Praise - In Spite of it All

Psalm 52

Poetry has a way of capturing our deepest feelings. Poems and music are the way we often express our love. Sometimes it hits the mark, and other times, not so much. I found a couple of poems that, shall we say, miss the mark.

There’s this short one:

Every time I see your face

It reminds me of you.

or this “Ode to You”

You are the starlight to my moonshine You are the summer of my mind You can complete a perfect square And still make jocks stop and stare

My heart goes boom

You can make a perfect sandwich If you want to Baby I won’t force you But please don’t lay on that mayonnaise Unless you want to

My stomach has room

You are so beautiful Make me a sandwich

Now there is a distracted poet! I guess the message of that one is don’t write love poems when you are hungry.

Here’s one by someone that seems not to have too large of a vocabulary:

I love you, love you, love you, love-love-love-love-love-love-love you, yes, I love you, truly love you, oh, I love you very much.

(Second verse, same as the first.)

I love you, love you, love you…

As we have been spending our Summer in the Psalms, we have been experiencing much better poetry than those! These poems were used as the hymnbook for the people of Israel. Todays Psalm, though, is a bit different than those we have been looking at.

Let me give you the background for this Psalm before we actually read it.

In the intro to this Psalm, we are told that it was written by David, “When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: ‘David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.’”

So, the question is, who is Doeg the Edomite, and what is the significance of this situation? You will find the story of Doeg back in 1 Samuel chapters 21 & 22. I am not going to read the whole story, but we do need to understand what happened.

This occurred before David was the King, and while he had been on the run from King Saul. When he came to the town of Nob, he was met there by a priest named Ahimelech. The priest recognized that something wasn’t quite right, and after questioning David, he is told that the king has charged David with something and he is now on the run. He has arrived at Nob with just a few men, and he requests some bread, and reluctantly, he is given some holy bread.

This is where we are first introduced to Doeg. We are told that there was this servant of Saul there, named Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.

David, although he was being hunted by the King, apparently was unarmed, so he asks Ahimelech if there is a spear or sword that he could have. Ironically, the sword of Goliath was held there, and the priest gave that magnificent sword to David.

Not long after receiving this sword, David is met and joined by 400 discontented men. Saul is livid at what is transpiring as he feels like he is losing control of his kingdom. Even his son, Jonathan has, in Saul’s mind, turned his back on him by being best friends with David. In chapter 22 of 1 Samuel, we are told that he addresses his servants. He is complaining to them, and in an all out effort to shame them, he says:

“Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? 8 Is that why all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (1 Sa 22:7–8). (1989). Thomas Nelson Publishers.

We are told that Doeg the Edomite was there, and he speaks up and tells what he saw:

The New Revised Standard Version Saul Slaughters the Priests at Nob

I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub; 10 he inquired of the LORD for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

In response, Saul calls out Ahimelech, but not only for Ahimelech, but all of the priests of Nob, along with their families, and he condemns them all to death for helping David. This was, to say the least, an overreaction to the action of 1 man. He gave the order to attack them, but none of his servants except for this man, Doeg, the Edomite would do so. We are told in 1 Samuel 22:18 & 19 that Doeg attacked the priests and killed 85 priests, but he also put to death all the men, women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep. We are told that only 1 priest, a son of Ahimelech named Abiathar escaped and went to David to tell him of the tragic events.

As you can imagine, David is mortified at the news, and we are told that Psalm 52 is written in response to all that had happened and it was written in response to Doeg, the Edomite.

Psalm 52:1–9 NIV

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? 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! 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. 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!” 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.

David, for no fault of his own, found that he was on the outs with King Saul. The command by Saul had brought about a great tragedy in the death of all the priests of Nob along with their families.

One of the sad truths of this whole scenario is that sometimes tragedy strikes and sometimes there will be those that may be against us, even if we are not at fault. Even King David had to deal with this. This situation, of course, is prior to David’s rule as king, but he found himself with King Saul as his enemy, even though he had been faithful to the king, and was the best friend of Jonathan, the king’s son. In spite of his continued loyalty, Saul turned against David and was so upset that the priest, Ahimelech had helped David that he ordered that all of the priests of the area of Nob be killed.

No matter how much we may try, not everybody will approve of us or like us. The truth is that nobody will approve of everything you do. Even parents and children, husbands and wives, the closest of relatives still sometimes do not approve of our way of handling things. The best of friends can disagree about all sorts of things, and we should realize that in spite of our disagreements we can still be friends - we can still love one another.

Now, this situation is not one where there was love between David and Doeg - and rightfully so. Doeg the Edomite had killed not only Ahimelech who helped David, but 80 other priests along with many women and children as well.

What I find interesting in this whole scenario and David’s response in this Psalm is that David recognizes that it is the Lord who will avenge. We find this concept in Deuteronomy 32:35 “35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly.” This Old Testament idea is referred to in Romans 12:19 as well “19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””

David reiterates this idea here in this Psalm - Doeg trusted in his own hand and in his great wealth that was provided by King Saul. He gained his strength, David says, by destroying others. He will be brought down to ruin, according to verse 5. He will be uprooted and destroyed. It may not happen while he is still living, but the righteous, David says, will have the last laugh.

On the contrary, David says that he himself is like an olive tree. What does he mean by that? I’m not much of a gardener, and I don’t really know much about plant life, but I looked up some information about olive trees. Let’s look at some features of the olive tree that you may not be aware of - I wasn’t until researching for this message. I found some interesting things from the website olivemypickle.com.

1. LONGEVITY – Olive trees can live for thousands of years. There are many trees in the Mediterranean region that are scientifically verified to be as old as 2,000 years. That means that some of the olive trees that are still alive today would have dotted the landscape of Israel while Jesus walked there.

2. PROLIFIC – The olive tree starts bearing fruit at around 5 years of age. A tree in Croatia that is radiocarbon-dated to be 1,600 years old still produces abundant fruit today. I am not a fan of olives, but that is certainly impressive.

3. INDESTRUCTIBLE – The root system of the olive tree is so robust that it’s capable of regenerating itself even when the above-ground structure of the tree is destroyed by frost, fire or disease. In Tuscany in 1985 a severe frost destroyed many productive and aged olive trees, ruining the livelihoods of many farmers. However when new shoots appeared in the spring and the dead wood was removed, they soon became new fruit-producing trees.

4. UNPARCHABLE – Olive trees are drought friendly’ and just like eucalyptus trees do not need to be watered. Now that is my kind of plant - if only they produced something other than olives!

There are more features that are listed on the website, but you get the idea - the olive tree is pretty special, and David says, in contrast to Doeg, who will be ultimately defeated and even uprooted, he is like an Olive tree that will continue to thrive in spite of the appearances.

And so, in the midst of even the ugliest of circumstances, David says, I can still praise God - I can still trust in his unfailing love - hope remains secure, and all is still well because in spite of what we may see, God is always good! While our experiences may sometimes be unfair - while there may be those that rise up against us and desire our downfall, if we will remain true to our Savior, He will take care of us and provide.