Psalm 52

SLIDE 1 Turn to Psalm 52. When I think of Psalms I think about songs of praise to God. However, as we’ve seen that’s not true of every psalm and it’s not true of Psalm 52. The psalm is directed not to God but to a man named Doeg. We need to remember that all scripture is God-breathed. Therefore, even this psalm was inspired by the Holy Spirit and can teach us. In fact, that is the stated purpose in the superscription. It is referred to as a maskil. This is the fifth maskil we’ve come across in the pslams and there will be eight more. A miskil has been defined as an instructional song that imparts knowledge and wisdom.

Let’s start with the superscription which gives us some background information about the writing of the psalm.

For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: “David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.”

We learn that the psalm was written by David and that it was written in response to what Doeg had done. We briefly talked about this story when we looked at Psalms 34 and 35. Jesus referenced the story in Luke 6 when the Pharisees asked him why his disciples were plucking grain to eat on the Sabbath.

We find that story in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. Not trusting his father Saul, Jonathan had encouraged David to go into hiding. David fled to the town of Nob which was where the tabernacle was located at that time. When David arrived, he told Ahimelek the priest that he was there on a secret mission from Saul. When David asked for bread, Ahimelek gave him consecrated bread from the tabernacle. When David said that he’d left so quickly for his mission that he hadn’t had time to grab a weapon, Ahimelek gave David the sword he’d taken from Goliath. David then left.

Several days later, Saul was complaining that no one was reporting to him where David was hiding. When Doeg heard this, he stepped forward with what he’d heard. We’re told Doeg was an Edomite who were descendants of Esau. Doeg told Saul that he saw David with Ahimelek at Nob. Further, Doeg said that Ahimelek had helped David by giving him food, a sword, and had prayed on David’s behalf seeking God’s guidance for David. When Saul heard this he was furious. He order Ahimelek and all the priests at Nob.

They were surprised when Saul asked why they had conspired against him helped David. First, they knew there was no one more loyal to Saul than David. Second, they didn’t know David was running from Saul. David had told them he was on a secret mission for the king. They had helped David before, why shouldn’t they have helped him that day too? At that, Saul ordered his guards to kill the men but the guards were unwilling to strike a priest of God. So, Saul turned to Doeg and ordered him to do it. Doeg was more than willing. That day he killed eighty-five priests. Then, he traveled to Nob where he killed everyone there: men women, children, infants, cattle, donkeys, and sheep. It’s no telling how many people were killed because of Saul’s command and with Doeg’s help. Only one person from the town survived, a son of Ahimelek who escaped and joined David.

David felt responsible. The day he had been in Nob he had seen Doeg there as well. He was certain Doeg would go back and tell Saul he’d seen David, but David could never have guessed the result would be the deaths of everyone living in that town.

How would you feel if you had been David? If you’d had the ability to punish Doeg would you have done it? Here was a man who was not even an Israelite sitting in a position of honor in Saul’s court killing the people of God. I’m not sure what I would have done if I’d had the power to do something, but we know what David did. He took the situation to God and he wrote this psalm.

Most divide the psalm into three sections. SLIDE 2

Verses 1-4 contain a description of a man who loves evil

Verses 5-7 describe the wrath of God for such people

Verses 8-9 contain David’s desire to be found among the righteous

Though not mentioning him by name, David begins by addressing Doeg and the evil he had committed. SLIDE 3

1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God? (1 Samuel 22:1)

David asks why Doeg is proud of the evil that he had committed in murdering the priests and people of Nob. Who in their right mind would be proud of that? Yet it seems that Doeg was boasting about his involvement in the massacre. He was proud of what he’d done.

David refers to Doeg as a “mighty hero” but he does so sarcastically. What kind of skill does it take to kill eighty-five priests who had never been trained for battle? You remember the song that was sung about David after he defeated Goliath: “Saul has killed his thousands but David has killed ten thousands.” They were praising David for his strength and ability as a warrior. Did Doeg think people would remember his actions at Nob similarly? David was sure he would be remembered as a hero but as a coward who killed so many unarmed priests and their families. He wasn’t a hero, he was a murderous tyrant. David is just making fun of him calling him a mighty hero. David then contrasts Doeg’s actions with God’s goodness.

The NIV’s translation of the second half of the verse is puzzling. It is starkly different than any other translation. I’ll give you three examples. SLIDE 4

The goodness of God endureth continually. (KJV)

The faithfulness of God endures all day long. (NASB)

Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever? (NLT)

SLIDE 5 The word translated as “goodness,” “faithfulness,” and “justice” is the Hebrew word chesed. I’ve said before that it is the closest the Hebrew has to the Greek word agape. You can see from these three translations that it is so broad and word that translators have a difficult time selecting just one word for it in English. It describes God love and commitment to his people. God does what is right for his people even when they are rebelling against him. Doeg can boast all he wants but it is God’s faithfulness that will last eternally. Long after Doeg is dead and his deeds are long forgotten God will still be good to his people. That’s something we need to remember when we think about when we are faced with the injustices of the world.

SLIDE 6 I saw a news article last week that I meant to share and forgot. The headline read:

Christians in Nigeria: Over 4,000 killed, 2,300 abducted by Islamic terrorists in 2022 so far (November 11, 2022)

That is only January through October. There are still two more months to go. To break that down, the article said on average more than 400 Christians were slaughtered and 231 others were abducted every month. To break it down more that means there have been thirteen deaths and eight abductions reported every day. They are all being targeted because of their faith in Jesus. The numbers are staggering. But David reminds us that God’s faithfulness is forever.

David continues by describing Doeg.

2 You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor. 3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. 4 You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue! (1 Samuel 22:1-4)

What Doeg told Saul led to the murder of eighty-five priests along with their families and everyone else who lived in Nob. Scottish preacher Alexander Maclaren pointed out that while those deaths were much worse than his words it was his words that led to their deaths. David is thus tracing their deaths back to the source, Doeg’s deceitful tongue.

We may be reminded about what James said concerning the tongue. James contends that while the tongue may be small it is capable of great destruction. SLIDE 7

5 . . . the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. SLIDE 8 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (James 3:5-6)

SLIDE 9 Whatever Doeg said, it caused the death of hundreds because he loved evil more than he loved that which is good.

There have been men like Doeg throughout history, men who loved evil and boasted in their atrocities. They loved themselves more than they loved God and did whatever they could to make a name for themselves. Doeg wasn’t the first and he was far from the last. It is just a part of the sinful would in which we live. There will always be men like this. How are we to respond to them? David doesn’t describe how he is going to take Doeg out the first chance he gets, instead, David turns to God’s response.

5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Psalm 52:5)

Notice David’s confidence in God’s judgment on Doeg. David is positive that God will take care of him and give him the judgment he deserves. David gets pretty graphic in his description.

God will bring Doeg down. Right now, Doeg fells pretty good about himself. You can imagine that Saul rewarded him handsomely because of his treachery. Saul has lifted him up but will bring him down.

First though, God will snatch him up out of his tent. I picture a large hand reaching down into Doeg’s and picking him up while he’s sleeping, like Gulliver in Lilliput. Doeg thinks he’s big and important but will one day learn he’s nothing.

Finally, like a weed pulled up by its roots from a flowerbed, God will uproot Doeg from the land of the living.

In all of these descriptions there is a sense of violent, quick, and decisive action. Currently, everything is looking good for Doeg but it will come to in an end when he least expects it. God will see to it. Because of his steadfast love for his people, God will one day judge the wicked. Doeg is continuing his evil plans today but God will not allow him to continue forever.

That’s what God will do. What will the righteous do?

6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you, saying, 7 “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” (Psalm 52:6-7)

When God’s judgment comes, the righteous will hear about it. God’s judgment will cause the righteous to honor God even more. It seems it is only the righteous that learn from God’s judgment. We wish the unrighteous would learn and change their ways but it doesn’t often work like that. Maclaren pointed out that this is often the way it works.

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.

Will Doeg learn anything from the lesson David is presenting in this psalm. Probably not but hopefully we will. David says the righteous will see what God does to the wicked and reverence him even more.

Peter tells us. SLIDE 10

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. SLIDE 11 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

It seems like God is taking forever to bring his judgment but there’s a reason. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. That’s why he sent Jesus. SLIDE 12

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Just as God was patient with us, giving us time to repent, God gives everyone time to repent. Of course not everyone will repent and eventually the time to repent will run out. One day God’s judgment will come and when it does it will come swiftly. Peter continued: SLIDE 13

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:8-10)

SLIDE 14 In this psalm David is reminding the righteous of God ultimate judgment. It is not our place to judge the wicked. That belongs to God. That is a difficult lesson for us to learn though because we want God’s judgment now. We don’t want to wait. We want to see the guilty punished quickly and we wonder why God is taking so long but it will come. Because he is sure of this in verse 8 David says that he will wait for God to do what is right.

David says the righteous will also laugh. I like Warren Wiersbe’s outline of Psalm 52:

The sinners are boasting (vs 1-4)

The saints are laughing (vs 5-7)

The saints will make fun of those who thought they could oppose God. They will laugh at those who thought they were strong enough or rich enough to do whatever they wanted and could just ignore God.

Lastly, we come to David’s response.

8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. 9 For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people. And I will hope in your name, for your name is good. (Psalm 52:8-9)

Unlike Doeg whose end will be destruction, David says that he is like an olive tree. In that culture olive trees were highly valued because of the many uses of its fruit. They could of course eat the olives but they also used its oil. Like today, olive oil was used for cooking it was also used medicinally, as a cosmetic, in religious services for anointing and as an offering to God and it was used as fuel for lamps. So, you took care of your olive trees. There are some trees in Israel today that they believe are more than two thousand years old. David compares himself to an olive tree.

David also says that he will forever trust in God’s unfailing love or his chesed. SLIDE 15 David will trust in God’s mercy, goodness, faithfulness, and justice. In stark contrast to the wicked who trust in the abundance of their riches, David will trust in God and in his love. David so trusted God that he repeated how long he would trust him. David said he would trust God forever and ever.

SLIDE 16 David end the psalm with praise to God for what he has done. What had God done? Doeg was still running around. He hadn’t been punished. God hadn’t judged him yet for the murders he had committed. So how could David offer praise for it? David so trusted that God would do it that it might as well have already happened. That’s the kind of trust we need to have. We may not see it but we believe. That’s the very definition of faith: SLIDE 17

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

SLIDE 18 Many will remember the name Admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale was the highest-ranking U.S military officer captured in the Vietnam War. He recalled how he survived his eight-year imprisonment in his book titled “In Love and War.” In addition to enduring the brutal conditions there, he had no way of knowing his fate. He had no means to escape and no way of knowing if he would ever be released.

Stockdale was interviewed shortly after his book was released. When asked how he could survived the ordeal Stockdale who still limped from repeated torture, answered, “I never lost faith in the end of the story.”

When asked who didn’t make it out Stockdale replied, “Oh, that’s easy, the optimists.” The confused journalist didn’t understand. Stockdale explained:

They were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, “We’re going to be out by Easter.” And Easter would come and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

Stockdale never doubted that he would be released; he just didn’t base his hope on a timeline. David had no idea when God would judge Doeg but he was confident it would happen.

I think the most important lesson we learn from this psalm is that we are not to take revenge into our own hands. It would have been tempting for David to take revenge on Doeg for the families he’d murdered but God left it in God’s hands. God warns us about taking revenge. Quoting Deuteronomy and Proverbs, Paul advises in Romans 12: SLIDE 19

19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. SLIDE 20 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” SLDIE 21 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21)

SLIDE 22 It is not our job to take revenge. We are to leave it up to God and trust him to take care of it. God saw what Doeg did and he sees when we face injustices. Therefore, leave it to God. Plus, God can do a much better job.