Psalm 52: Like a Green Olive Tree in God's House
A rebuke of a deceitful tongue contrasted with quiet trust in God's mercy.
Psalm 52 confronts a 'mighty man' who boasts in mischief and loves lying words more than righteousness, a sharp contrast to David's own confession in Psalms 51. The tongue is compared to 'a sharp razor, working deceitfully.'
For the choirmaster. A Maskil of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.
Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking truth. Selah
You love every word that devours, O deceitful tongue.
Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
The righteous will see and fear; they will mock the evildoer, saying,
“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.
I will praise You forever, because You have done it. I will wait on Your name— for it is good— in the presence of Your saints.