Lessons from a Laughingstock
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Psalm 52:1-9 English Standard Version
Psalm 52:title
1. To the choirmaster.
2. A Maskil
a. Maskil
b. 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]
c. The meanings usually suggested are (1) a skilled composition, or an “efficacious song” (one which is effective); (2) a psalm of understanding (wisdom); (3) a didactic psalm; (4) a meditation. Perhaps the best clue to the meaning of the term is found in 2 Chr 30:22, where a group of Levites spoken to by Hezekiah are designated as המשׂכלים שׁכל־טוב ליהוה, “those having understanding of a good understanding as to Yahweh.” The context indicates that they are concerned with singing and praise in worship. This seems to strengthen the conclusion that maskil has reference to a collection of psalms (or a subsection) composed for use in worship by a group of maskilim, priests skilled in music and festival worship, especially in confession before Yahweh (note the מתודים of 2 Chr 30:22; cf. Lev 5:5; 16:21; 26:40; Dan 9:4, 20; etc.). It is even possible that the collection was made during the time of Hezekiah.[2]
d. 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.[3]
3. of David,
a. 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.[4]
b. Psalm 52:title To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
4. when Doeg [DOH ehg], the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
a. The superscription of Ps 52 locates this prayer in the events narrated in 1 Sam 21–22. [5]
b. 1 Samuel 21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?”
c. 1 Samuel 21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.
d. 1 Samuel 22:9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub,
e. 1 Samuel 22:17 And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord.
f. 1 Samuel 22:18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.
g. 1 Samuel 22:19 And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.
h. 1 Samuel 22:20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
i. 1 Samuel 22:21 And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord.
Psalm 52:1
1. Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
a. You mighty man (or “hero”) contains an obvious tone of sarcasm. [6]
b. Boast - This form is from hll(“praise”) in a reflexive stem that means “praise oneself.”[7]
2. The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
Psalm 52:2
1. Your tongue plots destruction,
a. The mention of plots recalls the plans of the enemies of Yahweh and his anointed in 2:1–3.[8]
2. like a sharp razor,
3. you worker of deceit.
Psalm 52:3
1. You love evil more than good,
2. And lying more than speaking what is right.
3. Selah
Psalm 52:4
1. You love all words that devour,
2. O deceitful tongue.
a. In the style of a prophetic denunciation (recall Pss 50:16–21; 82:1–4), a “mighty one” or “warrior,” gibbôr, is denounced for plotting and falsehood.[9]
b. His tongue was both deceitful and harmful, suggesting that there was not only malice in his actions but also some other factor, such as misrepresentation of David’s motives.[10]
c. In 21:1–9 there is no reference to Ahimelech’s consulting the Lord; hence Doeg may be lying here. Saul’s suspicions were inflamed by the fact that Doeg referred to an inquiry (often used in military situations), called the bread provisions, and mentioned Goliath’s sword.[11]
d. The mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart (Matt 12:34). David shows his awareness that the tongue speaks what the heart loves when he indicts the wicked for loving evil rather than good, and as a result loving falsehood rather than speaking righteousness in 52:3 (MT 52:5).[12]
Psalm 52:5
1. But God will break you down forever;
2. he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
a. This contrasting parallel may imply that the “tent” (Hb. ʾōhel) of verse 5 is God’s (not the evil person’s), as referred to in Psalm 15:1 (Hb. ʾōhel, niv “sanctuary”).[13]
3. he will uproot you from the land of the living.
a. Proverbs 2:22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
4. Selah
Psalm 52:6-7
1. (v.6) The righteous shall see and fear,
2. and shall laugh at him,
a. Their ironic laughter is in tune with God’s in Psalm 2,53 and the stronghold reminds us of 2:12.[14]
3. saying,
4. (v.7) “See the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction!”
a. Psalm 49:6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Psalm 52:8
1. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
a. The green, flourishing olive, an emblem of prosperity, lives long and is resilient even after pruning. [15]
b. The olive grows around the temple (v. 8). This is a simile of the vitality of a devout person. The temple is the soil wherein the olive grows its roots and which nourishes its lush, green growth, in marked contrast to being yanked out by the roots.
c. According to the superscription Psalm 52 is set in David’s life when Doeg the Edomite tattled to Saul that the fugitive had sought help from the priest Ahimelek at Nob (1 Samuel 21–22; especially 21:7 and 22:9). This report resulted in the murder of (“devouring” of, v. 4) many of the Nob priests.[16]
2. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
a. The poet contrasts the object of “trust,” bṭḥ(vv. 7 and 8).[17]
Psalm 52:9
1. I will thank you forever, because you have done it.
2. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.
a. The act of waiting for Yahweh’s name before the congregation may refer to their waiting for his self-revealing judgment promised in verse 5. The psalm clearly encourages the community of the righteous to commit the punishment of the ungodly to God and to not take it into their own hands.[18]
b. In Ps 52:9 (MT 52:11) David says that he will praise God forever because of what God has accomplished. God has defeated the wicked and established the right. That final triumph has not yet come to pass, so David asserts that he will wait for God’s name to be exalted because he believes that God is good, and he surrounds himself with those marked by the Lord’s own lovingkindness.[19]
c. The superscription of Ps 52 recalls the way Doeg the Edomite reported on David and then slaughtered the priests (1 Sam 21–22). That of Ps 54 evokes the way the Ziphites twice alerted Saul to David’s whereabouts (1 Sam 23:19; 26:1). Both Kidner and Willem VanGemeren note that the term “fool” (נבל) in 53:1 (MT 53:2) recalls Nabal, whom David encountered in 1 Sam 25, making this psalm also one that relates to that section of the Samuel narrative.193 The superscription of Ps 56 pins it to one of David’s attempts to flee into Philistia (1 Sam 21:10–15; cf. 27:1–12), and that of Ps 57 locates the psalm when David hid from Saul in a cave (1 Sam 22:1; 24:1–3). The last of this sort is the superscription of Ps 59, which places it at the time Saul sent men to watch David’s house to kill him (1 Sam 19:11).[20]
d. The sequence in Book 1 of the Psalter (David anointed then persecuted) is repeated theme and variation style in Book 2 (David enthroned then persecuted after his sin with Bathsheba). This impression is strengthened by the reproduction of much of Ps 14 in Ps 53.194 What would be the interpretive payoff of these repetitions? They show that a repeated pattern was noted in David’s own life, a pattern similar to what could also be found in the lives of Joseph and Moses. The repetitions increase significance, leading to the expectation of a fulfillment of these patterns in the life of the seed promised to David. The patterning would also lead people to see Saul and Absalom as being the same type of character, cut from the same cloth. Both are impressive in worldly ways, and both oppose God’s anointed, trying to be king in place of David, the one God chose.[21]
e. The irony is poignant. The wicked, so evident at the beginning, completely disappear from the text. After a lengthy address to the wicked (vv. 1–5), the psalmist turns to God, thanking him “because of what you have done” (v. 9), which amounts to exterminating the wicked and curbing their oppression of the faithful. The evil speech contrasts with the poet who will “proclaim” (Hebrew, “wait for”) God’s goodness.[22]
f. In MT, v. 5 (Hebrew v. 7) is indented slightly from the rest of the psalm. By this visual technique, the psalm’s structure places the two ways of life on different sides of God’s verdict.[23]
This chiastic structure[24]
A 52 superscription (MT 52:1–2), Evil Intrigue (House)
B 52:1–4 (MT 52:3–6), Wicked Boasts and Wicked Speech
C 52:5 (MT 52:7), God’s Judgment
B’ 52:6–7 (MT 52:8–9), Righteous Taunts
A’ 52:8–9 (MT 52:10–11), Trust and Praise (House)
[1] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 785.
[2] Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51–100, vol. 20, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 33.
[3] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 785.
[4] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 786.
[5] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 516.
[6] Robert L. Jr. Hubbard and Robert K. Johnston, “Foreword,” in Psalms, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 232.
[7] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, vol. 1, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002).
[8] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 516.
[9] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 133.
[10] Geoffrey W. Grogan, Psalms, The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 108.
[11] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible(Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 528.
MT Masoretic Text
[12] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 517.
niv New International Version
[13] Robert L. Jr. Hubbard and Robert K. Johnston, “Foreword,” in Psalms, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 233.
53 The interpretation of vv. 1 and 7 given in n. 51 strengthened by the obvious irony here.
[14] Geoffrey W. Grogan, Psalms, The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), 108.
[15] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 133.
[16] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 134.
[17] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 133.
[18] Robert L. Jr. Hubbard and Robert K. Johnston, “Foreword,” in Psalms, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 233.
MT Masoretic Text
[19] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 518.
MT Masoretic Text
193 Kidner, Psalms 1–72, 214; VanGemeren, Psalms, 444.
[20] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 514.
194 Along these lines, Hossfeld notes that Ps 52 is similar in structure to Pss 4 and 11–14 (Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 2, 28).
[21] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 515.
[22] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke, Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2001), 133.
MT Masoretic Text
[23] Nancy deClaissé-Walford and Beth Tanner, “Book Two of the Psalter: Psalms 42–72,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 459.
[24] James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, vol. 1, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 513.
MT Masoretic Text
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