Enemies of the People of God

Why did Doeg tell Saul that David had come to the house of Ahimelech, and what did that report cost the priests of Nob?

Doeg stands among the priests of Nob as an Edomite in Saul's service, and what he sees there becomes a weapon. David learns that his own arrival set the whole slaughter in motion, and Psalm 52 is his lament over it.

Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

1 Samuel 22:9–10

The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword—both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle, donkeys, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

1 Samuel 22:18–19

David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house.

1 Samuel 22:22

Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.

Psalms 52:2–4

Why does the psalm call Doeg's boasting a rejection of God, and what does the psalm say God will do about it?

Doeg's sin is not only against the priests. He boasts of the evil as if it were an achievement and treats God as though he were not counting. Psalm 52 turns on two words, and the turn is God's.

Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually. Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. God 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. The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, “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.” 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. I 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.

Psalms 52:1–9

God 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. The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, “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.”

Psalms 52:5–7

They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

Psalms 73:11–12

They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”

Psalms 94:7

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20–21

Why does Psalm 52 end with David's own picture of a green olive tree in the house of God?

Doeg is torn from his tent and uprooted from the land of the living, and David sets himself over against that picture. He is planted in God's house and puts his trust in steadfast love, not in wealth or in his own safety.

God 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. The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, “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.” 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.

Psalms 52:5–8

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. I 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.

Psalms 52:8–9

Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh. For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.

Jeremiah 17:5–8

He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

Psalms 1:3–4

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:19