1 <To the chief music-maker. Maschil. Of David. When Doeg the Edomite came to Saul saying, David has come to the house of Ahimelech.> Why do you take pride in wrongdoing, lifting yourself up against the upright man all the day?
By the rivers of Babylon we were seated, weeping at the memory of Zion, Hanging our instruments of music on the trees by the waterside.
In the words of his mouth are evil and deceit; he has given up being wise and doing good. He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which is not good; he is not a hater of evil. Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and your strong purpose is as high as the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judging is like the great deep; O Lord, you give life to man and beast.
The evil-doer in his pride is cruel to the poor; let him be taken by the tricks of his invention. For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him.
Then Doeg, the Edomite, who was by the side of the servants of Saul, in answer said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he got directions from the Lord for him, and gave him food, and put in his hand the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Then the king sent for Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and for all the men of his father's family who were priests in Nob: and they all came to the king. And Saul said, Give ear now, O son of Ahitub. And answering he said, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said to him, Why have you made designs against me with the son of Jesse, giving him food and a sword and getting directions from the Lord for him, and helping him to take up arms against me, and to be on the watch to make a secret attack on me as he is doing now? Then Ahimelech answering said to the king, Who among all your servants is so true to you as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is a captain of your armed men, and has a place of honour in your house? Is this the first time I have got directions from God for him? Far be the thought! let the king make no such statement against his servant or my father's family, for your servant has no knowledge, great or small, of this thing. And the king said, You will certainly be put to death, Ahimelech, you and all your father's family. Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests. Then the king said to Doeg, You are to put the priests to death. And Doeg the Edomite, turning on the priests and attacking them, put to death that day eighty-five men who took up the ephod. And Nob, the town of the priests, he put to the sword, all the men and women, children and babies at the breast, and oxen and asses and sheep.
And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of the great men of the earth. He was a very great bowman, so that there is a saying, Like Nimrod, a very great bowman.
There were men of great strength and size on the earth in those days; and after that, when the sons of God had connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to children: these were the great men of old days, the men of great name. And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 52
Commentary on Psalms 52 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 52
David, no doubt, was in very great grief when he said to Abiathar (1 Sa. 22:22), "I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house,' who were put to death upon Doeg's malicious information; to give some vent to that grief, and to gain some relief to his mind under it, he penned this psalm, wherein, as a prophet, and therefore with as good an authority as if he had been now a prince upon the throne,
In singing this psalm we should conceive a detestation of the sin of lying, foresee the ruin of those that persist in it, and please ourselves with the assurance of the preservation of God's church and people, in spite of all the malicious designs of the children of Satan, that father of lies.
To the chief musician, Maschil. A psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.
Psa 52:1-5
The title is a brief account of the story which the psalm refers to. David now, at length, saw it necessary to quit the court, and shift for his own safety, for fear of Saul, who had once and again attempted to murder him. Being unprovided wit harms and victuals, he, by a wile, got Ahimelech the priest to furnish him with both. Doeg an Edomite happened to be there, and he went and informed Saul against Ahimelech, representing him as confederate with a traitor, upon which accusation Saul grounded a very bloody warrant, to kill all the priests; and Doeg, the prosecutor, was the executioner, 1 Sa. 22:9, etc. In these verses,
Psa 52:6-9
David was at this time in great distress; the mischief Doeg had done him was but the beginning of his sorrows; and yet here we have him triumphing, and that is more than rejoicing, in tribulation. Blessed Paul, in the midst of his troubles, is in the midst of his triumphs, 2 Co. 2:14. David here triumphs,