A headline about Psalm 52 might have read something like this: “Saul orders slaughter of priest and family, over eighty-five dead.” In 1 Samuel 21 and 22, we learn that David, fearing for his life, visits the house of the priest Ahimelech of Nob, who provides him with bread for sustenance and the sword of Goliath for protection. When Saul learns of this apparent betrayal, he orders Doeg, the Edomite, to kill Ahimelech and his entire family (eighty-five men plus women, children, infants, and animals). It is a gruesome and tragic story.

Psalm 52 is David’s response to this horrific news. He cries out, “All day long you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good.” David is enraged. He cries out against the injustice that led to the deaths of so many innocents.

Yet David does not get lost in his anger. After raising his voice against the evil he has seen, he returns to the goodness of God. Like a green olive tree, David will bear fruit, trusting in the steadfast love of God. Even amidst all the destruction he has witnessed, David still says, “I will proclaim your name, for it is good.”

Amidst the tragic headlines that inundate our twenty-four-hour news cycles, we see plenty of injustice to cry out against—and cry out we should! Yet, we must not get lost in our anger. Our faith calls us to raise our voices and to remember that God is good. We are the green olive tree, planted in the house of God, where we will be rooted in the steadfast love of God forever.