Chapter Fifty-One

The occasion of the writing of the psalm is indicated in Ps 51:2. This is the denunciation by Doeg of the high priest Ahimelech for the hospitality shown by the latter to David.

Why do you boast of your denunciation, which contains treachery and brings harm (3-6)? For this the Lord will punish you, root you out from the land of the living and on your example will show openly the destructiveness of relying only on your own strength rather than on God (7-9). But I, for my faith in God, will be like a flourishing olive tree, for which I will glorify Him (10-11).

Psalm 51:2. After Doeg the Edomite came and informed Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Psalm 51:3. Why do you boast of your evil, O mighty man? The mercy of God endures with me; David calls Doeg’s denunciation to Saul wickedness because it was intended to incriminate Ahimelech for giving David help, as an enemy of his king, that is, for showing sympathy to a rebel and complicity with him. In this case he deliberately falsely interpreted the deed of Ahimelech, who did not know the real history of David’s flight and if he showed him kindness, he was guided by the sacred custom of hospitality, not by an evil plot against his king. Doeg’s denunciation, as one that destroyed an innocent man, was wickedness. – “The mercy of God endures with me.” David believes that the Lord will not abandon him with His protection and Doeg’s denunciation, calculated to harm David, will be fruitless.

Psalm 51:7. Therefore God will destroy you utterly; he will snatch you away and tear you out of your tent and root you out of the land of the living. “Therefore God will destroy you utterly” – an expression that is indefinite, referring either to his complete ruin on earth, to the loss of his outward well-being and the destruction of his offspring (“your root from the land of the living”), or to his eternal ruin and condemnation by God, when Doeg will be deprived of closeness to God, of eternal life before Him (“land of the living,” that is, the righteous), but will descend into the land of forgetfulness, into Sheol.

Psalm 51:10. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever, “I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.” The wicked will perish, but David’s position will be firm and good, like a tree flourishing with abundant moisture. David finds this strength for his flourishing “in the house of God,” that is, from God, who dwells in the sanctuary.