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Psalm 52:4

You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.

2Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah.
4You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.
5God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
6The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying,
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← Psalm 52:3Psalm 52:5 →
Notice

The phrase “devouring words” portrays speech as something that consumes people, while “love” makes the accusation sharper: the speaker takes pleasure in the harm.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What kinds of harm does the phrase “devouring words” help you name?

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What difference does “love” make to the accusation against this deceitful tongue?

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Where, if anywhere, do you feel drawn to words that damage someone else's name?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

6 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 120:3What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?Both address a “deceitful tongue” in direct accusation, with Psalm 120 asking what consequences it will face.
James 3:6–9And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is …Psalm 52 describes words as devouring, while James describes the tongue as a fire; both portray speech through images of destruction.
Psalm 109:2for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.Both name a deceitful tongue, with Psalm 109 describing lying speech directed against the person praying.
Psalm 10:7His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.Both connect the tongue with deceit and harm, with Psalm 10 also naming cursing and oppression.
1 Samuel 22:18–19The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who …Destructive words dominate the psalm; in Samuel, the king's command sends Doeg to kill eighty-five priests.
Psalm 73:9They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.Both use vivid images of the tongue, though Psalm 52 stresses its destructive deceit and Psalm 73 depicts its reach.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. work conflict. broken friendship.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

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Encouragement

If deceitful speech has harmed you, its damage deserves to be named. This psalm treats such words as destructive, and the surrounding verses place the speaker under God's judgment.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 52:4. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 52 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).