Bible Strands
Psalms 52:7
“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the righteous community, describing the evildoer mocked in the preceding verse. The statement occurs within a contrast between the doomed tyrant and the psalmist’s own secure trust in God.
The words — הִנֵּה (hi.Neh) means “look” or “behold,” directing attention to the subject. מָעוּזּוֹ (ma.'U.Z/o) translates literally as “his refuge,” establishing the core contrast with the man’s reliance on wealth.
The thread — This warning against misplaced trust echoes Jeremiah 17:5, which curses reliance on human strength, and Psalms 49:6, which notes the folly of trusting in wealth. The psalmist’s counter-example of steadfast trust appears in Psalms 52:8.
Why it lands — The text demands a clear evaluation of where one places security, rejecting self-reliance and material abundance as foundations for life. It requires the reader to choose between trusting in God or trusting in destructive human resources.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
- Psalms 49:6 They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.
- Psalms 73:18 Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Job 31:24 If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,
- John 19:5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.
- Isaiah 14:16 Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,
- Hosea 12:7 A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.