Psalms

Why Do You Boast of Evil?

(1 Samuel 22:6–23)

1 For the choirmaster. A Maskil of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.

2 Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

3 You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking truth. Selah

4 You love every word that devours, O deceitful tongue.

5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

6 The righteous will see and fear; they will mock the evildoer, saying,

7 “Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.

9 I will praise You forever, because You have done it. I will wait on Your name — for it is good — in the presence of Your saints.

Footnotes:
52:1 Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142.