Sermon – Psalm 52 – Warning to the Powerful

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Psalm 52 – Warning to the Powerful

July 21, 2013

Two weeks ago we talked about inalienable rights. These are rights given to us by God. We institute government to protect and preserve these rights. And so the powerful have a responsibility to listen to God and do what God wants. We saw that God desires that we care for the marginalized in our society, the poor, the needy, the widow, the orphan and the alien living in our land. But the powerful do not always listen to God's voice. There are numerous examples throughout scripture and in our own history of powerful people exploiting the poor for their own gain. And it is to these people that the psalmist today gives a warning. We will get to this warning to the powerful, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

There is an ancient story about the abuse of power which is recorded in the Book of First Samuel. Saul is the king, and David is his general. David has been so successful in his campaigns against the Philistines that his popularity among the people has soared. There is a popular song going around that says, 1 Samuel 18:7 "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." As you might imagine Saul is very jealous of David. And this jealousy quickly turns to fear and then to hatred. Saul wants David dead.

So David flees and is in hiding. And he travels to Nob, to meet with the High Priest, Ahimelech. There are three things that David needs. First, he needs Ahimelech to inquire of God what David should do. Second, he needs food for his men. And third, he needs a weapon which the people will recognize as the weapon of a ruler. Ahimelech does these things for David. The High Priest enters into the presence of God and asks for instructions for David. He took the day-old bread that had been placed in front of the Ark of God and gave it to David for his men to eat. And he gave David the sword of Goliath, the Philistine giant David had killed with a slingshot. With the blessing of God, food to eat, and Goliath's sword, David was ready to take his rightful place as king.

But there was a problem. While David was visiting the priest, Ahimelech, there was another visitor there at the same time. It was Doeg, the king's top shepherd. Doeg told Saul what he had seen. And King Saul ordered Doeg to kill Ahimelech and all the priests of Nob, which he did. As the top shepherd of Israel, Doeg had the responsibility to care for the vulnerable. But he was more concerned with power, and used violence to get it. And so David wrote a warning to Doeg and all people of power.

Psalm 52 ^NIV Psalm 52:1 For the director of music. A maskil of David. When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: "David has gone to the house of Ahimelech." Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God? ² Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit. ³ You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth.

As we have seen in the Book of Psalms all power and authority on Earth comes from God with the expectation that this power and authority will be used for God's purposes. But sadly, we see that this power is often abused and God ignored. When this happens innocent people get hurt. The priest of Nob had done nothing wrong when they were murdered by Doeg at Saul's command. In his powerful position Doeg had the responsibility to care for the priests. He knew full well what God wanted done. But he wanted power and wealth and so carried out the king's shameful orders.

Usually people who ignore God's law try to hide their sin. But when the powerful go against God they boast about what they have done. They usually lie to make it sound better. When powerful people do something wrong they are ofter not bothered with any guilt. They say “the ends justify the means” and go on. And so they boast of their evil deeds, happy that their wretched plans have succeeded.

We have all heard stories of the powerful who prey on the weak. There is the home contractor who comes to your door offering to fix your roof ,who then disappears with a large down payment never to be seen again. And there is the financial adviser who gets members of the church to invest in his company and then skips town with the money. I've even heard of charities asking for contributions for worthy causes where no help is ever provided. Scams are rampant in and out of the church and those who run them have no shame and boast of what they have done. Let's return to the psalm.

⁴ You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue! ⁵ Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.

How do we protect ourselves from the unscrupulous evil doers who would separate us from our money? We could put our hope in money trusting that if we have enough we can get through. But the more we money have the bigger the target we are. Money makes it more likely that we will be defrauded and lose it. The more money we have the greater the boasts of the powerful when they take it away from us. The psalmist, wisely, wants us not to trust in our own resources, but instead to put our trust in God. Only God can effectively deal with the evil of the powerful. And God will deal with them. What they have will certainly be taken away. There ill gotten gains will be lost. The psalmist puts it this way.

⁶ The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying, ⁷ "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!" ⁸ But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. ⁹ I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

The promise of scripture is that if we put our hope in God we will recognize the evil schemes when they are hatched against us. And we will learn to fear them, a fear that helps us to avoid them. Thus protected we laugh at the powerful when they try to harm us because we know that God is with us, and God's justice will prevail. Put you hope in God and receive the assurance that all will turn out alright.

For the powerful who harm the weak their gain is short lived. What they take will be taken from them. Doeg decided to follow Saul rather than God. And so when God made David king Doeg lost everything he thought he had won. The priests of Nob were avenged.

So if you are powerful remember that God wants you to care for the poor. If you exploit the poor for your own gain you are making God your opponent and you will lose everything. But if you follow God's wishes and care for the powerless you will be richly blessed by God.

If you are not powerful remember that God will take care of you. And if you are exploited, God will be on your side and his justice will prevail. You will praise God for his unfailing love. And you will boast about the power of your God.

Let us pray. Father in heaven we ask that you speak to the powerful of their obligation to the weak. Punish those who ignore your teachings and bless those who follow your word. We ask that you protect and bless the powerless in our world. We look forward to the day when your justice will prevail. This we pray in the name of your son who became weak and vulnerable on the cross to demonstrate your great strength. Amen.