Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

We have here David arraigning Doeg the Edomite for the murder of the priests, and pointing to God's justice, which must follow. David takes comfort, under such persecutions of the wicked, in the goodness of God.

To the chief musician, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.

Psalms 52:1

It should seem that this descendant of Esau, like one of that stock, delighting in persecuting the children of promise, vaunted himself is what he had done in causing the priests to be slain, and when none else could be found who would embrue their hands in the blood of God's priests, he became the murderer as well as the accuser of them. See the story as related at large, 1Sa 22. What a sad state was Saul in, to take an enemy to God into his service, and advance an Edomite over Israel!

We shall not lose an atom of this subject, considered as to the persecutions of good men, by the evil in general, nor the sure judgment which sooner or later must follow; we shall not lose sight of the moral and religious improvements arising out of the subject, if, while we consider it in this point of view, we look at it also in a higher and more spiritual sense. Doeg was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau; and in all ages and generations the true Israel of God are exposed to the hatred and malice of all the race of Esau. Was there not the same persecution against Christ at his birth, as Saul manifested towards David? And did not Herod send forth and destroy the Jewish children at Bethlehem, wholly with a view to include the new-born Saviour in the number, as this Doeg designed to weaken David's cause, by the slaughter of his friends the priests? Reader, it is the cause of Jesus against which Satan vents all his malice, and for the destruction of which he stirs up the adversaries of the cross in all ages. Matthew 2:16.

These are blessed sentiments, expressive of the faith of God's people in the sure destruction of all the enemies of the Church, and the everlasting triumphs of the faithful. Whether they be read in a private personal sense, in reference to every individual, or in reference to the whole body of Christ at large, they are the same.

If we read these sweet verses, first with reference to Christ the head of his Church, and then, as the language of faith, from a conscious union with him, as the members of his body, we shall enter into a blessed enjoyment of them. Yes, all and every individual of Christ's mystical body must flourish, must be to his praise, and, with the ever-green verdure of trees, which the Lord's right hand hath planted, bring forth fruit to the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

REFLECTIONS

MY soul, pause over the short relation, given in this Psalm, of the malice of the wicked; and, in the instance of this wretched Edomite, behold a representation of all that race. Children of the evil-one enter with delight into his service, and manifest the bitterness of their hatred against the Lord, and against his Christ. Their wages in the present world are the pleasures of sin, the love of the world, the commendation and applauses of s inners like themselves, and the profits of iniquity. In the world to come, where should their station be, where indeed could they desire to be, but with him whom they here serve? Reader, amidst all the groans of the soul, under the remains of indwelling corruption, how, blessed is it not to be of this family who persecute the followers of Christ! Lord Jesus, I desire to praise thee in the distinguishing tokens of thy favour, that thou hast taken me into thy service; and if but a hewer of wood, and a drawer of water, O how blessed to be of the household of faith. Lord, keep me near thyself, that I may praise thee forever, because it is thou that hast done it; and grant that I may wait on thy name, for it is good, before thy saints.