Psa 52 | EE | STEP | This is for the music leader. It is a maskil for David. It is about Doeg, the man from Edom. He went to Saul and told him, ‘David went to the house of the priest Ahimelech.’ Why do you say how great you are, you strong but evil man? The kind love of God is always with us.

Psalms 52

Cruel Words

This is for the music leader.

It is a maskil for David.

It is about Doeg, the man from Edom.

He went to Saul and told him,

‘David went to the house of the priest Ahimelech.’

1 Why do you say how great you are, you strong but evil man?

The kind love of God is always with us. ^{▼▼52:1 Verse 1: The answer to the question may seem strange. But it is not! The strong, evil man will not always be with us. But the kind love of God will be!}

2 Your tongue talks about ideas to destroy people.

It is like a sharp knife.

You are always doing something to hurt people. ^{▼▼52:2 Verse 2: Our tongue is the part of our mouth that we eat and speak with. David says that Doeg’s tongue is like a sharp knife. The Hebrew word means ‘razor.’ A razor is the sharp knife that men shave (or cut off) their beards with!
Doeg’s words cut and hurt people’s feelings.}

3 ^{▼▼This verse is empty because in this translation its contents have been moved to form part of verse Psa 52:4.} ^{▼▼In this translation, this verse contains text which in some other translations appears in verses Psa 52:3-Psa 52:4.}4 You love:

· to do evil things

· not to do good things

· to say lies

· not to say what is true

SELAH

· every cruel word

· a false tongue. ^{▼▼52:3-4 Verses 3-4: Here are some of the bad things that Doeg does.}

5 So, God will destroy you completely. He will catch you.

He will tear you away from your home.

He will pull you out from the earth where people live.

SELAH ^{▼▼52:5 Verse 5: But God will punish Doeg. He will also punish (or hurt) everybody else that is cruel. ‘Pull out’ is what you do to plants: you pull them out of the ground, or you uproot them. Plants cannot live if their roots are not in the ground. Doeg cannot live either!}

6 And good people will see it and be afraid.

But then they will laugh at him. ^{▼▼52:6 Verse 6: ‘Good people’ is ‘the righteous’ in Hebrew. Look after Psalm 5 (in Psalms 1-41) to see what righteous means. When God does something it often makes us feel afraid. But then we begin to understand what he has done. Then we are happy!}

7 ‘Look at the man that did not make God his fortress.

Instead, he trusted that all his money would make him safe.

He became strong by destroying people.’ ^{▼▼52:7 Verse 7: A fortress is a strong building. Enemies cannot catch you in it. Look at Psalm 18:2 of Psalms 1-41. People are wrong if they think that God will not catch them because:
– They are very strong and powerful
– They have a lot of money.
Doeg was powerful and had a lot of money. But God punished him. This means that God hurt Doeg because Doeg had done wrong things.}

8 But I am like tree that is growing well in the house of God.

I will always trust in the kind love of God.

9 I will always praise you for what you have done.

I will tell your people what a good name that you have. ^{▼▼52:9 Verses 8-9: There are two important words here:
– Kind love (hesed in Hebrew)
– Your people (hasidim in Hebrew).
You can see that in Hebrew they use the same word in two ways. ‘Kind love’ (hesed) is what God gives to people. ‘Your people’ (hasidim) accept the kind love that God offers.}