Context No. 3993 of 4322 · Psalms
Context · Reflection
Psalms 52:1-9: in context
1Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually. 2Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 3You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. 4You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. 5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. 6The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, 7“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” 8But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever. 9I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.
This psalm confronts a boastful, evil man who trusts in his own wealth and cunning, whose tongue plots destruction and who loves evil more than good. Of such a man the psalm says, God will break him down forever, uproot him from the land of the living. And it names his fatal error: behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches.
He built his security on his wealth and his wickedness, and it would not hold. But then the psalmist turns to describe himself, and the contrast could not be sharper: but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. Here are two ways to live, set side by side. The one who trusts in riches and his own scheming is like a plant torn up by the roots. The one who trusts in God's steadfast love is like an olive tree, planted in the house of God, green and flourishing, secure. The difference is where the roots go down, into wealth and self, or into God.
Where have my roots gone down, into wealth and my own scheming, which can be torn up, or into the steadfast love of God, where I can flourish like a green olive tree in his house?
Sources
- Psalm 52:7: "Behold, this is the man who didn't make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness."
- Psalm 52:8: "But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God's house. I trust in God's loving kindness forever and ever."
- Psalm 52:5: "God will likewise destroy you forever... and root you out of the land of the living."