{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
After his heartfelt confession and repentance in Psalm 51, David begins to tackle in Psalm 52 a difficult and pressing topic of his day - - the envy and jealousy men have for one another that causes them to lie and deceive in order to destroy their rivals. Men are naturally competitive, and that is a lovely trait for a man to have. It is a trait that has built civilizations, after all. Men are builders and “do-ers”. But, when this trait descends into harming another in order to better oneself, it becomes a sin problem.
David had experienced this in his own life, through the person of his FIL, Saul. To be treated shabbily, to put it mildly, by another is bad enough; but, when the tormentor is a family member, how much more painful is that?!
In order to understand this psalm, we must first understand the backstory from David’s life that inspired it. In this regard, Psalm 52 is similar to Psalm 51, which also was inspired by one of the most significant incidents in David’s life.
Let’s turn this morning to 1 Samuel 21. We are going to look at this chapter and the one following. I am not going to read these two chapters, but if you will look at them, I will too and will basically “tell the story”, to set Psalm 52 up. I find it SO helpful to know the events that inspired the psalms!
Allright, chapter 21 of 1 Samuel. I am going to be paraphrasing as I look at the complete Jewish Bible, and I will be using the Hebrew names for people and places. But if you were looking at a regular English translation, you should be able to figure out who I’m referring to.
The scene here is that David and Jonathan, Saul’s son and the heir apparent, have just been out in the field talking to each other, plotting how to save David’s life from the wrath of King Saul. Chapter 21 begins by saying that they separated. David left with nothing but the clothes on his back, and went to see Abimelech, the cohen, the priest in the area known as knob or in the Hebrew knob . JONATHAN went back to the city now, when David reached a Bielec Abimelech could not figure out why David was by himself. And David wasn’t completely honest with a Bielec. He told him that King stall had sent him on a mission sort of the secret agent mission, and that David had arranged a place for the guards to meet Him. David went on to say that he and his man were hungry that they didn’t have anything to eat and a Ben who was the Priest of knob said I don’t have any bread except for the show bread. Now, let’s talk about the shew bread for just a moment. In the tabernacle in the holy Place area of the Tabernacle, that is the area just in front of the holy holy, there was a table. It was called the table of the show bread. Every week, 12 large loaves of lemon bread were baked and laid on this table. There was one loaf for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. At the end of the week, new bread would be baked, and the old bread would be taken out and disposed of in a prescribed manner. And it would be replaced with the new show bread. This is the show bread that is mentioned here in first Samuel 21 verse six so while all this is going on, one of Saul‘s servants happened to be hanging around; his name was Do’eg the Edomite. He was in charge of all of the king’s shepherds. David, recognizing a potential problem, asked Abimelech if he had a sword, because he needed to get away from Do’eg, who would surely go tell Saul he had seen David in Nob. Abimelech told David that the only sword anywhere nearby was the famous sword that David had used years ago to slay Goliath of the area of the Philistines known as Gath. David was like, “Good! There’s not another one like it. Give it to me.” And, off he went to Gath, for some reason, where a king named Achish ruled.
After he got there, though, he realized that his life could be in some peril from this King. So as a form of self protection, he pretended to be a madman. I’m gonna read to you the last three verses or so of chapter 21 because I think that King’s response is so hilarious. Listen to this. This is from the complete Jewish Bible version, verses 15 and 16.
Achish said to his servants, “Here you see that the man is crazy. Why bring him to me? Am I short of crazy people? Is that why you’ve brought this one to go crazy on me? Must I have this one in my house? “ I have a sister-in-law who says, “I can’t do crazy.” In other words, she can’t abide or handle or deal with crazy people. I reckon King Achish could not either!
At the beginning of ch 22, we find that after David left Gath he went to a cave in the area called Adulam. While he was hiding out there, his brothers and the rest of his father‘s family went down to see him. They took with them about 400 men, some rag tag citizens, certainly not the cream of the crop, and this formed the basis of David‘s army. After leaving there, David and his band of merry men went to the land of Moab, (in Hebrew Mo’av). He took with him his father and mother and asked the king of Mo’av to give them refuge. However, while he was there, the prophet, Gad, counseled David not to stay there, but to leave and go to the land of Judah. So that’s what David did.
Meanwhile, Saul heard about all this and began to accuse his servants of conspiring against him and being in league with David. At that point, Do’eg, the Edomite, spoke up and said that he had seen David at Nob, and related what had taken place there. In response, Saul contacted Abimelech and accused him of being a traitor. Abig elect responded that if there was anyone he thought he could trust, it was David, because David was the King‘s son-in-law after all! Abimelech rightly said that he didn’t know about any disagreement or argument between David and Saul. Saul was so angry, that he ordered his servants to kill the priests who had helped David by giving him assistance in the land of Nob. But those servants refused to do it. They recognized Saul was unhinged mentally, and they also feared God. Unfortunately, Do’eg was more than willing to comply. He attacked Nob, the city of the priests, with the sword and he not only killed 85 priests, including Abimelech. He also killed women, children, babies, cattle donkeys, and sheep. When David heard about this, he was greatly grieved, and he commented that he knew that Do’eg would go and report to Saul. The sages say that Do’eg was the head of the Sanhedrin of that day, and that he was also Saul’s closest advisor. In addition to “ratting out” David, he slandered Abimelech, a tzaddik, a holy man, indicting him as a co-conspirator!
We are going to leave the book of first Samuel now. But this should give you a taste of the horrible dealings of Saul with David, dastardly dealings that were fueled by envy and hatred. Saul absolutely wanted to destroy his son-in-law, David. Now, you have the context for Psalm 52, a maskil (instructive psalm, a psalm designed to teach an essential lesson) to tell the truth about Do’eg and other ratfinks like him.
The Jewish sages say that David’s contemporaries excelled in the study of the Oral Law. Some of you may not know what that means. From the time of Abraham, there was a code of living that Abraham adhered to. It was not written down for generations. We can see allusions to this in the Scriptures, sort of an unwritten set of “understood” rules for living. At Mt. Sinai, Father Yahweh had Moses put His, Father’s, rules for us to live holy lives in writing, along with a record of pertinent world history to this point. This became The Torah, the first five books of the Tanakh (OT). However, there was still a lot of practice that was not written down. The various commandments of the Law were not elaborated upon in writing. The holy men who led the people had various interpretations of the 613 commandments, and these interpretations, passed down through the generations, formed what was and is known as the Oral Law. Around 300 CE, the Oral Law was codified, put into writing, in volumes known as The Talmud (Mishnah and Gemara), and other scholarly volumes.
When there was a highly-functioning priesthood, there was no need to write the Oral Law down. It was only written down after the time of the Diaspora, when the Jewish of Judea were dispersed all over Asia Minor and Europe and other places, that there became a need to write it down, for posterity. Otherwise, it probably would not have “endured” to reach our eyes and ears today.
Of course, these volumes did not exist in David’s day. However, the Oral Law DID exist. And, as I said earlier, David’s contemporaries were said to be quite accomplished in the study of it. The sages go on to make this important point, which I believe to be extremely pertinent today. They say that temptation comes to a person in the very area that he or she excels in. For example, if you are a visually oriented person, gifted in the visual-spatial aspects, a strong source of temptation for you will also be through your eyes. I have a friend who is gifted in making beautiful visual displays in her home. However, she is also tempted to overspend her money on what she calls “enticements”. I think that is a great word for it! Her gift, through her eyes, becomes a visual temptation to gather more such visual beauty, often to the detriment of her bank account.
If you are gifted in words, use of the verbal gifts, then the tongue will also likely be a source of temptation to sin as well. This was the case of the Torah scholars of David’s day. The entire nation was plagued with the temptation of the tongue and sinning against their fellow men by it.
It reminds me a lot of today. In our current day and time, we are a highly educated world. Not all areas of the globe, certainly. But, it can be argued that literacy and knowledge have exploded across the world in the past 250 years. Every hour of every day, unless we explicitly tune it out, we are bombarded with words. And, how does the Evil One use this? He takes truth, communicated by words, and he twists and perverts it. I am appalled at how lying has permeated the public airwaves. I have never heard so many lies, blatant lies, presented as truth, in all my long life.
So, I hope you can relate to David’s words in this psalm. Let’s dig in.
Let’s read the superscription.
(0) For the leader. A maskil of David,
when Do’eg from Edom came and told Sha’ul, “David has arrived at the house of Achimelekh”:
So, here, David makes clear this is an instructive psalm, concerning the incidents we have already looked at. He makes it clear in verse 1 that the following verses apply to the villain, Do’eg, and those who will embody his dastardly traits throughout the generations to come.
Verse 1 - -
(1) Why do you boast of your evil, you tyrant,
when God’s mercy is present every day?
In the CJB, the word “tyrant” is used. In the translation used in the ArtScroll Tanakh Series commentary, the noun phrase used is “mighty warrior”. The Hebrew is “ha Ghee-BOHR”, which is translated “the mighty one” almost everywhere else we find it used in the Tanakh. So, I don’t know why CJB chose “tyrant”. I think “mighty warrior” is a better translation.
Here, David is acknowledging the fact that Do’eg was a mighty and powerful man, likely Saul’s most trusted advisor, likely the head of the Sanhedrin of that day. David is saying in essence, “you already have achieved such acclaim and honor! Why would you stoop to this evil use of your tongue?”
The word “mercy” here is translated elsewhere as “kindness”. The second half of the verse is a call to Do’eg and others like him to repent of such evil, especially when they have been called out about it. The reminder is that God is ever-standing, arms stretched out in kindness, ready to forgive and restore you! Turn from your wicked ways!
Some of the commentators say that this entire incident came about because Jonathan neglected to do a kindness to David. If Jonathan had sent David on his way with provisions, he would not have had the need to go to Nob and Abimelech for food. They teach from this that we should never neglect to do a kindness for another, once God lays it on our hearts to do so. In the NT, it says this: “Never hesitate to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2. I am having a particularly busy week, and one of my loved ones was subtly criticizing me for taking on too much. But, I explained that I love to extend hospitality in my home. I am certainly no paragon of virtue, but if more of us did not hold our gifts so tightly, we could change the face of the world, without doubt. This past Saturday, I helped a lady move out of a friend’s home. That lady had 3x as many clothes as I own. I could not believe how much “stuff” she had, some with tags still on them. And, although she can’t afford to do it, she has rented two storage units to house it all. WHY? She doesn’t need all that stuff?!
When we hear the fad admonition of the day, “Be kind.”, we ought to realize it does not mean:
Allowing people to live as they like, whether their lives conform to Scripture or not. See, that admonition is often targeting people to tell others the truth about what God says. People don’t like to be told they are sinning.
It also does not mean only using kind words, although we should use kind words, even in telling the truth.
It means at its deepest level doing kind deeds that exemplify our kind words.
Verse 2 - -
(2) Your tongue, as sharp as a razor,
plots destruction and works deception.
Do you know someone with a tongue that is sharp as a razor? And, what does that term mean to you? Again we get back to this concept of the double-edged sword of gifts vs. temptations. If someone has the gift of language, knowing a language well, he or she can use words to “cut” another person. That gift can be used for great good, or for great evil. Sometimes, there is no evil intent, but combined with a passionate spirit, someone can “toss off” words that are not bad in themselves, but are delivered with a harsh “tone”. That’s me. That can at times describe me perfectly. I’m ashamed of it, and try not to do it, but I’m just being honest here.
However, this is not the degree to which David is referring. He is going beyond this standard to one in which there is deliberate, pre-meditated desire to cause great harm by the words that are used. Intent to deceive others about another person. Words deliberately intended to destroy.
Let’s look at the next two verses, 3 and 4.
(3) You love evil more than good,
lies rather than speaking uprightly. (Selah)
(4) You love all words that eat people up,
you deceitful tongue!
People use their tongues like this today, both in person and on social media, because they love evil more than they love good. Many of them have no idea what God’s standard of “good” actually is. What they think is “good” is not good at all, and then, in their minds, ANYTHING is acceptable, in order to achieve what they believe to be “good.” It starts with dishonest, lying words, intended to deceive, and then can often end in death. That is what happened in Do’eg’s case, as we have seen.
Consider Charlie Kirk. His words of truth were so very powerful that evil people tried to silence him. And, when they realized they could not silence him, through lies they told about him, attacking his character, whatever, they killed him.
Notice that King Saul did not stop to verify what Do’eg told him. He did not search out the truth. Instead, he reacted impulsively and by trusting Do’eg, sent him out to do the most heinous deeds to the priesthood at Nob.
People like Do’eg essentially love themselves more than they love God. They love evil more than they love good. That is such a strong statement, such a heavy indictment, that there is a Selah after it. If you have been studying Psalms with me, you know what Selah means. It means, “stop and ponder this heavy truth”. Or, “Whooooaaaaaaaa!” Or, “Wow, how about that!”
There is another Selah at the end of verse 5.
(5) This is why God will strike you down,
seize you, pluck you from your tent
and uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
Another translation says, “God will smash you for all eternity.” That is pretty descriptive, isn’t it? Again, we are commanded via “Selah” to stop and ponder this warning. These people do not come to a good end. They may not get their “just reward” in this life for such evil behavior, but they WILL receive justice from God, either here on Earth or at their judgment. As Abraham asked God in Genesis 18: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” These evildoers will “get what’s coming to them.” Another pertinent verse is this one, from the Brit Chadasha, and it is very convicting to me. Yeshua speaking here - -
Matthew 12:36-37: "But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.
That’s pretty heavy warning, isn’t it? Words are powerful! This is why we are told that if we truly are followers of Yeshua, we must not shy away from confessing verbally that we are identified with Him. To not deny Him verbally is a condition of receiving His pardon and salvation. See Romans 10:9. 9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (KJV). Words are powerful.
Let’s stop here for a moment and ask ourselves, “What ultimately happened to Do’eg?” Well, the Scriptures don’t directly say. I’ll tell you what the commentary says and what Scripture may hint at. Some sages believe Do’eg was afflicted with leprosy, which is the punishment reserved for slanderers. This is believed to be the case because the most literal translation of verse 5 is that God will “smash you”. In Leviticus 14:45, God says he will smash the leper’s house. Same word, translated “smash”. Another view is that in 2 Samuel 1, Saul’s “Amalekite attendant”, unnamed, came to inform David of the king’s death, while at the same time claiming responsibility for it. This nameless attendant was lying. The truth was that Saul had taken his own life by falling on his own sword. But, this “armor-bearer” had wanted glory for killing Saul, and he thought David would honor him for it. Instead, David ordered him to be killed. One of the greatest sages, Rashi, quotes the Pesikta, in identifying this nameless liar as Do’eg. The sages say that David’s words in 2 Samuel 1:16 apply to not just the recent incident where the man lied about Saul’s death, but also to his earlier slander, which caused the deaths of hundreds of people in Nob.
Allright, on to finish this psalm, this “cautionary tale” from David.
Verses 6 and 7
(6) The righteous will see and be awestruck;
they will jeer at him, saying,
(7) “This fellow would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in his own great wealth,
relying on his evil plots.”
Here we see the reaction of the righteous, to such people. The spirit of God gives the righteous discernment to distinguish truth from falsehood, and therefore the righteous can “see right through” such people’s evil tactics. Do’eg stands as an enduring example of how futile it is to seek success by evil methods.
The last few verses of the psalm are a proclamation of a righteous man.
Verses 8 and 9
(8) But I am like a leafy olive tree
in the house of God;
I put my trust in the grace of God
forever and ever.
(9) I will praise you forever for what you have done,
and I will put my hope in your name;
for this is what is good
in the presence of your faithful.
Do you wonder why David compared himself to the leaves of an olive tree? It is because the leaves of this tree remain green, moist and vibrant all year. Right now, around here, except for the evergreen pines and so forth, the deciduous trees’ leaves are drying up, dying and falling off the trees. The leaves of the olive tree do not wither. You may remember in the very first psalm, the righteous man was compared to a tree whose leaves do not wither. In addition, olive oil was used in lamps, to bring light into the world, banishing the darkness.
The righteous person puts his or her trust in the kindness/grace of God, whereas in verse 1 David asks the evil person why he does not reach out for God’s kindness, instead of relying on his own material resources and evil schemes. We people often think we are responsible for the good gifts in our life, when the reality is that they are all gifts from the hand of El Elyon, God Almighty.
The sages say that David is trusting in God to perpetuate his descendants forever, until Messiah, Son of David, comes. Those of us who believe and trust in Yeshua know that He was and is the Son of David, the promised Mashiach, although He did not fulfill that role during His first coming to earth. We know He will return to earth as Son of David when Hashem gives Him the “go” word.
You may not know or remember that David’s ancestral line was almost wiped out under the maniacal reign of the evil queen, Ataliah. By God’s grace, Joash (Yoash) was spared, because his nurse hid him in “a bedroom” according to some translations, in the house of Adonai. Many sages say it was the attic above the Holy of Holies in the Temple, which of course is the House of Adonai. This is recorded in 2 Kings 11:1-2. Just another of HaSatan’s attempts to prevent the coming of Mashiach.
Allright, we are going to leave Psalm 52 now and make a few brief remarks about Psalm 53. If you can, hold your finger at Psalm 53 and then turn back to Psalm 14. If you look back and forth between these two psalms, you will see that they are both quite similar, almost exact replicas! The sages say that Psalm 14 focuses on the future destruction of the First Temple, under the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, while Psalm 53 points toward the destruction of the Second Temple, by Titus the Roman Emperor, while he was ascending to the throne of, and serving, his emperor father, Vespasian.
I am going to do something radically different with Psalm 53, since we basically already studied it as Psalm 14. I am going to read it to you in Hebrew. And, then, we’ll go on.
Before I do, though, let me point out a few differences between Psalms 53 and 14. First of all, you’ll see that a reference is made to a musical instrument called the mah-khah-LAHT, in the superscription. This instrument is not mentioned in Psalm 14. The sages say that this instrument was used to convey the deepest mourning, because its tones are so very deep, poignant and sorrowful. It makes me think of the first time I heard the orchestral work, by Samuel Barber, “Adagio for Strings”, when it was performed at the funeral for Princess Diana. Such stirring, mournful music! We don’t know what this machalat was like, exactly, but it is said to have evoked the most mournful feelings. The sages also say that it was named here in 53, but not in 14, because the destruction of the Second Temple was so much more cataclysmic than the destruction of the First. The First Temple was rebuilt less than 80 years after it was destroyed. The Second has yet to be rebuilt, after nearly 2000 years of lying in ruins. Nebuchadnezzar, who some say was converted to Judaism later in life, only destroyed the First Temple to repress the Jewish revolt that was flaring up against him. Titus, on the other hand, who destroyed the Second Temple, did so with much more savage and blasphemous intentions, seeking to vanquish God Himself. Furthermore, Titus desecrated the house of God before he destroyed it. Vile, vile man. The Talmud tells this story/legend about Titus on his deathbed. It is said that he commanded his attendants to cremate his body and to scatter his ashes upon the seven seas so that the God of the Jews would not be able to find him and to bring him before His throne in judgment. Well, I have news for him….smh
Also in the superscription, we see the term “maskil”, which is also missing from Psalm 14. We just studied earlier today the meaning of that term. So, we won’t go over that again.
In verse 1, we see the Hebrew word, nah-VAHL, which means “fool” and which is the same as the name of the husband of Abigail, the Carmelite woman, who was married to Nabal, as we say in English, a very foolish and inhospitable knave indeed. If you remember from 1 Samuel 25, Nabal refused hospitality to David and his mighty warriors. Some of the commentators say that Psalm 53 was placed directly after Psalm 52 so as to contrast the hospitality and generosity and godliness of Abimelech with the absence of those traits in the life of Nabal.
The biggest difference between Psalm 53 and Psalm 14 is the names for Hashem that are used in each one. In Psalm 53, the name Elohim is seen throughout. In Psalm 14, the Tetragrammaton, often said as Yahweh, predominates. Remember that Elohim is the name that connotes God’s strict justice, meted out on the nation of Judah in the days of the Second Temple’s destruction, because of the spiritual degeneration of the people.
Along those same lines, there’s another indicator that the spiritual condition of the people represented in 53 is worse than in 14, and that occurs in verse 1 of this psalm. The people are referred to as “dross” and altogether “depraved”, whereas in Psalm 14, these foolish people had merely “gone astray”. Again, it’s a matter of the degree of spiritual degradation. There’s a sense of hopelessness and finality in the condemnation of the people referenced in Psalm 53. Dross can never be converted back into refined metal, for instance.
One last difference…and then I’ll read Psalm 53 to you in Hebrew. Toward the end of these psalms, we find language about the final redemption. In the last verse of each psalm, we see the phrase “Israel’s redemption” (Psalm 14) or “Israel’s redemptions” (Psalm 53). The sages say that the reason for the plural in Psalm 53 is that Psalm 14 spoke only of the redemption from the Babylonian captivity, but that in Psalm 53 the reference is to the final redemptions of the last days, when this complete one will mark the end of all Jewish exiles. Indeed we are seeing the beginnings of this today, with more and more Jews returning to the homeland of Israel. As persecutions of Jews worldwide increase (think of Mamdani begging elected as the first Islamic mayor of NYC), this will only accelerate.
Last point, in verse 6 of Psalm 53, you see reference to both Jacob (Ya’akov) and Israel (Yisrael). Keep in mind that when you see reference to Jacob, describing the Jews, it is referring to the everyday, common folk, whereas the name Israel refers most often to both the commonfolk AND the elite, that is, the scholars and saints who guide the masses.
Starting with Psalm 52, we seem to be in a parade of miscreants in this section of psalms. The villain of Psalm 52 was Do’eg. The villain of Psalm 53 was, at the time of its writing, the yet to be born, nearly 1000 years forward in time, Titus. Then, Psalm 54 speaks of the Ziphites, another band of no-good dudes.
We’ll resume here with the Ziphites and Psalm 54, next week.
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