Ps 52
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Psalm 52 is to the chief musician. It is a prayer of David. It is a poem or a song that he wrote when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul and said unto him, "David has come to the house of Ahimelech." Now David, when he was fleeing from Saul, went up to Bethel, and there he went into the priest and he asked for some food for he and his men. The priest said, "Well, I don't have anything but the showbread." And only the priest was supposed to eat this showbread. It was the bread, twelve loaves that they put out on the table. Each loaf representing one of the tribes of Israel. And it was set out on the table in order that, the idea was that God might be constantly reminded of each of the twelve tribes. It was there within the tabernacle on the right hand side, as the priest would enter there into the tent, on the right hand side there was this table with the twelve loaves of bread.
Now, we say loaves of bread and you picture the white Wonder Bread loaf or something. But actually, what they have, it's a flatbread and it's round. Loaves about twelve inches in diameter. And when they bake it, it may rise about an inch or an inch and a half. It is good. It's got a lot of substance to it. It is chewy, and you really know that you are eating bread when you eat that bread. It is so good. Over in Bethlehem, right near the hokey church that they say is where Jesus was born, in a cave underneath of it, tourists, it seems, always want to see the site of the birth of Jesus. And so, they have a hokey tradition that the site is there down in this cave. And so they take you in, and it is a trip. I don't like to go in there. The guide is always laughing at me because he says, "This year it is your turn to take them in." He doesn't like to go in there either. And we are always trying to out do each other so that we don't have to go in there. Because I like to go up the street.
Up one of the side streets there, there is a baker and he has this... he is sort of the public baker in a sense. He has this oven there, open fire in it. The ladies come with big pans of dough, and they sit there in this little dark room. And he is down in a little sort of a dug out place with this oven going, and he has a big spoon, much like they use in the pizza parlors, big flat kind of a shovel thing. And these ladies will sit there visiting with each other, and each of them have their own pan of dough. And every once in a while they will knead their dough and all, and then when it is their turn, he takes, and he has a flour board, and he kneads it, flattens it out, and he bakes it. And then when they get all of their loaves baked, they put them back in the pan, cover them with their towel, and they take off with the pans of bread on top of their heads. And you see the ladies walking up the steps with these pans of dough on top of their heads coming to the baker to have him bake their bread. Well, if you smile at the ladies and look hungry and hold out a little money, and I'm not quite sure yet which of the three it is that works, but anyhow, I always get some of this bread. Hot, right out of the oven. Ooooh, it's so good!
But this is the same style of bread that they have baked there for millenniums, three thousand years ago when David was around. Same kind of... that is why I like to go in there, because man, you are stepping back into history. That hokey church has all kinds of gaudy bobbles of Christmas tree ornaments and everything else. And it just makes me sick, and I... the bread really makes me feel good. So I just like to go up the street and watch this baking process. I'm getting hungry.
But all he had... now they would change this bread, and of course, the bread will last a long time. And they would change it once a week, and then the priest could eat the loaves of bread. But only he could eat them. No one else was to eat them. But David came in and he had his men and he was hungry. And he said, "Do you got anything to eat?" And he said, "All I've got is this showbread." David said, "Well, we're so hungry." So he gave him the showbread. Now, it was not really lawful that David eat that, but it was an interesting thing that God's laws are flexible, in that when a guy is hungry, then there can be a little overlooking of the rule nobody eats this but the priest. It is the law of life and hunger that superseded.
And even Jesus in the New Testament acknowledged that it was all right. When they were trying to lay some trip on Him because He had violated their traditions of the Sabbath, He said, "Don't you remember what David did when he was hungry? How he went in with his men and ate the bread which was unlawful to eat for anybody but a priest." And Jesus was pointing out even in their great king David there was this thing where the need of an individual superseded the tradition of the law.
The idea was, here was a guy on the Sabbath day and he was sick, and they didn't want Jesus to heal him because it was the Sabbath day. And Jesus pointed out this thing of David in order to show that human need supersedes the traditions or the laws of the Sabbath. Human need supersedes that. Jesus said, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save a life or to kill a life? To do good, or to do evil?" And so, the law of human need, Sabbath day or not, you can help them.
Now when Doeg came to Saul he said, "David was up there and the priest helped him. Gave him bread and gave him Goliath's sword." And Saul, in his stupid, blind anger, went up and killed the priest and his sons. And David now is upset over this "dog", Doeg, who told Saul that he was up there. So this psalm is directed against this Doeg.
Why do you boast yourself in your mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God continues. Your tongue devised mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak the right things. You love all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. And God shall likewise destroy thee forever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him: Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints (Psa 52:1-9).
So David's sort of prayer against and concerning this fellow who had caused the death of the priest who had helped David.