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 Ahimelech.”
1Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2Your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharpened razor,
you who practice deceit.
3You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
Selah
4You love every harmful word,
O you deceitful tongue!
5Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
Selah
6The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at him, 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!”
8But I am like an olive tree
flourishing in the house of God;
I trust in God’s unfailing love
for ever and ever.
9I will praise you forever for what you have done;
in your name I will hope, for your name is good.
I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
PSALM 52 PRESENTS an instructive observation of life with encouraging comments. While not traditionally classified as a wisdom psalm, it does share with the earlier wisdom composition Psalm 49 a concern with the arrogance of the wicked and their reliance on wealth rather than on God (52:1–7; cf. 49:6–20). Like Psalm 49 and the wisdom literature in general, the present psalm describes the contrasting lives and consequences of the wicked and the righteous. As a result, while it is not explicitly instructive like Psalm 49, Psalm 52 does offer instructive insights by its comparison of the two ways of righteousness and wickedness.
Psalm 50 introduced God as judge over his covenant people, condemning them for their false reliance on self and empty sacrifices while they deceive and exploit their fellows (50:7–21). In Psalm 51, then, David provided the model for the whole community (51:18–19) of the contrite sinner who confesses sin (51:3–6) and seeks spiritual restoration of relation with God (51:7–12), which validates the external ritual of cleansing and sacrifice (51:16–17). Now Psalm 52 offers the cautionary contrast between the arrogant evil person, who will be “snatched up” by God, “torn away . . . uprooted from the land of the living” (52:5), and the righteous person, who flourishes like an olive tree in the house of God (52:8).
The psalm is divided into three segments: the arrogance of the wicked and divine judgment (52:1–5), the response of the righteous (52:6–7), and the trust and praise of the psalmist (52:8–9).
The Heading (52:0)
PSALM 52 CONTINUES the second collection of Davidic psalms (Pss. 51–65, 68–70/71) and initiates a subgroup of this collection as the first of four consecutive psalms (Pss. 52–55) classified as maśkil.1 Like Psalm 51, Psalm 52 bears a historical statement linking it with a specific event in the life of David—in this case, the narrative in 1 Samuel 22:9–10, where Doeg the Edomite informed Saul that David had received assistance from the priestly family of Ahimelech of Nob. Saul, who feared the growing popularity of David, condemned Ahimelech and his family to death for aiding David. When none of Saul’s associates would carry out the execution, Doeg accepted the commission and killed eighty-five priests of Yahweh and slaughtered the whole town of Nob—men, women, and children.
Psalm 52, then, is thought to represent David’s response to these events. The boasting “mighty man” (52:1), whose “tongue plots destruction” (52:2), would be Doeg, whose accusations led to the deaths of so many. The reference in 52:8 to the “house of God” (i.e., temple) leads some to question whether the psalm could have been written by David.
The Arrogance of the Wicked (52:1–5)
THE PSALMIST MUST have felt under attack by those who knew well how to control and manipulate language with destructive effectiveness. His enemies are so identified with their reliance on controlling speech that in the end they cannot be distinguished from their activity; that is why he calls them “O you deceitful tongue!” (52:4b). They have become what they do so well. The arrogance and evil intent of these enemies come together when they feel free to “boast”2 of their evil “all day long” (52:1b). That is, the wicked are so confident in their ability to control that they are either unaware or unconcerned that their pride and evil activity together make them “a disgrace in the eyes of God” (52:1c).
Like a “sharpened razor” that can do good or evil depending on the one who wields it, the tongue has the power to lacerate and to destroy. Here the tongue of the wicked takes on almost a life of its own as it plots out its destructive course.3 Its deceptive power to lie and mislead is put in the foreground here, as “deceit” and “falsehood” are the operative terms (52:2c, 3b, 4b). For the psalmist, the practice of deceit is not a shrewd political or business technique but an admission of having sold out to evil and falsehood in contrast to holding to good and truth.4 The same kind of inner—outer transparency described in Psalm 51 (albeit of a negative kind, in this instance) is characteristic of these arrogant opponents: Their outward activity is truly reflective of their inward abandonment of God and his commitment to truth.
The final result of the enemy’s arrogant falsehood and deceit is harsh judgment from the “God of truth” (Ps. 31:5). Using particularly strong language evocative of the destruction of houses and city walls (ntṣ [“demolish, tear down”]; nsḥ [“tear down”] in 52:5) as well as of the tearing of people away from their dwellings, the psalmist drives home the enormity of the consequences of the enemy’s deceptive lifestyle.5 The judgment is maximized in conclusion as the wicked are described as being torn out by the roots from the land of the living. The picture of a plant being ripped from the life-giving soil stands in contrast with the later description of the psalmist as an “olive tree flourishing in the house of God” (52:8).
The Response of the Righteous (52:6–7)
THE FALL OF the deceitful wicked provides an object lesson the righteous can take to heart. The “fear” that is produced is not abject terror but the appropriate fear of Yahweh, which characterizes what Israel understands to be the right relationship of dependence on and loyalty to Yahweh and his unfailing love. That the destruction of the wicked is the consequence of their lack of trust in God is explicitly stated in the mocking laughter of the spectators: He “did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth” (52:7). Behind the laughter, however, stands a clear admonition not to follow this path to destruction.
Trust and Praise of the Psalmist (52:8–9)
THE PSALMIST CONCLUDES with a picture of expectant hope and confidence in the blessing of Yahweh on those who trust in him. Unlike the wicked who will be pulled up, roots and all, out of the nourishing soil of the land of the living (52:5), the psalmist will be like a tree planted deep in the life-giving earth of Yahweh’s own dwelling, flourishing with abundant foliage (52:8). This blessing of Yahweh’s continued presence is linked to the psalmist’s trust “in God’s unfailing love [ḥesed].”
Trust and blessing shift over to praise and hope in the final verse. While in the mind’s eye and heart the psalmist stands flourishing in Yahweh’s presence, in the context of the real world the vicious words of the wicked still have their effect. Thus, in the midst of praising God “forever” for his deeds (52:9a), the psalmist continues to “hope” for the fulfillment of the envisioned judgment and blessing. His hope is in the divine “name” Yahweh—which intriguingly does not occur in this psalm of the Elohistic Psalter6—and in the evidence of God’s actions on behalf of his faithful ones.7 As often in the psalms, the psalmist’s promise of praise is not a private act but a communal testimony performed “in the presence of [Yahweh’s] saints” (52:9c).
Bridging Contexts
THE FLOURISHING TREE. Although there is some evidence that ancient Israel was far more forested than is the contemporary land, the presence of flourishing trees was still a sign of divine blessing for those who had a history of nomadism and were living on the fringes of a settled agricultural society. Particularly the “olive tree” (zayit) with its precious fruit was considered a sign of secure fortune and well-being. The olive and its oil provided the basis of food, medicinal treatment, luxurious ointment, and spiritual light and anointing. The cedar was prized for its use in building and was especially associated with the divine garden of God.8
Several biblical contexts present the picture of a flourishing tree as a symbol of the blessing of the righteous. Especially in Psalm 1:3 and Jeremiah 17:8, which are close in vocabulary, we see independent developments of a common exemplar. In both these passages the “tree” is mentioned in its most generic form (ʿeṣ) rather than one of the more specific varieties (ʾerez [“cedar”]; zayit [“olive”]). Both describe divine blessing as a well-tended tree intentionally transplanted near an irrigation canal. The result of abundant water is in both cases verdant foliage, consistent fruit in abundance, and lack of concern about drought. In each case, the blessing of the righteous is paralleled by the sad state of the wicked, depicted in contrasting terms of nonproductive dryness.9
The similarity of these two passages suggests a common metaphor within Israelite society. Similar images describe Israel as both blessed and punished by God: “The LORD called you [Israel] a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. . . . Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living” (Jer. 11:16, 19). “I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it . . . it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. . . . All the trees of the field will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish” (Ezek. 17:22–24). The splendid green tree, carefully tended by abundant water, is thus a sign of God’s care and provision for his faithful people. To the contrary, the wicked and those who turn away from Yahweh can expect drought and ultimate destruction.
Contemporary Significance
FEAR AND LAUGHTER. Most of Psalm 52 focuses on admonitions to the arrogant wealthy. The rather sarcastic taunts of the opening verses (“you mighty man . . . who are a disgrace in the eyes of God”; “you love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!”) sets the tone for the section. The arrogant boasting of the wicked provides a negative model for the righteous, who at the end quietly profess dependence on and trust in God’s unfailing love (52:8). The brash, caustic boasters lash out right and left with their lacerating tongues, loving every minute of the mayhem they cause. Yet all their destructive activity leads to no lasting security, because “surely God will bring [them] down to everlasting ruin” (52:5a). Their trust in wealth and their ability to destroy all opposition (52:7b) are completely undermined by their failure to “make God [their] stronghold” (52:7a). Those who would destroy all others will themselves be snatched up, torn out, and uprooted “from the land of the living” by God (52:5).
The decreed destruction leads righteous observers to two contradictory reactions: fear and laughter. (1) The fear they experience is not the kind of terror the arrogant wicked would have registered had they been sufficiently wise and aware. Rather, it is the fear of Yahweh—that appropriate relationship to God characterized by the quiet response of trust and dependence by the well-planted olive tree in the concluding verses of the psalm.10 Thus, the instructive contrast of the psalm is emphasized again. The wicked trust only themselves and their own power; the righteous trust in Yahweh alone. The righteous know that were it not for the gracious mercy of God, their end with be the same as the wicked. There is a touch of vulnerability in their “fear,” as there is any time we sense just how utterly dependent we are on something beyond our control: the skilled and attentive pilot of the aircraft we ride, the essential medication that keeps us alive, the holy God who undeservedly forgives and sustains us.
(2) The response of the righteous to the destruction of the wicked is tinged with laughter as well. It is not the nervous kind of laughter one produces when threatened, nor the vicious type of laughter that bursts out at the expense of another. Rather, this laughter is the spontaneous relief we experience when we realize the fate of someone else will pass by us. The fear that acknowledges dependence on God leads to laughter of escaping the judgment of the wicked. The righteous know their trust is in God and not themselves. Even though self may consistently fail, God will not. One need not experience the rooting out reserved for the wicked but can look forward with joy and laughter to flourishing like a green olive tree in the house of God.
The key is trust in God rather than in self. The metaphorical olive tree is dependent on the care of the one who planted it and tends it. A tree cannot get up and move closer to the water source; it must depend on the care of the gardener to provide for its needs. When planted in the right spot, the tree sends down it roots deep into the life-giving resources of the stream. If we too are to be olive trees planted in the house of God, we must become lively and fruitful when we send down our roots into the life-giving source that God provides in his unfailing love.