Psalm 52:1

The psalm’s title names its occasion: “when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.” The story is told in 1 Samuel 21–22. David, fleeing from Saul, came to Nob, where the priest Ahimelech gave him food and help, unaware that David was a fugitive from the king (1 Samuel 21:1–7). Doeg, a non-Israelite who was chief of Saul’s herdsmen, was there and saw it.

Later Saul, angry and suspicious, accused his own servants of siding with David. Doeg spoke up and told him of the visit to Nob, an act of betrayal that won him favour with the king. Saul ordered the priests put to death, and when his own guards refused to strike them, Doeg did it himself. He killed eighty-five priests and then struck their town, with its men, women and children (1 Samuel 22:9–19). It was a great wrong against innocent people and against the priests who served God, and it began with a few words spoken to a king.

So the “thou” of these verses is Doeg first of all, and everything David says about the tongue in verses 2 to 4 is said with that report in mind. The words also reach anyone who glories in harming others in the same way.

David opens with a question that needs no answer, because its purpose is to condemn. He calls Doeg gibbôwr, “mighty man”, and the name is bitter irony. Doeg’s might showed itself in betrayal and slaughter, and the courage and righteousness that make a man truly mighty were missing from him.

The thing he boasts of is “mischief”, raʻ, the common Hebrew word for evil or badness, which can also mean harm and calamity. In this verse it covers both Doeg’s wicked deed and the ruin it brought on Ahimelech’s house and the town of Nob. The same word comes back as “evil” in verse 3, where David says that Doeg loves it. To boast of harm is the pride of a man who trusts in his own power to destroy, and later in the psalm this man trusts in his riches and makes himself strong in his wickedness (Psalm 52:7). Scripture gives the one right ground for boasting: whoever glories should glory in understanding and knowing the LORD (Jeremiah 9:24).

Against the boast David sets one line: “the goodness of God endureth continually.” The word for goodness is cheçed, one of the richest words in the Old Testament, which is also translated lovingkindness, mercy, steadfast love and covenant loyalty. It is God’s faithful, active love for his people, which he gives freely and keeps up. The Hebrew for “continually” is “all the day”. God’s steadfast love is there every hour of the day on which Doeg did his worst.

This line is the anchor of the whole psalm. The man boasts of a harm that will pass, and God’s goodness stays. The psalm returns to it at the end, where God brings the boaster down (Psalm 52:5–7) and the righteous trust in God’s steadfast love (Psalm 52:8–9), so the opening contrast of Psalm 52 runs all the way through it. Another psalm says the same of God, that his steadfast love lasts for ever (Psalm 100:5).

Verse 2 turns from the boast to the tongue that made it: “Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.” “Deviseth” is châshab, a verb whose root sense is to plait or weave, and so to fabricate, and figuratively to plot or contrive. The tongue is pictured as a craftsman at work, and the words it speaks were planned with care for a harmful end. The evil it does begins inside the man.

“Mischiefs” in this verse is a different Hebrew word from the “mischief” of verse 1, though the KJV uses the same English for both. It is havvâh, from a root that speaks of eagerly coveting and rushing upon something, and it means desire, and also ruin or calamity. A tongue that devises havvâh is aiming at someone’s ruin.

The razor, taʻar, was an everyday blade for shaving, a tool made for a good use and here turned to wounding. A sharp razor cuts clean and deep. Words aimed with care at a person’s weak places do the same, and the wounds they leave in a reputation, a friendship or a life are slow to heal.

“Working deceitfully” uses rᵉmîyâh, which means remissness, treachery, deceit or guile. The harm is done under cover. Doeg’s report looked like loyal service to the king, and it was treachery, and its victims learned what it was only when the damage was done. The KJV calls the tongue “deceitful” again in verse 4, where the Hebrew word is mirmâh, a different word with a related meaning.

Verse 3 goes beneath the tongue to the heart: “Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness.” The evil is raʻ, the same word as the mischief of verse 1. The lying is sheqer, falsehood, a lie or deception. Righteousness is tsedeq, rightness, righteousness and justice, which covers conduct, judgment and speech alike, and here it is the speaking of what is right and true.

The verb is ʼâhab, the ordinary word “to love, to have affection for”, used of love for a person, an object or a practice. Doeg’s affection was set on evil and falsehood. The verse sets each pair side by side and says which one he chose, first in his whole way of life, evil over good, and then in his speech, lying over righteousness. Isaiah pronounces woe on those who call evil good (Isaiah 5:20), and Proverbs lists seven things the LORD hates, among them a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16–19).

Verse 4 completes the charge: “Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue.” The verb is ʼâhab again. “Devouring” is belaʻ, a gulp or swallowing, and figuratively destruction, and the related verb balaʻ means to swallow or gulp down. Devouring words swallow up a person’s name, his friendships and even his life, the way a beast swallows its prey. “All” takes in every word of that kind, and Doeg loved them all. A short report from him consumed a whole town of priests and their families.

Then David speaks to the tongue itself, “O thou deceitful tongue”, using mirmâh, which means fraud, craft, deceit or treachery. The tongue stands for the whole man here, the instrument through which his love of destruction reaches other people. With this verse the description of the wicked man is finished, and the next verses announce what God will do to him (Psalm 52:5–7).

Psalm 52 stands between two other psalms that speak to it. Before it comes Psalm 51, David’s own prayer of repentance, and after it comes Psalm 53, which like Psalm 14 describes the folly of those who deny God.

Throughout Scripture the tongue is a small member with great power for good or evil. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” says Proverbs (Proverbs 18:21), which also sets rash words beside words that heal (Proverbs 12:18) and warns against the deceitful tongue (Proverbs 10:18). James describes the untamed tongue as “full of deadly poison” (James 3:5–8).

Our words come from what fills our hearts. Jesus said that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34), and that good and evil words come from the good and evil treasure a man keeps in his heart (Luke 6:45). Psalm 52 follows that same order, moving from the tongue in verse 2 to the heart’s loves in verses 3 and 4. The righteous man of the first psalm delights in the law of the LORD (Psalm 1:2), and this man loves devouring words. God, whose words are always true and faithful, sees which love lies behind each tongue.

The goodness of God that David held to in the face of Doeg’s evil came among us in Jesus. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). God showed his love in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). On the cross Christ triumphed over the principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), and his resurrection shows that God’s goodness wins over every mischief, sin and death included. He will come again to set up God’s righteous reign and end mischief for ever (Revelation 19:11–16).

His words were the opposite of Doeg’s. He is the Word in whom was life and whose light shines in the darkness (John 1:1–5), whose words are spirit and life (John 6:63), and who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He always loved good and spoke what was right. Yet he too suffered from tongues that devised mischief, when false witnesses were sought against him (Matthew 26:59–60). He was the Lamb of God (John 1:29), silent before his accusers as Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 53:7), and through that suffering he won our redemption.

Through his Spirit he changes the hearts that the tongue speaks from. Paul tells believers to put off the old self with its deceitful desires and to speak truth to one another (Ephesians 4:22–25), so the tongue that once served deceit can serve grace and truth.

This psalm gives words to anyone who has watched a liar prosper or been wounded by a lie. David names the evil plainly, its boasting, its careful plotting, its love of lies and of words that swallow people up, and he names it in the presence of God, whose steadfast love lasts the whole day through. Doeg had his day and the priests of Nob lost their lives, and still David could sing that the goodness of God endures continually.

The passage also shows us who God is. He sees what the tongue plans in secret, he hates the lying tongue, and he will deal with the boaster. His goodness is steady when people are cruel, so his people can leave the wicked in his hands and rest their hope on him. The same verses that expose Doeg’s tongue hold up a mirror to ours, because every mouth speaks from the heart, and the Lord who is the truth makes the hearts of his people new.