But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.
Parallel translations
- WEB But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.
- KJV But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
- NKJV But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
- NASB ¶But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the faithfulness of God forever and ever.
- NLT But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David pictures himself as a flourishing olive tree in God's house, secure because he trusts God's love forever. It contrasts the believer's lasting fruitfulness with the wicked's destruction.
Overview
Unlike the uprooted wicked man, David is like a green olive tree planted in God's presence, thriving and enduring. His security rests not in himself but in trusting God's loving kindness forever. This image of rootedness foreshadows the lasting life believers have in Christ, the true vine (John 15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 92:12–14The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
- Hos 14:6–8His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
- Ps 1:3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
- Ps 13:5But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.
- Jer 11:16The LORD once called you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit. But with a mighty roar He will set it on fire, and its branches will be consumed.
- Rom 11:24For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
- Ps 147:11The LORD is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His loving devotion.
- Ps 128:3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Ps 33:18Surely the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 52:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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