John Calvin Commentary Psalms 52:2

"Thy tongue deviseth very wickedness, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully." — Psalms 52:2 (ASV)

Your tongue reckons up mischiefs: David is not to be considered as here venting a flood of reproaches against his adversary, as many who have been unjustly injured are in the habit of doing, merely to gratify a feeling of revenge. He brings these charges against him in the sight of God, in order to encourage himself in the hopefulness of his own cause. For it is plain that the further our enemies proceed in the practice of iniquity, they proportionally provoke the anger of the Lord, and are nearer to that destruction which must result in our deliverance.

His object, therefore, is not to blacken Doeg's character in the world's estimation, but rather to set before his own eyes the divine punishment which the flagrant offenses he specifies were certain to draw down upon his head. Among these he singles out, as especially worthy of reprobation, the hidden treachery for which he had been responsible in accomplishing the destruction of the priesthood.

Referring to his secret and malicious information, he likens his tongue to a sharp razor, as elsewhere (Psalms 120:4), where the tongues of the wicked are compared to sharp arrows. It is added, working deceitfully. These words are considered by some as referring to the razor that cuts subtly, and not with an open wound like a sword; but perhaps they may be more properly construed as applying to the tongue, although there can be no doubt of the reason for the comparison.

The term בלע, balang, in the fourth verse, which has been translated destruction, I prefer to understand in the sense of hiding or concealment. He seems to allude to the drawing back of the tongue when we swallow and, under this figure, to describe the deceitfulness of Doeg’s words, by which he devoured the unsuspecting and the innocent. David's great purpose, as I have already remarked in the preceding verses, is to encourage himself in the hope of deliverance by dwelling upon the extreme character of the wickedness his enemy had displayed.