa 52:1. Why boastest thou thyself &c. — As if thou hadst done a great exploit, which none else durst undertake; and thereby established the crown upon Saul’s head, and thyself in his favour; and frustrated all David’s designs, by striking a terror into all his friends, by this sad example; O mighty man? — He speaks ironically. O valiant captain! O glorious action! To kill a few weak and unarmed persons in the king’s presence, and under the protection of his guards. Surely thy name will be famous to all ages for such heroical courage! It seems probable that Doeg, after he had massacred the priests, boasted of his loyalty to Saul, and of having prevented the treasonable schemes which, he artfully insinuated, had been concerted by David and the priests; and that he had been liberally rewarded by Saul on account of it; and that this is the reason why the Psalm begins in thus expressing a kind of contempt of Doeg. See Dodd. The goodness of God endureth continually — Know, vain man, that I am out of the reach of thy malice. That goodness of God, which thou reproachest me for trusting in, is my sure protection, and will follow me day by day; and, surely, that same goodness, together with his forbearance and long-suffering, is wonderfully displayed in sparing thee, amidst thy complicated crimes, who art continually doing evil; while he is continually doing good.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Why boastest thou thyself in Mischief? - Why dost…
Why boastest thou thyself in Mischief? - Why dost thou “exult” in that which is wrong? Why dost thou find pleasure in evil rather than in good? Why dost thou seek to triumph in the injury done to others? The reference is to one who prided himself on schemes and projects which tended to injure others; or who congratulated himself on the success which attended his efforts to wrong other people.
O mighty man - DeWette and Luther render this, “tyrant.” The original word would be properly applied to one of rank or distinction; a man of “power” - power derived either from office, from talent, or from wealth. It is a word which is often applied to a hero or warrior: Isa 3:2; Eze 39:20; 2Sa 17:10; Psa 33:16; Psa 120:4; Psa 127:4; Dan 11:3; Gen 6:4; Jer 51:30. So far as the “word” is concerned, it might be applied either to Saul or to any other warrior or man of rank; and Professor Alexander supposes that it refers to Saul himself. The connection, however, seems to require us to understand it of Doeg, and not of Saul, This appears to be clear
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(a) from the general character here given to the person referred to, a character not particularly applicable to Saul, but applicable to an informer like Doeg Psa 52:2-4; and
(b) from the fact that he derived his power, not from his rank and office, as Saul did, but mainly from his wealth Psa 52:7. This would seem to imply that some other was referred to than Saul.
The goodness of God endureth continually - literally, “all the day.” That is, the wicked man could not hope to prevent the exercise of the divine goodness toward him whom he persecuted, and whom he sought to injure. David means to say that the goodness of God was so great and so constant, that he would protect his true friends from such machinations; or that it, was so unceasing and watchful, that the informer and accuser could not hope to find an interval of time when God would intermit his care, and when, therefore, he might hope for success. Against the goodness of God, the devices of a wicked man to injure the righteous could not ultimately prevail.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 52
Psalms 52
To the chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech
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Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endureth continually.
2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs:
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 Thou lovest evil more than good;
And lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,
He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place,
And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear,
And shall laugh at him:
7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength;
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
And strengthened himself in his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it:
And I will wait on thy name; for it is good
Before thy saints.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.—Respecting maschil, vid. Introduction. 4 The didactic character of this Psalm, which is brought into prominence by the title, and its devotional aim, are especially noticeable from the fact that with respect to its form, the invocation of God which is peculiar to prayers, lamentations and hymns, is entirely absent, with respect to its contents, the mighty man, who, according to Psa_52:7, is proud of his riches, is upbraided for his impudence, wickedness, and falseness (Psa_52:1-4), the punishment of God, which will destroy him, is proclaimed (Psa_52:5), the action of the righteous, which will be called forth thereby, is contrasted with it (Psa_52:6-7), and the lot and conduct of the pious Psalmist, corresponding with his trust in God’s grace, is pronounced. These contents are already summarily expressed in the first statement Psa_52:1. The whole in tone and style reminds us of the prophetical castigatory discourses (Hupfeld, as Isa_22:15 sq. (Ewald), Jer_20:3 sq.; Jer_28:5 sq. (Hitzig, Maurer). But this resemblance is only of a general character, and not of special reference. The figure of the olive tree (Psa_52:8) need not be regarded as having been derived from Jer_11:16, and the correspondences in language of Psa_52:1; Psa_52:9 with Isa_44:23; Isa_45:19, are not strong enough in connection with Psa_52:8 to refer the composition of the Psalm to the time subsequent to the return from the exile (Hitzig). The violence of the language leads us to the conclusion of an excitability of temper, which would hardly be explicable, if the actions of the person accosted should be described as merely general injuries, and the relation of the poet thereto merely as one of the righteous generally (Hupfeld). But the personal references of the two are not marked with sufficient definiteness to be able to draw any safe conclusion as to historical relations. The reference to the high priest Alkimos, 1 Maccabees 7 (Olsh.), is entirely arbitrary. But the reference of particular expressions to the relations of David to Saul (Hengst.), are partly far fetched, partly untenable. Accordingly it is more advisable to abide by the statements of the title, and refer to the informing of Doeg, the overseer of the royal asses (1Sa_22:9 sq.), in consequence of which eighty-five priests were slaughtered, whilst David retained his courage and expressed it to Abiathar, who escaped to David from that blood-bath, the son of Ahimelech, that priest of Nob who had thoughtlessly given David, as the king’s son-in-law, the shew-bread and the sword
of Goliath, which was hung up behind the ephod in the sanctuary, and this had excited the suspicion and vengeance of Saul, who now made Doeg, the informer of that act, likewise the executioner of his bloody sentence.
Str. I. Psa_52:1. Hero [mighty man, A. V.].—Since the fundamental meaning of gibbôr is strength, and the same meaning occurs in the name of God used here, êl, it is natural to suppose that there is a mutual reference of these expressions to one another (Venema, et al.). But it does not follow from this, either that the reference can only be to Saul (Hengst., Schegg) as a real hero, or that this rather is used in the bad sense=violent man (De Wette, Hupfeld), Psa_120:4. It can only be sarcastic (Delitzsch, et al.), since Doeg had not made the blood-bath by the strength of his fist, but by the craft of his tongue. The translation: Recke [applied to the giants of former days.—C. A. B.—] is therefore appropriate.—All the day long.—This designation of time (=always, continually) usually supplies the predicate, Psa_44:22; Psa_56:5. Here it is absent. Yet it is unnecessary to change the noun חֶסֶד into the corresponding verb (Syr.), or to supply a verb with the meaning: “endure” (most interpreters), or to point it as חַסֵּד, Pro_25:10, and take this form as an adverbial infin.=abusing (Hitzig). The translation: what boastest thou thyself in wickedness, thou mighty one in evil doing? thou deviseth always, etc. (Sept., Vulg.), leads to another recension of the text.
Psa_52:2. Working deceit.—This is not to be regarded as the 2d person of the finite verb עָשָׂה (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Flamin., et al.)=thou makest deceit, (that he worked as a razor), but the participle, yet not as the adjective of razor, which easily injures the one who uses it, after the analogy of the deceitful bow, Psa_78:57; Hos_7:16 (Isaaki, Kimchi, Clericus), or as that of the tongue (Calvin), but as that of the man (Jerome, Hupfeld), and indeed, according to the vowel points of עֹשֵׂה, as a vocative (Geier, and most interpreters).
Psa_52:3. Evil before (instead of) good—falsehood before (instead of) speaking righteousness.—מִן excludes its genitive, so that it does not state degree, but the preference including an actual negation (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., most recent interpreters). The accused not only loves evil more than good, but he prefers evil to good, so that he loves it instead of that which he should love.
Psa_52:4. [Devouring words.—Perowne: “Literally, ‘words of swallowing up,’ which accords exactly with the figures employed in Psa_52:9, ‘their mouth is a yawning gulf,’ etc., and so the Sept. well ῥήματα καταποντισμῶ.—C. A. B.]—Tongue of deceit.—This is not an accusative in apposition to “devouring words” (Olshausen, Hupfeld, and most older interpreters), but a vocative (Rosenm. and most recent interpreters), as parallel to the preceding.
Str. II. Psa_52:5. Likewise introduces the corresponding behaviour of another (Gen_20:6), especially the proclamation of the Divine retaliation, Isa_66:4; Eze_16:43; Mal_2:9.—Tear down [A. V., destroy,] is used generally of walls, towers, houses, with the subordinate idea that these are made level with the ground, and are not to be rebuilt.—Seize [A. V., take away] is generally used of the seizing of a coal with the tongs or shovel; so much less then are we to think in the subsequent words of tearing away the tent, that is to say, the tent-pins from the earth (Hupfeld), or of the bringing out from the sacred tent, which the traitor had defiled (Kimchi, Geier, et al.), but of the dwelling, yet not as a figure of existence (De Wette), but rather with an allusion to the herdsman’s tent of Doeg.—[Land of the living.—Alexander: This is a poetical description of life itself, or the present state of existence, under the figure of a country.”—C. A. B.]
[Psa_52:6. See—fear—laugh.—The righteous shall live to see the ruin of the ungodly, and in looking upon their ruin they will fear God, that is, reverence Him, and stand in holy awe in the presence of His severe judgments, and at the same time laugh at the absurd state of the ungodly, in view of their previous great pretensions.5
Psa_52:7. Behold the man, etc.—Perowne: “The words in which the righteous express their triumph, pointing, as it were, to the fallen oppressor, and the lesson to be learnt from his overthrow. His trust was in riches, (comp. Psa_49:6; Pro_10:15; Pro_18:11), and his strength in his evil desire (vid. Psa_52:2), not in God.—C. A. B.]
Str. III. Psa_52:8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.—[The pronoun is emphatic, the Psalmist contrasting himself with the fallen Doeg.—C. A. B.] The “olive tree in the house of God,” has hardly a local meaning, comp. 2Ma_14:4 (Hitzig), yet is still less a general figure of glad prosperity under the protection and in the vicinity of God, but the latter reference is brought about at any rate by the thought of the central place of the meeting of God with His people (Psa_92:13; Isa_60:13; Zec_1:8), so that something higher is expressed, it is true (Hengstenberg), than the hope of David of returning from his exile to the sanctuary (the older interpreters), yet the latter is not to be excluded (De Wette, Hupfeld), but included in the idea.
Psa_52:9. And will wait on Thy name, because it is good.—The connection of טוֹב with the following words (even Ewald and Olsh.) is opposed by the fact that not “in the eyes” is used, but נֶגֶד=in the presence of, or before. It is accordingly better to write it with the previous word: וַאֲקַוֶּה. The conjecture of Hitzig to read it as: וַאֲחַוֵּה= I will proclaim, is very appropriate; for praise, thanksgiving, preaching before the congregation are frequently mentioned. But the “wait” of the text is likewise intelligible (comp. Isa_26:8), since the name of God expresses His declaration of Himself and David can represent himself to the congregation (Psa_22:22 sq.; Psa_40:9 sq.) as an example and model of one who waits upon Him. It is entirely unsuitable, in opposition to the accents, to refer טוֹב to God=because Thou art kind (De Wette): or to the action of the verb=because He is good. As God Himself, Psa_100:4, or His grace, Psa_109:21, so likewise His name is טוב, and this is neither to be explained as kind (Hupfeld) nor as great (Maurer).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Confidence in God’s everlasting grace allows us to have no anxiety respecting the wickedness and craft of even the mightiest enemies; it includes the assurance of the nothingness of their devices and the vanity of their boasting and defiance, not less than their terrible and complete ruin, with the same certainty of knowledge as that of our own continued salvation and increasing prosperity. For the one as well as the other rests upon faith in the retaliation of God’s holy government; and this grace does not deceive us. God pushes the violent from their authority; but He gives the humble His grace.
2. Every man is glad to boast of that in which he finds his strength, and upon which he puts his trust. The wicked therefore boast not merely as it were of their riches, their power, their sagacity, but directly of their wickedness. But this pride comes directly before their fall. The pious, on the contrary, boast of God and His grace. Herein they put their confidence alone, and therefore find in God true strength. And whilst they praise God, they strengthen themselves at the same time in waiting upon God’s revelation of Himself, and by both give the congregation a comforting example and a refreshing model.
3. The tongue is a little member, but it can become a dangerous weapon, not only by its misuse ruining other men, but plunging those likewise who use it in wickedness, into sure destruction. For it hands them over to the Divine judgment, and there even the lightest words weigh heavily, and the winged word is conjured up. But he who has spoken untruly, has not only made a breath and spoken in the air, he has violated the righteousness which he should have pursued (Deu_16:20), and transgressed God’s commandment; therefore the deserved punishment hastens to the wicked, sometimes late, but is always Sure to come. By this the righteous at the same time fear and rejoice.
4. As the righteous do not avenge themselves, but may and must proclaim the punishments of God, so they rejoice not over the misfortunes of their enemies, 2Sa_1:19; Job_31:29; Pro_24:17. It fills them with the trembling of fear and amazement; they rejoice in the exhibition of the righteousness of God, in which the glory, truth, and power of the Divine name which is invoked, confessed, and praised by the congregation, are again preserved. And if they then laugh, it is yet not a laughing in the joy of injuring, in scorn and reproaching, but the bringing into view of the absurd inconsistency in which the ungodly have become involved by their abandonment of God.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The courage of faith and the pride of the ungodly, a, in their origin, b, in their behaviour, c, in their consequences.—The same hand which casts down the wicked, lifts up the pious.—The use and misuse of the tongue.—See well to it, in what thou dost boast, in what thou dost trust, whom thou dost obey.—How the judgments of God excite fear and joy in one and the same heart.—The strength of wickedness finally is shown to be entire weakness.—Trust in Divine grace is rewarded by the exhibition of it, but he who leaves God, is left by His salvation.—Think of the recompense, not only for what thou doest, but for what thou sayest.—God will not have His name proclaimed in vain; he who uses it aright, will experience that it is good.—God requires trust in order to the manifestations of His grace, and He expects thankfulness.—Be not in debt to your God for thanksgiving, but act so that the whole congregation shall have the blessing of it.—Wouldst thou receive and enjoy the blessings of the house of God? then thou must undertake the obligations of a child and of a servant of God.
Starke: Many have fallen by the sharpness of the sword, but not near so many as by wicked mouths.—A wicked tongue has always at the bottom a false heart.—The goodness of God is a strong support, upon which we can safely rely, no one is deprived of it, unless they wilfully cast it away from them.—Selnekker: The pious must have patience, although wicked villains do much mischief.—Franke: Most men are so constituted that they of themselves hope and expect the best. But it does not depend upon the hope, which they make in their thoughts, but upon the idea that they have of themselves.—Arndt: There are two kinds of laughter: one when a wicked, revengeful heart laughs over the misfortunes of its enemies; the other laughing is from the consideration of the wonderful judgments and righteousness of God.—Tholuck: He who has not his protection in God, seeks protection and shelter in the things of this world.—He who has his roots grounded in God, will likewise bloom in the house of God; and he who does not see it in time, will experience it in eternity.—The name of the Lord is before the pious, although others know nothing of it, as a horn of plenty full of graces and gifts.—Guenther: In nothing is the wicked world more inventive than in the justification and extenuation of its sins and evil desires.—Taube: The ungodly flourish, it is true, but like the grass.—Faith lives upon the glory of the name of God; therefore the heart’s pleasure is in the recollection of His name, Isa_26:8. [Matt. Henry: They that glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful.—The enemies in vain boast in their mischief, while we have God’s mercy to boast in.—It contributes very much to the beauty of our profession, and to our fruitfulness in every grace, to be much in praising God, and it is certain we never want matter for praise.—Barnes: Among the “saints” there is a common bond of union—a common interest in all that pertains to each other; and when special mercy is shown to any one of the great brotherhood, it is proper that all should join in the thanksgiving, and render praise to God.—Spurgeon: Wealth and wickedness are dreadful companions; when combined they make a monster.—Eternal mercy is my present confidence. David knew God’s mercy to be eternal and perpetual, and in that he trusted. What a rock to build on! What a fortress to fly to!—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[4][This Psalm begins a series of eight Psalms using the Divine name of Elohim, and all maskils of David (Psalms 52—55). It is one of the eight psalms which by this title are referred to the time of the persecution by Saul (Psalms 7, 59, 56, 34, 52, 57, 142, 54). Augustine calls it Psalmus fugitivus. Vid. Delitzsch.—C.A.B.]
[5][Barnes: “The idea here is not exultation in the sufferings of others, or joy that calamity has come upon them, or the gratification of selfish and revengeful feelings that an enemy is deservedly punished; it is that of approbation that punishment has come upon those who deserve it, and joy that wickedness is not allowed to triumph. It is not wrong for us to feel a sense of approbation and joy that the laws are maintained, and that justice is done, even though this does involve suffering, for we know that the guilty deserve it, end it is better that they should suffer than that the righteous should suffer through them.”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4tongue--for self.
tongue--for self.
mischiefs--evil to others (Psa 5:9; Psa 38:12).
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working deceitfully-- (Psa 10:7), as a keen, smoothly moving razor, cutting quietly, but deeply.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 41. Why boastest thou—This must be understood as an…
1. Why boastest thou—This must be understood as an address to Doeg, not to Saul, to whom David ever observed a respectful and loyal deference. “It is bad enough to behave wickedly, but bad in the extreme to boast of it as a heroic act.”—Delitzsch. He that boasts of success in evil doing boasts of evil doing.
O mighty man—Hebrew, O hero! A hero in crime. He had gained the title by slaying eighty-five priests of Nob and betraying David. This had brought him into favour with Saul as a supple tool for the accomplishment of his purposes. He was also chief of Saul’s servants. 1Sa_22:9.
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Goodness of God endureth continually—Therefore trusting in it, I shall triumph at last.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. This verse states the theme of the Psalm;…
1. This verse states the theme of the Psalm; the contrast between man’s wrongdoing and God’s lovingkindness. The two halves of the verse correspond to the two divisions of the Psalm. The statement of the second line is abruptly introduced, but it is virtually the answer to the question of the first. What avails it thee to boast of successful evil-doing (Psa_10:3)? it is vain: the lovingkindness of God (endureth) all the day; that covenant love in which the Psalmist trusts (Psa_52:8), and of which all His ‘saints’ (Psa_52:9) are the object.
O mighty man] Perhaps simply, as P.B.V., thou tyrant, for power soon degenerates into tyranny: but rather perhaps with sarcastic irony, thou hero! Cp. Isa_5:22; Jer_9:3.
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God] El, ‘the strong one’ (cp. Psa_50:1), is significantly used here. The braggart tyrant thinks himself strong, but there is a stronger than he, who will call him to account.
1–5. Denunciation of the evil-doer and prediction of his fate.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 4(1) Mighty man.—Better, hero, used sarcastically. LXX. and Vulg.,…
(1) Mighty man.—Better, hero, used sarcastically. LXX. and Vulg., “a mighty one at mischief.” (Comp. Isa_5:22 : “a hero at drinking.”) The order of the Hebrew is, however, against this, and in favour of the English, why dost thou exult in wickedness, O hero, i.e., perhaps, not only his own, but in the wickedness the people are led into by his means. This seems necessitated by the next clause. In spite of man’s folly and sin, God’s covenant favour endures all the day long.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–4HERE, again, the title is the best guide to…
HERE, again, the title is the best guide to the origin, intent, and authorship of the psalm. It is ascribed to David, and said to have been written on the occasion when Doeg the Edomite acquainted Saul with the fact of David"s visit to Ahimelech the priest, recorded in 1Sa_21:1-9. This information led to a fearful massacre, in which Doeg himself took the chief part. (1Sa_22:11-19) The bitterness of feeling displayed in the psalm is thus accounted for.
Metrically, the psalm seems to consist of three strophes, extending respectively to four, three, and two verses. In the first strophe Doeg"s wickedness is set forth (vers. 1-4); in the second (vers. 5-7), he is threatened with God"s vengeance; in the third (vers. 8, 9), David thanks God for the vengeance which he has executed, and declares his intention always to trust in him.
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Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg was "the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul", (1Sa_21:7) or, according to another passage, (1Sa_22:9) "set over the servants of Saul." The position would be a high one, and would imply the possession of much physical strength. A sense of tyranny or extreme arrogance seems to attach to the word translated "mighty one" (gibber); see Gen_6:4 Gen_10:8. The word translated "mischief" implies something worse. In Psa_6:9 it is rendered "wickedness," and is thought to mean, in the Psalms generally, "ruinous, unfathomable evil destructive malignity" (Canon Cook). The goodness of God endureth continually. Why not follow the Divine pattern, instead of setting thyself in direct antagonism to it? Canst thou expect to prosper when thou art thus opposed to the Almighty?
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-9. A betrayer.
The "mighty man" might have been Doeg or some other who had gained notoriety as a betrayer.
I THE ODIOUSNESS OF HIS CHARACTER. It is marked by deceitfulness. Craft and lying are the tools of the betrayer. He cannot get on without them, and he waxes expert in their use. He may pretend friendship, but malice is in his heart. Even if he speaks truth, it is not in love, but in hate. "Whispering tongues can poison truth," Beat on mischief, he does not think of consequences. If he can injure the man he hates, he cares not though the innocent also should suffer. When he comes by a secret, which may be turned to advantage, he is elated. His paltry soul swells within him, he grows big with the idea of his own importance. Life and death are in the power of his tongue. And when his miserable schemes succeed, he boasts as if he had done a brave thing; as if he were the hero of the hour.
II THE TERRIBLENESS OF HIS DOOM. There was a time when Doeg seemed to succeed. Then he may have blessed his soul, and the men of Saul"s court, no doubt, praised him, while he was doing good, as they thought, to himself, and was able to do good to them. But changes came. His real character was unmasked. The fearful results of his treachery were brought to light, and then he must have become the object of detestation to all right-thinking men. It is thus that reputations built on sand fall in the day of trial. The judgment of yesterday may be reversed to-day. The men who stand high to-day may be covered with scorn and infamy to-morrow. God is long-suffering. He even bears long, and strangely, with the wicked. But their day is coming. The judgment described in the psalm is terrible in its completeness. Image is added to image. The metaphors rise in intensity and force. There is not only defeat, as of a house beaten down, but there is expulsion, as from a home made desolate; and more, there is extinction, as of a family rooted out of the land (ver. 5). The overthrow is complete, and all this is by the hand of God, indicating that all deceit and malice and evildoing are contrary to the Divine order, and doomed in the end to ruin. There is a conscience in society, and, as it is rightly quickened and enlightened, it says "Amen" to God"s righteous judgments.
III THE MORAL LESSONS OF HIS LIFE. There is much here deserving close study. Learn:
1. The justice of God. He is ever on the side of truth. His judgments are all righteous.
2. The folly of sin. (Ver. 7)
3. The blessedness of the righteous. This lesson is heightened by contrast. How different the tree overthrown, and torn up by the roots, and the "olive tree" standing beautiful and secure in "the house of God" 1 How markedly and utterly separate, the evil-doer judged and put to shame, and the godly man trusting, praising, waiting, rejoicing in the sunshine of God"s love, and the hope of his mercy for ever and ever! W.F
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-9. psalm is A stern upbraiding addressed to the man who, unscrupulous in the exercise of his power, and proud of his wealth, finds his delight in all the arts of the practised liar.
I THE ARROGANCE OF A WICKED MAN IN WORLDLY POWER.
1. He boasts of the evil which he does. He is not ashamed of his wickedness.
2. He is bent upon ever new forms of mischief. Works deceitfully, and not openly, and his tongue, as the instrument of his mind, is ever plotting fresh devices of evil.
3. He loves false speaking and false ways more than the true. The wickedness is ingrained, and not merely resorted to for a purpose.
4. He exults in material riches. Thinks they can carry him through, and enable him to brave all consequences.
II THE CERTAINTY OF HIS OVERTHROW.
1. The goodness of God will ensure it. God loves the good; and his love for them endureth for ever ensuring the overthrow of the wicked.
2. The sure connection of guilt and punishment. (Ver. 5) The psalmist had no hesitation in predicting his future fall.
III THE SYMPATHY WHICH GOOD MEN FEEL WITH GOD"S RIGHTEOUS WORK. (Ver. 6) They are filled with a holy filial fear; and they rejoice at the triumph of the right and the true over the unjust and the untrue.
IV GOD"S GOODNESS GIVES CONFIDENCE AND THANKFULNESS TO THE RIGHTEOUS (Vers. 8, 9) Trust, praise, and patience wait upon thy Name. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Title. To the Chief Musician. Even short Psalms, if…
Title. To the Chief Musician. Even short Psalms, if they record but one instance of the goodness of the Lord, and rebuke but briefly the pride of man, are worthy of our best minstrelsy. When we see that each Psalm is dedicated to "the chief musician, "it should make us value our psalmody, and forbid us to praise the Lord carelessly. Maschil. An Instructive. Even the malice of a Doeg may furnish instruction to a David. A Psalm of David. He was the prime object of Doeg's doggish hatred, and therefore the most fitting person to draw from the incident the lesson concealed within it. When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and saith unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. By this deceitful tale bearing, he procured the death of all the priests at Nob: though it had been a crime to have succoured David as a rebel, they were not in their intent and knowledge guilty of the fault. David felt much the villany of this arch enemy, and here he denounces him in vigorous terms; it may be also that he has Saul in his eye.
Division. We shall follow the sacred pauses marked by the Selahs of the poet.
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Ver. 1. Why boasteth thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenceless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room for exultation! Honourable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean and cruel. If David alluded to Saul, he meant by these words pityingly to say, "How can one by nature fitted for nobler deeds, descend to so low a level as to find a theme for boasting in a slaughter so heartless and mischievous?" The goodness of God endureth continually. A beautiful contrast. The tyrant's fury cannot dry up the perennial stream of divine mercy. If priests be slain their Master lives. If Doeg for awhile triumphs the Lord will outlive him, and right the wrongs which he has done. This ought to modify the proud exultations of the wicked, for after all, while the Lord liveth, iniquity has little cause to exalt itself.
Title. That Maschil means a sacred composition, is evident from Ps 47:7, where the passage which we render, "Sing ye praises with understanding, "is literally, "Sing ye a Maschil, "or song of instruction. This word occurs as a title in thirteen places; and six times is prefixed to compositions of David's. In several instances it occurs in consecutive Psalms; i.e., in the 42nd (of which the 43rd is the sequel), the 44th and 45th, the 52nd, 53rd, 54th, and 55th, the 88th and 89th. A circumstance which favours the notion that the term was one peculiarly used by some particular editor or collector of a certain portion of the Psalter. John Jebb.
Ver. 1. (first clause). Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty? that is, he that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one spark any man you please can burn all the crop...
What art thou about to do, O, mighty man, what are thou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this thing also a scorpion, this also a fever, this also a poisonous fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal to a poisonous fungus! Augustine.
Ver. 1. By mischief is understood not simply what evil he had done, but the prosperity which he now enjoyed, obtained through mischief; as is clear both from the word boasting and from the seventh verse...Formerly he was the chief of Saul's shepherds 1Sa 21:8, but by that wicked destruction of the priests of God by Saul, and the execution of the cruel sentence, he obtained the chief place near to the king 1Sa 22:9. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 1. O mighty man. These words may be added by way of irony, as if he had said, A great deal of valour and prowess you have shown in slaying a company of unarmed men, the priests of the Lord, yea, women and children, no way able to resist you or else to imply the ground of his vain boasting, to wit, either his present greatness, as being a man in great place, and of great power with Saul; or the great preferments he expected from Saul. Arthur Jackson.
Ver. 1. The goodness of God endureth continually. He contrasts the goodness of God with the wealth and might of Doeg, and the foundation of his own confidence as widely different from that of Doeg, his own placed upon the goodness of God, enduring for ever and showing itself effectual. It is as if he had said, The goodness of God to which I trust, is most powerful and the same throughout all time, and in it I shall at all times most surely rejoice that goodness of God, since now it sustains me, so it will exalt me in its own good time; it therefore is, and will be above me....
Not without emphasis does he say the goodness la of the strong God, a contrast to Doeg the hero, and the ruinous foundation of his fortune. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 1. The confidence of faith.
1. The circumstances were distressing.
1. David was misjudged.
2. David exiled.
3. A bad man in power.
4. God's priests slain.
2. The consolation was abiding.
1. There is a God.
2. He is good.
3. His goodness continues.
4. Good will therefore overcome.
3. The rejoinder was triumphant. Why boasteth thou?
1. The mischief did not touch the main point.
2. It would be overruled.
3. It would recoil.
4. It would expose the perpetrators to scorn.
CHANDLER'S "Life of David, "contains an Exposition of this Psalm. Vol. 1., pp. 140-143.
Psalms 52:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
Psa_52:1-9
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
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A social betrayer
This psalm may be regarded as presenting to us a social betrayer in a variety of aspects. Doeg was an informer, one whom Webster defines as a man who informs against others from base or unworthy motives.
I. The social betrayer depicted.
1. Pride (Psa_52:1). Proud of the secret he holds. He feels he has the reputation and destiny of some one entrusted to him.
2. Malice (Psa_52:2).
3. Craft (Psa_52:2). He is a moral assassin; moves in the dark, and carries his javelin under the costume of deception. Dishonesty (Psa_52:3). He runs more readily with the false than with the true; with the wrong than with the right; with the cruel than with the kind. The base man, what careth he whom he betrays, how he betrays, or what sufferings he entails upon the innocent and even the holy, in order to advance his own personal and selfish ends?
II. The social betrayer doomed (Psa_52:5). What is his punishment? Destruction. Not annihilation; but--
1. A removal: He shall take thee away. Hengstenberg renders it, take thee away as a coal. Fling thee away as an intolerable brand. He has been as fire in society, inflaming others with bad passions, devouring the true, the good, and the happy. God will fling him away as a hissing coal. Pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place (or tent). His present dwelling-place is a scene of discipline, grace, redemption: hope is taken from him, he is taken from it for ever.
2. An uprootal. And root thee out of the land of the living. The roots of a wicked mans life are in this world, they dont strike into the spiritual and the eternal; the present and the palpable are everything to him: their roots shall be destroyed. All these are figures, but they mean something terrible; and reason, analogy, conscience, and the Bible tell us that something terrible is before such a man as this.
III. The social betrayer derided (Psa_52:6-7). There is a twofold laughter, says Arndt. One, when a man out of an evil spirit of revenge laughs at his enemy. This no Christian, virtuous mind does, but exercises compassion towards an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from a consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteousness of God, as when a man says; like Pharaoh, I ask nothing after the Lord, nor will I let Israel go, and soon thereafter is made to sink in the Red Sea. This is for just derision. Is it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God?
IV. The social betrayer defeated. Doeg, by his betrayal, considered perhaps that he had ruined David; but instead of this, whilst he himself got destroyed, uprooted from the land of the living, his victim was like a green olive-tree. David here indicates that his own life was--
1. A growing life. A green olive-tree. Well nourished and well protected.
2. A trusting life. I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. Gods goodness is a tide that must bear everything before it and will outlive the universe itself. Therefore it is wise to trust in it.
3. A thankful life: I will praise Thee for ever. Divine praise is the heaven of the soul. It employs all its faculties harmoniously, and gratifies all its moral cravings fully and for ever.
4. An obedient life. I will wait on Thy name. This is the highest attitude of an intelligent creature; it is the attitude of the greatest angel. (Homilist.)
On the character of Doeg
I. Doeg made not God his strength. To make God our strength implies that we regard the Almighty as the author of all our blessings; that we repose an implicit trust in Him in every situation; that we own our dependence on Him for everything which we enjoy; and that we live under the habitual influence of these convictions. The conduct of Doeg was the very reverse of this.
II. He trusted in the abundance of his riches. The only true felicity of man is in God; but the love of the world seduces the heart from God, and leads it, like Doeg, to trust in the abundance of riches, instead of making God its strength. When the love of riches becomes thus predominant, how baneful must be its influence to the principles and affections of the soul! It darkens the understanding; it deadens the conscience; it chills and hardens the heart. But why should men trust to their wealth, when its influence is so baneful and destructive? The accumulated treasures of the world cannot arrest the arm of death, or purchase from him a moments reprieve. Are riches necessary to the enjoyment of life? This depends on health of body and contentment of mind, and neither of these can wealth bestow.
III. He strengthened himself in his wickedness. The first resource of an abandoned sinner is debauchery; and to it he betakes himself, not so much to gratify sensual appetite and licentious desire, as to drown thought, to bury reflection, to lull the cow, science. His only joys are intemperance, riot and dissipation. The best principles of his nature are entirely perverted, and his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Having thus succeeded in corrupting or silencing the faithful guardians of innocence and virtue, he triumphs in the imaginary security with which he may now indulge in licentiousness and vice, and strengthens himself still farther in wickedness.
IV. This character is recorded for our instruction. It is intended as a beacon to point out to us the dangerous consequences of sin. It is preserved as a memorial, to all ages of the world, of this important; and impressive truth, that sin and misery are most closely united. Would we avoid Doegs fate, then let us avoid his conduct. With this view, let us guard most anxiously against the first deviations from piety and virtue. (G. Goldie.)
A challenge to the mighty sinner
This psalm is a bold and outspoken challenge to a big sinner--a proud personage who trusted in the abundance of his riches; and, as often happens to men--and to women, too--luxury had made him slanderous and foul-mouthed, and brutal and monstrous: he strengthened himself in his wickedness. The psalm challenges the big man: Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? but it tries also to convert him: The goodness of God is from day to day. What is the connection between these two clauses of verse 17 The big sinner, wicked and proud, is shut up, as it were, in a close and ill-smelling room--shut up with his ugly thoughts, shut up with his own evil, selfish self. Let him come out, says the psalmist, out into the sunshine of Gods mercies, out into the open where the winds blow fresh oer the world; let him think of Gods goodness, and may it lead him to repentance. Old Testament piety haunts the open air for its images (Psa_52:8). We of to-day may not be big men, and have psalms written about us, but we need the same teaching. Let a man be ever-reached in business, let him come home and brood over it, and how soon will arise the thought and plan of revenge! Let another come to him with her prattling lips, and how easily does she convince him that he is a hero and a martyr I Why not the rather, reaching a hand for Gods Book, remember His goodness, which is from day to day? Young men may not know amassed wealth, but they know how, in act or in fancy, they pass into the house of passion, where the blinds are drawn and the windows dimmed by heat, and the sounds are pleasing, and sweet desire arises. Young men, come forth--into the open, out from your narrow selves to God, out into His loves free atmosphere. You are not alone (Psa_52:9). Here are the saints, the heroes, the men of faith; and above the helmets of salvation which they wear, see the Captain, Christ Himself, beckoning you onwards to glory and to God. (British Weekly.)
The goodness of God endureth continually.--
The goodness of God infinite and everlasting
There is not so much sin in man as there is goodness in God. There is a vaster proportion between sin and grace than between a spark and an ocean. Who would doubt whether a spark could be quenched in an ocean? Thy thoughts of disobedience towards God have been within the compass of time, but His goodness hath been bubbling up towards thee from all eternity. (W. Culverwell.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 52
Psalms 52
THE progress of feeling in this psalm is clear, but there is no very distinct division into strophes and one of the two Selahs does not mark a transition, though it does make a pause. First, the poet, with a few indignant and contemptuous touches, dashes on his canvas an outline portrait of an arrogant oppressor, whose weapon was slander and his words like pits of ruin. Then, with vehement, exulting metaphors, he pictures his destruction. On it follow reverent awe of God, whose justice is thereby displayed, and deepened sense in righteous hearts of the folly of trust in anything but Him. Finally, the singer contrasts with thankfulness his own happy continuance in fellowship with God with the oppressors fate, and renews his resolve of praise and patient waiting.
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The themes are familiar, and their treatment has nothing distinctive. The portrait of the oppressor does not strike one as a likeness either of the Edomite herdsman Doeg, with whose betrayal of Davids asylum at Nob the superscription connects the psalm or of Saul, to whom Hengstenberg, feeling the difficulty of seeing Doeg in it, refers it. Malicious lies and arrogant trust in riches were not the crimes that cried for vengeance in the bloody massacre at Nob. Cheyne would bring this group of "Davidic" psalms (Psalms 52, Psalms 59) down to the Persian period (Orig of Psalt., 121-23). Olshausen, after Theodore of Mopsuestia (see Cheyne loc. cit.) to the Maccabean. But the grounds alleged are scarcely strong enough to carry more than the weight of a "may be"; and it is better to recognise that, if the superscription is thrown over, the psalm itself does not yield sufficiently characteristic marks to enable us to fix its date. It may be worth considering whether the very absence of any obvious correspondences with Davids circumstances does not show that the superscription rested on a tradition earlier than itself, and not on an editors discernment.
The abrupt question at the beginning reveals the psalmists long-pent indignation. He has been silently brooding over the swollen arrogance and malicious lies of the tyrant till he can restrain himself no longer, and out pours a fiery flood. Evil gloried in is worse than evil done. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. "mighty man" is here used in a bad sense, to indicate that he has not only a giants power, but uses it tyrannously, like a giant. How dramatically the abrupt question is followed by the equally abrupt thought of the ever-during lovingkindness of God! That makes the tyrants boast supremely absurd, and the psalmists confidence reasonable, even in face of hostile power.
The prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar. We should have expected high-handed violence rather than these. But the psalmist is tracking the deeds to their source; and it is not so much the tyrants words as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof of his wickedness. These words have two characteristics in addition to boastfulness. They are false and destructive. They are, according to the forcible literal meaning in Psa_52:4, "words of swallowing." They are, according to the literal meaning of "destructions," in Psa_52:2, "yawning gulfs." Such words lead to acts which make a tyrant. They flow from perverted preference of evil to good. Thus the deeds of oppression are followed up to their den and birthplace. Part of the description of the "words" corresponds to the fatal effect of Doegs report but nothing in it answers to the other part-falsehood. The psalmists hot indignation speaks in the triple, direct address to the tyrant which comes in each case like a lightning flash at the end of a clause (Psa_52:1-2, Psa_52:4). In the second of these the epithet "framing deceit" does not refer to the "sharpened razor," but to the tyrant. If referred to the former, it weakens rather than strengthens the metaphor, by bringing in the idea that the sharp blade misses its proper aim, and wounds cheeks instead of shearing off hair. The Selah of Psa_52:3 interrupts the description, in order to fix attention, by a pause filled up by music, on the hideous picture thus drawn.
That description is resumed and summarised in Psa_52:4, which, by the Selahs, is closely bound to Psa_52:5 in order to enforce the necessary connection of sin and punishment, which is strongly underlined by the "also" or "so" at the beginning of the latter verse. The stern prophecy of destruction is based upon no outward signs of failure in the oppressors might, but wholly on confidence in Gods continual lovingkindness, which must needs assume attributes of justice when its objects are oppressed. A tone of triumph vibrates through the imagery of Psa_52:5, which is not in the same key as Christ has set for us.
It is easy for those who have never lived under grinding, godless tyranny to reprobate the exultation of the oppressed at the sweeping away of their oppressors; but if the critics had seen their brethren set up as torches to light Neros gardens, perhaps they would have known some thrill of righteous joy when they heard that he was dead. Three strong metaphors describe the fall of this tyrant. He is broken down, as a building levelled with the ground. He is laid hold of, as a coal in the fire, with tongs (for so the word means), and dragged, as in that iron grip, out of the midst of his dwelling. He is uprooted like a tree with all its pride of leafage. Another blast of trumpets or clang of harps or clash of cymbals bids the listeners gaze on the spectacle of insolent strength laid prone, and withering as it lies.
The third movement of thought (Psa_52:6-7) deals with the effects of this retribution. It is a conspicuous demonstration of Gods justice and of the folly of reliance on anything but Himself. The fear which it produces in the "righteous" is reverential awe, not dread lest the same should happen to them. Whether or not history and experience teach evil men that "verily there is a God that judgeth," their lessons are not wasted on devout and righteous souls. But this is the tragedy of life, that its teachings are prized most by those who have already learned them, and that those who need them most consider them least. Other tyrants are glad when a rival is swept off the field, but are not arrested in their own course. It is left to "the righteous" to draw the lesson which all men should have learned. Although they are pictured as laughing at the ruin, that is not the main effect of it. Rather it deepens conviction, and is a "modern instance" witnessing to the continual truth of "an old saw." There is one safe stronghold, and only one. He who conceits himself to be strong in his own evil, and, instead of relying on God, trusts in material resources, will sooner or later be levelled with the ground, dragged, resisting vainly the tremendous grasp, from his tent and laid prostrate, as melancholy a spectacle as a great tree blown down by tempest with its roots turned up to the sky and its arms with drooping leaves trailing on the ground. A swift turn of feeling carries the singer to rejoice in the contrast of his own lot. No uprooting does he fear. It may be questioned whether the words "in the house of God" refer to the psalmist or to the olive tree. Apparently there were trees in the Temple; {Psa_92:13} but the parallel in the next clause, "in the lovingkindness of God," points to the reference of the words to the speaker. Dwelling in enjoyment of Gods fellowship, as symbolised by and realised through presence in the sanctuary, whether it were at Nob or in Jerusalem, he dreads no such forcible removal as had befallen the tyrant. Communion with God is the source of flourishing and fruitfulness, and the guarantee of its own continuance. Nothing in the changes of outward life need touch it. The mists which lay on the psalmists horizon are cleared away for us, who know that "forever and aye" designates a proper eternity of dwelling in the higher house and drinking the full dew of Gods lovingkindness. Such consciousness of present blessedness in communion lifts a soul to prophetic realisation of deliverance, even while no change has occurred in circumstances. The tyrant is still boasting; but the psalmists tightened hold of God enables him to see "things that are not as though they were," and to anticipate actual deliverance by praise for it. It is the prerogative of faith to alter tenses, and to say, Thou hast done, when the worlds grammar would say, Thou wilt do. "I will wait on Thy name" is singular, since what is done "in the presence of Thy favoured ones" would naturally be something seen or heard by them. The reading "I will declare" has been suggested. But surely the attitude of patient, silent expectance implied in "wait" may very well be conceived as maintained in the presence of, and perceptible by, those who had like dispositions, and who would sympathise and be helped thereby. Individual blessings are rightly used when they lead to participation in common thankfulness and quiet trust.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David,…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.”
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“To the Chief Musician,” see on the title to Psalms 39.
“Maschil,” an instruction, a didactic poem. “The didactic character of this Psalm,” says Moll, “which is brought into prominence by the title, and its devotional aim, are especially noticeable, from the fact that, with respect to its form, the invocation of God, which is peculiar to prayers, lamentations, and hymns, is entirely absent; with respect to its contents, the mighty man, who, according to Psa_52:7, is proud of his riches, is upbraided for his impudence, wickedness, and falseness (Psa_52:1-4), the punishment of God, which will destroy him, is proclaimed (Psa_52:5), the action of the righteous, which will be called forth thereby, is contrasted with it (Psa_52:6-7), and the lot and conduct of the pious Psalmist, corresponding with his trust in God’s grace, is pronounced. It is advisable to abide by the statements of the title, and refer to the informing of Doeg, the overseer of the royal asses (1Sa_22:9, sqq.), in consequence of which eighty-five priests were slaughtered, whilst David retained his courage, and expressed it to Abiathar, who escaped to David from that blood-bath, the son of Ahimelech, that priest of Nob, who had thoughtlessly given David, as the king’s son-in-law, the shew-bread, and the sword of Goliath, which was hung up behind the ephod in the sanctuary, and this had excited the suspicion and vengeance of Saul, who now made Doeg, the informer of that act, likewise the executioner of his bloody sentence.”
Homiletically, the Psalm sets before us an impressive beacon (Psa_52:1-5), and the effect upon the righteous of the judgment of God upon the wicked (Psa_52:6-9).
AN IMPRESSIVE BEACON
(Psa_52:1-5.)
We have here—
I. The moral portrait of a wicked man. In this delineation of the moral features of Doeg the Edomite, we see,—
1. Inventiveness in evil. “Thy tongue deviseth mischief.” The tongue uttered the mischiefs which the heart devised. He invented malicious speeches, and framed skilfully evil designs. Baron Huddlestone, on April 23, 1877, in sentencing a prisoner to fifteen years’ penal servitude, remarked, “That he was a man of great talent, and, if he had employed it in a proper manner, he might have obtained a position of the highest honour and respectability; but instead of this, he appeared to have devoted his mental strength against mankind.” Like him of whom the judge spake, and like Doeg, there are many who are subtle and inventive in evil doing. Such deliberation in wickedness involves the greatest guilt.
2. Rooted mendacity. “Thou workest deceit … thou lovest lying … O deceitful tongue.” M. Henry: “It may refer to the information which he gave in against Ahimelech; for the matter of fact was, in substance, true, yet it was misrepresented, and false colours were put upon it, and, therefore, he might well be said to love lying, and to have a deceitful tongue. He told the truth, but not all the truth, as a witness ought to do; had he told that David made Ahimelech believe he was then going upon Saul’s errand, the kindness he showed him would have appeared to be not only not traitorous against Saul, but respectful to him. It will not save us from the guilt of lying to be able to say, ‘There was some truth in what we said,’ if we pervert it, and make it appear otherwise than what it was.” Beecher: “A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it, else the hand would cut itself which sought to drive it home upon another. The worst lies, therefore, are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.”
3. Cruel malignity. “Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs like a sharp razor. Thou lovest all devouring words.” Perowne: lit. “Words of swallowing up.” His words were wounding as a sharp razor, and ruinous, as if they engulfed those against whom they were directed. “An untrue man is a moral murderer, his tongue the deadly weapon, and his neighbour the victim.”
4. Utter and terrible perversion of character. “Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness.” Moll: “The accused not only loves evil more than good, but he prefers evil to good, so that he loves it instead of that which he should love.” What terrible moral perversion does this involve! He “boasted himself in mischief;” he triumphed in that which was his ignominy; he exulted in falsehood and cruelty. When sin is characterised by so much deliberation and malignity, when men love it, and make their boast in it, who can estimate its criminality?
In this moral portrait of a wicked man, have we not an impressive beacon warning us away from sin? Look upon it, and beware of falsehood, and all evil speaking. “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” Look upon it, and, as you mark its unrelieved and utter blackness, beware of the beginnings of evil, &c.
II. Remonstrance with a wicked man. “Why boastest Thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?” &c. This inquiry implies—
1. That his boasting was vain. The folly of his boast appears from
(1) the nature of his deeds. “O mighty man,” or, “O hero!” “can only be sarcastic,” says Moll. In what he had done he had exhibited no courage, no fortitude. A veritable hero art thou, Doeg! for thou didst first slander a noble man and a priest, and then thou didst courageously slay eighty-five unarmed priests, and then, O paragon of heroism! thou didst slay “women, children, and sucklings!” O valiant Doeg! Boast on, thou mighty man. The folly of his boast appears from
(2) the result of his deeds. In his calculation of results Doeg had not taken account of GOD. “The goodness of God endureth continually.” That is a guarantee of the ultimate security and well-being of the righteous, and of the destruction of the wicked. M. Henry: “Thou thinkest with the mischief which thou boastest of (so artfully contrived, and so successfully carried on), to run down and ruin the people of God; but thou wilt find thyself mistaken: the goodness of God endures continually for their preservation, and then they need not fear what man can do unto them. The enemies in vain boast in their mischief while we have God’s mercy to boast in.” They who now boast in their iniquities shall, ere long, be covered with reproach and confusion of face.
2. That his boasting was wicked. He was glorying in his shame. The deeds he had done had heavily weighted him with guilt; and, by glorying in them, he was increasing the burden of his criminality. To do evil is wrong; but to boast of having done it is far more wrong. Let us heed this beacon. Sin is folly; but to boast of sin is the most egregious folly, and indicates the most deplorable moral depravity. Be rational, be wise, and shun sin.
III. The doom of a wicked man. “God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,” &c. Doeg is here threatened with utter destruction, with irretrievable ruin.
1. The ruin is complete and irretrievable. He will destroy thee for ever,” as walls are torn down to the ground, never more to be rebuilt. He will forcibly remove “thee from thy dwelling-place” for ever; and as a tree is torn up from the roots and so destroyed, so will He cut thee off out of the land of the living. A terrible destruction awaits the persistent workers of iniquity—the destruction of all that makes life worth having.
2. The ruin is retributive. “God shall likewise destroy thee,” &c. “Likewise introduces the corresponding behaviour of another.” “Destroyers shall be destroyed.” “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Jdg_1:6-7; Isa_3:10-11).
Mark well, then, this impressive beacon. See the enormity to which wickedness may grow, and avoid the beginnings of evil; the irrationality of wickedness, and walk in the ways of wisdom; the dread consummation to which wickedness tends, and “abstain from all appearance of evil.” “As righteousness tendeth to life; so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.” Jesus Christ is the Almighty Saviour from sin. Trust Him; obey Him; and live.
THE EFFECT UPON THE RIGHTEOUS OF THE JUDGMENT OF GOD UPON THE WICKED
(Psa_52:6-9.)
I. The righteous behold the judgment of God upon the wicked. “The righteous also shall see.” The Psalmist expresses his confidence that the righteous would live to see the ruin of the wicked; that they who saw their sin, should also see God’s judgment on them because of their sin. This idea is more fully expressed by David in Psa_37:34-36. The godly man shall live to see that a life of sin, however prosperous it may seem to be, leads to the destruction of those who pursue it. “When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see.” Even in the present state we may see that the issue of an upright life is blessed, and that of a sinful life is ruinous.
II. They are awed by the judgments of God upon the wicked. “The righteous also shall see, and fear.” This fear is not slavish, but reverent. The godly stand in holy awe in the presence of the divine judgments, and fear lest they should transgress the law of God, and so expose themselves to their stroke. The most hardened sinner cannot stand before the judgments of the Almighty. And, inasmuch as every man by sin has merited His displeasure, we all have need to humble ourselves at the footstool of the Divine mercy. When the righteous see the judgments of God, the effect upon them is most salutary: they fear Him, they shun sin, &c.
III. They approve the judgment of God upon the wicked. “The righteous shall laugh at him.” There is a laughter because of the fall of the wicked which is sinful (Job_31:29; Pro_24:17-18). There is also a laughter because of the Divine judgments upon them which is lawful and right, viz., the laughter of joy, because of the triumph of the Divine government. Moll: “If they laugh, it is not a laughing in the joy of injuring, in scorn and reproaching, but the bringing into view the absurd inconsistency in which the ungodly have become involved by their abandonment of God.” Barnes: “The idea here is not exultation in the sufferings of others, or joy that calamity has come upon them, or the gratification of selfish and revengeful feeling that an enemy is deservedly punished; it is that of approbation that punishment has come upon those who deserve it, and joy that wickedness is not allowed to triumph. This may be entirely free from any malignant or any revengeful feeling. It may even be connected with the deepest pity, and with the purest benevolence towards the sufferers themselves.” “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of nations.”
IV. They are instructed by the judgment of God upon the wicked. “Behold the man that maketh not God his strength,” &c. Perowne: “The words in which the righteous express their triumph, pointing, as it were, to the fallen oppressor, and the lesson to be learnt from his overthrow.” Here are three lessons—
1. That to trust in wealth is folly. “Behold the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches.” It would appear from this verse that Doeg was a rich man, and had great faith in the power of his wealth. Barnes: “He had that spirit of arrogance and self-confidence which springs from the conscious possession of property where there is no fear of God; and into all that he did he carried the sense of his own importance as derived from riches.” Comp. Psa_49:6; Pro_10:15; Pro_18:11.
2. That the strength of wickedness is weakness. He “strengthened himself in wickedness.” By subtle and evil devices he endeavoured to establish himself, and fancied himself secure therein. No deeds which he deemed would increase his power, ever gave him pause because of their wickedness. He who builds his hopes upon wicked devices, even though they be framed with the utmost skill, builds upon sand. Utter ruin is the destiny of the fabric which he rears. Wickedness is weakness. Lies must perish. Truth and righteousness alone are abiding and strong.
3. That God is the only adequate support of human life. “The man made not God his strength,” and his end was destruction. A consideration of His almighty power, infinite wisdom, unchanging faithfulness, and essential kindness, is calculated to inspire strong confidence in the all-sufficiency of God as the support of human life. And there is no other adequate support. Wealth, wisdom, rank, power, friendship, &c., are insufficient. He who leans upon any or upon all of them is doomed to bitter disappointment and a grievous fall. Such are the lessons which the poet learned from the judgment of God upon the wicked.
V. They flourish in the midst of the judgment of God upon the wicked. “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God,” &c. Consider—
1. The nature of this happy state. The state of the Psalmist was characterised by
(1) Divine security. Barnes: “A tree planted in the very courts of the sanctuary would be regarded as sacred, and would be safe as long as the tabernacle itself was safe, for it would be, as it were, directly under the Divine protection. So David had been, notwithstanding all the efforts of his enemies to destroy him.” The righteous are inviolably secure from any real harm, for the Lord is their keeper (Psa_125:1-2; Rom_8:31; Rom_8:37).
(2) Religious privileges. David looked forward with confidence and gladness to the termination of his exile and his return to the sanctuary. To him the tabernacle and the ordinances of worship were precious and hallowed things. The people of God find strength and joy in the means of grace, while the wicked are overthrown by their own wickedness.
(3) Spiritual prosperity. In the Scriptures a green tree is the emblem of prosperity (Psa_1:3; Psa_92:12; Jer_11:16). M. Henry: “Those that by faith and love dwell in the house of God shall be like green olive-trees there; the wicked are said to flourish like a green bay-tree (Psa_37:35), which bears no useful fruit, though it has abundance of large leaves; but the righteous flourish like a green olive-tree, which is fat as well as flourishing (Psa_92:14), and with its fatness honours God and man (Jdg_9:9), deriving its root and fatness from the good olive (Rom_11:17).” Notwithstanding the bitter opposition of the wicked, the people of God shall grow in grace, and bring forth the fruits of holy living and useful working.
“When wrath the wicked shall destroy,
They shall abide in peace and joy
Who love Thy righteous laws.”
2. The condition of this happy state. “I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.” The Psalmist was well assured of the constancy, the unchangeableness, and the perpetuity of the mercy of God, and in that he trusted. Faith in God is the condition of spiritual safety and prosperity.
VI. They worship God because of His judgment upon the wicked. “I will praise Thee for ever because,” &c. The judgments of God as viewed by the righteous—
1. Incite to praise. “I will praise Thee,” &c. They reveal the righteousness of His administration; His regard for His people, &c.; and so enkindle gratitude, reverence, &c.
2. Inspire confidence. “And will wait on Thy name.” Barnes: “There are two ideas essentially in the language.
(1) The expression of a sense of dependence on God, as if the only ground of trust was in Him.
(2) A willingness to await His interposition at all times; a belief that, however long such interposition might be delayed, God would interfere at the proper time to bring deliverance; and a purpose calmly and patiently to look to Him until the time of deliverance should come” (Psa_27:14; Psa_37:7; Psa_37:9; Psa_37:34; Isa_40:31).
APPLICATION.—
1. What is our relation to the Divine judgments?
2. What is the ground of our confidence? Is it wealth? or the power of cunning and unscrupulous wickedness? or the Lord God?
3. What is the spirit and what the condition of our life?
THE FOLLY OF TRUSTING IN RICHES
(Psa_52:7.)
“Behold the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches.” We have here—
I. A great mistake. To trust in riches is to err greatly:
1. Because of the uncertainty of the tenure of riches. “Labour not to be rich: for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (1Ti_6:17). At the farthest we must relinquish them at death (Psa_49:17; Ecc_5:15).
2. Because of the limited power of riches. Wealth can do much, but there are many things which it cannot do. It can buy books, but not intellectual power; paintings, but not appreciative taste; service and sycophancy, but not esteem and affection, &c. It cannot buy pardon, peace, purity, &c. It cannot bribe death, &c.
3. Because of the utter inability of riches to satisfy those who possess them. He who has much wealth would fain have more. The cravings of the soul of man, created for truth, immortality, and God, cannot be satisfied with the bribes which wealth can offer. How mistaken then is he who trusts in wealth!
II. A common mistake. The great race of the age is for the acquisition of wealth. If you ask what a man is worth, people tell you how much money he possesses. Manhood is sacrificed for money. Riches are the deity of thousands in Christian England.
III. A ruinous mistake if persisted in. “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” “Thy money perish with thee.” (Comp. Luk_12:15-21.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1David had been the special object of Doeg’s hatred,…
Psa 52:3
David had been the special object of Doeg’s hatred, and he felt deeply the wrongs he had endured. He represents the false tongue as being effectual for mischief, like a razor which, unknown to the person operated upon, is making him bald, so softly and skilfully do Oriental barbers perform their task. Whetted by malice and guided by craft, Doeg accomplished his cruel purpose.
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There are:
I. Lies of intention. This is the worst kind of all.
II. Lies of carelessness. A desire to say something which will startle or amuse is often the secret why so many stories are told. So much mischief is done in the world by a thoughtless use of this razor that no man can be too careful how he hastily accuses or even suspects another of crime. Life is too short to correct or repair the harm which is done in this way.
J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 161.
Psa 52:8
I. Consider what mercy is. (1) Mercy is not to be confounded with mere goodness. Goodness may demand the exercise of justice; mercy asks that justice be set aside. (2) Mercy is a disposition to pardon the guilty. (3) Mercy is exercised only where there is guilt. (4) Mercy can be exercised no further than one deserves punishment.
II. Notice what is implied in trusting in the mercy of the Lord for ever. (1) A conviction of guilt. (2) Trust in mercy implies that we have no hope on the score of justice. (3) Trust in mercy implies a just apprehension of what mercy is. (4) Trust in God’s mercy implies a belief that He is merciful. (5) Trusting in the mercy of God "for ever and ever" implies a conviction of deserving endless punishment. (6) Trusting in mercy implies a cessation from all excuses and excuse-making.
III. Consider the conditions upon which we may confidently and securely trust in the mercy of God for ever. (1) Public justice must be appeased. (2) We must repent. (3) We must confess our sins. (4) We must really make restitution as far as lies in our power. (5) We must really reform. (6) We must go the whole length in justifying the Law and its penalty. (7) No sinner can be a proper object of mercy who is not entirely submissive to all those measures of the government that have brought him to conviction.
IV. Notice some mistakes into which sinners fall. (1) Many really trust in justice, and not in mercy. (2) Many trust professedly in the mercy of God without fulfilling the conditions on which only mercy can be shown. (3) Sinners do not consider that God cannot dispense with their fulfilling these conditions. (4) Many are defeating their own salvation by self-justification. (5) Many pretend to trust in mercy who yet profess to be punished for their sins as they go along. (6) Some are covering up their sins, yet dream of going to heaven. (7) We cannot reasonably ask for mercy beyond our acknowledged and felt guilt, and they mistake fatally who suppose that they can.
C. G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, p. 19.
References: Psa 52:8.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 230. Psalm 52—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 72. Psa 53:1.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 16.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1The strong man who made not God his strength.
The strong man who made not God his strength.
To the chief musician: Maskil of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.
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The fifty-second psalm first of all depicts him in this independent character. He is the mighty one who maketh not God his strength"; the deceiver also, according to the description of the apostles Paul and John. The latter marks him out as "the liar," who denies the Father and the Son (1Jn 2:22); the former (2Th 2:9-11) speaks of his "coming as after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders (power and signs and wonders, of falsehood) and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." It is natural therefore that this should be what is set before us in this first "maskil."
The reference to the history of David is, like that in the title of the last psalm, difficult to understand. We have no cause to reject it on that account, confirmed as it is again by the Septuagint. Doeg the Edomite is doubtless but a feeble representative of the great enemy of God. and man at the time of the end; and yet there are evident features of resemblance. The "Edomite" in itself implies the enmity, so unnatural as it is, which derives its bitterness from the rupture of natural relations, and this may easily represent that of outward relations which have professedly a more spiritual character, as that of Judas to the Lord. This is brought out in its application to the great final enemy in the fourth psalm of this series (Psa 55:1-23). Then the herdsman of Saul may seem very little the mighty man of the present psalm; but through his words (which is what is dwelt upon) he was in fact mighty enough to cause a wholesale slaughter of the priestly family. And it is by his words that, as already said, Antichrist will prevail, whatever "power" may accompany his words. The allusion to the "tent" may also borrow significance from the history, as we shall see.
1. The psalm is divided into two parts, which are in contrast with one another, the first seven verses being faith’s challenge of this mighty one, as the last two verses give us the man of faith himself and his portion from God. The "mighty man" who uses the little might he has in bitter persecution of the saints is here put in contrast also with El, the "Mighty" God, whose attribute is mercy -mercy enduring daily. How blessed is this gentle goodness of Almighty power. And it is not contradicted either by the presence of this wicked one himself: for even such an one "the goodness of God" would "lead to repentance." The awful end of unrepented evil makes this slowness of dealing with the evil man unspeakably solemn; while he may use it for "storing up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Meanwhile faith knows that this power of God, with all its apparent slowness, has things completely under its control: so that "He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him; and the remainder of wrath He will restrain." Nothing escapes from this all-seeing, perfect control, which maketh all things work together for good, to them that love Him.
And yet it is "man’s day" in which we are; and man avails himself of it. His tongue is indeed his mightiest member, and by his words he may well be justified or condemned. Alas, his tongue, as James declares, is "a world of iniquity"; "yawning depths" of it, as it is put here, "his tongue deviseth": in which, how easily, the unwary may be engulfed. Changing the figure, though the implications are no less murderous, this tongue of the wicked is "like a sharp razor," -cutting before one is aware. And out of the heart the mouth speaketh: "thou hast loved evil rather than good; lying instead of speaking right." How the great enemy of man is discerned in all this! for "he is a liar, and the father of it." Truth will not serve his purpose: that is, the whole, full truth; he is fond of using it, so far as it will give color and attractiveness to his lie, -a film of varnish over a rotten interior, -or like an ice-film of purity over his cavernous iniquity, -itself but a deception, a lure, a deeper lie.
Yet this deceit is itself the confession of weakness: power that is equal to its end has at least no need of it. And this confession that is in it makes it thus far unpalatable to the pride of strength. In its love to devour, the tongue may become a "tongue of deceit"; but this humiliation it does not love. Thus it carries with it the witness of its own frailty and mutability: the seed of mortality is in it, the witness of the judgment of God upon it; and so it is foreseen. "The Mighty One shall likewise smite thee down forever: he shall seize, and pluck thee out of the tent, and root thee out of the land of the living."
There is an expression here, which we must consider in the light of the application of the psalm to the Wicked one of the last days. Moll unites with Delitzsch in interpreting the "tent" out of which the mighty one is to be plucked, as the dwelling-place of Doeg, with an allusion to his herdsman’s tent. A much older application is that by Kimchi, adopted by Grier and others, to the holy tent or tabernacle at which Ahimelech ministered, and where we find in the history that Doeg was "detained before Jehovah." Delitzsch says, if this were meant, it would have been "
His tent"; but how can we be sure always of just the language which an inspired writer might see fit to use? Nay, one may see reasons for the less distinct expression even in the history itself, and far more in the prophetic reference. Thus, if the show-bread were but common bread while David was in rejection (see notes on 1Sa 21:1-15) why should not the very house of God itself be less distinctly owned as that on the same account? And if we think of Antichrist’s connection with it in the future time, how much more appropriate still would this disclaimer of its being God’s house when invaded by idolatry -the abomination that maketh desolate, -be perfectly in place?
One cannot but regard, then, the words here as a fresh indication of what is before us in the psalm. If Doeg alone were contemplated indeed, the application might seem as strained; as it is generally perhaps considered. But we can see how the Spirit of God, in contemplation of the future, might seize upon. such a connection and use it to suggest that all important one in the history of the Wicked one which could. hardly be omitted in such a sketch as the present, and which yet, in the history of David at least, would seem to find elsewhere nothing to suggest it.
Now comes the triumph of the righteous: "the righteous also shall see it and fear, and shall laugh at him. Behold the strong man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his deep practice." The last word in the Hebrew here is the singular of the first word in the second verse, and there translated "yawning depths." The correspondence would seem to show correspondence of thought, although in the first case it is his words, in the latter his practice that is refered to.
Thus we have his case summed up. It is but that of fallen man "writ large;" "being in honor, he abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish." Putting away God from him; he puts away his link with life and blessedness; he is not a beast, nor does he come to an end as the beast does. Self-condemned, for him perdition is an evil which to the beast it is not, and which links itself with the eternity of his spirit-nature.
2. The believing remnant are now seen in contrast with this passing of mere human strength: But I am like a green olive in the house of God," -the tree in which abides that which typifies the Spirit of God, green in its freshness of life eternal, and in the house of God, which gives another help to understanding that "tent" out of which the wicked one is cast. Here it is openly named, and suitably to the permanence of all the blessing, a "house," not a "tent." Faith enters it with sure confidence: "I trust in the mercy of God forever and aye." Their praise too abides; and God is known by His glorious Name. Upon this for all developments of the future, he can wait and fear not: it is a Name that is good before the worshiping saints.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. Maschil of David: when…
Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. Maschil of David: when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.' In some respects Doeg (1Sa_22:9) might stand for the original of the wicked man in this Ps., but the absence of all reference to the massacre of the priests at Nob (1Sa_22:17-19) throws grave doubt upon the correctness of the title. The Ps. appears to reflect the social evils denounced by the prophets of later times (see Amo_5:11; Amo_8:6; Mic_2:2; Mic_3:2-3; Mic_7:3), and to be directed against some prominent oppressor, whose character and fate are depicted in Psa_52:1-5, while Psa_52:6-9 describe the contrasted happiness of the righteous man.
1. Goodness] RV 'mercy.' God] is here 'El,' the Strong One, whose power is greater than that of the mightiest man. 'The goodness of God' is the fact that makes the boast of the strongest evil-doer to be vain.
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6. Fear.. laugh] These two emotions are not inconsistent. The one is the solemn awe inspired by the suddenness of the tyrant's downfall, the other the gladness caused by the revelation of God's righteousness.
7-9. These vv. are put into the mouth of the righteous, and are introduced in RV by 'saying.'
7. Cp. Psalms 49.
8. But I am] RV 'But as for me, I am.' A green olive tree] in contrast with the wicked who is rooted up like a weed (Psa_52:5): cp. Psa_92:13-14;
9. Before thy saints] RV 'in the presence of thy saints,' to be connected with I will wait. Possibly we should read,' I will declare that thy name is good,' etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 52
Psalm 52
The Proud and Boasting Man
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1. The character of the man of sin (Psa 52:1-7)
2. The character of the righteous (Psa 52:8-9)
The four Psalms which follow (all Maschil Psalms) give mostly a prophetic picture of the man of sin, the final Antichrist, the false messiah-king, under whom the godly in Israel will especially suffer. He is first described as the mighty man, the super-man, who boasts in evil. He is also a lying, deceitful man, “working deceitfully” and having a “deceitful tongue.” But God is going to deal with him, destroy him forever, take him away, pluck him out of his dwelling place, and out of the land of the living. He will be destroyed with the brightness of the Lord’s coming (2Th 2:8).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1The Punishment of Evil Tongues.
The Punishment of Evil Tongues.
To the chief musician, for use in public worship, Maschil, a didactic anthem, a psalm of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech, the entire narrative being found 1 Samuel 19-22, especially 21:1-10 and 22:1-10. This notice does not indicate the exact time when the psalm was composed, but the incident which occasioned it.
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v. 1. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, for Doeg proudly set forth his connection with the wicked deed which he had performed at Gibeah, first in deceitfully betraying David and then in slaying eighty-five priests, O mighty man? It is not a real hero to which the name is here applied, but the word is a sarcastic designation of one whose craftiness was in his tongue. The goodness of God endureth continually, that is, in spite of all of Doeg’s schemes the favor of God would continue to rest upon David, who therefore refused to consider his a lost cause.
v. 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, planning wickedness and destruction of every kind; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully, or, "thou who workest deceit!" Doeg was ever engaged in undertakings of meanness against others, wickedness and deceit was his sphere of activity.
v. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good, that is, in the place of good, he was altogether evil, and lying rather than to speak righteousness, his whole mind being devoted to falsehood and deceit. Selah.
v. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words, literally, "words of swallowing," forms of speech by which he could harm and destroy others, O thou deceitful tongue, the entire person of Doeg being included in this appellation.
v. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee forever, the divine vengeance being here set forth in retaliation for Doeg’s wickedness; He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, tearing down the tent of his habitation, leveling it with the ground, and removing even the tent-pins, and root thee out of the land of the living, in a total ruin of himself and all his possessions. Selah.
v. 6. The righteous also shall see, namely, the ruin of the ungodly, and fear, with awe and respect for the avenging justice of the Lord, and shall laugh at him, deriding the ungodly for his folly, not with revengeful feelings, but with joy over the manner in which the Lord turns circumstances in their favor:
v. 7. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, the triumph of the righteous being over the fallen oppressor, who thought he could go on indefinitely ignoring the Lord, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, believing that they could deliver him, and strengthened himself in his wickedness, in all his evil desires, believing himself to be safe from the vengeance of God. The fate of the righteous is shown by way of contrast.
v. 8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God, enjoying true prosperity in fellowship with the Lord; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
v. 9. I will praise Thee forever, because Thou hast done it, preserving David from all evil and making him partaker of the divine mercy; and I will wait on Thy name, hoping in the Lord as He has revealed Himself in His favor and grace; for it is good before Thy saints, every manifestation of God’s mercy before the eyes of the believers being another proof of His goodness, inviting their unwavering faith.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3, 4General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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General Information:
In this psalm the word "you" refers to Doeg. When Saul wanted to kill David, Doeg told Saul where David was so that Saul could find him.
For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A maschil
This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in Psalms 32:1.
Doeg ... Ahimelech
These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Why are you proud of making trouble, you mighty man?
This question shows how angry David was at the one who made trouble. AT: "You should not be so proud of making trouble, you mighty man." (See: Rhetorical Question)
you mighty man
David may have been using irony when he called Doeg this. AT: "you, who think you are so mighty" (See: Irony)
The covenant faithfulness of God comes every day
David speaks of God's covenant faithfulness as if it were something that could come. David was probably referring to God's promises to protect his people from wicked people. The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated as an adjective or an adverb. AT: "Every day, God is faithful to keep the promises of his covenant" or "Every day, God faithfully protects his people from wicked people like you" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Abstract Nouns)
a sharp razor
a sharp blade
Your tongue plans destruction like a sharp razor, working deceitfully
Here the tongue is compared to a sharp razor which is capable of causing great harm. AT: "Your tongue harms people like a sharp razor does, when you plan destruction and deceive others" (See: Simile)
Your tongue
Here "your tongue" refers to the person David is speaking to. AT: "You" (See: Synecdoche)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3Ps 52 Wicked people use words to destroy relationships…
Ps 52 Wicked people use words to destroy relationships and communities. They foolishly think that they can be heroes by their words (52:1-4), but their fate suddenly overtakes them (52:5-7). In contrast, the godly renew their commitment to the Lord (52:8-9) and find their future secure in him.
52:title This psalm refers to an incident in 1 Sam 21:1-10; 22:9-10. The accuser, Doeg the Edomite, is a paradigm of evil.
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52:1-4 Liars foolishly deceive themselves by thinking that they can be heroes by their words. They believe themselves innocent of any charges of evildoing, though they love evil and cause destruction. Those who speak curses, sarcasm, bitterness, arrogant boasting, and deceptions (31:18; 34:13; 59:7, 12; 120:2-3; 140:3, 9) bring about chaos, alienation, and destruction (Jas 3:5). Their sharp words cut like swords and daggers (Pss 55:21; 57:4; 64:3), the fangs of a snake (140:3), or a razor.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 1. Why boastest thou of thy wickedness? The success…
1. Why boastest thou of thy wickedness? The success which crowned the treachery of Doeg must have tended considerably to stagger David’s faith; and he seems to have adopted the strain of holy defiance with which the psalm commences, in order to arm himself more effectually against this temptation. He begins by charging Doeg with an aggravation of his guilt, in boasting of the power which he had acquired by an act of consummate villany. This power may have been sufficiently considerable to attract the notice which is here taken of it; for although he is only said to have been “master of the king’s herdsmen,” the designation does not imply that he was personally occupied in herding cattle, but may have been an honorary title; as in modern courts we speak of “The Master of the Horse.” he is reminded that there was no reason why he should applaud himself in his greatness, so long as he abused it to purposes of wickedness; nor why he should be vain of any new honor which the king might have conferred upon him in consideration of his late crime, as integrity is the only sure pathway to power and preferment. Any triumph which may be obtained by violence, treachery, or other unjustifiable means, is short-lived. In the second part of the verse, he points at the true cause of the blindness and stupidity that lead men to glory in their wickedness, which is, that they despise the poor and the humble; imagine that God will not condescend to interest himself in their behalf; and therefore embrace the occasion of oppressing them with impunity. They make no account of that providence which God exerts over his own children. David, in the exercise of a holy confidence, challenges such proud boasters with dishonoring the goodness of God; and as the Divine goodness does not always pursue the same even course — occasionally appears to suffer an interruption, and sometimes seems as if it were cut off altogether, David repels any temptation which this might suggest, by asserting that, whatever appearances may say to the contrary, it is daily exercised. This is evidently the meaning which he intends to convey, that any partial obstructions which may take place in the display of it can never prevent its constant renewal. He was confident that he would experience, in the future, what he had found in the past; for God cannot become weary in helping his people, or alleviating their miseries; and although he may suffer them again and again to fall into affliction, he is always equally ready to extend them the deliverance which they need.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–3 O Doeg, which hast credit with the tyrant Saul,…
O Doeg, which hast credit with the tyrant Saul, and hast power to murder the Saints of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Psa 52:1 « To the chief Musician, Maschil, [A…
Psa 52:1 « To the chief Musician, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. » Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God [endureth] continually.
A Psalm of David] Or the same time and argument, likely, with Psa 58:1-11
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Maschil] Or, to teach that the end of the wicked is evil; Redarguit pravos mores, saith the Syriac.
When Doeg the Edomite] When Abiathar escaping the slaughter slave, the blood hound (as Edomite may signify), came and told David what was befallen the priests and their city. This was no small affliction to David; the rather, because by telling the priest a lie, himself had occasioned the massacre. Hereupon, for the comfort of himself and other good people who were startled at this sad accident, and might be deterred thereby from helping David, he penned this psalm.
When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, &c.] Doeg is a fit name for a courtier; for it signifieth a solicitous or bushy headed fellow, a petty officier, a progging companion, an informer, one that listeneth after rumours, and carrieth tales to curry favour. An Edomite he was by nation; but a proselyte in pretence at least, and one that was at that time detained before the Lord, either by virtue of some vow, or because it was the sabbath day and he would not travel on it, or to perform some other religious service, 1Sa 21:7 : this dissembled sanctity was double iniquity; and he became a type of Judas, as some make him.
He came and told Saul] Like a parasite and a tale bearer as he was: when as he should rather have told Ahimelech, that David was out of Saul’s favour, and sought for to the slaughter, as Kimchi here noteth on Psa 52:3, but he concealed that, that he might accuse Ahimelech; and so slew three at once (saith another Rabbi), viz. himself, Saul, and Ahimelech, calumniatorem, calumniatum et calumniam audientem.
And said, David is come to the house of Ahimelech] Few words, but full of poison; leviter volant non leviter vulnerant. Verba Doegi erant pauci, sod multum nocua (Kimchi). See the story more at large 1Sa 22:9. The Rabbis say (from Lev 14:44, where the same word is used of the leprous house, that is here, Psa 52:5, of Doeg’s doom) that he was for this fact smitten with leprosy; and afterwards sent to hell, which they gather from Psa 120:4 (Midrash Tillin).
Ver. 1. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, thou mighty man] Or, thou giant; for so he seemed to himself when he had slain tot inermes nec repugnantes, so many naked men, not making any resistance, though they were the priests of Jehovah; and afterwards had smitten the innocent inhabitants of the city of Nob, together with the women, the infants, and the cattle; like another Ajax flagellifer or Hercules furens ; and now vaunted himself in that mischievous prowess.
Egregiam vero laudem, &c.
The Hebrew word for boasting here signifieth also madness, when it is taken in the worse sense, as Jer 46:9 Pro 2:14; and to boast of his heart’s desire is the note of an atheist, Psa 10:3.
The goodness of God endureth continually] Maugre thy spitefulness, God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart, and will be so. The Rabbis make this the sense, If Ahimelech had not relieved me, God would have stirred up some other to have done it (R. Solomon). Some others understand it thus, The goodness of God towards thee, a wicked wretch, endureth all the day. This should lead thee to repentance. But thou, after thy hardness, &c., Rom 2:5.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Why boastest thou thyself, as if thou hadst done…
Why boastest thou thyself, as if thou hadst done a great exploit, which none else durst undertake; and thereby established the crown upon Saul’s head, and thyself in his favour; and broken all David’s designs, by striking a terror into all his favourers by this sad example?
O mighty man! he speak ironically. O valiant captain! O glorious action! to kill a few weak and unarmed persons in the king’s presence, and under the protection of his guards! Surely thy name will be famous to all ages for such heroical courage.
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The goodness of God endureth continually; God’s love and favour to his people, and in particular to me, is not fading and inconstant, but everlasting and unchangeable, and therefore not to be hindered or defeated by any wicked designs or practices. And therefore though he hath permitted thee, and may do others, to rage for a season, yet he will defend, and in due time deliver, his people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The title is a brief account of the story…
The title is a brief account of the story which the psalm refers to. David now, at length, saw it necessary to quit the court, and shift for his own safety, for fear of Saul, who had once and again attempted to murder him. Being unprovided wit harms and victuals, he, by a wile, got Ahimelech the priest to furnish him with both. Doeg an Edomite happened to be there, and he went and informed Saul against Ahimelech, representing him as confederate with a traitor, upon which accusation Saul grounded a very bloody warrant, to kill all the priests; and Doeg, the prosecutor, was the executioner, Sa1 22:9, etc. In these verses,
I. David argues the case fairly with this proud and mighty man, Psa 52:1. Doeg, it is probably, was mighty in respect of bodily strength; but, if he was, he gained no reputation to it by his easy victory over the unarmed priests of the Lord; it is no honour for those that wear a sword to hector those that wear an ephod. However, he was, by his office, a mighty man, for he was set over the servants of Saul, chamberlain of the household. This was he that boasted himself, not only in the power he had to do mischief, but in the mischief he did. Note, It is bad to do ill, but it is worse to boast of it and glory in it when we have done, not only not to be ashamed of a wicked action, but to justify it, not only to justify it, but to magnify it and value ourselves upon it. Those that glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful; might men are often mischievous men, and boast of their heart's desire, Psa 10:3. It is uncertain how the following words come in: The goodness of God endures continually. Some make it the wicked man's answer to this question. The patience and forbearance of God (those great proofs of his goodness) are abused by sinners to the hardening of their hearts in their wicked ways; because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily, nay, because God is continually doing them good, therefore they boast in mischief; as if their prosperity in their wickedness were an evidence that there is no harm in it. But it is rather to be taken as an argument against him, to show, 1. The sinfulness of his sin: "God is continually doing good, and those that therein are like him have reason to glory in their being so; but thou art continually doing mischief, and therein art utterly unlike him, and contrary to him, and yet gloriest in being so." 2. The folly of it: "Thou thinkest, with the mischief which thou boastest of (so artfully contrived and so successfully carried on), to run down and ruin the people of God; but thou wilt find thyself mistaken: the goodness of God endures continually for their preservation, and then they need not fear what man can do unto them." The enemies in vain boast in their mischief while we have God's mercy to boast in.
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II. He draws up a high charge against him in the court of heaven, as he had drawn up a high charge against Ahimelech in Saul's court, Psa 52:2-4. He accuses him of the wickedness of his tongue (that unruly evil, full of deadly poison) and the wickedness of his heart, which that was an evidence of. Four things he charges him with: - 1. Malice. His tongue does mischief, not only pricking like a needle, but cutting like a sharp razor. Scornful bantering words would not content him; he loved devouring words, words that would ruin the priests of the Lord, whom he hated. 2. Falsehood. It was a deceitful tongue that he did this mischief with (Psa 52:4); he loved lying (Psa 52:3), and this sharp razor did work deceitfully (Psa 52:2), that is, before he had this occasion given him to discover his malice against the priests, he had acted very plausibly towards them; though he was an Edomite, he attended the altars, and brought his offerings, and paid his respects to the priests, as decently as any Israelite; therein he put a force upon himself (for he was detained before the Lord), but thus he gained an opportunity of doing them so much the greater mischief. Or it may refer to the information itself which he gave in against Ahimelech; for the matter of fact was, in substance, true, yet it was misrepresented, and false colours were put upon it, and therefore he might well be said to love lying, and to have a deceitful tongue. He told the truth, but not all the truth, as a witness ought to do; had he told that David made Ahimelech believe he was then going upon Saul's errand, the kindness he showed him would have appeared to be not only not traitorous against Saul, but respectful to him. It will not save us from the guilt of lying to be able to say, "There was some truth in what we said," if we pervert it, and make it to appear otherwise than it was. 3. Subtlety in sin: "Thy tongue devises mischiefs; that is, it speaks the mischief which thy heart devises." The more there is of craft and contrivance in any wickedness the more there is of the devil in it. 4. Affection to sin: "Thou lovest evil more than good; that is, thou lovest evil, and hast no love at all to that which is good; thou takest delight in lying, and makest no conscience of doing right. Thou wouldst rather please Saul by telling a lie than please God by speaking truth." Those are of Doeg's spirit who, instead of being pleased (as we ought all to be) with an opportunity of doing a man a kindness in his body, estate, or good name, are glad when they have a fair occasion to do a man a mischief, and readily close with an opportunity of that kind; that is loving evil more than good. It is bad to speak devouring words, but it is worse to love them either in others or in ourselves.
III. He reads his doom and denounces the judgments of God against him for his wickedness (Psa 52:5): "Thou hast destroyed the priests of the Lord and cut them off, and therefore God shall likewise destroy thee for ever." Sons of perdition actively shall be sons of perdition passively, as Judas and the man of sin. Destroyers shall be destroyed; those especially that hate, and persecute, and destroy the priests of the Lord, his ministers and people, who are made to our God priests, a royal priesthood, shall be taken away with a swift and everlasting destruction. Doeg is here condemned, 1. To be driven out of the church: He shall pluck thee out of the tabernacle, not thy dwelling-place, but God's (so it is most probably understood); "thou shalt be cut off from the favour of God, and his presence, and all communion with him, and shalt have no benefit either by oracle or offering." Justly was he deprived of all the privileges of God's house who had been so mischievous to his servants; he had come sometimes to God's tabernacle, and attended in his courts, but he was detained there; he was weary of his service, and sought an opportunity to defame his family; it was very fit therefore that he should be taken away, and plucked out thence; we should forbid any one our house that should serve us so. Note, We forfeit the benefit of ordinances if we make an ill use of them. 2. To be driven out of the world; "He shall root thee out of the land of the living, in which thou thoughtest thyself so deeply rooted." When good men die they are transplanted from the land of the living on earth, the nursery of the plants of righteousness, to that in heaven, the garden of the Lord, where they shall take root for ever; but, when wicked men die, they are rooted out of the land of the living, to perish for ever, as fuel to the fire of divine wrath. This will be the portion of those that contend with God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief?.... Or "in evil"…
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief?.... Or "in evil" (w); in that which is sinful; to glory in riches, wisdom, and strength, which are not in themselves evil, is wrong; and to rejoice in such boastings, all such rejoicing is evil; to be a doer of mischief, or sin, is bad; to make a sport of it, worse; but to glory in it, and boast of it when done, is worse still: to be boasters of evil things, is the character of antichrist and his followers, Ti2 3:2; who not only boast of their merit, their good works, and works of supererogation, and of their riches, and honour, and grandeur, saying, "I sit as a queen", Rev 18:7; but of their wickedness in shedding the blood of the saints, thinking thereby they do God good service, and merit heaven, and eternal happiness; as Doeg boasted of his slaughter of the priests, and of his gaining the king's favour by it;
O mighty man! referring either to his office, being the chief of Saul's herdmen, and set over his servants, Sa1 21:7; or ironically, to the mighty deed he had done, in slaying the unarmed priests, and putting to death the very sucklings at the breast, and even the innocent sheep, oxen, and asses; or to his great wickedness and power to commit it; though man has no power and free will to that which is good, yet he has to that which is evil; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the eastern versions render it, "O thou! mighty in wickedness"; and to the same purpose the Targum paraphrases it, "mighty to shed innocent blood"; and the note of Aben Ezra is, "mighty to do evil". A learned writer (x) thinks this relates to Saul, and describes him as a man of power and dignity. The character well agrees with the little horn and Romish beast, Dan 7:20;
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the goodness of God endureth continually: that is, the love, grace, and mercy of God; this is observed as what is the matter of the saints' boasting, in opposition to the wicked boasting of Doeg; they glory in the love of God, and in that they know him who exerciseth lovingkindness, which is the source of all the blessings of grace and goodness; and in Christ, through whom all are communicated to them; and in him, as made every blessing to them, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: they ascribe the whole of their salvation, and all they have, to the grace of God, and glory in nothing as of themselves, and as though not received of the Lord. Moreover, the psalmist may take notice of this, as what was his support under all the persecutions he endured from men; that he had an interest in the grace and goodness of God, which is immutable and everlasting, invariably the same in all states and conditions; and that he was encompassed about with the favour of God as with a shield; and that it was not in the power of his most implacable enemies to separate him from the love of God; and therefore it was egregious folly in Doeg to boast himself in mischief; for, be he as mighty as he might, he could not prevent his sharing in the divine goodness, which always continues.
(w) "in malo", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus. (x) Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 1. p. 119.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The wickedness of Doeg, and his doom, ver. 1-5.…
The wickedness of Doeg, and his doom, ver. 1-5. The righteous will see it and fear, ver. 6, 7. David comforts himself in God, ver. 8, 9. To the chief musician, Maschil, A psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.
Continually - God is continually doing good: thou art continually doing mischief. O mighty - He speaks ironically. O valiant captain! To kill a few weak and unarmed persons.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The psalmist points out the malevolence of a powerful…
PSALM LII
The psalmist points out the malevolence of a powerful enemy,
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and predicts his destruction, 1-5.
At which destruction the righteous should rejoice, 6, 7.
The psalmist's confidence on God, 8, 9.
NOTES ON PSALM LII
The title is, "To the chief Musician, an instructive Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul, and said to him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech." The history to which this alludes is the following: David, having learned that Saul was determined to destroy him, went to take refuge with Achish, king of Gath: in his journey he passed by Nob, where the tabernacle then was, and took thence the sword of Goliath; and, being spent with hunger, took some of the shewbread. Doeg, an Edomite, one of the domestics of Saul, being there, went to Saul, and informed him of these transactions. Saul immediately ordered Ahimelech into his presence, upbraided him for being a partisan of David, and ordered Doeg to slay him and all the priests. Doeg did so, and there fell by his hand eighty-five persons. And Saul sent and destroyed Nob and all its inhabitants, old and young, with all their property; none escaping but Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, who immediately joined himself to David. The account may be found 1Sa 21:1-7; 1Sa 22:9-23. All the Versions agree in this title except the Syriac, which speaks of it as a Psalm directed against vice in general, with a prediction of the destruction of evil.
Though the Psalm be evidently an invective against some great, wicked, and tyrannical man, yet I think it too mild in its composition for a transaction the most barbarous on record, and the most flagrant vice in the whole character of Saul.
Verse 1. Why boastest thou thyself] It is thought that Doeg boasted of his loyalty to Saul in making the above discovery; but the information was aggravated by circumstances of falsehood that tended greatly to inflame and irritate the mind of Saul. Exaggeration and lying are common to all informers.
O mighty man?] This character scarcely comports with Doeg, who was only chief of the herdsmen of Saul, 1Sa 21:7; but I grant this is not decisive evidence that the Psalm may not have Doeg in view, for the chief herdsman may have been a man of credit and authority.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 Psa 52:1. Why boastest thou thyself &c. — As…
Psa 52:1. Why boastest thou thyself &c. — As if thou hadst done a great exploit, which none else durst undertake; and thereby established the crown upon Saul’s head, and thyself in his favour; and frustrated all David’s designs, by striking a terror into all his friends, by this sad example; O mighty man? — He speaks ironically. O valiant captain! O glorious action! To kill a few weak and unarmed persons in the king’s presence, and under the protection of his guards. Surely thy name will be famous to all ages for such heroical courage! It seems probable that Doeg, after he had massacred the priests, boasted of his loyalty to Saul, and of having prevented the treasonable schemes which, he artfully insinuated, had been concerted by David and the priests; and that he had been liberally rewarded by Saul on account of it; and that this is the reason why the Psalm begins in thus expressing a kind of contempt of Doeg. See Dodd. The goodness of God endureth continually — Know, vain man, that I am out of the reach of thy malice. That goodness of God, which thou reproachest me for trusting in, is my sure protection, and will follow me day by day; and, surely, that same goodness, together with his forbearance and long-suffering, is wonderfully displayed in sparing thee, amidst thy complicated crimes, who art continually doing evil; while he is continually doing good.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Why boastest thou thyself in Mischief? - Why dost…
Why boastest thou thyself in Mischief? - Why dost thou “exult” in that which is wrong? Why dost thou find pleasure in evil rather than in good? Why dost thou seek to triumph in the injury done to others? The reference is to one who prided himself on schemes and projects which tended to injure others; or who congratulated himself on the success which attended his efforts to wrong other people.
O mighty man - DeWette and Luther render this, “tyrant.” The original word would be properly applied to one of rank or distinction; a man of “power” - power derived either from office, from talent, or from wealth. It is a word which is often applied to a hero or warrior: Isa 3:2; Eze 39:20; 2Sa 17:10; Psa 33:16; Psa 120:4; Psa 127:4; Dan 11:3; Gen 6:4; Jer 51:30. So far as the “word” is concerned, it might be applied either to Saul or to any other warrior or man of rank; and Professor Alexander supposes that it refers to Saul himself. The connection, however, seems to require us to understand it of Doeg, and not of Saul, This appears to be clear
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(a) from the general character here given to the person referred to, a character not particularly applicable to Saul, but applicable to an informer like Doeg Psa 52:2-4; and
(b) from the fact that he derived his power, not from his rank and office, as Saul did, but mainly from his wealth Psa 52:7. This would seem to imply that some other was referred to than Saul.
The goodness of God endureth continually - literally, “all the day.” That is, the wicked man could not hope to prevent the exercise of the divine goodness toward him whom he persecuted, and whom he sought to injure. David means to say that the goodness of God was so great and so constant, that he would protect his true friends from such machinations; or that it, was so unceasing and watchful, that the informer and accuser could not hope to find an interval of time when God would intermit his care, and when, therefore, he might hope for success. Against the goodness of God, the devices of a wicked man to injure the righteous could not ultimately prevail.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 52
Psalms 52
To the chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech
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Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endureth continually.
2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs:
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 Thou lovest evil more than good;
And lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,
He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place,
And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear,
And shall laugh at him:
7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength;
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
And strengthened himself in his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God:
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it:
And I will wait on thy name; for it is good
Before thy saints.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.—Respecting maschil, vid. Introduction. 4 The didactic character of this Psalm, which is brought into prominence by the title, and its devotional aim, are especially noticeable from the fact that with respect to its form, the invocation of God which is peculiar to prayers, lamentations and hymns, is entirely absent, with respect to its contents, the mighty man, who, according to Psa_52:7, is proud of his riches, is upbraided for his impudence, wickedness, and falseness (Psa_52:1-4), the punishment of God, which will destroy him, is proclaimed (Psa_52:5), the action of the righteous, which will be called forth thereby, is contrasted with it (Psa_52:6-7), and the lot and conduct of the pious Psalmist, corresponding with his trust in God’s grace, is pronounced. These contents are already summarily expressed in the first statement Psa_52:1. The whole in tone and style reminds us of the prophetical castigatory discourses (Hupfeld, as Isa_22:15 sq. (Ewald), Jer_20:3 sq.; Jer_28:5 sq. (Hitzig, Maurer). But this resemblance is only of a general character, and not of special reference. The figure of the olive tree (Psa_52:8) need not be regarded as having been derived from Jer_11:16, and the correspondences in language of Psa_52:1; Psa_52:9 with Isa_44:23; Isa_45:19, are not strong enough in connection with Psa_52:8 to refer the composition of the Psalm to the time subsequent to the return from the exile (Hitzig). The violence of the language leads us to the conclusion of an excitability of temper, which would hardly be explicable, if the actions of the person accosted should be described as merely general injuries, and the relation of the poet thereto merely as one of the righteous generally (Hupfeld). But the personal references of the two are not marked with sufficient definiteness to be able to draw any safe conclusion as to historical relations. The reference to the high priest Alkimos, 1 Maccabees 7 (Olsh.), is entirely arbitrary. But the reference of particular expressions to the relations of David to Saul (Hengst.), are partly far fetched, partly untenable. Accordingly it is more advisable to abide by the statements of the title, and refer to the informing of Doeg, the overseer of the royal asses (1Sa_22:9 sq.), in consequence of which eighty-five priests were slaughtered, whilst David retained his courage and expressed it to Abiathar, who escaped to David from that blood-bath, the son of Ahimelech, that priest of Nob who had thoughtlessly given David, as the king’s son-in-law, the shew-bread and the sword
of Goliath, which was hung up behind the ephod in the sanctuary, and this had excited the suspicion and vengeance of Saul, who now made Doeg, the informer of that act, likewise the executioner of his bloody sentence.
Str. I. Psa_52:1. Hero [mighty man, A. V.].—Since the fundamental meaning of gibbôr is strength, and the same meaning occurs in the name of God used here, êl, it is natural to suppose that there is a mutual reference of these expressions to one another (Venema, et al.). But it does not follow from this, either that the reference can only be to Saul (Hengst., Schegg) as a real hero, or that this rather is used in the bad sense=violent man (De Wette, Hupfeld), Psa_120:4. It can only be sarcastic (Delitzsch, et al.), since Doeg had not made the blood-bath by the strength of his fist, but by the craft of his tongue. The translation: Recke [applied to the giants of former days.—C. A. B.—] is therefore appropriate.—All the day long.—This designation of time (=always, continually) usually supplies the predicate, Psa_44:22; Psa_56:5. Here it is absent. Yet it is unnecessary to change the noun חֶסֶד into the corresponding verb (Syr.), or to supply a verb with the meaning: “endure” (most interpreters), or to point it as חַסֵּד, Pro_25:10, and take this form as an adverbial infin.=abusing (Hitzig). The translation: what boastest thou thyself in wickedness, thou mighty one in evil doing? thou deviseth always, etc. (Sept., Vulg.), leads to another recension of the text.
Psa_52:2. Working deceit.—This is not to be regarded as the 2d person of the finite verb עָשָׂה (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Flamin., et al.)=thou makest deceit, (that he worked as a razor), but the participle, yet not as the adjective of razor, which easily injures the one who uses it, after the analogy of the deceitful bow, Psa_78:57; Hos_7:16 (Isaaki, Kimchi, Clericus), or as that of the tongue (Calvin), but as that of the man (Jerome, Hupfeld), and indeed, according to the vowel points of עֹשֵׂה, as a vocative (Geier, and most interpreters).
Psa_52:3. Evil before (instead of) good—falsehood before (instead of) speaking righteousness.—מִן excludes its genitive, so that it does not state degree, but the preference including an actual negation (Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., most recent interpreters). The accused not only loves evil more than good, but he prefers evil to good, so that he loves it instead of that which he should love.
Psa_52:4. [Devouring words.—Perowne: “Literally, ‘words of swallowing up,’ which accords exactly with the figures employed in Psa_52:9, ‘their mouth is a yawning gulf,’ etc., and so the Sept. well ῥήματα καταποντισμῶ.—C. A. B.]—Tongue of deceit.—This is not an accusative in apposition to “devouring words” (Olshausen, Hupfeld, and most older interpreters), but a vocative (Rosenm. and most recent interpreters), as parallel to the preceding.
Str. II. Psa_52:5. Likewise introduces the corresponding behaviour of another (Gen_20:6), especially the proclamation of the Divine retaliation, Isa_66:4; Eze_16:43; Mal_2:9.—Tear down [A. V., destroy,] is used generally of walls, towers, houses, with the subordinate idea that these are made level with the ground, and are not to be rebuilt.—Seize [A. V., take away] is generally used of the seizing of a coal with the tongs or shovel; so much less then are we to think in the subsequent words of tearing away the tent, that is to say, the tent-pins from the earth (Hupfeld), or of the bringing out from the sacred tent, which the traitor had defiled (Kimchi, Geier, et al.), but of the dwelling, yet not as a figure of existence (De Wette), but rather with an allusion to the herdsman’s tent of Doeg.—[Land of the living.—Alexander: This is a poetical description of life itself, or the present state of existence, under the figure of a country.”—C. A. B.]
[Psa_52:6. See—fear—laugh.—The righteous shall live to see the ruin of the ungodly, and in looking upon their ruin they will fear God, that is, reverence Him, and stand in holy awe in the presence of His severe judgments, and at the same time laugh at the absurd state of the ungodly, in view of their previous great pretensions.5
Psa_52:7. Behold the man, etc.—Perowne: “The words in which the righteous express their triumph, pointing, as it were, to the fallen oppressor, and the lesson to be learnt from his overthrow. His trust was in riches, (comp. Psa_49:6; Pro_10:15; Pro_18:11), and his strength in his evil desire (vid. Psa_52:2), not in God.—C. A. B.]
Str. III. Psa_52:8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.—[The pronoun is emphatic, the Psalmist contrasting himself with the fallen Doeg.—C. A. B.] The “olive tree in the house of God,” has hardly a local meaning, comp. 2Ma_14:4 (Hitzig), yet is still less a general figure of glad prosperity under the protection and in the vicinity of God, but the latter reference is brought about at any rate by the thought of the central place of the meeting of God with His people (Psa_92:13; Isa_60:13; Zec_1:8), so that something higher is expressed, it is true (Hengstenberg), than the hope of David of returning from his exile to the sanctuary (the older interpreters), yet the latter is not to be excluded (De Wette, Hupfeld), but included in the idea.
Psa_52:9. And will wait on Thy name, because it is good.—The connection of טוֹב with the following words (even Ewald and Olsh.) is opposed by the fact that not “in the eyes” is used, but נֶגֶד=in the presence of, or before. It is accordingly better to write it with the previous word: וַאֲקַוֶּה. The conjecture of Hitzig to read it as: וַאֲחַוֵּה= I will proclaim, is very appropriate; for praise, thanksgiving, preaching before the congregation are frequently mentioned. But the “wait” of the text is likewise intelligible (comp. Isa_26:8), since the name of God expresses His declaration of Himself and David can represent himself to the congregation (Psa_22:22 sq.; Psa_40:9 sq.) as an example and model of one who waits upon Him. It is entirely unsuitable, in opposition to the accents, to refer טוֹב to God=because Thou art kind (De Wette): or to the action of the verb=because He is good. As God Himself, Psa_100:4, or His grace, Psa_109:21, so likewise His name is טוב, and this is neither to be explained as kind (Hupfeld) nor as great (Maurer).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Confidence in God’s everlasting grace allows us to have no anxiety respecting the wickedness and craft of even the mightiest enemies; it includes the assurance of the nothingness of their devices and the vanity of their boasting and defiance, not less than their terrible and complete ruin, with the same certainty of knowledge as that of our own continued salvation and increasing prosperity. For the one as well as the other rests upon faith in the retaliation of God’s holy government; and this grace does not deceive us. God pushes the violent from their authority; but He gives the humble His grace.
2. Every man is glad to boast of that in which he finds his strength, and upon which he puts his trust. The wicked therefore boast not merely as it were of their riches, their power, their sagacity, but directly of their wickedness. But this pride comes directly before their fall. The pious, on the contrary, boast of God and His grace. Herein they put their confidence alone, and therefore find in God true strength. And whilst they praise God, they strengthen themselves at the same time in waiting upon God’s revelation of Himself, and by both give the congregation a comforting example and a refreshing model.
3. The tongue is a little member, but it can become a dangerous weapon, not only by its misuse ruining other men, but plunging those likewise who use it in wickedness, into sure destruction. For it hands them over to the Divine judgment, and there even the lightest words weigh heavily, and the winged word is conjured up. But he who has spoken untruly, has not only made a breath and spoken in the air, he has violated the righteousness which he should have pursued (Deu_16:20), and transgressed God’s commandment; therefore the deserved punishment hastens to the wicked, sometimes late, but is always Sure to come. By this the righteous at the same time fear and rejoice.
4. As the righteous do not avenge themselves, but may and must proclaim the punishments of God, so they rejoice not over the misfortunes of their enemies, 2Sa_1:19; Job_31:29; Pro_24:17. It fills them with the trembling of fear and amazement; they rejoice in the exhibition of the righteousness of God, in which the glory, truth, and power of the Divine name which is invoked, confessed, and praised by the congregation, are again preserved. And if they then laugh, it is yet not a laughing in the joy of injuring, in scorn and reproaching, but the bringing into view of the absurd inconsistency in which the ungodly have become involved by their abandonment of God.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The courage of faith and the pride of the ungodly, a, in their origin, b, in their behaviour, c, in their consequences.—The same hand which casts down the wicked, lifts up the pious.—The use and misuse of the tongue.—See well to it, in what thou dost boast, in what thou dost trust, whom thou dost obey.—How the judgments of God excite fear and joy in one and the same heart.—The strength of wickedness finally is shown to be entire weakness.—Trust in Divine grace is rewarded by the exhibition of it, but he who leaves God, is left by His salvation.—Think of the recompense, not only for what thou doest, but for what thou sayest.—God will not have His name proclaimed in vain; he who uses it aright, will experience that it is good.—God requires trust in order to the manifestations of His grace, and He expects thankfulness.—Be not in debt to your God for thanksgiving, but act so that the whole congregation shall have the blessing of it.—Wouldst thou receive and enjoy the blessings of the house of God? then thou must undertake the obligations of a child and of a servant of God.
Starke: Many have fallen by the sharpness of the sword, but not near so many as by wicked mouths.—A wicked tongue has always at the bottom a false heart.—The goodness of God is a strong support, upon which we can safely rely, no one is deprived of it, unless they wilfully cast it away from them.—Selnekker: The pious must have patience, although wicked villains do much mischief.—Franke: Most men are so constituted that they of themselves hope and expect the best. But it does not depend upon the hope, which they make in their thoughts, but upon the idea that they have of themselves.—Arndt: There are two kinds of laughter: one when a wicked, revengeful heart laughs over the misfortunes of its enemies; the other laughing is from the consideration of the wonderful judgments and righteousness of God.—Tholuck: He who has not his protection in God, seeks protection and shelter in the things of this world.—He who has his roots grounded in God, will likewise bloom in the house of God; and he who does not see it in time, will experience it in eternity.—The name of the Lord is before the pious, although others know nothing of it, as a horn of plenty full of graces and gifts.—Guenther: In nothing is the wicked world more inventive than in the justification and extenuation of its sins and evil desires.—Taube: The ungodly flourish, it is true, but like the grass.—Faith lives upon the glory of the name of God; therefore the heart’s pleasure is in the recollection of His name, Isa_26:8. [Matt. Henry: They that glory in their sin glory in their shame, and then it becomes yet more shameful.—The enemies in vain boast in their mischief, while we have God’s mercy to boast in.—It contributes very much to the beauty of our profession, and to our fruitfulness in every grace, to be much in praising God, and it is certain we never want matter for praise.—Barnes: Among the “saints” there is a common bond of union—a common interest in all that pertains to each other; and when special mercy is shown to any one of the great brotherhood, it is proper that all should join in the thanksgiving, and render praise to God.—Spurgeon: Wealth and wickedness are dreadful companions; when combined they make a monster.—Eternal mercy is my present confidence. David knew God’s mercy to be eternal and perpetual, and in that he trusted. What a rock to build on! What a fortress to fly to!—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[4][This Psalm begins a series of eight Psalms using the Divine name of Elohim, and all maskils of David (Psalms 52—55). It is one of the eight psalms which by this title are referred to the time of the persecution by Saul (Psalms 7, 59, 56, 34, 52, 57, 142, 54). Augustine calls it Psalmus fugitivus. Vid. Delitzsch.—C.A.B.]
[5][Barnes: “The idea here is not exultation in the sufferings of others, or joy that calamity has come upon them, or the gratification of selfish and revengeful feelings that an enemy is deservedly punished; it is that of approbation that punishment has come upon those who deserve it, and joy that wickedness is not allowed to triumph. It is not wrong for us to feel a sense of approbation and joy that the laws are maintained, and that justice is done, even though this does involve suffering, for we know that the guilty deserve it, end it is better that they should suffer than that the righteous should suffer through them.”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 tongue--for self.
tongue--for self.
mischiefs--evil to others (Psa 5:9; Psa 38:12).
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working deceitfully-- (Psa 10:7), as a keen, smoothly moving razor, cutting quietly, but deeply.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 1. Why boastest thou—This must be understood as an…
1. Why boastest thou—This must be understood as an address to Doeg, not to Saul, to whom David ever observed a respectful and loyal deference. “It is bad enough to behave wickedly, but bad in the extreme to boast of it as a heroic act.”—Delitzsch. He that boasts of success in evil doing boasts of evil doing.
O mighty man—Hebrew, O hero! A hero in crime. He had gained the title by slaying eighty-five priests of Nob and betraying David. This had brought him into favour with Saul as a supple tool for the accomplishment of his purposes. He was also chief of Saul’s servants. 1Sa_22:9.
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Goodness of God endureth continually—Therefore trusting in it, I shall triumph at last.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. This verse states the theme of the Psalm;…
1. This verse states the theme of the Psalm; the contrast between man’s wrongdoing and God’s lovingkindness. The two halves of the verse correspond to the two divisions of the Psalm. The statement of the second line is abruptly introduced, but it is virtually the answer to the question of the first. What avails it thee to boast of successful evil-doing (Psa_10:3)? it is vain: the lovingkindness of God (endureth) all the day; that covenant love in which the Psalmist trusts (Psa_52:8), and of which all His ‘saints’ (Psa_52:9) are the object.
O mighty man] Perhaps simply, as P.B.V., thou tyrant, for power soon degenerates into tyranny: but rather perhaps with sarcastic irony, thou hero! Cp. Isa_5:22; Jer_9:3.
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God] El, ‘the strong one’ (cp. Psa_50:1), is significantly used here. The braggart tyrant thinks himself strong, but there is a stronger than he, who will call him to account.
1–5. Denunciation of the evil-doer and prediction of his fate.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 (1) Mighty man.—Better, hero, used sarcastically. LXX. and Vulg.,…
(1) Mighty man.—Better, hero, used sarcastically. LXX. and Vulg., “a mighty one at mischief.” (Comp. Isa_5:22 : “a hero at drinking.”) The order of the Hebrew is, however, against this, and in favour of the English, why dost thou exult in wickedness, O hero, i.e., perhaps, not only his own, but in the wickedness the people are led into by his means. This seems necessitated by the next clause. In spite of man’s folly and sin, God’s covenant favour endures all the day long.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 HERE, again, the title is the best guide to…
HERE, again, the title is the best guide to the origin, intent, and authorship of the psalm. It is ascribed to David, and said to have been written on the occasion when Doeg the Edomite acquainted Saul with the fact of David"s visit to Ahimelech the priest, recorded in 1Sa_21:1-9. This information led to a fearful massacre, in which Doeg himself took the chief part. (1Sa_22:11-19) The bitterness of feeling displayed in the psalm is thus accounted for.
Metrically, the psalm seems to consist of three strophes, extending respectively to four, three, and two verses. In the first strophe Doeg"s wickedness is set forth (vers. 1-4); in the second (vers. 5-7), he is threatened with God"s vengeance; in the third (vers. 8, 9), David thanks God for the vengeance which he has executed, and declares his intention always to trust in him.
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Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg was "the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul", (1Sa_21:7) or, according to another passage, (1Sa_22:9) "set over the servants of Saul." The position would be a high one, and would imply the possession of much physical strength. A sense of tyranny or extreme arrogance seems to attach to the word translated "mighty one" (gibber); see Gen_6:4 Gen_10:8. The word translated "mischief" implies something worse. In Psa_6:9 it is rendered "wickedness," and is thought to mean, in the Psalms generally, "ruinous, unfathomable evil destructive malignity" (Canon Cook). The goodness of God endureth continually. Why not follow the Divine pattern, instead of setting thyself in direct antagonism to it? Canst thou expect to prosper when thou art thus opposed to the Almighty?
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-9. A betrayer.
The "mighty man" might have been Doeg or some other who had gained notoriety as a betrayer.
I THE ODIOUSNESS OF HIS CHARACTER. It is marked by deceitfulness. Craft and lying are the tools of the betrayer. He cannot get on without them, and he waxes expert in their use. He may pretend friendship, but malice is in his heart. Even if he speaks truth, it is not in love, but in hate. "Whispering tongues can poison truth," Beat on mischief, he does not think of consequences. If he can injure the man he hates, he cares not though the innocent also should suffer. When he comes by a secret, which may be turned to advantage, he is elated. His paltry soul swells within him, he grows big with the idea of his own importance. Life and death are in the power of his tongue. And when his miserable schemes succeed, he boasts as if he had done a brave thing; as if he were the hero of the hour.
II THE TERRIBLENESS OF HIS DOOM. There was a time when Doeg seemed to succeed. Then he may have blessed his soul, and the men of Saul"s court, no doubt, praised him, while he was doing good, as they thought, to himself, and was able to do good to them. But changes came. His real character was unmasked. The fearful results of his treachery were brought to light, and then he must have become the object of detestation to all right-thinking men. It is thus that reputations built on sand fall in the day of trial. The judgment of yesterday may be reversed to-day. The men who stand high to-day may be covered with scorn and infamy to-morrow. God is long-suffering. He even bears long, and strangely, with the wicked. But their day is coming. The judgment described in the psalm is terrible in its completeness. Image is added to image. The metaphors rise in intensity and force. There is not only defeat, as of a house beaten down, but there is expulsion, as from a home made desolate; and more, there is extinction, as of a family rooted out of the land (ver. 5). The overthrow is complete, and all this is by the hand of God, indicating that all deceit and malice and evildoing are contrary to the Divine order, and doomed in the end to ruin. There is a conscience in society, and, as it is rightly quickened and enlightened, it says "Amen" to God"s righteous judgments.
III THE MORAL LESSONS OF HIS LIFE. There is much here deserving close study. Learn:
1. The justice of God. He is ever on the side of truth. His judgments are all righteous.
2. The folly of sin. (Ver. 7)
3. The blessedness of the righteous. This lesson is heightened by contrast. How different the tree overthrown, and torn up by the roots, and the "olive tree" standing beautiful and secure in "the house of God" 1 How markedly and utterly separate, the evil-doer judged and put to shame, and the godly man trusting, praising, waiting, rejoicing in the sunshine of God"s love, and the hope of his mercy for ever and ever! W.F
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-9. psalm is A stern upbraiding addressed to the man who, unscrupulous in the exercise of his power, and proud of his wealth, finds his delight in all the arts of the practised liar.
I THE ARROGANCE OF A WICKED MAN IN WORLDLY POWER.
1. He boasts of the evil which he does. He is not ashamed of his wickedness.
2. He is bent upon ever new forms of mischief. Works deceitfully, and not openly, and his tongue, as the instrument of his mind, is ever plotting fresh devices of evil.
3. He loves false speaking and false ways more than the true. The wickedness is ingrained, and not merely resorted to for a purpose.
4. He exults in material riches. Thinks they can carry him through, and enable him to brave all consequences.
II THE CERTAINTY OF HIS OVERTHROW.
1. The goodness of God will ensure it. God loves the good; and his love for them endureth for ever ensuring the overthrow of the wicked.
2. The sure connection of guilt and punishment. (Ver. 5) The psalmist had no hesitation in predicting his future fall.
III THE SYMPATHY WHICH GOOD MEN FEEL WITH GOD"S RIGHTEOUS WORK. (Ver. 6) They are filled with a holy filial fear; and they rejoice at the triumph of the right and the true over the unjust and the untrue.
IV GOD"S GOODNESS GIVES CONFIDENCE AND THANKFULNESS TO THE RIGHTEOUS (Vers. 8, 9) Trust, praise, and patience wait upon thy Name. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Title. To the Chief Musician. Even short Psalms, if…
Title. To the Chief Musician. Even short Psalms, if they record but one instance of the goodness of the Lord, and rebuke but briefly the pride of man, are worthy of our best minstrelsy. When we see that each Psalm is dedicated to "the chief musician, "it should make us value our psalmody, and forbid us to praise the Lord carelessly. Maschil. An Instructive. Even the malice of a Doeg may furnish instruction to a David. A Psalm of David. He was the prime object of Doeg's doggish hatred, and therefore the most fitting person to draw from the incident the lesson concealed within it. When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and saith unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. By this deceitful tale bearing, he procured the death of all the priests at Nob: though it had been a crime to have succoured David as a rebel, they were not in their intent and knowledge guilty of the fault. David felt much the villany of this arch enemy, and here he denounces him in vigorous terms; it may be also that he has Saul in his eye.
Division. We shall follow the sacred pauses marked by the Selahs of the poet.
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Ver. 1. Why boasteth thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenceless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room for exultation! Honourable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean and cruel. If David alluded to Saul, he meant by these words pityingly to say, "How can one by nature fitted for nobler deeds, descend to so low a level as to find a theme for boasting in a slaughter so heartless and mischievous?" The goodness of God endureth continually. A beautiful contrast. The tyrant's fury cannot dry up the perennial stream of divine mercy. If priests be slain their Master lives. If Doeg for awhile triumphs the Lord will outlive him, and right the wrongs which he has done. This ought to modify the proud exultations of the wicked, for after all, while the Lord liveth, iniquity has little cause to exalt itself.
Title. That Maschil means a sacred composition, is evident from Ps 47:7, where the passage which we render, "Sing ye praises with understanding, "is literally, "Sing ye a Maschil, "or song of instruction. This word occurs as a title in thirteen places; and six times is prefixed to compositions of David's. In several instances it occurs in consecutive Psalms; i.e., in the 42nd (of which the 43rd is the sequel), the 44th and 45th, the 52nd, 53rd, 54th, and 55th, the 88th and 89th. A circumstance which favours the notion that the term was one peculiarly used by some particular editor or collector of a certain portion of the Psalter. John Jebb.
Ver. 1. (first clause). Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty? that is, he that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one spark any man you please can burn all the crop...
What art thou about to do, O, mighty man, what are thou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this thing also a scorpion, this also a fever, this also a poisonous fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal to a poisonous fungus! Augustine.
Ver. 1. By mischief is understood not simply what evil he had done, but the prosperity which he now enjoyed, obtained through mischief; as is clear both from the word boasting and from the seventh verse...Formerly he was the chief of Saul's shepherds 1Sa 21:8, but by that wicked destruction of the priests of God by Saul, and the execution of the cruel sentence, he obtained the chief place near to the king 1Sa 22:9. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 1. O mighty man. These words may be added by way of irony, as if he had said, A great deal of valour and prowess you have shown in slaying a company of unarmed men, the priests of the Lord, yea, women and children, no way able to resist you or else to imply the ground of his vain boasting, to wit, either his present greatness, as being a man in great place, and of great power with Saul; or the great preferments he expected from Saul. Arthur Jackson.
Ver. 1. The goodness of God endureth continually. He contrasts the goodness of God with the wealth and might of Doeg, and the foundation of his own confidence as widely different from that of Doeg, his own placed upon the goodness of God, enduring for ever and showing itself effectual. It is as if he had said, The goodness of God to which I trust, is most powerful and the same throughout all time, and in it I shall at all times most surely rejoice that goodness of God, since now it sustains me, so it will exalt me in its own good time; it therefore is, and will be above me....
Not without emphasis does he say the goodness la of the strong God, a contrast to Doeg the hero, and the ruinous foundation of his fortune. Hermann Venema.
Ver. 1. The confidence of faith.
1. The circumstances were distressing.
1. David was misjudged.
2. David exiled.
3. A bad man in power.
4. God's priests slain.
2. The consolation was abiding.
1. There is a God.
2. He is good.
3. His goodness continues.
4. Good will therefore overcome.
3. The rejoinder was triumphant. Why boasteth thou?
1. The mischief did not touch the main point.
2. It would be overruled.
3. It would recoil.
4. It would expose the perpetrators to scorn.
CHANDLER'S "Life of David, "contains an Exposition of this Psalm. Vol. 1., pp. 140-143.
Psalms 52:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
Psa_52:1-9
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
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A social betrayer
This psalm may be regarded as presenting to us a social betrayer in a variety of aspects. Doeg was an informer, one whom Webster defines as a man who informs against others from base or unworthy motives.
I. The social betrayer depicted.
1. Pride (Psa_52:1). Proud of the secret he holds. He feels he has the reputation and destiny of some one entrusted to him.
2. Malice (Psa_52:2).
3. Craft (Psa_52:2). He is a moral assassin; moves in the dark, and carries his javelin under the costume of deception. Dishonesty (Psa_52:3). He runs more readily with the false than with the true; with the wrong than with the right; with the cruel than with the kind. The base man, what careth he whom he betrays, how he betrays, or what sufferings he entails upon the innocent and even the holy, in order to advance his own personal and selfish ends?
II. The social betrayer doomed (Psa_52:5). What is his punishment? Destruction. Not annihilation; but--
1. A removal: He shall take thee away. Hengstenberg renders it, take thee away as a coal. Fling thee away as an intolerable brand. He has been as fire in society, inflaming others with bad passions, devouring the true, the good, and the happy. God will fling him away as a hissing coal. Pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place (or tent). His present dwelling-place is a scene of discipline, grace, redemption: hope is taken from him, he is taken from it for ever.
2. An uprootal. And root thee out of the land of the living. The roots of a wicked mans life are in this world, they dont strike into the spiritual and the eternal; the present and the palpable are everything to him: their roots shall be destroyed. All these are figures, but they mean something terrible; and reason, analogy, conscience, and the Bible tell us that something terrible is before such a man as this.
III. The social betrayer derided (Psa_52:6-7). There is a twofold laughter, says Arndt. One, when a man out of an evil spirit of revenge laughs at his enemy. This no Christian, virtuous mind does, but exercises compassion towards an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from a consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteousness of God, as when a man says; like Pharaoh, I ask nothing after the Lord, nor will I let Israel go, and soon thereafter is made to sink in the Red Sea. This is for just derision. Is it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God?
IV. The social betrayer defeated. Doeg, by his betrayal, considered perhaps that he had ruined David; but instead of this, whilst he himself got destroyed, uprooted from the land of the living, his victim was like a green olive-tree. David here indicates that his own life was--
1. A growing life. A green olive-tree. Well nourished and well protected.
2. A trusting life. I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. Gods goodness is a tide that must bear everything before it and will outlive the universe itself. Therefore it is wise to trust in it.
3. A thankful life: I will praise Thee for ever. Divine praise is the heaven of the soul. It employs all its faculties harmoniously, and gratifies all its moral cravings fully and for ever.
4. An obedient life. I will wait on Thy name. This is the highest attitude of an intelligent creature; it is the attitude of the greatest angel. (Homilist.)
On the character of Doeg
I. Doeg made not God his strength. To make God our strength implies that we regard the Almighty as the author of all our blessings; that we repose an implicit trust in Him in every situation; that we own our dependence on Him for everything which we enjoy; and that we live under the habitual influence of these convictions. The conduct of Doeg was the very reverse of this.
II. He trusted in the abundance of his riches. The only true felicity of man is in God; but the love of the world seduces the heart from God, and leads it, like Doeg, to trust in the abundance of riches, instead of making God its strength. When the love of riches becomes thus predominant, how baneful must be its influence to the principles and affections of the soul! It darkens the understanding; it deadens the conscience; it chills and hardens the heart. But why should men trust to their wealth, when its influence is so baneful and destructive? The accumulated treasures of the world cannot arrest the arm of death, or purchase from him a moments reprieve. Are riches necessary to the enjoyment of life? This depends on health of body and contentment of mind, and neither of these can wealth bestow.
III. He strengthened himself in his wickedness. The first resource of an abandoned sinner is debauchery; and to it he betakes himself, not so much to gratify sensual appetite and licentious desire, as to drown thought, to bury reflection, to lull the cow, science. His only joys are intemperance, riot and dissipation. The best principles of his nature are entirely perverted, and his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Having thus succeeded in corrupting or silencing the faithful guardians of innocence and virtue, he triumphs in the imaginary security with which he may now indulge in licentiousness and vice, and strengthens himself still farther in wickedness.
IV. This character is recorded for our instruction. It is intended as a beacon to point out to us the dangerous consequences of sin. It is preserved as a memorial, to all ages of the world, of this important; and impressive truth, that sin and misery are most closely united. Would we avoid Doegs fate, then let us avoid his conduct. With this view, let us guard most anxiously against the first deviations from piety and virtue. (G. Goldie.)
A challenge to the mighty sinner
This psalm is a bold and outspoken challenge to a big sinner--a proud personage who trusted in the abundance of his riches; and, as often happens to men--and to women, too--luxury had made him slanderous and foul-mouthed, and brutal and monstrous: he strengthened himself in his wickedness. The psalm challenges the big man: Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? but it tries also to convert him: The goodness of God is from day to day. What is the connection between these two clauses of verse 17 The big sinner, wicked and proud, is shut up, as it were, in a close and ill-smelling room--shut up with his ugly thoughts, shut up with his own evil, selfish self. Let him come out, says the psalmist, out into the sunshine of Gods mercies, out into the open where the winds blow fresh oer the world; let him think of Gods goodness, and may it lead him to repentance. Old Testament piety haunts the open air for its images (Psa_52:8). We of to-day may not be big men, and have psalms written about us, but we need the same teaching. Let a man be ever-reached in business, let him come home and brood over it, and how soon will arise the thought and plan of revenge! Let another come to him with her prattling lips, and how easily does she convince him that he is a hero and a martyr I Why not the rather, reaching a hand for Gods Book, remember His goodness, which is from day to day? Young men may not know amassed wealth, but they know how, in act or in fancy, they pass into the house of passion, where the blinds are drawn and the windows dimmed by heat, and the sounds are pleasing, and sweet desire arises. Young men, come forth--into the open, out from your narrow selves to God, out into His loves free atmosphere. You are not alone (Psa_52:9). Here are the saints, the heroes, the men of faith; and above the helmets of salvation which they wear, see the Captain, Christ Himself, beckoning you onwards to glory and to God. (British Weekly.)
The goodness of God endureth continually.--
The goodness of God infinite and everlasting
There is not so much sin in man as there is goodness in God. There is a vaster proportion between sin and grace than between a spark and an ocean. Who would doubt whether a spark could be quenched in an ocean? Thy thoughts of disobedience towards God have been within the compass of time, but His goodness hath been bubbling up towards thee from all eternity. (W. Culverwell.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 52
Psalms 52
THE progress of feeling in this psalm is clear, but there is no very distinct division into strophes and one of the two Selahs does not mark a transition, though it does make a pause. First, the poet, with a few indignant and contemptuous touches, dashes on his canvas an outline portrait of an arrogant oppressor, whose weapon was slander and his words like pits of ruin. Then, with vehement, exulting metaphors, he pictures his destruction. On it follow reverent awe of God, whose justice is thereby displayed, and deepened sense in righteous hearts of the folly of trust in anything but Him. Finally, the singer contrasts with thankfulness his own happy continuance in fellowship with God with the oppressors fate, and renews his resolve of praise and patient waiting.
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The themes are familiar, and their treatment has nothing distinctive. The portrait of the oppressor does not strike one as a likeness either of the Edomite herdsman Doeg, with whose betrayal of Davids asylum at Nob the superscription connects the psalm or of Saul, to whom Hengstenberg, feeling the difficulty of seeing Doeg in it, refers it. Malicious lies and arrogant trust in riches were not the crimes that cried for vengeance in the bloody massacre at Nob. Cheyne would bring this group of "Davidic" psalms (Psalms 52, Psalms 59) down to the Persian period (Orig of Psalt., 121-23). Olshausen, after Theodore of Mopsuestia (see Cheyne loc. cit.) to the Maccabean. But the grounds alleged are scarcely strong enough to carry more than the weight of a "may be"; and it is better to recognise that, if the superscription is thrown over, the psalm itself does not yield sufficiently characteristic marks to enable us to fix its date. It may be worth considering whether the very absence of any obvious correspondences with Davids circumstances does not show that the superscription rested on a tradition earlier than itself, and not on an editors discernment.
The abrupt question at the beginning reveals the psalmists long-pent indignation. He has been silently brooding over the swollen arrogance and malicious lies of the tyrant till he can restrain himself no longer, and out pours a fiery flood. Evil gloried in is worse than evil done. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. "mighty man" is here used in a bad sense, to indicate that he has not only a giants power, but uses it tyrannously, like a giant. How dramatically the abrupt question is followed by the equally abrupt thought of the ever-during lovingkindness of God! That makes the tyrants boast supremely absurd, and the psalmists confidence reasonable, even in face of hostile power.
The prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar. We should have expected high-handed violence rather than these. But the psalmist is tracking the deeds to their source; and it is not so much the tyrants words as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof of his wickedness. These words have two characteristics in addition to boastfulness. They are false and destructive. They are, according to the forcible literal meaning in Psa_52:4, "words of swallowing." They are, according to the literal meaning of "destructions," in Psa_52:2, "yawning gulfs." Such words lead to acts which make a tyrant. They flow from perverted preference of evil to good. Thus the deeds of oppression are followed up to their den and birthplace. Part of the description of the "words" corresponds to the fatal effect of Doegs report but nothing in it answers to the other part-falsehood. The psalmists hot indignation speaks in the triple, direct address to the tyrant which comes in each case like a lightning flash at the end of a clause (Psa_52:1-2, Psa_52:4). In the second of these the epithet "framing deceit" does not refer to the "sharpened razor," but to the tyrant. If referred to the former, it weakens rather than strengthens the metaphor, by bringing in the idea that the sharp blade misses its proper aim, and wounds cheeks instead of shearing off hair. The Selah of Psa_52:3 interrupts the description, in order to fix attention, by a pause filled up by music, on the hideous picture thus drawn.
That description is resumed and summarised in Psa_52:4, which, by the Selahs, is closely bound to Psa_52:5 in order to enforce the necessary connection of sin and punishment, which is strongly underlined by the "also" or "so" at the beginning of the latter verse. The stern prophecy of destruction is based upon no outward signs of failure in the oppressors might, but wholly on confidence in Gods continual lovingkindness, which must needs assume attributes of justice when its objects are oppressed. A tone of triumph vibrates through the imagery of Psa_52:5, which is not in the same key as Christ has set for us.
It is easy for those who have never lived under grinding, godless tyranny to reprobate the exultation of the oppressed at the sweeping away of their oppressors; but if the critics had seen their brethren set up as torches to light Neros gardens, perhaps they would have known some thrill of righteous joy when they heard that he was dead. Three strong metaphors describe the fall of this tyrant. He is broken down, as a building levelled with the ground. He is laid hold of, as a coal in the fire, with tongs (for so the word means), and dragged, as in that iron grip, out of the midst of his dwelling. He is uprooted like a tree with all its pride of leafage. Another blast of trumpets or clang of harps or clash of cymbals bids the listeners gaze on the spectacle of insolent strength laid prone, and withering as it lies.
The third movement of thought (Psa_52:6-7) deals with the effects of this retribution. It is a conspicuous demonstration of Gods justice and of the folly of reliance on anything but Himself. The fear which it produces in the "righteous" is reverential awe, not dread lest the same should happen to them. Whether or not history and experience teach evil men that "verily there is a God that judgeth," their lessons are not wasted on devout and righteous souls. But this is the tragedy of life, that its teachings are prized most by those who have already learned them, and that those who need them most consider them least. Other tyrants are glad when a rival is swept off the field, but are not arrested in their own course. It is left to "the righteous" to draw the lesson which all men should have learned. Although they are pictured as laughing at the ruin, that is not the main effect of it. Rather it deepens conviction, and is a "modern instance" witnessing to the continual truth of "an old saw." There is one safe stronghold, and only one. He who conceits himself to be strong in his own evil, and, instead of relying on God, trusts in material resources, will sooner or later be levelled with the ground, dragged, resisting vainly the tremendous grasp, from his tent and laid prostrate, as melancholy a spectacle as a great tree blown down by tempest with its roots turned up to the sky and its arms with drooping leaves trailing on the ground. A swift turn of feeling carries the singer to rejoice in the contrast of his own lot. No uprooting does he fear. It may be questioned whether the words "in the house of God" refer to the psalmist or to the olive tree. Apparently there were trees in the Temple; {Psa_92:13} but the parallel in the next clause, "in the lovingkindness of God," points to the reference of the words to the speaker. Dwelling in enjoyment of Gods fellowship, as symbolised by and realised through presence in the sanctuary, whether it were at Nob or in Jerusalem, he dreads no such forcible removal as had befallen the tyrant. Communion with God is the source of flourishing and fruitfulness, and the guarantee of its own continuance. Nothing in the changes of outward life need touch it. The mists which lay on the psalmists horizon are cleared away for us, who know that "forever and aye" designates a proper eternity of dwelling in the higher house and drinking the full dew of Gods lovingkindness. Such consciousness of present blessedness in communion lifts a soul to prophetic realisation of deliverance, even while no change has occurred in circumstances. The tyrant is still boasting; but the psalmists tightened hold of God enables him to see "things that are not as though they were," and to anticipate actual deliverance by praise for it. It is the prerogative of faith to alter tenses, and to say, Thou hast done, when the worlds grammar would say, Thou wilt do. "I will wait on Thy name" is singular, since what is done "in the presence of Thy favoured ones" would naturally be something seen or heard by them. The reading "I will declare" has been suggested. But surely the attitude of patient, silent expectance implied in "wait" may very well be conceived as maintained in the presence of, and perceptible by, those who had like dispositions, and who would sympathise and be helped thereby. Individual blessings are rightly used when they lead to participation in common thankfulness and quiet trust.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David,…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Maschil, a Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.”
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“To the Chief Musician,” see on the title to Psalms 39.
“Maschil,” an instruction, a didactic poem. “The didactic character of this Psalm,” says Moll, “which is brought into prominence by the title, and its devotional aim, are especially noticeable, from the fact that, with respect to its form, the invocation of God, which is peculiar to prayers, lamentations, and hymns, is entirely absent; with respect to its contents, the mighty man, who, according to Psa_52:7, is proud of his riches, is upbraided for his impudence, wickedness, and falseness (Psa_52:1-4), the punishment of God, which will destroy him, is proclaimed (Psa_52:5), the action of the righteous, which will be called forth thereby, is contrasted with it (Psa_52:6-7), and the lot and conduct of the pious Psalmist, corresponding with his trust in God’s grace, is pronounced. It is advisable to abide by the statements of the title, and refer to the informing of Doeg, the overseer of the royal asses (1Sa_22:9, sqq.), in consequence of which eighty-five priests were slaughtered, whilst David retained his courage, and expressed it to Abiathar, who escaped to David from that blood-bath, the son of Ahimelech, that priest of Nob, who had thoughtlessly given David, as the king’s son-in-law, the shew-bread, and the sword of Goliath, which was hung up behind the ephod in the sanctuary, and this had excited the suspicion and vengeance of Saul, who now made Doeg, the informer of that act, likewise the executioner of his bloody sentence.”
Homiletically, the Psalm sets before us an impressive beacon (Psa_52:1-5), and the effect upon the righteous of the judgment of God upon the wicked (Psa_52:6-9).
AN IMPRESSIVE BEACON
(Psa_52:1-5.)
We have here—
I. The moral portrait of a wicked man. In this delineation of the moral features of Doeg the Edomite, we see,—
1. Inventiveness in evil. “Thy tongue deviseth mischief.” The tongue uttered the mischiefs which the heart devised. He invented malicious speeches, and framed skilfully evil designs. Baron Huddlestone, on April 23, 1877, in sentencing a prisoner to fifteen years’ penal servitude, remarked, “That he was a man of great talent, and, if he had employed it in a proper manner, he might have obtained a position of the highest honour and respectability; but instead of this, he appeared to have devoted his mental strength against mankind.” Like him of whom the judge spake, and like Doeg, there are many who are subtle and inventive in evil doing. Such deliberation in wickedness involves the greatest guilt.
2. Rooted mendacity. “Thou workest deceit … thou lovest lying … O deceitful tongue.” M. Henry: “It may refer to the information which he gave in against Ahimelech; for the matter of fact was, in substance, true, yet it was misrepresented, and false colours were put upon it, and, therefore, he might well be said to love lying, and to have a deceitful tongue. He told the truth, but not all the truth, as a witness ought to do; had he told that David made Ahimelech believe he was then going upon Saul’s errand, the kindness he showed him would have appeared to be not only not traitorous against Saul, but respectful to him. It will not save us from the guilt of lying to be able to say, ‘There was some truth in what we said,’ if we pervert it, and make it appear otherwise than what it was.” Beecher: “A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it, else the hand would cut itself which sought to drive it home upon another. The worst lies, therefore, are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.”
3. Cruel malignity. “Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs like a sharp razor. Thou lovest all devouring words.” Perowne: lit. “Words of swallowing up.” His words were wounding as a sharp razor, and ruinous, as if they engulfed those against whom they were directed. “An untrue man is a moral murderer, his tongue the deadly weapon, and his neighbour the victim.”
4. Utter and terrible perversion of character. “Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness.” Moll: “The accused not only loves evil more than good, but he prefers evil to good, so that he loves it instead of that which he should love.” What terrible moral perversion does this involve! He “boasted himself in mischief;” he triumphed in that which was his ignominy; he exulted in falsehood and cruelty. When sin is characterised by so much deliberation and malignity, when men love it, and make their boast in it, who can estimate its criminality?
In this moral portrait of a wicked man, have we not an impressive beacon warning us away from sin? Look upon it, and beware of falsehood, and all evil speaking. “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt.” Look upon it, and, as you mark its unrelieved and utter blackness, beware of the beginnings of evil, &c.
II. Remonstrance with a wicked man. “Why boastest Thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?” &c. This inquiry implies—
1. That his boasting was vain. The folly of his boast appears from
(1) the nature of his deeds. “O mighty man,” or, “O hero!” “can only be sarcastic,” says Moll. In what he had done he had exhibited no courage, no fortitude. A veritable hero art thou, Doeg! for thou didst first slander a noble man and a priest, and then thou didst courageously slay eighty-five unarmed priests, and then, O paragon of heroism! thou didst slay “women, children, and sucklings!” O valiant Doeg! Boast on, thou mighty man. The folly of his boast appears from
(2) the result of his deeds. In his calculation of results Doeg had not taken account of GOD. “The goodness of God endureth continually.” That is a guarantee of the ultimate security and well-being of the righteous, and of the destruction of the wicked. M. Henry: “Thou thinkest with the mischief which thou boastest of (so artfully contrived, and so successfully carried on), to run down and ruin the people of God; but thou wilt find thyself mistaken: the goodness of God endures continually for their preservation, and then they need not fear what man can do unto them. The enemies in vain boast in their mischief while we have God’s mercy to boast in.” They who now boast in their iniquities shall, ere long, be covered with reproach and confusion of face.
2. That his boasting was wicked. He was glorying in his shame. The deeds he had done had heavily weighted him with guilt; and, by glorying in them, he was increasing the burden of his criminality. To do evil is wrong; but to boast of having done it is far more wrong. Let us heed this beacon. Sin is folly; but to boast of sin is the most egregious folly, and indicates the most deplorable moral depravity. Be rational, be wise, and shun sin.
III. The doom of a wicked man. “God shall likewise destroy thee for ever,” &c. Doeg is here threatened with utter destruction, with irretrievable ruin.
1. The ruin is complete and irretrievable. He will destroy thee for ever,” as walls are torn down to the ground, never more to be rebuilt. He will forcibly remove “thee from thy dwelling-place” for ever; and as a tree is torn up from the roots and so destroyed, so will He cut thee off out of the land of the living. A terrible destruction awaits the persistent workers of iniquity—the destruction of all that makes life worth having.
2. The ruin is retributive. “God shall likewise destroy thee,” &c. “Likewise introduces the corresponding behaviour of another.” “Destroyers shall be destroyed.” “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Jdg_1:6-7; Isa_3:10-11).
Mark well, then, this impressive beacon. See the enormity to which wickedness may grow, and avoid the beginnings of evil; the irrationality of wickedness, and walk in the ways of wisdom; the dread consummation to which wickedness tends, and “abstain from all appearance of evil.” “As righteousness tendeth to life; so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.” Jesus Christ is the Almighty Saviour from sin. Trust Him; obey Him; and live.
THE EFFECT UPON THE RIGHTEOUS OF THE JUDGMENT OF GOD UPON THE WICKED
(Psa_52:6-9.)
I. The righteous behold the judgment of God upon the wicked. “The righteous also shall see.” The Psalmist expresses his confidence that the righteous would live to see the ruin of the wicked; that they who saw their sin, should also see God’s judgment on them because of their sin. This idea is more fully expressed by David in Psa_37:34-36. The godly man shall live to see that a life of sin, however prosperous it may seem to be, leads to the destruction of those who pursue it. “When the wicked are cut off thou shalt see.” Even in the present state we may see that the issue of an upright life is blessed, and that of a sinful life is ruinous.
II. They are awed by the judgments of God upon the wicked. “The righteous also shall see, and fear.” This fear is not slavish, but reverent. The godly stand in holy awe in the presence of the divine judgments, and fear lest they should transgress the law of God, and so expose themselves to their stroke. The most hardened sinner cannot stand before the judgments of the Almighty. And, inasmuch as every man by sin has merited His displeasure, we all have need to humble ourselves at the footstool of the Divine mercy. When the righteous see the judgments of God, the effect upon them is most salutary: they fear Him, they shun sin, &c.
III. They approve the judgment of God upon the wicked. “The righteous shall laugh at him.” There is a laughter because of the fall of the wicked which is sinful (Job_31:29; Pro_24:17-18). There is also a laughter because of the Divine judgments upon them which is lawful and right, viz., the laughter of joy, because of the triumph of the Divine government. Moll: “If they laugh, it is not a laughing in the joy of injuring, in scorn and reproaching, but the bringing into view the absurd inconsistency in which the ungodly have become involved by their abandonment of God.” Barnes: “The idea here is not exultation in the sufferings of others, or joy that calamity has come upon them, or the gratification of selfish and revengeful feeling that an enemy is deservedly punished; it is that of approbation that punishment has come upon those who deserve it, and joy that wickedness is not allowed to triumph. This may be entirely free from any malignant or any revengeful feeling. It may even be connected with the deepest pity, and with the purest benevolence towards the sufferers themselves.” “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of nations.”
IV. They are instructed by the judgment of God upon the wicked. “Behold the man that maketh not God his strength,” &c. Perowne: “The words in which the righteous express their triumph, pointing, as it were, to the fallen oppressor, and the lesson to be learnt from his overthrow.” Here are three lessons—
1. That to trust in wealth is folly. “Behold the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches.” It would appear from this verse that Doeg was a rich man, and had great faith in the power of his wealth. Barnes: “He had that spirit of arrogance and self-confidence which springs from the conscious possession of property where there is no fear of God; and into all that he did he carried the sense of his own importance as derived from riches.” Comp. Psa_49:6; Pro_10:15; Pro_18:11.
2. That the strength of wickedness is weakness. He “strengthened himself in wickedness.” By subtle and evil devices he endeavoured to establish himself, and fancied himself secure therein. No deeds which he deemed would increase his power, ever gave him pause because of their wickedness. He who builds his hopes upon wicked devices, even though they be framed with the utmost skill, builds upon sand. Utter ruin is the destiny of the fabric which he rears. Wickedness is weakness. Lies must perish. Truth and righteousness alone are abiding and strong.
3. That God is the only adequate support of human life. “The man made not God his strength,” and his end was destruction. A consideration of His almighty power, infinite wisdom, unchanging faithfulness, and essential kindness, is calculated to inspire strong confidence in the all-sufficiency of God as the support of human life. And there is no other adequate support. Wealth, wisdom, rank, power, friendship, &c., are insufficient. He who leans upon any or upon all of them is doomed to bitter disappointment and a grievous fall. Such are the lessons which the poet learned from the judgment of God upon the wicked.
V. They flourish in the midst of the judgment of God upon the wicked. “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God,” &c. Consider—
1. The nature of this happy state. The state of the Psalmist was characterised by
(1) Divine security. Barnes: “A tree planted in the very courts of the sanctuary would be regarded as sacred, and would be safe as long as the tabernacle itself was safe, for it would be, as it were, directly under the Divine protection. So David had been, notwithstanding all the efforts of his enemies to destroy him.” The righteous are inviolably secure from any real harm, for the Lord is their keeper (Psa_125:1-2; Rom_8:31; Rom_8:37).
(2) Religious privileges. David looked forward with confidence and gladness to the termination of his exile and his return to the sanctuary. To him the tabernacle and the ordinances of worship were precious and hallowed things. The people of God find strength and joy in the means of grace, while the wicked are overthrown by their own wickedness.
(3) Spiritual prosperity. In the Scriptures a green tree is the emblem of prosperity (Psa_1:3; Psa_92:12; Jer_11:16). M. Henry: “Those that by faith and love dwell in the house of God shall be like green olive-trees there; the wicked are said to flourish like a green bay-tree (Psa_37:35), which bears no useful fruit, though it has abundance of large leaves; but the righteous flourish like a green olive-tree, which is fat as well as flourishing (Psa_92:14), and with its fatness honours God and man (Jdg_9:9), deriving its root and fatness from the good olive (Rom_11:17).” Notwithstanding the bitter opposition of the wicked, the people of God shall grow in grace, and bring forth the fruits of holy living and useful working.
“When wrath the wicked shall destroy,
They shall abide in peace and joy
Who love Thy righteous laws.”
2. The condition of this happy state. “I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.” The Psalmist was well assured of the constancy, the unchangeableness, and the perpetuity of the mercy of God, and in that he trusted. Faith in God is the condition of spiritual safety and prosperity.
VI. They worship God because of His judgment upon the wicked. “I will praise Thee for ever because,” &c. The judgments of God as viewed by the righteous—
1. Incite to praise. “I will praise Thee,” &c. They reveal the righteousness of His administration; His regard for His people, &c.; and so enkindle gratitude, reverence, &c.
2. Inspire confidence. “And will wait on Thy name.” Barnes: “There are two ideas essentially in the language.
(1) The expression of a sense of dependence on God, as if the only ground of trust was in Him.
(2) A willingness to await His interposition at all times; a belief that, however long such interposition might be delayed, God would interfere at the proper time to bring deliverance; and a purpose calmly and patiently to look to Him until the time of deliverance should come” (Psa_27:14; Psa_37:7; Psa_37:9; Psa_37:34; Isa_40:31).
APPLICATION.—
1. What is our relation to the Divine judgments?
2. What is the ground of our confidence? Is it wealth? or the power of cunning and unscrupulous wickedness? or the Lord God?
3. What is the spirit and what the condition of our life?
THE FOLLY OF TRUSTING IN RICHES
(Psa_52:7.)
“Behold the man that trusted in the abundance of his riches.” We have here—
I. A great mistake. To trust in riches is to err greatly:
1. Because of the uncertainty of the tenure of riches. “Labour not to be rich: for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (1Ti_6:17). At the farthest we must relinquish them at death (Psa_49:17; Ecc_5:15).
2. Because of the limited power of riches. Wealth can do much, but there are many things which it cannot do. It can buy books, but not intellectual power; paintings, but not appreciative taste; service and sycophancy, but not esteem and affection, &c. It cannot buy pardon, peace, purity, &c. It cannot bribe death, &c.
3. Because of the utter inability of riches to satisfy those who possess them. He who has much wealth would fain have more. The cravings of the soul of man, created for truth, immortality, and God, cannot be satisfied with the bribes which wealth can offer. How mistaken then is he who trusts in wealth!
II. A common mistake. The great race of the age is for the acquisition of wealth. If you ask what a man is worth, people tell you how much money he possesses. Manhood is sacrificed for money. Riches are the deity of thousands in Christian England.
III. A ruinous mistake if persisted in. “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” “Thy money perish with thee.” (Comp. Luk_12:15-21.)
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 David had been the special object of Doeg’s hatred,…
Psa 52:3
David had been the special object of Doeg’s hatred, and he felt deeply the wrongs he had endured. He represents the false tongue as being effectual for mischief, like a razor which, unknown to the person operated upon, is making him bald, so softly and skilfully do Oriental barbers perform their task. Whetted by malice and guided by craft, Doeg accomplished his cruel purpose.
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There are:
I. Lies of intention. This is the worst kind of all.
II. Lies of carelessness. A desire to say something which will startle or amuse is often the secret why so many stories are told. So much mischief is done in the world by a thoughtless use of this razor that no man can be too careful how he hastily accuses or even suspects another of crime. Life is too short to correct or repair the harm which is done in this way.
J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 161.
Psa 52:8
I. Consider what mercy is. (1) Mercy is not to be confounded with mere goodness. Goodness may demand the exercise of justice; mercy asks that justice be set aside. (2) Mercy is a disposition to pardon the guilty. (3) Mercy is exercised only where there is guilt. (4) Mercy can be exercised no further than one deserves punishment.
II. Notice what is implied in trusting in the mercy of the Lord for ever. (1) A conviction of guilt. (2) Trust in mercy implies that we have no hope on the score of justice. (3) Trust in mercy implies a just apprehension of what mercy is. (4) Trust in God’s mercy implies a belief that He is merciful. (5) Trusting in the mercy of God "for ever and ever" implies a conviction of deserving endless punishment. (6) Trusting in mercy implies a cessation from all excuses and excuse-making.
III. Consider the conditions upon which we may confidently and securely trust in the mercy of God for ever. (1) Public justice must be appeased. (2) We must repent. (3) We must confess our sins. (4) We must really make restitution as far as lies in our power. (5) We must really reform. (6) We must go the whole length in justifying the Law and its penalty. (7) No sinner can be a proper object of mercy who is not entirely submissive to all those measures of the government that have brought him to conviction.
IV. Notice some mistakes into which sinners fall. (1) Many really trust in justice, and not in mercy. (2) Many trust professedly in the mercy of God without fulfilling the conditions on which only mercy can be shown. (3) Sinners do not consider that God cannot dispense with their fulfilling these conditions. (4) Many are defeating their own salvation by self-justification. (5) Many pretend to trust in mercy who yet profess to be punished for their sins as they go along. (6) Some are covering up their sins, yet dream of going to heaven. (7) We cannot reasonably ask for mercy beyond our acknowledged and felt guilt, and they mistake fatally who suppose that they can.
C. G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes, p. 19.
References: Psa 52:8.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 230. Psalm 52—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 72. Psa 53:1.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 16.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The strong man who made not God his strength.
The strong man who made not God his strength.
To the chief musician: Maskil of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.
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The fifty-second psalm first of all depicts him in this independent character. He is the mighty one who maketh not God his strength"; the deceiver also, according to the description of the apostles Paul and John. The latter marks him out as "the liar," who denies the Father and the Son (1Jn 2:22); the former (2Th 2:9-11) speaks of his "coming as after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders (power and signs and wonders, of falsehood) and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." It is natural therefore that this should be what is set before us in this first "maskil."
The reference to the history of David is, like that in the title of the last psalm, difficult to understand. We have no cause to reject it on that account, confirmed as it is again by the Septuagint. Doeg the Edomite is doubtless but a feeble representative of the great enemy of God. and man at the time of the end; and yet there are evident features of resemblance. The "Edomite" in itself implies the enmity, so unnatural as it is, which derives its bitterness from the rupture of natural relations, and this may easily represent that of outward relations which have professedly a more spiritual character, as that of Judas to the Lord. This is brought out in its application to the great final enemy in the fourth psalm of this series (Psa 55:1-23). Then the herdsman of Saul may seem very little the mighty man of the present psalm; but through his words (which is what is dwelt upon) he was in fact mighty enough to cause a wholesale slaughter of the priestly family. And it is by his words that, as already said, Antichrist will prevail, whatever "power" may accompany his words. The allusion to the "tent" may also borrow significance from the history, as we shall see.
1. The psalm is divided into two parts, which are in contrast with one another, the first seven verses being faith’s challenge of this mighty one, as the last two verses give us the man of faith himself and his portion from God. The "mighty man" who uses the little might he has in bitter persecution of the saints is here put in contrast also with El, the "Mighty" God, whose attribute is mercy -mercy enduring daily. How blessed is this gentle goodness of Almighty power. And it is not contradicted either by the presence of this wicked one himself: for even such an one "the goodness of God" would "lead to repentance." The awful end of unrepented evil makes this slowness of dealing with the evil man unspeakably solemn; while he may use it for "storing up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Meanwhile faith knows that this power of God, with all its apparent slowness, has things completely under its control: so that "He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him; and the remainder of wrath He will restrain." Nothing escapes from this all-seeing, perfect control, which maketh all things work together for good, to them that love Him.
And yet it is "man’s day" in which we are; and man avails himself of it. His tongue is indeed his mightiest member, and by his words he may well be justified or condemned. Alas, his tongue, as James declares, is "a world of iniquity"; "yawning depths" of it, as it is put here, "his tongue deviseth": in which, how easily, the unwary may be engulfed. Changing the figure, though the implications are no less murderous, this tongue of the wicked is "like a sharp razor," -cutting before one is aware. And out of the heart the mouth speaketh: "thou hast loved evil rather than good; lying instead of speaking right." How the great enemy of man is discerned in all this! for "he is a liar, and the father of it." Truth will not serve his purpose: that is, the whole, full truth; he is fond of using it, so far as it will give color and attractiveness to his lie, -a film of varnish over a rotten interior, -or like an ice-film of purity over his cavernous iniquity, -itself but a deception, a lure, a deeper lie.
Yet this deceit is itself the confession of weakness: power that is equal to its end has at least no need of it. And this confession that is in it makes it thus far unpalatable to the pride of strength. In its love to devour, the tongue may become a "tongue of deceit"; but this humiliation it does not love. Thus it carries with it the witness of its own frailty and mutability: the seed of mortality is in it, the witness of the judgment of God upon it; and so it is foreseen. "The Mighty One shall likewise smite thee down forever: he shall seize, and pluck thee out of the tent, and root thee out of the land of the living."
There is an expression here, which we must consider in the light of the application of the psalm to the Wicked one of the last days. Moll unites with Delitzsch in interpreting the "tent" out of which the mighty one is to be plucked, as the dwelling-place of Doeg, with an allusion to his herdsman’s tent. A much older application is that by Kimchi, adopted by Grier and others, to the holy tent or tabernacle at which Ahimelech ministered, and where we find in the history that Doeg was "detained before Jehovah." Delitzsch says, if this were meant, it would have been "
His tent"; but how can we be sure always of just the language which an inspired writer might see fit to use? Nay, one may see reasons for the less distinct expression even in the history itself, and far more in the prophetic reference. Thus, if the show-bread were but common bread while David was in rejection (see notes on 1Sa 21:1-15) why should not the very house of God itself be less distinctly owned as that on the same account? And if we think of Antichrist’s connection with it in the future time, how much more appropriate still would this disclaimer of its being God’s house when invaded by idolatry -the abomination that maketh desolate, -be perfectly in place?
One cannot but regard, then, the words here as a fresh indication of what is before us in the psalm. If Doeg alone were contemplated indeed, the application might seem as strained; as it is generally perhaps considered. But we can see how the Spirit of God, in contemplation of the future, might seize upon. such a connection and use it to suggest that all important one in the history of the Wicked one which could. hardly be omitted in such a sketch as the present, and which yet, in the history of David at least, would seem to find elsewhere nothing to suggest it.
Now comes the triumph of the righteous: "the righteous also shall see it and fear, and shall laugh at him. Behold the strong man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his deep practice." The last word in the Hebrew here is the singular of the first word in the second verse, and there translated "yawning depths." The correspondence would seem to show correspondence of thought, although in the first case it is his words, in the latter his practice that is refered to.
Thus we have his case summed up. It is but that of fallen man "writ large;" "being in honor, he abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish." Putting away God from him; he puts away his link with life and blessedness; he is not a beast, nor does he come to an end as the beast does. Self-condemned, for him perdition is an evil which to the beast it is not, and which links itself with the eternity of his spirit-nature.
2. The believing remnant are now seen in contrast with this passing of mere human strength: But I am like a green olive in the house of God," -the tree in which abides that which typifies the Spirit of God, green in its freshness of life eternal, and in the house of God, which gives another help to understanding that "tent" out of which the wicked one is cast. Here it is openly named, and suitably to the permanence of all the blessing, a "house," not a "tent." Faith enters it with sure confidence: "I trust in the mercy of God forever and aye." Their praise too abides; and God is known by His glorious Name. Upon this for all developments of the future, he can wait and fear not: it is a Name that is good before the worshiping saints.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. Maschil of David: when…
Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician. Maschil of David: when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.' In some respects Doeg (1Sa_22:9) might stand for the original of the wicked man in this Ps., but the absence of all reference to the massacre of the priests at Nob (1Sa_22:17-19) throws grave doubt upon the correctness of the title. The Ps. appears to reflect the social evils denounced by the prophets of later times (see Amo_5:11; Amo_8:6; Mic_2:2; Mic_3:2-3; Mic_7:3), and to be directed against some prominent oppressor, whose character and fate are depicted in Psa_52:1-5, while Psa_52:6-9 describe the contrasted happiness of the righteous man.
1. Goodness] RV 'mercy.' God] is here 'El,' the Strong One, whose power is greater than that of the mightiest man. 'The goodness of God' is the fact that makes the boast of the strongest evil-doer to be vain.
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6. Fear.. laugh] These two emotions are not inconsistent. The one is the solemn awe inspired by the suddenness of the tyrant's downfall, the other the gladness caused by the revelation of God's righteousness.
7-9. These vv. are put into the mouth of the righteous, and are introduced in RV by 'saying.'
7. Cp. Psalms 49.
8. But I am] RV 'But as for me, I am.' A green olive tree] in contrast with the wicked who is rooted up like a weed (Psa_52:5): cp. Psa_92:13-14;
9. Before thy saints] RV 'in the presence of thy saints,' to be connected with I will wait. Possibly we should read,' I will declare that thy name is good,' etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 52
Psalm 52
The Proud and Boasting Man
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1. The character of the man of sin (Psa 52:1-7)
2. The character of the righteous (Psa 52:8-9)
The four Psalms which follow (all Maschil Psalms) give mostly a prophetic picture of the man of sin, the final Antichrist, the false messiah-king, under whom the godly in Israel will especially suffer. He is first described as the mighty man, the super-man, who boasts in evil. He is also a lying, deceitful man, “working deceitfully” and having a “deceitful tongue.” But God is going to deal with him, destroy him forever, take him away, pluck him out of his dwelling place, and out of the land of the living. He will be destroyed with the brightness of the Lord’s coming (2Th 2:8).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Punishment of Evil Tongues.
The Punishment of Evil Tongues.
To the chief musician, for use in public worship, Maschil, a didactic anthem, a psalm of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech, the entire narrative being found 1 Samuel 19-22, especially 21:1-10 and 22:1-10. This notice does not indicate the exact time when the psalm was composed, but the incident which occasioned it.
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v. 1. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, for Doeg proudly set forth his connection with the wicked deed which he had performed at Gibeah, first in deceitfully betraying David and then in slaying eighty-five priests, O mighty man? It is not a real hero to which the name is here applied, but the word is a sarcastic designation of one whose craftiness was in his tongue. The goodness of God endureth continually, that is, in spite of all of Doeg’s schemes the favor of God would continue to rest upon David, who therefore refused to consider his a lost cause.
v. 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, planning wickedness and destruction of every kind; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully, or, "thou who workest deceit!" Doeg was ever engaged in undertakings of meanness against others, wickedness and deceit was his sphere of activity.
v. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good, that is, in the place of good, he was altogether evil, and lying rather than to speak righteousness, his whole mind being devoted to falsehood and deceit. Selah.
v. 4. Thou lovest all devouring words, literally, "words of swallowing," forms of speech by which he could harm and destroy others, O thou deceitful tongue, the entire person of Doeg being included in this appellation.
v. 5. God shall likewise destroy thee forever, the divine vengeance being here set forth in retaliation for Doeg’s wickedness; He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, tearing down the tent of his habitation, leveling it with the ground, and removing even the tent-pins, and root thee out of the land of the living, in a total ruin of himself and all his possessions. Selah.
v. 6. The righteous also shall see, namely, the ruin of the ungodly, and fear, with awe and respect for the avenging justice of the Lord, and shall laugh at him, deriding the ungodly for his folly, not with revengeful feelings, but with joy over the manner in which the Lord turns circumstances in their favor:
v. 7. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, the triumph of the righteous being over the fallen oppressor, who thought he could go on indefinitely ignoring the Lord, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, believing that they could deliver him, and strengthened himself in his wickedness, in all his evil desires, believing himself to be safe from the vengeance of God. The fate of the righteous is shown by way of contrast.
v. 8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God, enjoying true prosperity in fellowship with the Lord; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
v. 9. I will praise Thee forever, because Thou hast done it, preserving David from all evil and making him partaker of the divine mercy; and I will wait on Thy name, hoping in the Lord as He has revealed Himself in His favor and grace; for it is good before Thy saints, every manifestation of God’s mercy before the eyes of the believers being another proof of His goodness, inviting their unwavering faith.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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General Information:
In this psalm the word "you" refers to Doeg. When Saul wanted to kill David, Doeg told Saul where David was so that Saul could find him.
For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A maschil
This may refer to a style of music. See how you translated this in Psalms 32:1.
Doeg ... Ahimelech
These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
Why are you proud of making trouble, you mighty man?
This question shows how angry David was at the one who made trouble. AT: "You should not be so proud of making trouble, you mighty man." (See: Rhetorical Question)
you mighty man
David may have been using irony when he called Doeg this. AT: "you, who think you are so mighty" (See: Irony)
The covenant faithfulness of God comes every day
David speaks of God's covenant faithfulness as if it were something that could come. David was probably referring to God's promises to protect his people from wicked people. The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated as an adjective or an adverb. AT: "Every day, God is faithful to keep the promises of his covenant" or "Every day, God faithfully protects his people from wicked people like you" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Abstract Nouns)
a sharp razor
a sharp blade
Your tongue plans destruction like a sharp razor, working deceitfully
Here the tongue is compared to a sharp razor which is capable of causing great harm. AT: "Your tongue harms people like a sharp razor does, when you plan destruction and deceive others" (See: Simile)
Your tongue
Here "your tongue" refers to the person David is speaking to. AT: "You" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
David
Edom
Saul (OT)
house
proud
trouble
might
covenant faithfulness
God
tongue
deceive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 Ps 52 Wicked people use words to destroy relationships…
Ps 52 Wicked people use words to destroy relationships and communities. They foolishly think that they can be heroes by their words (52:1-4), but their fate suddenly overtakes them (52:5-7). In contrast, the godly renew their commitment to the Lord (52:8-9) and find their future secure in him.
52:title This psalm refers to an incident in 1 Sam 21:1-10; 22:9-10. The accuser, Doeg the Edomite, is a paradigm of evil.
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52:1-4 Liars foolishly deceive themselves by thinking that they can be heroes by their words. They believe themselves innocent of any charges of evildoing, though they love evil and cause destruction. Those who speak curses, sarcasm, bitterness, arrogant boasting, and deceptions (31:18; 34:13; 59:7, 12; 120:2-3; 140:3, 9) bring about chaos, alienation, and destruction (Jas 3:5). Their sharp words cut like swords and daggers (Pss 55:21; 57:4; 64:3), the fangs of a snake (140:3), or a razor.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.