Psalms 52–53

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil¹ of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

52:1   Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
2   Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
3   You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
4   You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.
5   But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6   The righteous shall see and fear,
    and shall laugh at him, saying,
7   “See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
  but trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!”²
8   But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
  I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
9   I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
  I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly.

There Is None Who Does Good

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil³ of David.

53:1   The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
    there is none who does good.
2   God looks down from heaven
    on the children of man
  to see if there are any who understand,⁴
    who seek after God.
3   They have all fallen away;
    together they have become corrupt;
  there is none who does good,
    not even one.
4   Have those who work evil no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and do not call upon God?
5   There they are, in great terror,
    where there is no terror!
  For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
    you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
6   Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God restores the fortunes of his people,
    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Footnotes

[1] 52:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
[2] 52:7 Or in his work of destruction
[3] 53:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms
[4] 53:2 Or who act wisely

(ESV)