(To the chief Musician an instruction. Of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.) Why boastest thou thyself in evil, thou mighty man? The loving-kindness of God [abideth] continually.
Doeg the Edomite told Saul that David had been to the house of Ahimelech. That report ended with the slaughter of a whole family of priests, and David wrote this psalm in reply. The verse sets a boastful strong man beside the God whose kindness never runs out. The psalm then shows which of the two lasts.
One writer weighs how far Doeg meant to lie:
Doeg, whether deliberately or not, misrepresents David's meeting with Ahimelech. From David's description of it in Psalm 52, there can be little doubt that his own hatred led him to lie on purpose. Anything that would weaken the kingdom of Israel would please an Edomite. According to his account, Ahimelech was part of a plot to put David on the throne. He had asked the Lord's guidance for him, and had given him food and the sword of Goliath. But Doeg twisted even the statements that were correct. So his whole story was false witness, and it brought disaster on the priestly house.
The title sounds too big for a man with no rank. One writer shows where his might lay:
Doeg was not himself an authority in Israel. But he had enough might to murder the priests of the Lord (1 Sam. 22:18-19). So David speaks of his boasting in evil as a mighty man (v. 1).
The verse names a strong man, then names God. That pairing shapes the psalm.
The psalm divides into two parts, which stand in contrast with each other. The first seven verses are faith's challenge to this mighty one. The last two verses give us the man of faith himself, and his portion from God. The "mighty man" uses the little might he has to persecute the saints harshly. He is set here against El, the "Mighty" God, whose attribute is mercy — mercy enduring daily. How blessed is this gentle goodness of Almighty power. God deals slowly with the evil man. The awful end of evil that is never repented of makes that slowness deeply solemn. Meanwhile faith knows that this power of God, for all its apparent slowness, has things completely under control.
That continuing kindness was not neutral toward Doeg. It had a purpose he ignored.
He boasts in evil, while the goodness or kindness of God endures continually. Here the saint contrasts God and the mighty man. God's goodness leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). This man, however, takes no notice of that goodness, as verses 2-4 describe. His tongue plots harm. He loves evil more than good, and lying more than righteousness. To faith, then, his destruction is sure. God will bring it about (verse 5), and the righteous will be kept alive to see it. The wicked man trusted in his riches; the righteous trusted in the kindness or mercy of God. This is a sure resource.
Older translations read "the goodness of God endures continually." The ESV reads, "The steadfast love of God endures all the day."
The second half of the verse is the antidote to lying words:
The cure for the world's deceitful offers, and for the one who wields its glory, is that the goodness of God endures continually. The soul that trusts the love of God has a shield that quenches all the flaming darts of the evil one. But he comes with a very believable story, here in religious dress. He works smoothly and wounds deeply. He covers the evil work with lying words. His tongue deceives while its words devour.
David's years of hardship were not wasted:
Those years of trouble produced the Psalms, which have comforted the people of God for nearly three thousand years… So it always is. God does care, despite appearances to the contrary.
One writer looks past Doeg to a later enemy of God's people:
This psalm lets us look at the crafty plots of the Antichrist against the faithful remnant of Judah. Verse 8 encourages this thought. The destroyer had set himself up in the very house of God, driving far away the poor of the flock, whose trust is in the Lord. But faith sees the signs of near redemption in the ripening triumph of appointed wickedness. So faith can rejoice and sing the song of deliverance before it comes, because the mercy of God endures.
- Occasion. An informer's twisted report cost a family of priests their lives. This psalm is David's answer to that news.
- Contrast. The verse sets a small man with a big tongue against El, the Mighty God. Only one of the two endures.
- Goodness. God's daily kindness is meant to lead men to repentance. Doeg received it and went on plotting harm.
- Shield. Trust in that lasting love is a shield. It quenches the flaming darts of smooth, religious, devouring words.
- Reach. The psalm looks past Doeg to the Antichrist. Faith can sing this line as a song of deliverance before deliverance comes.
Thy tongue deviseth mischievous things, like a sharp razor, practising deceit.
Doeg the Edomite told Saul that the priest Ahimelech had helped David, and a whole priestly family died for it. David's psalm names the weapon behind that report: not a sword, but a tongue.
The history behind the psalm shows what plotting destruction looked like. Doeg slanted his report to Saul, and the psalm treats that slant as deliberate.
Doeg, whether on purpose or not, misrepresents David's meeting with Ahimelech. David's description of it in Psalm 52 leaves little doubt that his own hatred led him to lie on purpose. Anything that weakened the kingdom of Israel would please an Edomite. By his account, Ahimelech was part of a plot to put David on the throne: he had asked the Lord for guidance for David, and had given him food and the sword of Goliath. But Doeg put a wrong meaning even on the statements that were correct. So his whole account was false witness, and it had a disastrous result for the priestly family.
Doeg had learned which weapon does the most damage. Notice where he prepared it.
Doeg is a treacherous enemy. He has learned that no weapon destroys the innocent more powerfully than the tongue. In the tabernacle and before the Lord, he was planning the work of destruction. He was preparing his tongue, like a sharp razor, to kill the guiltless — a savage wolf that does not spare the flock.
The verb matters. This tongue is not merely loud or careless. It plans.
His tongue is indeed his mightiest part, and by his words he may well be justified or condemned. Yet his tongue, as James declares, is "a world of unrighteousness." There are "yawning depths" of it, as it is put here — "his tongue devises" — and the unwary are easily swallowed up in them. Then the picture changes, though the meaning is no less murderous: this tongue of the wicked is "like a sharp razor," cutting before one is aware.
The second half of the verse names the method. Deceit does not attack truth head-on. It borrows truth's appearance.
His tongue is his most powerful weapon, able to twist truth so that it appears to be commending falsehood. What James says of the tongue is especially true of this champion of evil: "And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell" (James 3:6). It can be guilty not only of arrogant domination, but of the most contemptible deceit.
Deceit does not throw truth away. It uses just enough of it.
How clearly the great enemy of man is seen in all this! He "is a liar and the father of lies." Truth will not serve his purpose — that is, the whole, full truth. He likes to use it, so far as it will give colour and attractiveness to his lie: a film of varnish over a rotten interior, or a film of ice, looking pure, over his cavernous wickedness. That film is itself a deception, a lure, a deeper lie.
A lie confesses something about the one who tells it.
Yet this deceit is itself the confession of weakness: power that is equal to its purpose has no need of it. Because deceit admits that weakness, proud strength finds it distasteful. In its love of devouring, the tongue may become a "tongue of deceit," but it does not love that humiliation. So it carries the evidence of its own frailty and changeableness. The seed of death is in it, and the witness of God's judgment upon it.
Commentators do not stop with Doeg. Some read the whole psalm as a portrait of how the faithful few answer the antichrist.
This is the faith of the godly remnant when the antichrist is present. They expose his true character, challenge his power, and foretell his doom. For themselves, they trust in the mercy of God and wait for His deliverance.
- Words killed. Doeg's report was false witness, and a priestly family paid for it. The psalm traces the bloodshed back to a tongue.
- Words as weapon. Doeg had learned that no weapon destroys the innocent like the tongue. He sharpened his in the tabernacle, before the Lord.
- Words that design. The tongue here plots, and the razor fits the picture: it cuts before the victim feels it.
- Words that pretend. Deceit twists truth until it appears to commend a lie. Yet needing that disguise is a confession of weakness.
- Words answered. Faith does not match lie for lie; it exposes the character of the evil man, foretells his end, and waits on the mercy of God.
Thou hast loved evil rather than good, lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
David wrote Psalm 52 after Doeg the Edomite carried a report to Saul that ended in the slaughter of a whole family of priests. This verse looks past what the man did to what he loved. Nothing cornered him into lying. He preferred it.
The verse does not say the man lied; it says he loved lying. One writer points to Doeg, who chose evil when nothing forced him to:
Doeg is a clear example of how the spirit of wickedness works under the dead conscience of a man who claims faith but has abandoned it. Lying and malice were his choice, not his necessity. He is against the truth because he wants to be. He lies about men's lives, and he dips his hand in their blood without hesitation, ready to obey whatever unrighteousness commands.
Doeg boasted of his position, but his real weapon was smaller:
Doeg is a treacherous enemy. He has learned that there is no more powerful weapon for destroying the innocent than the tongue... He was a proud boaster, making much of himself because of his position and resources, and he did not make God his strength. He was a lover of evil and of falsehood.
This verse explains the verse before it. The sharp tongue of verse 2 only carries out what the heart has already chosen. And behind that heart stands another liar:
And out of the heart the mouth speaks: "You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right." In all this we can see the great enemy of man! For "he is a liar, and the father of it." Truth will not serve his purpose — that is, the whole, full truth. He likes to use it, but only as far as it adds colour and appeal to his lie. It is a film of varnish over a rotten interior, or a thin sheet of ice over a deep cave of wickedness. Truth used this way is itself a deception, a lure, a deeper lie.
That is why a half-truth counts here as a lie. Doeg's report to Saul held accurate details, yet the whole thing was false:
Doeg gave even the statements that were correct a wrong meaning. So his whole account was false witness, and it brought disaster on the family of priests.
Commentators read this description as a sketch of a far greater enemy still to come. The two loves in this verse match two marks of the antichrist:
He also loves evil more than good. In the same way the apostle later foretells that antichrist will oppose "every so-called god." He also loves "lying more than speaking what is right," and again the apostle says he will be marked by "all wicked deception." His words, too, are "devouring words," and they overcome those under his power with a "strong delusion" (compare 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12).
A herdsman seems a small figure to carry such weight. But the psalm dwells on his words, and words are what make him mighty:
Saul's herdsman may seem very unlike the mighty man of this psalm. But through his words — and it is his words the psalm dwells on — he was in fact mighty enough to cause the wholesale slaughter of the family of priests.
The writer of this psalm had once leaned on a lie himself. He gained shelter at the house of Ahimelech by an untruth:
David lied to Ahimelech, because he believed that the name of Saul carried more weight with him than the name of God... This is how the faith of God's people has often failed. They judge correctly that no one can safely trust in man, so they fit their conduct to the circumstances of the time. But this is to forget God — to lose sight of Him as the shield and light of our present way... Dodging the truth and lying are the natural tools of spiritual fear.
This man stands next to the God whose mercy lasts day after day. His wickedness does not cancel that mercy:
The "mighty man" uses the little might he has to persecute God's people bitterly. He is set here in contrast with El, the "Mighty" God, whose character is mercy — mercy that lasts day after day... And this goodness is not contradicted by the presence of this wicked man either. Even for a man like him, "the goodness of God" would "lead to repentance." The terrible end of evil that is never repented of makes God's slowness with the evil man deeply solemn.
- Love decides. The verse weighs what a man prefers, not what circumstances force on him — lying and malice were "his choice, not his necessity."
- Love speaks. What the heart prefers comes out of the mouth. The sharp tongue of verse 2 only carries out the loves of verse 3.
- Love distorts. True details arranged to destroy still count as false witness. Truth becomes only varnish over the lie.
- Love enlarges. The same two loves — evil over good, lying over righteousness — mark the antichrist, who prevails by words.
- Love answers. Set against this stands the daily mercy of God, patience meant to lead even such a man to repentance.
Thou hast loved all devouring words, O deceitful tongue!
Psalm 52 speaks against a man who killed with words, not a sword: Doeg served Saul as a herdsman, yet his speech cost a whole family of priests their lives. Verse 4 names the appetite behind such speech — a tongue that has come to love the words that destroy.
The psalm calls this man a "mighty man" — an odd title for a herdsman. One writer shows where his strength lay: in what he said.
Doeg the Edomite is no doubt only a weak picture of the great enemy of God and man at the end time; and yet the points of likeness are clear. The herdsman of Saul may not look much like the mighty man of this psalm. But by his words — and it is his words the psalm dwells on — he was mighty enough to cause the slaughter of a whole family of priests. And as said already, it is by his words that Antichrist will prevail, whatever "power" may go with them.
The phrase describes speech that swallows people up. One writer describes how such words work on those who listen.
To someone off guard his words may sound fair. But they are designed to do harm, like a sharp razor that cuts before you feel it… He also loves "lying more than speaking what is right"… And his words are "devouring words." They overpower those who come under his influence with a "strong delusion" (compare 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12).
Verse 4 does not say he used such words but that he loves them. That word points to the heart. One writer traces both the appetite and the method back to their source.
And out of the heart the mouth speaks: "you love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right." How plainly the great enemy of man shows in all this! For "he is a liar and the father of lies." Truth will not serve his purpose — the whole, full truth, that is. He likes to use it, but only so far as it gives colour and appeal to his lie. It is a film of varnish over rotten wood, or a thin skin of clean-looking ice over a cave full of evil — itself only a deception, a lure, a deeper lie.
The verse ends by naming the speaker a "deceitful tongue." The same writer finds a confession hidden inside the lie itself.
Yet this deceit is itself a confession of weakness: power that is equal to its aim has no need of it… In its love of devouring, the tongue may become a "tongue of deceit"; but it does not love that humiliation. So it carries the witness of its own frailty and changeableness. The seed of death is in it, the witness of God's judgment on it; and so that judgment is foreseen.
One writer puts an attack by speech in the same class as violent persecution.
Let us take care not to become persecutors. Some think the only persecution is fire and sword. But there is persecution of the tongue… You can kill a man in his name just as truly as in his body; a good name is as precious ointment. Our Saviour calls it persecution to strike another in his name. This is how the earliest Christians endured the persecution of the tongue. They "suffered mocking and flogging" (Hebrews 11:36). Slander is tongue persecution.
Against words that devour, one writer sets what faith looks at instead.
Evil boasts itself in power, but faith sees another thing. The goodness of God, before whom people are like grasshoppers, lasts without a break, however much evil prevails. There is no moment when it is not fully in Him, no day when anything escapes Him or is out of His reach… The goodness of God — what a resource against evil! If it is like this, it cannot stop or be interrupted. Pride ends in ruin, but the one who trusts in the Lord and His faithful love will be green when everything else withers.
- Heart — "You love" points to the source. Out of the heart the mouth speaks, and this heart prefers lying to speaking what is right.
- Tongue — the words are the weapon. A herdsman became "mighty" enough by speech alone to destroy a whole family of priests.
- Devouring — such words sound fair, cut like a razor, and hold people under a strong delusion.
- Weakness — deceit confesses that the power behind it is not equal to its aim. It carries the seed of God's judgment on it.
- Refuge — evil boasts in power; faith looks at the goodness of God that never pauses. The one who trusts Him stays green when all else withers.
God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
Doeg the Edomite told Saul that David had been to the house of Ahimelech, then killed the priests himself. Verse 5 is where the psalm turns: after four verses on a boastful man and his cutting tongue, God passes sentence.
Note: older translations begin this verse "God shall likewise destroy you for ever."
The man addressed in this psalm was not a king or a general. He looked after Saul's livestock. So how could the psalm call him a mighty man?
The herdsman of Saul may hardly seem to be the mighty man of this psalm. But through his words — and it is his words the psalm dwells on — he was in fact mighty enough to cause a wholesale slaughter of the priestly family.
The tongue that devours is not only wicked. It is weak, and its own way of working gives it away.
Yet this deceit is itself the confession of weakness: power that is equal to its purpose has no need of it… In its love to devour, the tongue may become a "tongue of deceit"; but this humiliation it does not love. So it carries with it the proof of its own weakness and instability. The seed of death is in it, the witness of God's judgment upon it; and so that judgment is foreseen.
The psalm sets two mighty ones side by side.
The "mighty man" uses the little might he has to persecute the saints bitterly. Here the psalm sets him against El, the "Mighty" God, whose attribute is mercy — mercy that endures daily. How blessed is this gentle goodness of Almighty power! And the presence of this wicked man does not contradict it: for even such a man "the goodness of God" would "lead to repentance."
One writer traces the Old Testament words for destruction and comes to this one last.
The sixth word, nathatz, is used once in the psalm which, according to its title, speaks of Doeg (Ps. 52:5)… It is death by the judgment of God that is meant here, and the margin gives the sense better: "beat you down."
Commentators differ over which tent is meant. The answer changes what the judgment says about him.
Moll agrees with Delitzsch. They take the "tent" the mighty one is plucked out of as the home of Doeg, with a reference to his herdsman's tent. A much older view comes from Kimchi, and Grier and others follow it. They apply the words to the holy tent, or tabernacle, where Ahimelech served, and where the history tells us Doeg was "detained before the LORD."
One writer looks past Doeg to a final enemy still to come. The judgment answers the crime.
Since he will be a destroyer, God will likewise destroy him forever. Though he exalts himself above all that is called God (2 Thess. 2:4), he will enjoy this prominence for only a few years before he is captured with the Beast at Armageddon.
God uproots not only the man but the religion he used as a disguise.
But he comes with a very plausible tale, here in a religious guise, smoothly working, deeply wounding, covering the evil work with lying words; a tongue which deceives, while its words devour… Therefore God shall destroy him and his fleshly religion for ever.
David wrote this while the killer was unpunished and he himself was a fugitive. That is the point of the verse — it is a sentence believed before it is seen.
To faith, then, his destruction is sure. God will bring it about (verse 5), and the righteous will be kept alive to see it. What a change that will be! The triumphing of the wicked is short (Job 20:5).
- Mighty by tongue. Doeg was only a herdsman. But his words caused the slaughter of a whole priestly family, so God calls him a mighty man.
- Mighty against mighty. The boaster's little strength stands against El, the Mighty God. His attribute is mercy — mercy that endures daily, and would even lead this man to repentance.
- Weakness exposed. Deceit is a confession of weakness. Power equal to its purpose has no need of it, and the seed of death is already in the lying tongue.
- Matching measure. God destroys the destroyer. He tears the man who invaded holy things out of the tent and uproots him from the land of the living.
- Believed before seen. Faith spoke this sentence while the evil still went unpunished. To faith the end of the wicked is certain, and short.
The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,]
Psalm 52 is about a man named Doeg, whose tongue destroyed the innocent. At verse 6 the psalm turns from him to the righteous: they fear, they laugh, and their words over him sum up his whole life.
The psalm gives the Holy Spirit's reading of this man's character.
Doeg stands out for his evil in this history… But Doeg is a treacherous foe. He has learned that there is no more powerful weapon for destroying the innocent than the tongue. He is no doubt a picture of a terrible enemy of the remnant in Israel in the last days. To learn the Holy Spirit's estimate of him, and David's by the Spirit, we must turn to Psalm 52. He was a proud boaster. He magnified himself because of his position and resources, and "he did not make God his strength."
Commentators also read the psalm forward. They hear in it the voice of God's faithful people in the last days.
This is the faith of the godly remnant when the antichrist is present. They expose his true character, challenge his power, and foretell his doom. For themselves, they trust in the mercy of God and wait for His deliverance.
Faith is sure of the outcome while the man is still standing.
His destruction, then, is sure to faith. God will bring it about (verse 5), and He will keep the righteous alive to witness it. What a change that will be! The triumphing of the wicked is short (Job 20:5). God deals with this man, in principle the Antichrist of the future, and over his destruction the righteous shall laugh.
The laughter is not the onlookers' own spite. Scripture has a whole family of such songs.
The "taunting proverb," as Habakkuk calls it, is very fine here (v. 7). We have several of these in Scripture, uttered over the fall of some proud unbeliever who despised the Lord. Such a man has scorned His goodness, ignored His corrections, mocked His pleadings, and brushed aside His warnings. Then, when there is no remedy, the Lord "laughs at the calamity, and mocks when the fear comes." (See Exodus 15, Judges 5, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation 18 for examples of these taunting songs.)
What the righteous say is a summary, not an insult. It fits his whole life into one sentence. The words below follow an older translation of verse 7.
Now comes the triumph of the righteous, and their word over him: "Look at the strong man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his deep practice." The last word here is the singular of the word translated "yawning depths" in verse 2. The match seems to show a matching thought: in verse 2 it is his words, here it is his practice. So we have his case summed up. It is the case of fallen man written large: "being in honour, he does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish." He puts God away from himself, and so puts away his link with life and blessedness. He is not a beast, and he does not come to an end as a beast does. He is self-condemned. Being lost is an evil for him that it is not for a beast, and it is bound up with the fact that his spirit never ends.
What does faith do while evil is still in power?
Psalm 52 needs few words. It looks on to judgment in Israel. But it holds principles for the believer at any time, when evil power is everywhere and he looks away from circumstances. Evil boasts itself in power, but faith sees something else. Men are like grasshoppers before God. His goodness never stops, however much evil prevails… The goodness of God — what a resource against evil! Nothing can end it or interrupt it, if it is like this. The end of pride is ruin. But whoever trusts in the Lord and His faithful love will be green when everything else withers. He is planted in the courts of God's house.
- Boast — the man in view is a proud informer. His tongue destroyed the innocent, and he magnified himself by his position and resources.
- Doom — faith is sure of his fall, because God Himself will bring it about. The triumphing of the wicked is short.
- Sight — God keeps the righteous alive to witness it. They see the change with their own eyes.
- Verdict — their taunting song sums up his life. He put God away from him, and so put away his own link with life and blessedness.
- Strength — what he refused is the believer's resource. Nothing can interrupt the goodness of God, and whoever trusts it stays green when everything else withers.
Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice.
This verse is what the righteous say over a fallen enemy. They look at the ruin and name the cause. Older translations end the verse with "strengthened himself in his wickedness." The ESV has "sought refuge in his own destruction." The writers below use both.
One writer reads verse 7 straight back onto the history of Doeg and Saul:
Doeg stands out in this history for all the wrong reasons. Saul shows us how powerless the flesh is to overcome its evil passions, whatever outward advantages it has. He despised prophecy. He destroyed the priesthood. He had moments of softening and regret, yet he followed a godless course down to the bitterest end. But Doeg is a treacherous enemy. He has learned that no weapon destroys the innocent more powerfully than the tongue. To learn the Holy Spirit's estimate of him, and David's by the Spirit, we must turn to Psalm 52. He was a proud boaster. He made much of himself because of his position and resources, and he "did not make God his strength."
One writer renders the word for "man" here as "strong man." He then traces the last Hebrew word of the verse back to verse 2, where the same root describes speech:
"See the strong man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his deep practice." The last word in the Hebrew here is the singular of the first word in verse 2, which reads "yawning depths." This match seems to show a match of thought. The first refers to his words, the second to his practice.
Verse 7 is one half of a comparison. The next verse completes it:
God deals with this man, who in principle is the Antichrist of the future. The righteous will laugh over his destruction. … "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." … The wicked trusted in his riches. The righteous trusted in the kindness or mercy of God. This last is a sure resource.
The verse names riches as the thing he leaned on. One writer says what that hoard becomes:
The man who hoards is in effect making a god of his hoard. When he thinks of his hoard, his mind rests about the future, for without it he would be uneasy. It is enough to drive a natural man out of his senses to give him nothing but God to depend on. Anything but that. Give him old pieces of parchment in the form of title deeds. Some clever lawyer will one day find a flaw in them and prove them worthless. He will lean on them, and even die in peace, if he can leave them to his heirs. Give him an insurance policy — anything, in short, but God, for the natural heart.
More than one writer reads this figure as a preview of a final enemy. One of them names the character and its opposite:
In Psalm 52 the energy of the Spirit of Christ rises up after Israel's confession of sin. It contrasts the position and character of Antichrist with that of the righteous remnant — in fact, Antichrist and Christ in Spirit. Violence, self-confidence, and deceit make up the character of the man of the earth. The contrast is dependence.
Another writer applies the same words to Saul's end:
In him we see the man of the earth perishing in his own corruptions. In his history we read the end of a man whose inward thought was that his house would last for ever. His way proved his folly.
- Strength — He is called the strong man, yet the one strength he never took was God. God deals with him, and the righteous laugh over his ruin.
- Substitute — He leaned on riches instead. The man who hoards makes a god of his hoard, because the hoard, not God, settles his mind about tomorrow.
- Speech — His "deep practice" echoes the "yawning depths" of verse 2. The same depth ran through his words and his deeds.
- Shadow — Doeg and Saul only sketch the man of the earth. His marks are violence, self-confidence and deceit. His opposite is dependence.
- Substance — The psalm sets one trust against another: riches, or the mercy of God trusted for ever and ever. Only the second is a sure resource.