1 > Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God's loving kindness endures continually.
They pour out arrogant words. All the evil-doers boast.
Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
But Yahweh's loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, His righteousness to children's children;
Behold, he travails with iniquity; Yes, he has conceived mischief, And brought forth falsehood.
A heart that devises wicked schemes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief,
In whose heart is perverseness, Who devises evil continually, Who always sows discord.
For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven't set God before them. Selah.
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good; He doesn't abhor evil. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. He inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king. Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord. Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house? Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more. The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house. The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh. The king said to Doeg, Turn you, and fall on the priests. Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen ephod. Nob, the city of the priests, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
For every matter of trespass, whether it be for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, about which one says, 'This is mine,' the cause of both parties shall come before God. He whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came to men's daughters. They bore children to them: the same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 52
Commentary on Psalms 52 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 52
Ps 52:1-9. Compare 1Sa 21:1-10; 22:1-10, for the history of the title. Ps 52:1 gives the theme; the boast of the wicked over the righteous is vain, for God constantly cares for His people. This is expanded by describing the malice and deceit, and then the ruin, of the wicked, and the happy state of the pious.
1. mighty man—literally, "hero." Doeg may be thus addressed, ironically, in respect of his might in slander.
2. tongue—for self.
mischiefs—evil to others (Ps 5:9; 38:12).
working deceitfully—(Ps 10:7), as a keen, smoothly moving razor, cutting quietly, but deeply.
4. all-devouring—literally, "swallowing," which utterly destroy (compare Ps 21:9; 35:25).
5. likewise—or, "so," "also," as you have done to others God will do to you (Ps 18:27). The following terms describe the most entire ruin.
6. shall … fear—regard with religious awe.
laugh at him—for his folly;
7. for trusting in riches and being strong in "wickedness."
wickedness—literally, "mischief" (Ps 52:2), instead of trusting in God.
the man—literally, "the mighty man," or "hero" (Ps 52:1).
8. The figure used is common (Ps 1:3; Jer 11:16).
green—fresh.
house, &c.—in communion with God (compare Ps 27:4, 5).
for ever and ever—qualifies "mercy."
9. hast done—that is, what the context supplies, "preserved me" (compare Ps 22:31).
wait … name—hope in Thy perfections, manifested for my good (Ps 5:11; 20:1).
for it is good—that is, Thy name, and the whole method or result of its manifestation (Ps 54:6; 69:16).