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Psalm 52:7

“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”

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,
7“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
8But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.
9I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.
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Notice

The man who trusted his riches becomes an example spoken over after God destroys him, exposing how wealth and wickedness can look like strength until judgment comes.

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

What difference do you see between having riches and making them your strength?

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Where, if anywhere, are you expecting money to provide security that belongs to God?

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How does hearing these words after the man's destruction affect your reading of his apparent strength?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

11 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 62:10Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.Both passages warn against trusting riches and connect misplaced trust with wrongdoing.
Matthew 13:22What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes …Both expose the danger of riches: misplaced trust in the psalm, and deceit that chokes the word in Matthew.
Jeremiah 17:5The LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the LORD.Both describe a man whose trust rests away from God, whether in riches or human strength.
Isaiah 47:10For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, …Trust in wickedness is explicit in Isaiah and appears as a source of supposed strength in the psalm.
James 4:16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.The shared thread is confidence bound up with evil: boasting in James, and strength drawn from wickedness in the psalm.
Ecclesiastes 5:10He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.Both speak of abundance: the psalm exposes trust in riches, while Ecclesiastes says loving abundance leaves a person unsatisfied.
Ecclesiastes 8:8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither …Ecclesiastes says wickedness cannot deliver its practitioners; the psalm depicts the downfall of a man who made wickedness his strength.
Ezekiel 28:5By your great wisdom and by your trading you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches—”Increased riches lift up the heart in Ezekiel; abundant riches become the man's object of trust in the psalm.
Mark 10:24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!Both name trust in riches as a spiritual danger, with Mark describing its obstacle to entering God's Kingdom.
Psalm 49:6Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—Both describe people trusting in their wealth, stressing the abundance of riches on which that confidence rests.
Psalm 73:18–20Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.Both settings describe God bringing people to destruction, exposing how insecure their apparent strength has been.
Where this verse fits

Envy and comparison. job loss or money fear. injustice and anger.

What the Bible says about money →What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Write down one thing riches cannot secure

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Encouragement

Wealth can make a person's power seem beyond challenge. This man's destruction is a grave warning: neither abundant riches nor strength gained through wickedness can withstand God's judgment.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 52:7. 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).