PsaPs PsalmsPsalmen, psalmPsalm Book of PsalmsDas Buch der Psalmen, psalmPsalm 52

Why Do You Boast of Evil?

(1 Samuel 22:6–23)

For the choirmaster. A Maskil(a)52:1 Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142. of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.”

Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?

The loving devotion of God endures all day long.

Your tongue devises destruction

like a sharpened razor,

O worker of deceit.

You love evil more than good,

falsehood more than speaking truth.

Selah

You love every word that devours,

O deceitful tongue.

Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin;

He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent;

He will uproot you from the land of the living.

Selah

The righteous will see and fear;

they will mock the evildoer, saying,

“Look at the man

who did not make God his refuge,

but trusted in the abundance of his wealth

and strengthened himself by destruction.”

But I am like an olive tree

flourishing in the house of God;

I trust in the loving devotion of God

forever and ever.

I will praise You forever,

because You have done it.

I will wait on Your name —

for it is good —

in the presence of Your saints.