God Speaks
52 For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Doeg the Edomite said to Saul, “David has gone to see Ahimelech.”
1 Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior?
Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?
2 All day long you plot destruction.
Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor;
you’re an expert at telling lies.
3 You love evil more than good
and lies more than truth. Interlude
4 You love to destroy others with your words,
you liar!
5 But God will strike you down once and for all.
He will pull you from your home
and uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude
6 The righteous will see it and be amazed.
They will laugh and say,
7 “Look what happens to mighty warriors
who do not trust in God.
They trust their wealth instead
and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.”
8 But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God.
I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
9 I will praise you forever, O God,
for what you have done.
I will trust in your good name
in the presence of your faithful people.
53 For the choir director: A meditation; a psalm of David.
1 Only fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
not one of them does good!
2 God looks down from heaven
on the entire human race;
he looks to see if anyone is truly wise,
if anyone seeks God.
3 But no, all have turned away;
all have become corrupt.
No one does good,
not a single one!
4 Will those who do evil never learn?
They eat up my people like bread
and wouldn’t think of praying to God.
5 Terror will grip them,
terror like they have never known before.
God will scatter the bones of your enemies.
You will put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
6 Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel?
When God restores his people,
Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice.
54 For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “We know where David is hiding.” To be accompanied by stringed instruments.
1 Come with great power, O God, and rescue me!
Defend me with your might.
2 Listen to my prayer, O God.
Pay attention to my plea.
3 For strangers are attacking me;
violent people are trying to kill me.
They care nothing for God. Interlude
4 But God is my helper.
The Lord keeps me alive!
5 May the evil plans of my enemies be turned against them.
Do as you promised and put an end to them.
6 I will sacrifice a voluntary offering to you;
I will praise your name, O Lord,
for it is good.
7 For you have rescued me from my troubles
and helped me to triumph over my enemies.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: These three psalms will be taken together because they are each so short and address common themes: 1) Asking or praising God for deliverance from treacherous adversaries or foolish, evil people, calling for someone to intercede on behalf of the helpless, and gathering with others to praise and thank God for their victories.
Psalm 52: This psalm is said to be addressed to a particular person, Doeg the Edomite, who betrayed David to King Saul and personally killed eighty-five innocent people connected with someone who helped him evade the king’s search party. This psalm calls him out but ends with David praising God.
Psalm 53: This psalm is almost identical to Psalm 14, so the same comment applies.[Psalm 14: In the Bible, a fool is not someone “intellectually challenged” but one who has stubbornly hardened their heart against the truth that is self-evident to others. That is why a fool can say in his or her heart, “There is no God.” Reardon says, “The atheist does not know God, because he has chosen not to seek God. . . The constant, unreversed cultivation of sin leads in due course to total blindness, even blindness to what is self-evident.” * The author of this blog can’t help but think that this characterizes many in today’s polarized culture. I believe that the more secular our society becomes, the more foolish and anti-God it will be.] No person truly seeks God on their own. He cannot be reached by human reasoning. God is only found because He has chosen to reveal Himself to them in Jesus Christ alone.
Psalm 54: In verses 1-3 David states the problem and calls on God’s help. In verses 4 and 5 he calls on God to keep him alive, redirect the enemy’s plans, and keep His promises. In verses 6 and 7 David tells what he will do in response and why.
*Christ in the Psalms by Patrick Henry Reardon, pp. 101-106. [The quote regarding Psalm 14 is found on page 26.]
Prayer: Father God, I trust You to deal with truly evil people like Doeg the Edomite and others like him. He betrayed his “friend” and killed innocent people in cold blood. I know that You will do this, either here on earth or in eternity. In the meantime, I join with David in trusting in Your unfailing love and Your good name in the presence of Your faithful people. You know which hearts are set hard against You, and You know how to deal with them. Although none of us do good, Jesus lived and died so that all people could be brought back to be with You, LORD, forever. Restore Your people for Christ’s sake. Those who turn to You in faith will shout with joy and rejoice. Come with great power and rescue my nation, even though we are sinners and have sinned greatly. Defend us with Your might, that same power that You used to raise Jesus from the dead. May the evil plans of those who are attacking Your people be turned against these enemies instead. Do as You promised and put an end to them. Then all who belong to You will praise Your name because You rescued us from troubles and helped us to triumph over our enemies.
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will turn those who betray me or treat me cruelly over to the Lord Jesus for judgment.
- I will gather with others to worship, thank, and praise the LORD.
- I will declare the truths of these psalms to those who need to hear them, as God leads.
- I will use bible resource materials to research what Doeg and the Ziphites did so that I can avoid doing the same, but instead do just the opposite, great good.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.