Psalms 52:8

8. But I am like a green olive tree The contrast now appears between the psalmist and his enemies. These had been uprooted, (Psalms 52:5,) he had taken deeper root and had sent out a more fruitful branch. The olive was the emblem of peace, riches, prosperity and beauty, Genesis 8:11; Habakkuk 3:17; Hosea 14:6.

In the house of God The idea of the “olive tree in the house of God,” Stanley suggests, is borrowed from the choice trees, (among which was “the venerable olive,”) planted of old in the sacred enclosure of the temple, and then, as now in the same place, (the Harem es-Sherif, or noble Sanctuary of the Moslems,) proverbial for their beauty and sanctity. David knew no piety that was not rooted in God, and fed by the ordinances of his house. Though now exiled and persecuted, he was in union and fellowship with all lovers of the true Church.