Psalms — Chapter 52
For the leader. A maskil of David,
when Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul, telling him, “David came to Ahimelech’s house.”aCf. 1 Sam. 22.9ff.
Why do you boast of your evil, brave fellow?God’s faithfulness never ceases.bnever ceases Lit. “is all the day.”
Your tongue devises mischief,like a sharpened razor that works treacherously.
You prefer evil to good,the lie, to speaking truthfully. Selah.
You love all pernicious words,treacherous speech.
So God will tear you down for good,will break you and pluck you from your tent,and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
The righteous, seeing it, will be awestruck;they will jibe at you,cyou Heb. “him.” saying,
“Here was a fellow who did not make God his refuge,but trusted in his great wealth,relied upon his mischief.”
But I am like a thriving olive tree in God’s house;I trust in the faithfulness of God forever and ever.
I praise You forever, for You have acted;I declare that Your name is gooddI declare that Your name is good Meaning of Heb. uncertain; in contrast to others “I will wait for Your name for it is good.” in the presence of Your faithful ones.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Dhammapada 10:1
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”