# 456 Praying Through Psalm 52: Flourishing Like an Olive Tree When Evil Boasts

An episode of [Praying Christian Women](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1436550370), 11 Feb 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/a837a939-ace6-481d-bf0d-b28100f43afd/bed71b4d-3015-4b85-9fea-b3ee007fb2dc/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=6aef5ed9-9c32-4b5a-9f54-b28100f43e4b

Don't forget to grab your free scripture journal at PrayingChristianWomen.com/journal today! How do you find your footing when calculated evil leaves a trail of destruction in its wake? Can a soul truly flourish while carrying the heavy burden of collateral damage? In this devotional on Psalm 52, we confront one of the darkest moments in David’s life—the massacre at Nob. We explore the aftermath of Doeg the Edomite’s "sharp razor" betrayal, which led to the slaughter of 85 priests and an entire town, leaving David wrestling with the crushing weight of responsibility for their deaths. We move beyond the horror to examine David’s defiant choice of faith: the stark contrast between the "boastful wickedness" of the enemy and David’s self-declaration as a "green olive tree" in the house of God. Join host Jaime Hampton on the Praying Christian Women podcast for a session of deep restoration. If you are navigating the fallout of someone else’s betrayal, or if you are struggling with guilt over pain you feel you caused, this episode offers a sanctuary for your soul. Come ready to plant your roots deep in God’s presence, trusting that His loving-kindness endures even when the world is in chaos. Discover More: Explore additional episodes of Praying Christian Women, Mindful Christian Prayers, and other Christian podcasts at Lifeaudio.com Check out our new podcast, Christian True-Crime Junkies!, on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts! Connect with Us: Stay updated and engage with our community: On Substack @PrayingChristianWomen On Facebook @PrayingChristianWomen On Instagram @PrayingChristianWomen On YouTube: @PrayingChristianWomen Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey Aaron, Welcome to another Prayer through the
[0:07] Speaker 1: Psalms episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie
[0:11] Speaker 1: and I'm excited to be here with you today to
[0:14] Speaker 1: talk through and pray through Psalm fifty two. Before we
[0:17] Speaker 1: get started as usual, let's just take a minute and
[0:21] Speaker 1: pray and prepare our hearts to receive God's word. Heavenly Father,
[0:30] Speaker 1: we just come before you, thankful as always for an
[0:33] Speaker 1: opportunity to slow down, to kind of step out of
[0:38] Speaker 1: the crazy life, the treadmill that we're on twenty four
[0:43] Speaker 1: to seven, and just step into a consecrated, set apart
[0:49] Speaker 1: space where we can meet with you, where time kind
[0:53] Speaker 1: of isn't a factor, where it kind of stands still.
[0:58] Speaker 1: Where are our responsibilities, our anxieties, our fears, our frustrations,
[1:06] Speaker 1: even our joys and excitements and the things we're looking
[1:09] Speaker 1: forward to. We can just set all of those things
[1:11] Speaker 1: aside and just focus on You and just quiet ourselves
[1:15] Speaker 1: and maybe even train our brains to preserve white space,
[1:22] Speaker 1: not to be afraid of silence, not to be afraid
[1:25] Speaker 1: of room to hear. We just pray that you would
[1:28] Speaker 1: help us to create more of that for ourselves in
[1:32] Speaker 1: the days and the weeks and the months ahead. Maybe
[1:35] Speaker 1: instead of listening to the radio or listening to a podcast,
[1:38] Speaker 1: or filling our minds with input on a car ride
[1:43] Speaker 1: or in the shower, or as we're doing housework or
[1:48] Speaker 1: on a break at work, that you would help us
[1:51] Speaker 1: to make intentional time for quiet and for silence. Lord,
[1:56] Speaker 1: as we come before you with just a minute of silence,
[2:01] Speaker 1: we pray that you would help us, because it's uncomfortable
[2:05] Speaker 1: to be silent, that you would just help us to
[2:08] Speaker 1: be able to as our mind wanders, as it probably will,
[2:12] Speaker 1: even within a minute, that you would help us to
[2:14] Speaker 1: gently bring it back to focusing on you. And as
[2:21] Speaker 1: the quote goes, even if the entire minute was spent
[2:25] Speaker 1: being distracted and bringing ourselves back, it would be a
[2:28] Speaker 1: minute well spent. We give you this time, Lord, meet
[2:33] Speaker 1: with us here. Lord, we just pray that you would
[2:43] Speaker 1: meet us with your word today, that this psalm would
[2:47] Speaker 1: speak to us, that you would open our ears and
[2:49] Speaker 1: our hearts and our minds to receive whatever it is
[2:51] Speaker 1: that you have from this Psalm of David. Amen. All right,
[2:58] Speaker 1: let's shall into our psalm. So this is Psalm fifty two,
[3:05] Speaker 1: going to be read from the New American Standard Bible
[3:07] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five. This is futility of Boastful Wickedness. That's
[3:16] Speaker 1: the title for the choir director. So this is a
[3:18] Speaker 1: song to be sung, not just a poem. And it
[3:22] Speaker 1: says a maskill of David. And the maskills. Remember our
[3:27] Speaker 1: contemplative psalms or skillful psalms. A lot of times they're
[3:31] Speaker 1: just a little bit more reflective as opposed to being
[3:35] Speaker 1: like words of wisdom. But this is a contemplative song
[3:39] Speaker 1: of David. When Doag the Edomite came and told Saul
[3:44] Speaker 1: and said to him, David has come to the house
[3:46] Speaker 1: of a Himelec. So the background of this story is
[3:51] Speaker 1: that David had become an enemy of Saul. Saul was
[3:56] Speaker 1: pursuing David, trying to kill him, and David came to
[4:00] Speaker 1: the town of Knab where the tabernacle and the priests were,
[4:04] Speaker 1: and David asked Ahimelech, the priest, if he could have
[4:08] Speaker 1: food and a weapon. And Ahimelek knew David, and he
[4:12] Speaker 1: knew that David was one of Saul's closest acquaintances, friends, advisers,
[4:18] Speaker 1: and he did not know that there was any kind
[4:21] Speaker 1: of broken relationship between Saul and David, and so he
[4:25] Speaker 1: gave him the consecrated bread for the priests, and he
[4:29] Speaker 1: gave them Goliath's sword, and he was just assuming that
[4:32] Speaker 1: David was still serving Saul. But watching all of this
[4:36] Speaker 1: was Dog, the Eatomite, and he was a high ranking
[4:40] Speaker 1: servant of Saul, and Dog later went back to Saul
[4:44] Speaker 1: and told him that a Hemelec, the priest, had helped David,
[4:48] Speaker 1: but he framed it as treason. So he kind of
[4:51] Speaker 1: implied that rather than a Hemelech being loyal to Saul
[4:55] Speaker 1: and assuming David was still fine with him and in
[4:58] Speaker 1: good graces with Saul, he intentionally framed this as a
[5:03] Speaker 1: treasonous act. And so Saul summoned to Himmelek and all
[5:08] Speaker 1: the priests, and Ahimelek defended himself. He said how it
[5:12] Speaker 1: actually was that David had always been a loyal servant,
[5:15] Speaker 1: he had no knowledge of any conflict with Saul, that
[5:18] Speaker 1: he was not being treasonists Saul accused them of betrayal
[5:22] Speaker 1: based on the testimony of his servant Dog. So this
[5:29] Speaker 1: was basically devastating because Saul ordered the guards to kill
[5:34] Speaker 1: all of the priests. It was to be a massacre,
[5:37] Speaker 1: and these guards refused because they didn't want to shed
[5:41] Speaker 1: innocent blood. I think they knew what was going on.
[5:44] Speaker 1: But Doague did not refuse, so he had personally ended
[5:49] Speaker 1: up slaughtering eighty five priests, all of them wearing the
[5:53] Speaker 1: linen e Fod. And Saul went a step further and
[5:56] Speaker 1: he ordered the destruction of knob, men, women, shollildren, infants, livestock,
[6:01] Speaker 1: the whole thing, and one priest escaped and was able
[6:05] Speaker 1: to flee to David and deliver the message of the massacre.
[6:09] Speaker 1: David became very disturbed and blamed himself. He said, I
[6:13] Speaker 1: knew on that day when Dob the Edomite was there,
[6:15] Speaker 1: that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the
[6:19] Speaker 1: death of all the persons of your father's house. So
[6:22] Speaker 1: Psalm fifty two is a response of David for what
[6:27] Speaker 1: he perceives to be blood on his hands of who
[6:31] Speaker 1: knows how many hundreds of people, eighty five priests and
[6:35] Speaker 1: then all of the town, so hundreds, maybe thousands, I
[6:39] Speaker 1: don't know how many people were there, men, women, children, infants, livestock, everything,
[6:43] Speaker 1: Nothing was spared. So David was very upset. If you
[6:48] Speaker 1: feel like you are responsible for pain, for suffering of
[6:52] Speaker 1: another person. Obviously, it's probably not to the extent of
[6:57] Speaker 1: David's feelings of responsibility, but that doesn't diminish what you're
[7:01] Speaker 1: going through or what you have gone through. And this
[7:05] Speaker 1: psalm is basically futility of boastful wickedness. The idea is
[7:12] Speaker 1: God is still on the throne even when you have
[7:16] Speaker 1: this boastful wickedness, like Dogue demonstrated in his lying and
[7:22] Speaker 1: deceiving and accusing so Psalm fifty two, why do you
[7:27] Speaker 1: boast an evil, Oh mighty man, The loving kindness of
[7:31] Speaker 1: God endures all day long. Your tongue devises destruction like
[7:35] Speaker 1: a sharp raiser, o worker of deceit. You love evil
[7:39] Speaker 1: more than good, falsehood, more than speaking what is right. Selah,
[7:44] Speaker 1: you love all words that devour, oh deceitful tongue. But
[7:48] Speaker 1: God will break you down forever. He will snatch you
[7:51] Speaker 1: up and tear you away from your tent, and uproot
[7:54] Speaker 1: you from the land of the living. Selah. The righteous
[7:58] Speaker 1: will see and fear and will laugh at him, saying,
[8:01] Speaker 1: behold the man who would not make God his refuge,
[8:04] Speaker 1: but trusted in the abundance of his riches and was
[8:08] Speaker 1: strong in his evil desire. But as for me, I
[8:12] Speaker 1: am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
[8:15] Speaker 1: I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever.
[8:18] Speaker 1: I will give you thanks forever because you have done it,
[8:21] Speaker 1: and I wait on your name, for it is good
[8:24] Speaker 1: in the presence of your godly ones. Now I have
[8:27] Speaker 1: to say that I believe if David felt shame and
[8:32] Speaker 1: guilt and remorse and lament over what he perceived as
[8:38] Speaker 1: causing the slaughter of innocent people, his heart was probably
[8:43] Speaker 1: not light. But what I love about this there are
[8:46] Speaker 1: times when David laments, when he laments the futility of
[8:50] Speaker 1: life and laments his sin and how downcast he feels.
[8:55] Speaker 1: But in this Psalm, he chooses to respond by speaking
[9:00] Speaker 1: what is true and not wallowing and how he feels.
[9:04] Speaker 1: And in doing so, I believe he brings himself up
[9:08] Speaker 1: out of that muck and mire. He's not always in
[9:11] Speaker 1: a position where he can do this. I think that's
[9:13] Speaker 1: worth mentioning we've read psalms where he's very dark. Most
[9:17] Speaker 1: times he brings it back at the end to a butt.
[9:21] Speaker 1: God is good, but God is on the throne. But
[9:23] Speaker 1: God will deliver or at least a cry for help,
[9:26] Speaker 1: but please deliver me, please show mercy. How long will
[9:30] Speaker 1: I have to wait? But I know you'll do it eventually.
[9:33] Speaker 1: But he's not always in a place of being able
[9:36] Speaker 1: to just speak the truth. So I'm personally going to
[9:39] Speaker 1: put Psalm fifty two in my pocket, both to remember
[9:43] Speaker 1: the backstory and how tragic and awful it is, and
[9:46] Speaker 1: then to see how David responded and to borrow his words.
[9:49] Speaker 1: I think it's so important to be able to borrow
[9:52] Speaker 1: his words for times when we need that strength, when
[9:55] Speaker 1: we need to remember. But as for me, I am
[9:59] Speaker 1: like a green olive tree in the house of God.
[10:03] Speaker 1: So I don't know the exact meaning of a green
[10:07] Speaker 1: olive tree. A lot of times green means young. Green
[10:10] Speaker 1: can also mean well fed and nourished and watered because
[10:16] Speaker 1: much of the landscape of the Hebraic movement was desert,
[10:21] Speaker 1: so green probably means flourishing, kind of that idea of
[10:27] Speaker 1: the tree whose roots go into living water and run deep.
[10:31] Speaker 1: So even though all of this evil is swirling around,
[10:35] Speaker 1: even though these people are lying and like a sharp razor,
[10:39] Speaker 1: their words, their tongue devises destruction, not like just the
[10:43] Speaker 1: anger taking over and reckless anger, which would be more
[10:47] Speaker 1: like a wrecking ball of destruction. No, this is a
[10:51] Speaker 1: sharp razor. This is calculated, this is premeditated. This is evil.
[10:58] Speaker 1: And even though all of this is going on, even
[11:01] Speaker 1: though there was a massacre, even though David feels guilty,
[11:06] Speaker 1: he knows that the truth is. Even though he feels
[11:10] Speaker 1: despair and hopeless, he knows that he is like a
[11:16] Speaker 1: flourishing olive tree, sheltered in the house of God Almighty,
[11:21] Speaker 1: that he trusts in the loving kindness of God to
[11:24] Speaker 1: trump anything evil. That God's loving kindness, God's plans, God's mercy,
[11:32] Speaker 1: God's justice overshadows and surpasses any amount of evil in
[11:39] Speaker 1: this world. And that is the reality of what is.
[11:44] Speaker 1: And I love this. I will give you thanks forever,
[11:47] Speaker 1: and I will wait on your name, for it is
[11:50] Speaker 1: good in the presence of your godly ones. I will
[11:53] Speaker 1: wait however long it takes for me to see the
[11:56] Speaker 1: goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
[11:58] Speaker 1: I'm gonna wait because I know that I'm already loved,
[12:02] Speaker 1: I'm already sheltered, I'm already flourishing in every sense of
[12:06] Speaker 1: the word. Because I am the Lord's and he is mine.
[12:10] Speaker 1: Let's pray, Loving God, we praise you for your greatness,
[12:20] Speaker 1: that you are King of kings and Lord of lords,
[12:23] Speaker 1: that there is no other God besides you, That no
[12:28] Speaker 1: matter what chaos and wreckage and surgical evil is happening
[12:36] Speaker 1: on this earth, nothing can negate the truth that you
[12:43] Speaker 1: are on the throne, and that we are flourishing because
[12:50] Speaker 1: you are our Lord, because we are sheltered in your care,
[12:56] Speaker 1: because we are fed and watered by springs of living
[13:01] Speaker 1: water that never run dry and the bread of life
[13:04] Speaker 1: that sustains us forever and ever. Thank you, and we
[13:09] Speaker 1: will wait for our feelings to catch up with what
[13:12] Speaker 1: is real, for the circumstances around us to come into
[13:15] Speaker 1: alignment with your absolute truth of what is right. That
[13:19] Speaker 1: the victory has been one evil has been defeated. Amen.
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