Psalm 52 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 52 (1928 BCP) is the short psalm Quid gloriaris? in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer (1928). It contrasts the destructive speech and false security of the tyrant with the worshipper's trust in God's enduring mercy. In the 1928 American Prayer Book's monthly table it belongs to Morning Prayer on the tenth day of the month; the printing then turns to “Evening Prayer” before Psalm 53.[1]
Prayer Book text
WHY boastest thou thyself, thou tyrant, * that thou canst do mischief;
2 Whereas the goodness of God * endureth yet daily?
3 Thy tongue imagineth wickedness, * and with lies thou cuttest like a sharp razor.
4 Thou hast loved unrighteousness more than goodness, * and falsehood more than righteousness.
5 Thou hast loved to speak all words that may do hurt, * O thou false tongue.
6 Therefore shall God destroy thee for ever; * he shall take thee, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling, and root thee out of the land of the living.
7 The righteous also shall see this, and fear, * and shall laugh him to scorn:
8 Lo, this is the man that took not God for his strength; * but trusted unto the multitude of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
9 As for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God; * my trust is in the tender mercy of God for ever and ever.
10 I will alway give thanks unto thee for that thou hast done; * and I will hope in thy Name, for thy saints like it well.
The Psalm begins with a question, not a private wish for revenge. Its answer is the continuing goodness of God. Verses 3–5 expose a tongue which invents evil, loves falsehood, and harms others; verses 6–8 announce that neither place nor wealth can secure the person who refuses God as strength. The final two verses turn the speaker away from the tyrant and toward thanksgiving, God's mercy, and the company of the saints. That movement matters in public prayer: the congregation is taught to name evil truthfully without making its confidence or its speech resemble the evil it condemns.
Scripture and the Psalm's setting
The superscription traditionally connects the Psalm with Doeg's report to Saul after David had come to Ahimelech at Nob (1 Samuel 21–22). The Psalm itself does not retell that narrative, and its rhetoric also addresses the more general temptation to make deceit and wealth a source of power. Its language nevertheless illuminates the biblical warning that speech can wound as a weapon:
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
The razor image is thus not merely colourful language. It names a moral disorder in which words are chosen for injury. Prayer with Psalm 52 therefore joins the wider biblical discipline of truthful and life-giving speech (Ephesians 4:25, 29), while verses 8–10 redirect the worshipper from the abundance of riches to the mercy of God.
Reading tyranny, judgment, and mercy
Alexander Maclaren observes that the Psalm's opening holds two realities together: arrogant power is real, but it is not ultimate.
The abrupt question at the beginning reveals the psalmist's long-pent indignation. He has been silently brooding over the swollen arrogance and malicious lies of the tyrant, till he can restrain himself no longer, and out pours a fiery flood. Evil gloried in is worse than evil done.
Maclaren also reads the Psalm's two images of uprooting and flourishing as a contrast between self-made security and communion with God:
Communion with God is the source of flourishing and fruitfulness, and the guarantee of its own continuance. Nothing in the changes of outward life need touch it.
This is a theological interpretation, rather than a licence for Christians to take judgment into their own hands. The Psalm entrusts judgment to God; its faithful counter-practice is the prayer of verse 9, trust in mercy, and verse 10, thanksgiving among God's people.
Augustine, commenting under the Greek and Latin numbering (his Psalm 52 corresponds to Hebrew Psalm 52, while he cites its verses as Psalm 51), similarly distinguishes destructive power from constructive goodness:
There is need that a man be mighty, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house does belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down.
His treatment of the Psalm's threatening language is explicitly governed by its prophetic character:
Nevertheless in this Psalm, my brethren, there is not a prayer for evil men, or against evil men, but a prophecy of what is to result to evil men. Think not therefore that the Psalm of ill-will says anything: for it is said in the spirit of prophecy.
Finally, Augustine treats the olive tree of verse 9 as a corporate as well as individual image, connecting it with the grafting imagery of Romans 11:
Not one man speaks, but that olive fruit-bearing, whence have been pruned the proud branches, and the humble wild olive graffed in.
That reading complements the Prayer Book's final phrase, “for thy saints like it well”: trust and praise are not a solitary refuge, but belong to the worshipping people whom God gathers and sustains.
Use in worship
At Morning Prayer on the tenth day, Psalm 52 places the Church's first words about power under the prior fact of God's goodness. It is especially apt where public speech has become manipulative or cruel, because it neither denies the harm of lies nor makes retaliation the Church's answer. The Psalm forms a congregation in truthful discernment, reverent fear, merciful trust, and patient praise.
See also
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 52, pp. 402–403; Society of Archbishop Justus, The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter. The institutional transcription identifies its text as the 1928 Psalter and records its Prayer Book divisions.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 52, pp. 402–403, transcribed by the Society of Archbishop Justus as Psalm 52. Quid gloriaris?. The quotation has been compared line by line with this 1928 source, including “thou tyrant,” “the tender mercy,” and “I will alway.”
- ↑ Proverbs 12:18, Authorized Version.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), “Psalm LII,” pp. 151–152; Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalm LII”.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), “Psalm LII,” p. 155; Christian Classics Ethereal Library, “Psalm LII”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 52, §3, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 52”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 52, §4, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 52”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 52, §11, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 52”.