This psalm purports to be “a psalm of David,” and there is no reason to doubt that he was the author. The occasion on which it was composed is stated in the title. The correctness of this title has been called in question by DeWette and Rudinger, on the ground that the contents of the psalm do not s... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY BOASTEST THOU THYSELF IN MISCHIEF? - Why dost thou “exult” in that which is wrong? Why dost thou find pleasure in evil rather than in good? Why dost thou seek to triumph in the injury done to others? The reference is to one who prided himself on schemes and projects which tended to injure others... [ Continue Reading ]
THY TONGUE DEVISETH MISCHIEFS - The word rendered “mischiefs” means (a) desire, cupidity: Proverbs 10:3; then (b) fall, ruin, destruction, wickedness: Psalms 5:9; Psalms 38:12. The meaning here is, that he made use of his tongue to ruin others. Compare Psalms 50:19. The particular thing referred t... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU LOVEST EVIL MORE THAN GOOD - Thou dost prefer to do injury to others, rather than to do them good. In the case referred to, instead of aiding the innocent, the persecuted, and the wronged, he had attempted to reveal the place where he might be found, and where an enraged enemy might have an opp... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU LOVEST ALL DEVOURING WORDS - All words that tend to devour or “swallow up” reputation and happiness. Luther, “Thou speakest gladly all things (anything) that will serve to destruction.” Anything, everything, that will serve to ruin people. The word rendered “devouring” - בלע _bela‛_ - occurs on... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD SHALL LIKEWISE DESTROY THEE FOR EVER - Margin, “beat thee down.” The Hebrew word means to “tear, to break down, to destroy:” Leviticus 14:45; Judges 6:30. The reference here is not to the “tongue” alluded to in the previous verses, but to Doeg himself. The language in the verse is intensive and... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RIGHTEOUS ALSO SHAIL SEE - See the notes at Psalms 37:34. AND FEAR - The effect of such a judgment will be to produce reverence in the minds of good people - a solemn sense of the justice of God; to make them tremble at such fearful judgments; and to fear lest they should violate the law, and b... [ Continue Reading ]
LO, THIS IS THE MAN THAT MADE NOT GOD HIS STRENGTH - That is, the righteous Psalms 52:6 would say this. They would designate him as a man who had not made God his refuge, but who had trusted in his own resources. The result would be that he would he abandoned by God, and that those things on which h... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I AM LIKE A GREEN OLIVE-TREE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD - I am safe and happy, notwithstanding the effort made by my enemy, the informer, to secure my destruction. I have been kept unharmed, like a green and flourishing tree - a tree protected in the very courts of the sanctuary - safe under the care a... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PRAISE THEE FOREVER, BEAUSE THOU HAST DONE IT - Because thou art the source of my safety. The fact that I have been delivered from the designs of Saul, and saved from the efforts of Doeg to betray me, is to be traced wholly to thee. It has been ordered by thy providence that the purposes alik... [ Continue Reading ]