The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"boastest thyself," Hebrew tithhallel (תִּתְהַלֵּל), glory, praise oneself. David confronts Doeg, whose betrayal had led to the murder of the priests, and the confrontation opens with a question aimed at his self-congratulation: "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?" The verb is the word for glorying, and it exposes a man who is proud of the very thing that should shame him.

"mischief," ra'ah (רָעָה), evil. This is what Doeg is glorying in, and the plain word for it is simply "evil." His mischief had its hour and would pass; the boaster has bet his life on the one thing guaranteed to run out.

"mighty man," gibbor (גִּבּוֹר), a warrior, hero, champion. The title is cutting irony. David calls the informer a gibbor, a battlefield hero, though his only "victory" was a whispered report. That title belonged to the great warriors who won victories with the sword, and David hangs it on a man whose weapon was slander.

"goodness of God," chesed El (חֶסֶד אֵל), the steadfast love of God. Against the boaster's brief triumph David sets an immovable fact: "the goodness of God endureth continually." Doeg's power lasted a day; God's chesed, His steadfast goodness, has no expiry date.

"endureth continually," kol-hayyom (כָּל־הַיּוֹם), all the day long. Literally "all the day long", without pause or end. The mischief the tyrant boasts in dies; the mercy of God never does.

Explanation

The whole verse turns on a bitter irony in one word: gibbor, "mighty man." That title belonged to the great warriors, the champions who won victories with the sword on the field of battle. And David hangs it, sarcastically, on Doeg, a man who never fought a duel in his life. What was Doeg's mighty deed? He carried tales to Saul; his weapon, as the next verse says, was a "tongue... like a sharp razor, working deceitfully" (v2). Here is a "hero" whose heroism is informing, whose battlefield is a conversation, whose sword is slander. The psalm strips the glamour off cruelty and shows it for the cowardice it is: real might does not need to destroy with whispers. But the deepest cut is the second half of the verse, and it exposes the folly of all such boasting: "the goodness of God endureth continually." Doeg's power lasted a day; his mischief had its hour and would pass. God's chesed, His steadfast goodness, endures "all the day long," without pause or end. So the tyrant is boasting about a thing with an expiry date while the goodness of God rolls on for ever. Why glory in a mischief that dies when the mercy of God never does? The boaster has bet his life on the one thing guaranteed to run out.

Gospel Focus

"The goodness of God endureth continually", and that unfailing goodness is fully revealed and secured in Jesus Christ, in whom the mercy of God runs on for ever. The world is full of "mighty men" who boast in mischief, and their power, like Doeg's, is real for a moment; but every earthly tyranny has its hour and passes, while "the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him" (Psalm 103:17). That everlasting mercy has come to us in Christ, "the tender mercy of our God" by which "the dayspring from on high hath visited us" (Luke 1:78). The tongue that works "like a sharp razor" reminds us of the great warning of the gospel, that "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36); the weapons of the wicked will be weighed. But the believer need not fear the boaster, for the goodness of God in Christ outlasts every threat, and "if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). Do not envy the mighty man who glories in evil; his triumph is a vapour. Rest instead in the goodness of God that endures continually, made yours for ever in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Word Study

"lo, this is the man," Hebrew hinneh haggever (הִנֵּה הַגֶּבֶר). When the wicked man falls, the righteous look on and read his epitaph. The pointing word hinneh, "behold, lo," turns his ruin into a public lesson: here, in one sentence, is the summary of a whole life.

"made not God his strength," ma'uzzo (מָעוּזּוֹ), his stronghold, refuge. Notice what the righteous choose as the first line of the epitaph. Not "here is a cruel man," but "here is the man that made not God his strength." Ma'oz is a stronghold, a fortress to hide in, and his root failure was that he would not hide in God.

"trusted," yivtach (יִבְטַח). The whole verdict hangs on this verb, for a man is what he trusts. His ruin is traced not first to his cruelty but to the direction of his confidence: "but trusted in the abundance of his riches."

"abundance of his riches," osher (עֹשֶׁר). Here is what he trusted instead of God. Wealth was the wall he built around himself, and when the wall fell there was nothing behind it.

"strengthened himself," ya'oz (יָעֹז), took refuge, made himself strong. This verb is closely related to ma'oz above, and the wordplay names the man's whole error: he would not make God his fortress, so he made himself his fortress. He is the self-made man in the most literal sense, his own stronghold and his own security.

"wickedness," hawwato (הַוָּתוֹ), his craving, his destruction. The word carries both the desire and where the desire ends. This was the second thing he strengthened himself in, so that his own evil appetite became the very ruin he had made his refuge.

Explanation

There is a quiet wordplay running through this verse that names the man's whole error. The word for "strength" in "made not God his strength" is ma'oz, a stronghold, a fortress to hide in; and the word "strengthened himself" is the closely related ya'oz, to make oneself a refuge. Put them together and the sentence says: he would not make God his fortress, so he made himself his fortress, walling himself up inside his riches and his wickedness. He is the self-made man in the most literal sense, his own stronghold, his own security, his own god. And mark what the righteous choose as the summary of his life. When they point and say, "Lo, this is the man," the first thing named on the tombstone is not his cruelty, his lies, or his violence, terrible as those were; it is that he "made not God his strength." That is the root from which every other evil grew. A man who will not make God his refuge must make a refuge of something, and whatever he chooses, wealth, power, his own cleverness, becomes the fortress he trusts and the idol he serves. The whole tragedy of a wasted life can be written in that one line: he left God out, and built his walls somewhere else.

Gospel Focus

"Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches", the Lord Jesus told a story that is this verse turned into a parable. A rich man's ground brought forth plenty; he pulled down his barns to build greater, and said to his soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease." But God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:19-20). There is the man who "trusted in the abundance of his riches" and "made not God his strength," and there is his end. Jesus warned plainly, "ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24), and "how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:23). The gospel calls us off every false refuge, riches, self, achievement, and onto the only stronghold that holds, God Himself in Christ. For the Lord Jesus is "a strong tower" (compare Proverbs 18:10) into which the righteous run and are safe, and the one who trusts in Him "shall not be confounded" (1 Peter 2:6). Do not build your fortress out of what can be taken from you in a night. Make God your strength, and you will stand when the self-made man falls.

Word Study

"green olive tree," Hebrew zayit ra'anan (זַיִת רַעֲנָן), a flourishing, evergreen olive. Against the boaster stands David with a quiet "But I." "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God." Where the wicked man is rooted out (v5), David is planted, flourishing, evergreen, fruitful; ra'anan means always fresh and green, and the olive is slow-growing, long-lived, and useful for light, food, healing, and anointing.

"house of God," beit Elohim (בֵּית אֱלֹהִים). Where the tree is planted matters as much as what it is. David is not growing out in a field but in the courts of God's own presence, drawing his life from nearness to Him.

"trust," batachti (בָּטַחְתִּי). The same verb used of the wicked man who "trusted in the abundance of his riches" (v7), now turned in the opposite direction. The word for the two men is identical; only the object differs, and that is the whole difference between them.

"mercy of God," chesed Elohim (חֶסֶד אֱלֹהִים). Here is the secret of David's endurance, named at once: "I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." His life lasts not by riches or strength but by resting on God's chesed, the very goodness he declared unending in verse 1.

"for ever and ever," olam va'ed (עוֹלָם וָעֶד). David fastens his own endurance to the exact thing he called unending in verse 1, "the goodness of God endureth continually." He plants himself in the one thing that lasts, and so he lasts.

"wait on thy name," aqavveh shimkha (אֲקַוֶּה שִׁמְךָ), hope in, look for thy name. The psalm ends not in triumph over Doeg but in patient expectation toward God. To wait on the name is to rest on what God has revealed Himself to be, the God whose goodness endures continually.

Explanation

Set David's picture of himself directly against the fate of Doeg two verses earlier, and the contrast is the whole message. Of the wicked man God had said He would "pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living" (v5), uprooted, torn up, gone. And here David says, "But I am like a green olive tree", planted, rooted, growing. One man is pulled up by the roots; the other is put down into the ground to flourish. And notice the tree he chooses. Not a quick, showy plant, but an olive, slow-growing, immensely long-lived, evergreen (that is what ra'anan means, always fresh and green), and fruitful, the source of oil for light, food, healing, and anointing. It is the very picture of a life that lasts and gives. And where is it planted? "In the house of God", not out in a field but in the courts of God's own presence, drawing its life from nearness to Him. That is the difference between the two men in a single image: the wicked rooted himself in his riches and was torn out; the righteous is rooted in God's house and stands evergreen. And David ties the knot at the end, "I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever", fastening his own endurance to the exact thing he called unending back in verse 1, "the goodness of God endureth continually." He simply plants himself in the one thing that lasts, and so he lasts.

Gospel Focus

"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever", this flourishing, God-rooted life is ours in Jesus Christ, in whom we are planted and by whose mercy we endure. The believer is a tree "planted by the rivers of water" (Psalm 1:3), a branch abiding in the true Vine, for Christ said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit" (John 15:5). Rooted in Him and in the house of God, His church, the believer stays green when the wicked wither, "the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree" (Psalm 92:12). And the olive's oil speaks of the Holy Spirit and the anointing we have in Christ, "ye have an unction from the Holy One" (1 John 2:20), so that we are fruitful and full of light. The whole life rests, as David's did, on "the mercy of God," not on our riches or our strength, and that mercy is guaranteed for ever in Christ, "being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it" (Philippians 1:6). So while the boaster's fortune blows away like chaff, the one who trusts in the mercy of God stands like a green olive tree, planted in His presence, fruitful, and enduring "for ever and ever." Praise Him, and wait on His name, for it is good.