Psalm 52

Introduction

Welcome back to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series to Hillim Talks, Studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we’ll be looking into the short nine verse Psalm, Psalm 52. And this Psalm is about one of the most wicked villains in the scriptures.

He only appears for a short time in 1 Samuel, but he is indeed a villain, a wicked, wicked man. And his name is Doeg. D-O-E-G.

And the attribution for the Psalm reads like this. To the choir master. And that word for choir master is one we’ve seen many times in the Psalms and we’ll see many times again.

It’s the word Lamnatzeach, to the Natzeach, the choir master. We’re going to look at that word the Netsach, the root of this word a little bit later. So just keep that in mind.

It’s a Maskeel of David. A Maskeel is a teaching psalm. So there’s instruction here for us.

This is not so much a psalm of praise or a psalm of petition, but it’s there to teach. A Maskeel of David when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to the house of Achimelek.

The Story of Doeg

You’ll find this story in 1 Samuel chapters 21 and 22.

And if you’re not familiar at all with the story, I suggest you pause the teaching here, go back, read those two chapters, 1 Samuel 21 and 22, and then come back and pick it up here. But if that’s inconvenient, you’re driving or whatever, you may remember this story. So in a nutshell, it’s this.

David is on the lamb. He’s running from King Saul, who’s trying to kill him. And David and his band of followers are hungry.

They’re starving. So David goes to the tabernacle, and he speaks to the priest, to Himelech, and says, You have anything here to eat? And Himelech said, We don’t have anything here, except for the 12 loaves of the showbread, which are in the holy place.

And it’s unlawful for us to give that to people who are not priests. And David says, Well, we’re starving. So Himelech, he puts human need above the religious instructions and commandments.

And so he gives these 12 loaves to David as men. He also gives David Goliath’s sword because David does not even have a weapon. Yeshua refers to this incident over in Matthew chapter 12, I believe.

And anyways, in a nutshell, that’s what it is. Now, Doeg, who is one of the servants of King Saul, tells Saul about this. And so Saul has his men go and kill Achimelek and all the priests.

He has them slaughtered because his jealousy of David was so intense that it filled him with rage that the high priest would help David. And so he has him murdered and all the other priests. A very, very sad plot.

And all because Doeg opened his mouth. Now, what’s interesting is that the Jewish commentators compared Doeg with David. Because they say there are a number of similarities here that Doeg could have been a David.

He could have had the qualities of David, but he harnessed his qualities and his abilities instead to do great damage to the Jewish people and to his own soul. A couple of interesting things about Doeg and David are this.

Doeg and David Compared

If you look here at the screen, you’ll notice that Doeg is spelled Dalet, Aleph, Gimel.

David is spelled Dalet, Vav, Dalet. And they both have the exact same numerical value. They both equal 14.

What’s also interesting is that when we’re introduced to Doeg, that is in 1 Samuel 21, 7, it says, Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Adonai. His name was Doeg, the Edomite. He was an Edomite.

And in Hebrew, the word Edomite is Admoni, from the word Adom, which means red. Edom means red because Esau, the father of the Edomites, we recall, was reddish. So he is called Admoni.

Now David, over in 1 Samuel 16, 12, this is when Samuel went to the house of Jesse to choose one of his sons to be the next king. And he didn’t find any of the sons of Jesse to be the one God had chosen for king. He says, you sure you don’t have another son around here somewhere?

And Jesse said, well, there’s David. He’s out in the field tending the sheep. So they bring in the youngest son, David.

And it says, and he sent and brought David. Now, he was ruddy. He was reddish.

And that word is admoni. So in here, the words are almost identical because David was reddish. So you have Doeg, the adumy, and David is the admoni.

You can hear the word edum in there in both because they were reddish. They were ruddy. David was ruddy in complexion. So we see these similarities here.

And yet in their behaviors and in their character, they could not have been more different.

Introduction

Welcome back to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series to Hillim Talks, Studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we’ll be looking into the short nine verse Psalm, Psalm 52. And this Psalm is about one of the most wicked villains in the scriptures.

He only appears for a short time in 1 Samuel, but he is indeed a villain, a wicked, wicked man. And his name is Doeg. D-O-E-G.

And the attribution for the Psalm reads like this. To the choir master. And that word for choir master is one we’ve seen many times in the Psalms and we’ll see many times again.

It’s the word Lamnatzeach, to the Natzeach, the choir master. We’re going to look at that word the Netsach, the root of this word a little bit later. So just keep that in mind.

It’s a Maskeel of David. A Maskeel is a teaching psalm. So there’s instruction here for us.

This is not so much a psalm of praise or a psalm of petition, but it’s there to teach. A Maskeel of David when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to the house of Achimelek.

The Story of Doeg

You’ll find this story in 1 Samuel chapters 21 and 22.

And if you’re not familiar at all with the story, I suggest you pause the teaching here, go back, read those two chapters, 1 Samuel 21 and 22, and then come back and pick it up here. But if that’s inconvenient, you’re driving or whatever, you may remember this story. So in a nutshell, it’s this.

David is on the lamb. He’s running from King Saul, who’s trying to kill him. And David and his band of followers are hungry.

They’re starving. So David goes to the tabernacle, and he speaks to the priest, to Himelech, and says, You have anything here to eat? And Himelech said, We don’t have anything here, except for the 12 loaves of the showbread, which are in the holy place.

And it’s unlawful for us to give that to people who are not priests. And David says, Well, we’re starving. So Himelech, he puts human need above the religious instructions and commandments.

And so he gives these 12 loaves to David as men. He also gives David Goliath’s sword because David does not even have a weapon. Yeshua refers to this incident over in Matthew chapter 12, I believe.

And anyways, in a nutshell, that’s what it is. Now, Doeg, who is one of the servants of King Saul, tells Saul about this. And so Saul has his men go and kill Achimelek and all the priests.

He has them slaughtered because his jealousy of David was so intense that it filled him with rage that the high priest would help David. And so he has him murdered and all the other priests. A very, very sad plot.

And all because Doeg opened his mouth. Now, what’s interesting is that the Jewish commentators compared Doeg with David. Because they say there are a number of similarities here that Doeg could have been a David.

He could have had the qualities of David, but he harnessed his qualities and his abilities instead to do great damage to the Jewish people and to his own soul. A couple of interesting things about Doeg and David are this.

Doeg and David Compared

If you look here at the screen, you’ll notice that Doeg is spelled Dalet, Aleph, Gimel.

David is spelled Dalet, Vav, Dalet. And they both have the exact same numerical value. They both equal 14.

What’s also interesting is that when we’re introduced to Doeg, that is in 1 Samuel 21, 7, it says, Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Adonai. His name was Doeg, the Edomite. He was an Edomite.

And in Hebrew, the word Edomite is Admoni, from the word Adom, which means red. Edom means red because Esau, the father of the Edomites, we recall, was reddish. So he is called Admoni.

Now David, over in 1 Samuel 16, 12, this is when Samuel went to the house of Jesse to choose one of his sons to be the next king. And he didn’t find any of the sons of Jesse to be the one God had chosen for king. He says, you sure you don’t have another son around here somewhere?

And Jesse said, well, there’s David. He’s out in the field tending the sheep. So they bring in the youngest son, David.

And it says, and he sent and brought David. Now, he was ruddy. He was reddish.

And that word is admoni. So in here, the words are almost identical because David was reddish. So you have Doeg, the adumy, and David is the admoni.

You can hear the word edum in there in both because they were reddish. They were ruddy. David was ruddy in complexion. So we see these similarities here.

And yet in their behaviors and in their character, they could not have been more different.

Verses 1–3: The Mighty Man

Now, let’s get right into the Psalm. Verses one through three, David writes, Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?

I put “O mighty man” in quotes because in the Hebrew, it’s the word gibor. And the Hebrew would suggest that David is using this in a mocking kind of way. Like, oh, you’re such a mighty man.

You’re a servant of Saul, yet look what you did. You think you’re a mighty man, but you are really a nothing because you’ve misused your skills and talents.

Isaiah uses gibor in the same way over in Isaiah 22:17–18. Here he’s prophesying over one of King Hezekiah’s traitorous servants, court officials, named Shebna.

And this is what Isaiah says, Behold, Adonai will hurl you away violently. Oh, you gibor, oh, you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around and throw you like a ball into a wide land, into an empty land. There you shall die and there shall be your glorious chariots. You shame of your master’s house.

So we see Isaiah also uses gibor in a mocking way. And it’s what, again, what the Hebrew tends to suggest here concerning Doeg.

But then the next phrase doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the first phrase: The loving kindness of God endures all the day.

So what does that have to do with, Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man, O gibor?

It’s because Doeg’s actions that were done in his ego and in his pride actually brought destruction to himself. It destroyed his reputation for all of time, because when we think of the name Doeg, we don’t think of a hero, we think of a villain.

But the loving kindness of God, the chesed of God, endures all the day.

It’s as if David is saying, you acted like a bully against someone who is weaker than you. And because of that, you will crumble into nothing. But the loving kindness of God endures all the day, endures forever.

If you acted in kindness, in chesed, your actions would endure forever. Your reputation would endure forever. But instead, you acted like a bully and everything crumbles to dust.

Verse two: Your tongue plots destruction. I put “destruction” in red because we’ll see the same word a little bit later on, and I’ll comment on it there. Your tongue plots destruction like a sharp razor doing deceit.

Now, if you think about a sharp razor, if a razor is truly, truly sharp, as sharp as it can be, when it cuts you, it’s pretty much painless.

And I know there have been times, maybe you’ve had this experience, where you cut yourself on something sharp and don’t even realize it until later. You realize, I’ve got blood on my fingers. What happened? Then you realize you cut yourself somewhere.

And this is the way a sharp tongue works. This is the way a lying tongue works.

A lying tongue can work in someone’s life. And you can hear someone speaking lies. It doesn’t even elicit any pain. But later you notice you’re losing life because of this cut, because of this sharp tongue.

Verse three: You love evil more than good. A lie more than speaking what is zedek, what is righteous.

And then there’s a selah there. It’s as if David wants us to pause and ponder what has just been said.

Why is it some people love evil more than good? I think there are probably many reasons, but one of the reasons is because evil is easy and it’s quick and it gets immediate results.

Whereas good can be difficult and often the gratification for doing what is good has delayed reward. And people can climb quickly by destroying those around them. Whereas by building up those around you, you may not notice yourself climbing at all.

But if we humble ourselves in the eyes of the Lord, He’ll lift us up in due time. But sometimes people resort to evil, to wickedness, because it’s faster to climb over the corpses of the people whose characters we have destroyed with our lying tongues.

Verses 6–7: The Righteous Laugh

The righteous shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him.

Now, this word laugh — we tend to think of laugh as when you’re just kind of throwing your head back and just roaring with laughter, slapping your thigh, wiping tears, and total hilarity.

And you know, the word is tzachak — that’s the word we translate “laugh.” But there are a couple variations of that.

And one of those variations, in fact, you find it twice over in Judges 16:25:
*And when their hearts were merry, they said, call Samson that he may sachak, entertain us. So they called Samson out of the prison

Verses 6–7: The Righteous Laugh

And when their hearts were merry, they said, call Samson that he may sachak entertain us. So they called Samson out of the prison and he tzachak, he entertained them.

He was blind, and they brought him out to make a fool of him — which turned out pulling the whole house down on their heads.

So there’s sachak, tzachak — and there are flavors of meaning in this word, even in English.

The word “to laugh” can mean a lot of different things:

• Losing control, laughing until tears are squirting.
• Just kind of a chuckle.
• A little teehee from a girl.
• Or even just a smile with a sound.

It’s a whole spectrum of expression.

In Psalm 2 it talks about how God laughs at those who are his enemies. I don’t see Him just leaning back on His throne, laughing uproariously at His enemies.

But it can mean that He’s kind of — there’s a deep satisfaction in seeing justice done.

Think of it this way: maybe in your town, you have a mayor who’s totally corrupt, or a senator or some kind of leader who’s totally corrupt and seems to keep getting away with crimes. Finally, the day comes that he’s caught, taken into court, and the judge pronounces a sentence.

Do you laugh out loud? Probably not. But there’s — you have to confess — a bit of joy, not because of the downfall of another person, but because justice wins out.

There’s a deep satisfaction that comes when we know life rhymes, life makes sense. The evil are finally brought to task, and the innocent are proclaimed innocent and justified.

So I think that’s what’s going on here with this word.

The righteous shall see and fear and shall laugh at him.

Now, if you’re fearful, you’re probably not laughing. I guess there is nervous laughter. But here, we’re realizing God has the final say. There’s awe, respect, and fear of God — but also deep satisfaction in knowing that the villain, the unjust, the wicked are brought to justice.

And this is what they say:
Behold the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction.

Now — remember that word destruction. Back up in verse 2: Your tongue, Doeg, plots destruction.

So with his tongue, he plotted the destruction of others. But now we see poetic justice: let him seek refuge in his own destruction.

He wanted refuge, and he wanted to be put on a pedestal for causing the destruction of others. Now they’re saying, let him find satisfaction in his own destruction.

And there’s a satisfaction that comes when you see right proven right, and wickedness proven wicked.

Proverbs on the Tongue

When I was reading this and contemplating, I was reminded of a whole list of passages in Proverbs. Let me read three of them:

• Proverbs 10:31: The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.
• Proverbs 12:19: Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
• Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

The wise man realizes that we pay consequences for the misuse of the tongue.

If a person like Doeg could foresee the destruction he’d cause himself by misusing his tongue — would he have still misused it? Probably not.

But this is the difference between a David and a Doeg, between a wise man and a fool. A wise man sees consequences. A fool either doesn’t see them, doesn’t believe them, or is so desperate he ignores the consequences and pushes on with his evil plot.

Verses 8–9: The Green Olive Tree

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.

Now think about this. Earlier, it talks about the lying tongue cutting down — and the person who lies being cut down. But David says, I’m like a green olive tree in the house of God.

A green olive tree means promise, potential, hope for tomorrow.

Now — you don’t plant olive trees in the house of God. In fact, there are rules against planting trees in the temple area. So what is this “house of God” David’s talking about?

He’s referring to the spiritual house.

And the olive tree is a picture of shalom, peace, fruitfulness, and a bright future.

I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank You forever because You have done it. I will wait for Your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.

What does it mean to “wait for God’s name”?

Remember: in scripture, a name equals a person’s character.

David is saying: “Lord, though I don’t see You operating and taking action right now, I’ll wait for Your name. I’ll wait for You to prove the truth of Your character. That You’ll do what You said. That You’ll be true to who You are — the wicked destroyed, the righteous defended and lifted up.”

I don’t see it yet — but I’ll wait for Your name.

Closing

So anyways, I hope this short psalm has been a blessing to you.

There’s a lot packed into these nine verses. And again, if you’re unfamiliar with the background story, go back and read 1 Samuel 21–22.

And remember: be a David, not a Doeg.

So until next time, I wish you shalom and may God bless.