Psalm 52 - Overcomer - When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.
The black background of Doeg the Edomite shows God's mercy to make a sinner to be like a green olive tree in the body of Christ.
heading - See Psalm 32 regarding Maschil Psalms.
This psalm gives us to understand God's mercy (vv1, 8).
v1 - There are many acts of God's mercy to us each day, including to evil people to turn them to Him. We should recognize God's mercy and that should cause us to show mercy to others. Rom 2:4; etc
Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenseless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room for exultation! Honorable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean and cruel. If David alluded to Saul, he meant by these words pityingly to say, "How can one by nature fitted for nobler deeds, descend to so low a level as to find a theme for boasting in a slaughter so heartless and mischievous? - Charles Spurgeon
v2 - lit. like a sharpened razor working deceit
v3 - lit. than to speak righteously
v4 - "sharp" comes from v2, which I omitted there.
v5 - lit. out of the land of the living
For God to pluck the deceitful tongue from a tent may mean to remove it from the physical body. ref. 2Cor 5:1,4; etc
v6 - The righteous do 3 things: They see, they fear and they laugh at him. Do not laugh at him until I first fear, knowing that the same could happen to me. ( Psalm 2:10)
v7 - This should be our sober reaction when we see the powerful fall.
His greediness fueled his ambition and thus strengthened himself.
v8 - lit. "forever and ever", which unambiguously means eternally.
The way to be a green olive tree in the house of God is to confide in God's mercy. ref. Ps 36:7
But I, hunted and persecuted though I am, am like a green olive tree. - Spurgeon
I will praise Thee for ever. Like Thy mercy shall my thankfulness be.- Spurgeon
When Charles I was a prisoner in the Scottish Camp at Newark, his victors insulted him by ordering Ps. 52 to be sung:
Why boasteth thou thyself, thou tyrant,
That thou canst do mischief;
Whereas the goodness of God endureth yet daily?
It was by an appeal to the Psalms that Charles robbed the insult of its sting. His only reply was to ask for Psalm 56:
Be merciful unto me, O God;
For man goeth about to devour me;
He is daily fighting and troubling me.
Mine enemies are daily in hand to swallow me up;
For they be many that fight against me,
O Thou Most High.
- W. Graham Scroggie
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(tune Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan:9.7.9.7.9.7.5.6.9)
1 1 Why boast yourself in evil, mighty man?
God's mercy is all the day.
2 Your tongue devises mischievous things,
like a knife stabbing away.
3 You have loved evil rather than good,
lies more than to rightly say. <Selah>
1b God's mercy, I say,
is outstretched all the day.
1b God's mercy is outstretched all the day.
2 4 Thou hast loved all devouring words,
O thou sharp deceitful tongue!
5 Also God shall destroy thee to the end
because of what you have done.
He shall remove and pluck thee from a tent,
root thee out from under the sun. <Selah>
1b God's mercy, I say,
is outstretched all the day.
1b God's mercy is outstretched all the day.
3 6 Then the righteous shall see and will fear,
and at him shall laugh, saying,
7 "Behold the man that made not God his strength,
but in his great wealth trusting.
He strengthened himself in his greediness."
8 But I'm like a green olive-tree.
1b God's mercy, I say,
is outstretched all the day.
1b God's mercy is outstretched all the day.
4 In the house of God I'll confide in
God's mercy eternally.
9 I will praise Thee forever because
You've done as previously,
and I will wait on Thy name, for 'tis good,
in front of Your saints to see.
1b God's mercy, I say,
is outstretched all the day.
1b God's mercy is outstretched all the day.
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1 Samuel 21:1 And David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech trembled at meeting David, and said to him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?
2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business whereon I send thee, and what I have commanded thee; and I have directed the young men to such and such a place.
3 And now what is under thy hand? give me five loaves in my hand, or what may be found.
4 And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.
5 And David answered the priest and said to him, Yes indeed, women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, and the more so, because to-day new is hallowed in the vessels.
6 And the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the shew-loaves that were taken from before Jehovah, to put on hot bread in the day when they were taken away.
7 ¶ (Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Jehovah; and his name was Doeg, the Edomite, chief of the shepherds that belonged to Saul.)
8 ¶ And David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under thy hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, for the king's business was urgent.
9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of terebinths, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if thou wilt take that, take it; for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that: give it me.
10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1Samuel 22:7 Then Saul said to his servants that stood by him, Hear now, ye Benjaminites: will the son of Jesse give every one of you also fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that informs me when my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse; and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant as a lier-in-wait against me, as at this day?
9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
10 And he inquired of Jehovah for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
11 ¶ Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob; and they came all of them to the king.
12 And Saul said, Hear now, son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord.
13 And Saul said to him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me as a lier-in-wait, as at this day?
14 And Ahimelech answered the king and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and has access to thy secret council, and is honorable in thy house?
15 Was it to-day that I began to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king charge anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.
16 And the king said, Thou shalt certainly die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house.
17 And the king said to the couriers that stood about him, Turn and put the priests of Jehovah to death; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not inform me. But the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Jehovah.
18 And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall on the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and fell on the priests, and put to death that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.
19 And Nob, the city of the priests, he smote with the edge of the sword, both men and women, infants and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
20 ¶ And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
21 And Abiathar informed David that Saul had slain Jehovah's priests.
22 And David said to Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would certainly tell Saul: I am accountable for all the lives of thy father's house.
23 Abide with me, fear not; for he that seeks my life seeks thy life; for with me thou art in safe keeping.
Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Isaiah 9:12 the Syrians on the east, and the Philistines on the west; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
...17 Therefore the Lord will not rejoice in their young men, neither will he have mercy on their fatherless and on their widows; for every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
...21 Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
...10:4 They can but crouch under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Genesis 19:15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city."
16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
2Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved--
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
1Timothy 1:13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-- not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2Peter 1:13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,
14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Judges of earth, learn this thing.
11 In fear, the LORD serve and rejoice,
being sober with trembling.
Psalm 36:7 How precious is Your mercy, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
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