John Calvin Commentary Psalms 52:5

"God will likewise destroy thee for ever; He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah" — Psalms 52:5 (ASV)

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. From these words it becomes even more evident that his purpose in dwelling on the aggravated guilt of Doeg was to prove the certainty of his approaching doom, and this more for his own conviction and comfort than with the aim of alarming the offender's conscience.

Accordingly, he declares his conviction that God would not allow his treachery to pass unpunished, though God might for a time connive at its perpetration. The ungodly are inclined, as long as their prosperity continues, to indulge in undisturbed security; and the saint of God, when he sees the power they possess and witnesses their proud contempt for divine judgments, is too often overwhelmed with unbelieving fears.

But to establish his own mind in the truth he announces, it is noticeable that the Psalmist piles one expression upon another, — God shall destroy thee, take thee away, pluck thee out, root thee out, — as if by this abundance of words he would convince himself more effectively that God was able to overthrow this adversary with all his boasted might and authority.

In adding that God would root him out of his dwelling-place or tent, and out of the land of the living, he implies that the wicked will be destroyed by God, however securely they may seem to repose in the nest of some comfortable mansion and in the vain hope of living on earth forever. Possibly he may allude, by mentioning a tent, to Doeg's profession, as shepherds live in tents.