The contrast between the godless and the godly is cast in the picturesque language of an uprooted tree and a fallen tent. In contrast to Him there is David, who is described as an olive tree in the garden of the Lord. He is flourishing, and is full of life. His trust is in the Lord, and he believes that God’s steadfast love will sustain him. If you wish to know more, check out the most recent podcast by Morning Mercies about this Psalm 52.
The Daily Psalms are given with the intention to encourage Christians to read and meditate on these scriptures in order to grow in their faith and relationship with God. They are released every Tuesday and Thursday for the following week on all major Podcast platforms. May the Lord bless you as you ponder His Word.
Presented by Michael Mullen
The beginning of this psalm links it to one of David’s bitterest experiences as recorded in 2 Samuel. In flight from Saul, he had talked Ahimelech the priest into giving him a few provisions; and now Ahimelech has been denounced to the king, and his whole community massacred. The informer was the Edomite Doeg, and it was he who carried out the slaughter.
We have two of David’s utterances on this. One is his outcry to Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son: ‘I have occasioned the death of all … your father’s house. Stay with me …; you shall be in safe keeping’ (1 Sam. 22:22f.). The other is this psalm, where he reflects first on the kind of man that Doeg is, who carves out his career by slander and intrigue; but then, too, on the brevity of such success. Finally he states his trust in God, who stands by his own as surely as he, David, has promised to stand by Abiathar.
The contrast between the godless and the godly is cast in the picturesque language of an uprooted tree and a fallen tent. In contrast to Him there is David, who is described as an olive tree in the garden of the Lord. He is flourishing, and is full of life. His trust is in the Lord, and he believes that God’s steadfast love will sustain him.
The wicked’s future is quite different, and those who are watching him will see a person of scorn, and instead of being in dread of Him, they will laugh.
In the end, David wants us to see and realize the truth that God stands with those who stand with the threatened, the oppressed, the persecuted. As he took in Abiathar, so God takes in us. We only have to wait for “God’s name,” for His will and His character to come forth, and it will be good for us who stand with those who are on the fringe, those who are threatened by the wicked.