“Introduction and Background to Psalm 52”

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2012 8:02:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                         Focus:  “Introduction and Background to Psalm 52”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Psalm 52

 

Message of the verses:  In Today’s SD we will begin to look at Psalm 52 and at first we will look at several introductions from different Bible Commentators. 

           

            “Title.  To the Chief Musician.  Even short Psalms, if they record but one instance of the goodness of the Lord, and rebuke but briefly the pride of man, are worthy of our best minstrelsy.  When we see that each Psalm is dedicated to "the chief musician," it should make us value our psalmody, and forbid us to praise the Lord carelessly.  Maschil.  An Instructive.  Even the malice of a Doeg may furnish instruction to a David.  A Psalm of David.  He was the prime object of Doeg’s doggish hatred, and therefore the most fitting person to draw from the incident the lesson concealed within it. When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and saith unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.  By this deceitful tale bearing, he procured the death of all the priests at Nob: though it had been a crime to have helped David as a rebel, they were not in their intent and knowledge guilty of the fault.  David felt much the villany (wicked or criminal behavior) of this arch enemy, and here he denounces him in vigorous terms; it may be also that he has Saul in his eye.”  (Charles H. Spurgeon)

 

            “This psalm is a poetic lesson about the futility of evil, the final triumph of righteousness, and the sovereign control of God over the moral events of history.  The event in David’s life which motivated him to write this psalm is recorded in 1 Samuel 21-22.”  (The MacArthur Study Bible)

 

            “When David wrote this psalm, he was angry and rightly so.  (For the reason, see 1 Samuel 21:1-9 and 22:6-23.)  Doeg was one of many men around Saul who catered to his whims and inflated his ego in order to gain power and wealth.  He typifies all who promote themselves at the expense of truth and justice.  Doeg was an Edomite, which means he was descended from Esau, the enemy of Jacob (Genesis 27-28; Heb. 12:16-17). The battle between the flesh and the Spirit goes on.  However, it’s possible that David was writing about Saul, who certainly fits the description given of the proud powerful tyrant.  There has always been a certain amount of evil in high places, and God’s people must learn to handle it in a godly manner.  David paints for us three contrasting scenes.”  (Warren Wiersbe)

 

            We will begin to look at these three scenes in a moment, but first I want to go back and look at the Spiritual Diaries on the verses from 1 Samuel that are mentioned in Dr. Wiersbe introduction in order to set the background for this psalm.

 

            “This section begins a new part of David’s life, a life on the run, a life of exile.  This part of his life lasted for about ten years and it is thought that many of the Psalms that he wrote were written at this time of his life.  The Psalms that he wrote have given comfort to many people who have been in similar situations in their lives where comfort is needed.  David may have looked back on this time of his life as a very profitable time where he grew closer to the Lord.

           

            “Dr. Wiersbe thinks that perhaps in this section that David was referring to the Lord whenever David said that he was on the “king’s” business, but I think that this is a stretch even though he was on the Lord’s business overall.

           

            “This section goes back to one of the questions that I had earlier while studying the book of 1 Samuel concerning the high priest Eli, and wondering why he was there in the first place because he was not from the line of Ithamar when it should have been from the line of Eleazar.  The Lord said that He would remove Eli’s line from being priests and when Saul kills these priests at Nob this was part of the process of removing that line.  Dr. Wiersbe says that the Bible is silent on the moving of the priestly line between these two men listed above.

           

            “The question in this section, at least one of these is why was David able to eat this bread that was supposed to be only for the priests who served at the tabernacle.  Jesus spoke of this while on the earth speaking to some of the Pharisees who were accusing Him of breaking the Sabbath day by eating grain from a field.  Jesus answered these Pharisees in Matthew 12:7-8 this way, “7 “But if you had known what this means, ’I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 ‘For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”

           

            “The tabernacle was at Nob but the Ark was still at the house of Abinadad in Kiriath Jearim, (1Samuel 7:1).

 

 

            “One more point and that is about Doeg who was from Edom, and was the shepherd for Saul.  What was he doing at this place in the first place for he was from Edom?  He may have been a Jewish proselyte and because of killing sheep he may have touched their dead bodies and had to then bring a sacrifice there.”  (My Spiritual Diary from June 29, 2010 on 1Samuel 21:1-9)

 

            The next SD is from July 4, 2010 and it will cover 1Samuel 22:1-10:  “This SD begins the fourth point in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary 1 Samuel in this chapter of his book.  He entitles this forth point “Doeg:  a deceitful servant and it covers 22:6-23 of 1 Samuel.  Doeg is the fourth person whom is seen in this chapter of his commentary, and all four characters involve drama.

           

            “The scene begins with Saul ranting and raving about how his officers and his son Jonathan are plotting against him and as he begins to shout at these men and one of them, Doeg, begins to tell Saul exactly where he saw while David was at the priests home where the ephod was.  Doeg seems to be telling the truth to Saul with the possible exception of saying that the priest had found out from the Lord what David was suppose to do and where he was to go.  I suppose that this made Saul happy for a while, but what Doeg did was wrong for God had anointed David to be king in Israel and so Doeg was actually going against the rightful king of Israel.  David writes the 52^nd Psalm about this incident.”

 

            1 Samuel 22:11-15 are the verses that are covered in the next SD entry from July 5, 2010 and this was entitled “The illegal Trial.”

           

            “I suppose that this sub-title could have been called “the paranoiac king,” as Saul was acting more and more paranoid all of the time.  Since Nob was not far from Gibeah Saul sent for the high priest and his family, but refused to call him by his given name and called him the son of Ahitub, which means “good brother,” while his real name Ahimelech means “brother of a king,” and perhaps that is why he did not use his real name.  Another reason was certainly that of disrespect for the high priest as he suspected him of treason against the kingdom.

           

            “Saul would go on to charge Ahimelech of four different charges which none of them were true, and eventually would have him killed because of Saul’s paranoiac behavior.  The charges were giving David a sword, and feeding him, and inquiring of the Lord for David, and thus being in a conspiracy to kill the king.  Now Ahimelech did give David bread, and a sword, but as far as inquiring of the Lord for him that may not be true even though the way it is worded here in the text.  The point Saul was trying to make was that he did all of this because Ahimelech was working with David to kill Saul, and none of that is true.

           

            “Ahimelech defends himself in a proper and true way by saying that after all David was the king’s son-on-law and was one of the king’s most trusted officers and would not do something like this.”

 

            Now we will look at the SD from July 6, 2010 which covers 1Samuel 22:16-19 which was entitled “The Unjust Sentence.”  “Samuel had warned the people what a king would do before a king was given to them and the things that Samuel spoke of concerning a king were coming true in the Scriptures that are before me today.

           

            “The crime of Ahimelech was that he did not tell the king that David was leaving and therefore he and eventually all of the priests and their families and even their animals that were at Nob were killed.  The men around Saul refused to do this awful deed, for they would not kill the priests of the Lord, but Doeg had no trouble in doing this and it seems he even went beyond what Saul had ordered him to do by killing all of the families at Nob.  As mentioned in an earlier SD this was a partial fulfillment of what was told to Eli back in 1Samuel 2:27-36; 4:10-18, and if one fast forwards to 1Kings 2:26-27; & 4:2 the remainder of this prophecy is fulfilled. 

           

            “Although this was a prophecy that had been fulfilled just as the Lord had said that it would happen that certainly does not mean that what Doeg did was without consequences to him for this ruthless killing of innocent people.”

 

            The last SD which goes along with Psalm 52 is entitled “The Protected Priest,” and it covers verses 20-23 of 1 Samuel 22.

           

            “In yesterday’s SD it was revealed that Doeg the Edomite had killed all of Ahimelech’s family, but it seems that he was not ordered by Saul to kill everyone.  Now it is learned that there is one survivor, the grandson of Eli, who is Abiathar.  He escaped to the camp of David which was now at Keilah, but unknown when he moved there.  David then took the responsibility for the killing of all this family and then told him to stay with his men.  David now had the high priest with an ephod, and a prophet and he was the king that the Lord had chosen to reign over Israel, and the Lord was with him through all of this even though he was now officially an outlaw from King Saul.

           

            “Later on Abiathar would side in with Adonijah in his quest for the throne and Solomon dismissed him, and this fulfilled the prophecy of ousting the line of Eli as the office of high priests which was told to Eli in the 2^nd chapter of 1Samuel.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When I was a very young believer I was listening to a program on a Christian radio station and it was by a Pastor that my mom used to listen to every morning when I was growing up.  The program was called “Morning Sunshine,” and the Pastor was involved in starting a church that eventually started a Christian school that both of our children went to and now two of our grandchildren are going to.  In the Pastor’s message that day he spoke of how one portion of Scripture can connect with other portions of Scripture and it was important to learn how different Scriptures connect with others.  As I began looking as Psalm 52 and how it ties in with other portions of Scripture I remembered the importance of that message that I listened to many years ago.

           

            Saul was a king that the people asked for and he was not the king that God would use to bring about the birth of His Son on the earth.  David was the man after God’s own heart and Samuel told Saul that because of his disobedience that God was going to look for a man after His own heart.  As I was listening to 1 Samuel last night I heard that right after Samuel anointed David to be king over Israel that the Spirit of God came into David’s life and the next verse tells that the Spirit of God left Saul.  The reason for this was that Saul was no longer the rightful king of Israel.  What I have learned from this is that the Holy Spirit has to be involved in my life for me to have an effective ministry.  Ephesians 2:10 speaks of the works that God has planned in eternity past for all of His children and I desire to do all of those works that the Lord has planned for me in eternity past.  Life is a battle, and we do not battle with flesh and blood as Paul writes in Ephesians chapter six.  One of my favorite verses that have just become a favorite is Mark 14:38, “"Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”  Jesus spoke this to His sleepy disciples right before He was to be taken to the cross and as I look at that verse it tells me that there is a battle going on and yes my spirit is willing to do the right things to overcome temptations and to do the will of God, but my flesh is weak and does not want to do them.  Like the disciples I sometimes want to sleep, but like David I want to do the will of God even after I fall flat on my face.  Dr. Wiersbe quotes a Scottish Pastor in many of his books who said, “The secret to the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.               Mark 14:38.

2.               Ephesians 6:10-18.

3.               Philippians 4:11b.

4.               Proverbs 3:5-6.

5.               Romans 12:1-2.

 

3/3/2012 9:15:15 AM