Psalm 52

God Judges the Proud

For the choir director. A Maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite went and reported to Saul, telling him, “David went to Ahimelech’s house.”(A)

Why boast about evil, you hero!(B)
God’s faithful love is constant.(C)
Like a sharpened razor,
your tongue devises destruction,
working treachery.(D)
You love evil instead of good,
lying instead of speaking truthfully.(E)Selah
You love any words that destroy,
you treacherous tongue!(F)

This is why God will bring you down forever.
He will take you, ripping you out of your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.(G)Selah
The righteous will see and fear,
and they will derisively say about that hero,[a](H)
“Here is the man
who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches,
taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”(I)

But I am like a flourishing olive tree
in the house of God;(J)
I trust in God’s faithful love forever and ever.(K)
I will praise you forever for what you have done.
In the presence of your faithful people,
I will put my hope in your name, for it is good.(L)

Footnotes

  1. 52:6 Lit about him

Unrepentant Towns

13 “Woe(A) to you,(B) Chorazin!(C) Woe to you, Bethsaida!(D) For if the miracles(E) that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,(F) they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.(G) 14 But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment(H) than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum,(I) will you be exalted to heaven?(J) No, you will go down to Hades.(K) 16 Whoever listens to you listens to me.(L) Whoever rejects you rejects me.(M) And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”(N)

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Israel’s Rejection Not Total

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people?(A) Absolutely not!(B) For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,(C) from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.(D) Or don’t you know(E) what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life![a](F) But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal.[b](G) In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.(H) Now if by grace,(I) then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.[c]

What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for,(J) but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened,(K) as it is written,

God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that cannot see
and ears that cannot hear,
to this day.[d](L)

And David says,

Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a pitfall and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and their backs be bent continually.[e](M)

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Footnotes

  1. 11:3 1Kg 19:10,14
  2. 11:4 1Kg 19:18
  3. 11:6 Other mss add But if of works it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
  4. 11:8 Dt 29:4; Is 29:10
  5. 11:9–10 Ps 69:22–23

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