Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 52: God is good

Psalm 52[1]

¹   Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly?^[a]
    All day long ² you are plotting destruction.
    Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
³   You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth.
⁴   You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
⁵   But God will break you down for ever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living.    
⁶   The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer,^[b] saying,
⁷   ‘See the one who would not take refuge in God,
    but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!’^[c]
8   But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
    I trust in the steadfast love of God for ever and ever.
⁹   I will thank you for ever, because of what you have done.
    In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim^[d] your name, for it is good.

In the seminal cinematic exploration of greed and wealth, the 1987 movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas plays the powerful and corrupt money man Gordon Gekko. Gekko pounces on companies in trouble or in the doldrums, strips them out, slashes thousands of jobs and then sells them on for vast profits. Gekko (in the natural world, a lizard that can merge into the environment it inhabits) symbolised something of the spirit of the 1980s and all that the capitalist project has evolved into in our era. In a speech to shareholders at one of the companies he plundered he said these memorable words:

‘In 20 years’ time, ladies and gentleman, we will say that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed you mark my words will not only save this company but that other malfunctioning corporation, the United States of America.'

This psalm could have been written for Gordon Gekko and all those he represents. Mighty men with cutthroat razors for tongues and magnificent minds malformed to slash through companies to merely make money and take no account of the lives destroyed or harmed by such actions.

Today we have a billionaire of questionable attachment to the truth running the United States of America as president. And there are many, many more of these powerful chairmen and presidents of companies striding the earth with, seemingly, incomparable reach and power these days. The fictitious, yet symbolic, Gordon Gekko was a prophet of our time, we might conclude.

What does the psalm say about the ‘greed is right’ philosophy that can possibly shake its grip upon us? Is there not an inevitability that this has been and always will be the great besetting philosophy of the age?

Well, yet again, we dive into the world of the psalmist who always takes the long view. ‘There is nothing new under the sun,’ suggests another of the bible’s wise teachers. ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.’[2]

The long view of the psalmist and the wisdom teacher is this: God will break down the greedy and the life-snatchers, they will be uprooted and it will be seen by everyone not taken up with this mindset. And those who have not been infected by greed will laugh at the fall.

In Wall Street, Gekko does get his comeuppance. He is brought down by his prodigy Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen). Bud comes to realise that the life of greed, which he too sought, has become an insatiable monster. In another memorable quote from the film, he challenges Gekko: ‘How much is enough?’ Gekko replies: ‘It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it is simply transferred from one perception to another.’ Gekko is brought down when Fox realises that people matter more than profits. He comes to his senses, co-operates with the financial authorities, is ‘wired up’ by the FBI and gets the evidence to incriminate Gekko. We leave Fox climbing the steps to the courthouse where he will be sentenced for his part in the affair. But he climbs as a free man, free from the power of greed.

The psalmist suggests that our freedom is found in the courts of the Lord, in the rhythm of worship and gratitude, trusting in an altogether more disarming God who suffers for us in the courts of greed and injustice and on the tree of judgment. While the psalmist describes the rooted person of faith as being like a ‘green olive tree’ – a young sapling for ever enriched by God’s grace – what we know is that our life flows from another tree, the cross of Jesus. And we can proclaim that God’s name is good and counter the Gekkos  of this world. For it is God that is good and all God has created, not greed. 

By the way, olive trees live for an average of 500 years and can live for 1,500 if well cared for and nourished.

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[1] New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Footnotes:
Psalm 52:1 Cn Compare Syr: Heb the kindness of God
Psalm 52:6 Heb him
Psalm 52:7 Syr Tg: Heb in his destruction
Psalm 52:9 Cn: Heb wait for

[2] Ecclesiastes 1.9