“Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips” (Rom 3:13, CSB).
Psalm 52 is another Biographical Psalm. Its title explains: “A Contemplation of David when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul, and said to him, ‘David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.’” If you’re familiar with the story as told in 1 Samuel 22, you’ll understand what David meant when he described Doeg’s tongue like an unsheathed razor. The words seem innocuous enough, but they led to the slaughter of almost the whole priestly clan, “eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod” (1 Sam 22:18), and every inhabitant of Nob—all the “men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep” (v 19). How could such words bring such calamity? Doeg, whose name appropriately means “be afraid,” was a herdsman rising through the ranks of Saul’s servants because he was as ruthless and unprincipled as his master. His words were like gasoline tossed on the smouldering jealousy in the king’s heart, and the result was just as this verbal pyromaniac intended. “Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness…You love all devouring words” (Ps 52:2-4). The righteous, like the residents of Nob, seem to have no defense against such. They are unwilling to use their tongues for such destruction, deceit, and devouring. Ah, but there is help for them! “Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually” (v 1). “God shall likewise destroy you forever” (v 5). Doeg’s epitaph will be, “Here is the man who did not make God his strength” (v 7). On the other hand, those who “trust in the mercy of God forever” will flourish “like a green olive tree in the house of God” (v 8), protected from the withering words of men.