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PSALM 52 (Message Bible)
A David Psalm, When Doeg The Edomite
To Saul, “David’s At Ahimelech’s House”
Why do you brag of evil “big man”?
God’s mercy carries the day
You scheme catastrophe
Your tongue cuts razor sharp
Artisan in lies
You love evil more than good
You call black white
You love malicious gossip
You foul-mouth
God will tear you limb from limb
Sweep you up and throw you out
Pull you up by the roots
From the land of life
Good people will watch and worship they will laugh in relief
“Big Man” bet on the wrong horse trusted in big money
Made his living from catastrophe
And I’m an olive tree
Growing green in Gods house
I trusted in the generous mercy of God then and now
I thank you always
That you went into action
And I will stay right here
Your good name my hope
In company with your faithful friends
Well, this is a fairly FULL ON Psalm!
Written when Doeg (what was his mother thinking!!) the Edomite comes
to tell Saul that David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Again,
this Psalm is written specifically to the chief musician, which always
makes me aware of the value of psalmody, never praising the Lord
carelessly.
On with the Psalm… in 1st Samuel 22, Doeg comes to King Saul
with his tale telling, conspiring against David, and blaming Ahimelek,
the son of Ahitub, and all of the men of his family, who were the
priests at Nob.Due to the slanderous words of Doeg, the King ordered
all of these innocent men, the women, children, cattle, donkey and
sheep to be slaughtered… and as the King’s own officials
were unwilling to strike the priests of the Lord, the King ordered
Doeg to do the killing himself.
With this in mind, we go to the first verse… where David is
saying, how can you boast in such evil you ‘so called’ mighty
man??? Rather than feeling proud of his achievements that day, he
should have been ashamed at his cowardice. He was a disgrace in the
eyes of God. The verses go on to explain the culture and atmosphere
of deceit, that spoken evil is like a sharp razor, and has the ability
to quickly cut the very life out of the recipient. Those that habitually
lie can often find momentary elation through the deceit… almost
like living out of your real life movie…creating an untrue
world to frolic in, never truly living in the freedom of Truth.In
many stories of old, you would read that men or women would befriend
an enemy, eventually earn enough trust to allow them to give them
a shave… this was a show of great mateship, friendship… and
then, when the shavee was most relaxed… the enemy would slice
into the throat of the unsuspecting bearded one…never to shave
again!This is what ‘razor sharp’ words can do… cut
to the core!
So you’ll see, David is drawing attention to the kind of man
Doeg is… one who carves out his career by slander, intrigue
and deceit… but then you’ll notice also how short lived
his so called success was.
The psalm then goes on to remind us how much God hates evil, and
will not stand be eternally to watch His people plundered. Our God
IS an awesome God, and is a just God… It is hard to watch
those around you seemingly succeeding when they are doing it through
underhanded means… and everything within wants to get on your
chair and shout… “they’re lying, this is not fair,
this is not right!!!” I always take great comfort in the fact
that GOD IS GOD… no one can fool Him OR sweet talk Him round…
you’ve just got to trust Him with your life, rather than point
out all the faults with everyone else… not always easy to
do…I love that David, after he heard of the unjust killings… just
did the right thing by the son that got away… and took him
on as his own…fantastic!!
Laughing in the face of the enemy is our right… but one I
still find hard to do. I’ll never forget the face of Suddam
Hussein when he was finally captured…and as is their right,
the people he persecuted for so long danced and laughed at this triumphant
news… but I still found myself praying for this sorry shell
of a man…
Verse 8 is stunning, and one that most of us can testify to. But
I am like an olive tree, FLOURISHING in the house of my God. The
olive tree is such a powerful example, for it draws oil from rock… and
even amidst the most severe drought, still lives and grows. Is that
you??? Are you like the olive tree?? Don’t allow a hunger for
deceit or wickedness drive you to a barren future… be planted
in the house of God… you can hear the delight of David as
he writes… ’in the presence of Your people I will always
praise you’, in community, in the House of God, we will raise
a banner of praise to our God and remember His faithfulness over
our lives.David finishes by saying…I will hope in Your name,
for Your name is good! David views his prayers already answered… a
great lesson to remember… and he lifts up praise to God in
anticipation of good things.
Don’t let boastful men or woman get you uptight… your
strength, is to sit still and wait… and not let it irritate
you. Wait on the Lord… His timing is perfect, and His rewards
are worth the wait!! So there you go, Psalm 52…
‘For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
You have made us Kings and Priests to our God;
And we shall reign on earth.’ Rev 5: 9-10.
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