TITLE. To the Chief Musician. If
the leader of the choir is privileged to sing the jubilates of
divine grace, he must not disdain to chant the miseries of human
depravity. This is the second time he has had the same Psalm
entrusted to him (see Psalm 14.), and he must, therefore,
be the more careful in singing it. Upon Mahalath. Here
the tune is chosen for the musician, probably some mournfully
solemn air; or perhaps a musical instrument is here indicated,
and the master of the choir is requested to make it the
prominent instrument in the orchestra; at any rate, this is a
direction not found in the former copy of the Psalm, and seems
to call for greater care. The word "Mahalath"
appears to signify, in some forms of it, "disease,
"and truly this Psalm is THE SONG OF MAN'S DISEASE—
the mortal, hereditary taint of sin. Maschil. This is a
second additional note not found in Psalm 14, indicating that
double attention is to be given to this most instructive song. A
Psalm of David. It is not a copy of the fourteenth Psalm,
emended and revised by a foreign hand; it is another edition by
the same author, emphasised in certain parts, and rewritten for
another purpose.
SUBJECT. The evil nature of man is
here brought before our view a second time, in almost the same
inspired words. All repetitions are not vain repetitions. We are
slow to learn, and need line upon line. David after a long life,
found men no better than they were in his youth. Holy Writ never
repeats itself needlessly, there is good cause for the second
copy of this Psalm; let us read it with more profound attention
than before. If our age has advanced from fourteen to
fifty-three, we shall find the doctrine of this Psalm more
evident than in our youth. The reader is requested to peruse
Psalm 14, "Treasury of David, "Vol. 1.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God. And this he does because he is a fool. Being a fool
he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool he meddles
with a great subject, and comes to a wild conclusion. The
atheist is, morally as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the
heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in
philosophy. With the denial of God as a starting point, we may
well conclude that the fool's progress is a rapid, riotous,
raving, ruinous one. He who begins at impiety is ready for
anything.
No God, being interpreted, means no law, no order, no
restraint to lust, no limit to passion. Who but a fool would be
of this mind? What a Bedlam, or rather what an Aceldama, would
the world become if such lawless principles came to be
universal! He who heartily entertains an irreligious spirit, and
follows it out to its legitimate issues is a son of Belial,
dangerous to the commonwealth, irrational, and despicable. Every
natural man is, more or less a denier of God. Practical atheism
is the religion of the race.
Corrupt are they. They are rotten. It is idle to compliment
them as sincere doubters, and amiable thinkers—they are
putrid. There is too much dainty dealing nowadays with atheism;
it is not a harmless error, it is an offensive, putrid sin, and
righteous men should look upon it in that light. All men being
more or less atheistic in spirit, are also in that degree
corrupt; their heart is foul, their moral nature is decayed.
And have done abominable iniquity. Bad principles soon lead
to bad lives. One does not find virtue promoted by the example
of your Voltaires and Tom Paines. Those who talk so abominably
as to deny their Maker will act abominably when it serves their
turn. It is the abounding denial and forgetfulness of God among
men which is the source of the unrighteousness and crime which
we see around us. If all men are not outwardly vicious it is to
be accounted for by the power of other and better principles,
but left to itself the "No God" spirit so universal in
mankind would produce nothing but the most loathsome actions.
There is none that doeth good. The one typical fool is
reproduced in the whole race; without a single exception men
have forgotten the right way. This accusation twice made in the
Psalm, and repeated a third time by the inspired apostle Paul,
is an indictment most solemn and sweeping, but he who makes it
cannot err, he knows what is in man; neither will he lay more to
man's charge than he can prove.
Verse 2. God looked down from heaven upon the
children of men. He did so in ages past, and he has
continued his steadfast gaze from his all surveying observatory.
To see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
Had there been one understanding man, one true lover of his God,
the divine eye would have discovered him. Those pure heathens
and admirable savages that men talk so much of, do not appear to
have been visible to the eye of Omniscience, the fact being that
they live nowhere but in the realm of fiction. The Lord did not
look for great grace, but only for sincerity and right desire,
but these he found not. He saw all nations, and all men in all
nations, and all hearts in all men, and all motions of all
hearts, but he saw neither a clear head nor a clean heart among
them all. Where God's eyes see no favourable sign we may rest
assured there is none.
Verse 3. Every one of them is gone back. The
whole mass of manhood, all of it, is gone back. In the
fourteenth Psalm it was said to turn aside, which was bad
enough, but here it is described as running in a diametrically
opposite direction. The life of unregenerate manhood is in
direct defiance of the law of God, not merely apart from it but
opposed to it. They are altogether become filthy. The whole lump
is soured with an evil leaven, fouled with an all pervading
pollution, made rank with general putrefaction. Thus, in God's
sight, our atheistic nature is not the pardoned thing that we
think it to be. Errors as to God are not the mild diseases which
some account them, they are abominable evils. Fair is the world
to blind eyes, but to the all seeing Jehovah it is otherwise.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. How could there be,
when the whole mass was leavened with so evil a leaven? This
puts an end to the fictions of the innocent savage, the lone
patriarch, "the Indian whose untutored mind, "etc.
Pope's verse—
"Father of all, in every age;
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, or by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord, "
—evaporates in smoke. The fallen race of man, left to its
own energy, has not produced a single lover of God or doer of
holiness, nor will it ever do so. Grace must interpose, or not
one specimen of humanity will be found to follow after the good
and true. This is God's verdict after looking down upon the
race. Who shall gainsay it?
Verse 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
They have no wisdom, certainly, but even so common a thing as
knowledge might have restrained them. Can they not see that
there is a God? that sin is an evil thing? that persecution
recoils upon a man's own head? Are they such utter fools as not
to know that they are their own enemies, and are ruining
themselves? Who eat up my people as they eat bread. Do they not
see that such food will be hard to digest, and will bring on
them a horrible vomit when God deals with them in justice? Can
they imagine that the Lord will allow them to devour his people
with impunity? They must be insane indeed. They have not called
upon God. They carry on their cruel enterprises against the
saints, and use every means but that which is essential to
success in every case, namely, the invocation of God. In this
respect persecutors are rather more consistent than Pharisees
who devoured widow's houses, and prayed too. The natural man,
like Ishmael, loves not the spiritual seed, is very jealous of
it, and would fain destroy it, because it is beloved of God; yet
the natural man does not seek after the like favour from God.
The carnal mind envies those who obtain mercy, and yet it will
not seek mercy itself. It plays the dog in the manger. Sinners
will out of a malicious jealousy devour those who pray, but yet
they will not pray themselves.
Verse 5. There were they in great fear, where no
fear was. David sees the end of the ungodly, and the
ultimate triumph of the spiritual seed. The rebellious march in
fury against the gracious, but suddenly they are seized with a
causeless panic. The once fearless boasters tremble like the
leaves of the aspen, frightened at their own shadows. In this
sentence and this verse, this Psalm differs much from the
fourteenth. It is evidently expressive of a higher state of
realisation in the poet, he emphasises the truth by stronger
expressions. Without cause the wicked are alarmed. He who denies
God is at bottom a coward, and in his infidelity he is like the
boy in the churchyard who "whistles to keep his courage
up." For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth
against thee. When the wicked see the destruction of
their fellows they may well quail. Mighty were the hosts which
besieged Zion, but they were defeated, and their unburied
carcasses proved the prowess of the God whose being they dared
to deny. Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised
them. God's people may well look with derision upon their
enemies since they are the objects of divine contempt. They
scoff at us, but we may with far greater reason laugh them to
scorn, because the Lord our God considers them as less than
nothing and vanity.
Verse 6. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come
out of Zion. Would God the final battle were well over. When
will the Lord avenge his own elect? When will the long
oppression of the saints come to its close, and glory crown
their heads? The word salvation is in the plural, to show
its greatness. When God bringeth back the captivity of his
people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Inasmuch as the yoke has been heavy, and the bondage cruel, the
liberty will be happy, and the triumph joyous. The second advent
and the restoration of Israel are our hope and expectation. We
have attempted to throw into rhyme the last two verses of this
Psalm:
The foes of Zion quake for fright.
Where no fear was they quail;
For well they know that sword of might
Which cuts through coats of mail.
The Lord of old defiled their shields,
And all their spears he scorned;
Their bones lay scattered over the fields,
Unburied and unmourned.
Let Zion's foes be filled with shame;
Her sons are blessed of God;
Though scoffers now despise their name,
The Lord shall break the rod.
Oh! would our God to Zion turn,
God with salvation clad;
Then Judah's harps should music learn,
And Israel be glad.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. Probably the two Psalms refer to
different periods; the fourteenth to the earlier portion of
the world, or of Jewish history; the fifty-third to a later,
perhaps a still future time. Jehovah, through Christ, is
frequently said to turn to the world to see what its condition
is, and always with the same result. "All flesh had
corrupted its way" in the days of Noah, and, "when the
Son of Man cometh" again, it is intimated that he will
scarcely "find faith on the earth." The two Psalms
also apply to different persons. The former refers to the
enemies of God, who tremble when his presence is made known; they
are in great fear, because vengeance is about to be
inflicted on them for their sins. Here the Supreme Being is
called Jehovah. In the fifty-third Psalm the interests of God's
people are principally kept in view. The ungodly are regarded as
plotting against the righteous, and it is in this relation their
case is considered. The fear that was just and reasonable in the
fourteenth Psalm, because it concerned the unrighteous under a
sense of impending judgment, is said to be unfounded in the
fifty-third, because God was in the midst of his people, scattering
the bones of their enemies, and showing himself, not as
Jehovah, but as the Elohim of his redeemed children. The
fourteenth Psalm contemplates judgment; the fifty-third
deliverance; and thus, though seemingly alike, a different
lesson is conveyed in each. The Psalm, then, descriptive of the
universal and continuous corruption of man's nature, very
properly occupies an introductory place in a series intended to
represent the enemies of Messiah, who oppose his church during
his absence, and who are to attempt to resist his power when he
comes again. Before entering upon an examination of the
character of these opponents, this Psalm teaches that, until
changed by grace, all are gone astray; "there is none
righteous, no, not one, "and that for all there is but one
remedy, the Deliverer coming out of Zion, who shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob. R. H. Ryland, M.A., in "The Psalms
restored to Messiah," 1853.
Whole Psalm. The state of earth ought to be deeply
felt by us. The world lying in wickedness should occupy much of
our thoughts. The enormous guilt, the inconceivable pollution,
the ineffably provoking Atheism of this fallen province of God's
dominion, might be a theme for our ceaseless meditation and
mourning. To impress it the more on us, therefore, the Psalm
repeats what has been already sung in Psalm 14. It is the same
Psalm, with only a few words varied; it is "line upon line,
precept upon precept; "the harp's most melancholy, most
dismal notes again sounded in our ear. Not that the Lord would
detain us always, or disproportionately long, amid scenes of
sadness; for elsewhere he repeats in like manner that most
triumphant melody, Ps 40:6-12 108:6-13; but it is good to return
now and then to the open field on which we all were found, cast
out in loathsome degradation. Andrew A. Bonar, in
"Christ and his Church in the Book of Psalms,"
1859.
Whole Psalm. A second edition of the fourteenth Psalm,
with variations more or less important, in each verse. That
either of these compositions is an incorrect copy of the other
is highly improbable, because two such copies of the same Psalm
would not have been retained in the collection, and because the
variations are too uniform, consistent, and significant, to be
the work of chance or mere traditional corruption. That the
changes were deliberately made by a later writer is improbable,
because such a liberty would hardly have been taken with a Psalm
of David, and because the latter form, in that case, would
either have been excluded from the Psalter or substituted for
the first form, or immediately connected with it. The only
satisfactory hypothesis is, that the original author afterwards
rewrote it, with such modifications as were necessary to bring
out certain points distinctly, but without any intention to
supersede the use of the original composition, which therefore
still retains its place in the collection. Thus supposition is
confirmed by the titles, which ascribe both Psalms to David...
As a general fact, it may be stated, that the variations in the
Psalm before us are such as render the expression stronger,
bolder, and in one or two cases more obscure and difficult. J.
A. Alexander, 1850.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is a variation of Psalm 14. In
each of these two Psalms the name of God occurs seven
times. In Psalm 14, it is three times Elohim, and four
times Jehovah; in the present Psalm it is seven times Elohim.
Christopher Wordsworth, 1868.
Whole Psalm. God, in this Psalm, "speaketh twice,
"for this is the same almost verbatim with the fourteenth
Psalm. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins, to set us
blushing, and to set us trembling because of them: there is need
of "line upon line" to this purpose. God, by the
psalmist, here shows—
1. The fact of sin. God is a witness to it. He looks
down from heaven and sees all the sinfulness of men's hearts and
lives. All this is open and naked before him.
2. The fault of sin. It is iniquity (Ps 53:1,4); it is
an unrighteous thing; it is that in which there is no good (Ps
53:1,3); it is going back from God (Ps 53:3).
3. The fountain of sin. How comes it that men are so
bad? Surely, it is because there is no fear of God before their
eyes; they say in their hearts, there is no God at all to call
us to account, none that we need to stand in awe of. Men's bad
practices flow from their bad principles.
4. The folly of sin. He is a fool (in the
account of God, whose judgment we are sure is right) who
harbours such corrupt thoughts. The "workers of iniquity,
"whatever they pretend to, "have no knowledge;
"they may truly be said to know nothing that do not know
God. Ps 53:4.
5. The filthiness of sin. Sinners are
"corrupt" (Ps 53:1); their nature is vitiated and
spoiled; their iniquity is "abominable; "it is odious
to the holy God, and renders them so; whereas, otherwise he
"hates nothing that he has made." What neatness soever
proud sinners pretend to, it is certain that wickedness is the
greatest nastiness in the world.
6. The fruit of sin. See to what a degree of barbarity
it brings men at last! See their cruelty to their brethren! They
"eat them up as they eat bread." As if they had not
only become beasts, but beasts of prey. See their contempt of
God at the same time—they have not called upon him, but scorn
to be beholden to him.
7. The fear and shame that attends sin (Ps 53:5).
"There were they in great fear" who had made God their
enemy; their own guilty consciences frightened them and filled
them with horror. This enables the virgin, the daughter of Zion,
to put them to shame and expose them, "because God hath
despised them."
8. The faith of the saints, and their hope and power
touching this great evil (Ps 53:6). There will come a Saviour, a
great salvation, a salvation from sin. O that it might be
hastened! for it will bring in glorious and joyful times. There
were those in Old Testament times that looked and hoped, that
prayed and waited for this redemption. Such salvations were
often wrought, and all typical of the everlasting triumphs of
the glorious church. Condensed from Matthew Henry,
1662-1714.
Verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart, etc.
It is in his heart he says this; this is the secret desire of
every unconverted bosom. If the breast of God were within the
reach of men, it would be stabbed a million of times in one
moment. When God was manifest in the flesh, he was altogether
lovely; he did no sin; he went about continually doing good: and
yet they took him and hung him on a tree; they mocked him and
spat upon him. And this is the way men would do with God again.
Learn—First. The fearful depravity of your heart. I venture to
say there is not an unconverted man present, who has the most
distant idea of the monstrous wickedness that is now within his
breast. Stop till you are in hell, and it will break out
unrestrained. But still let me tell you what it is—you have a
heart that would kill God if you could. If the bosom of God were
nor within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of
God, you have a heart fit to do the deed. Second. The amazing
love of Christ—"While we were enemies, Christ died for
us." Robert Murray Macheyne, 1813-1843.
Verse 1. There is no God. ny'is properly a
noun, and means nonentity, or nonexistence: "nothing of
God, "or "no such thing as God." It cannot be
explained as a wish—"No God!" i.e., O that
there were no God!—because ny'in usage always includes the
substantive verb, and denies the existence, or at least the
presence, of the person or thing to which it is prefixed. This
is also clear from the use of the same word in the last clause,
where its sense is unambiguous. J. A. Alexander on Psalm XIV.
Verse 1. There is no God. Thus denying the
agency of Providence, for the word Elohim, here
translated God, means judge (compare Ex 22:28),
and has reference not to the essence, but to the providence
of the Deity. Daniel Cresswell, 1776-1844.
Verse 1. It is to be noted that Scripture saith, The
fool hath said in his heart, and not "thought in
his heart; "that is to say, he doth not so fully think it
in judgment, as he hath a good will to be of that belief; for
seeing that it makes not for him that there should be a God, he
doth seek by all means accordingly to persuade and resolve
himself, and studies to affirm, prove, and verify it to himself
as some theme or position, all which labour, notwithstanding
that sparkle of our creation light, whereby men acknowledge a
Deity, burneth still within; and in vain doth he strive utterly
to alienate it or put it out, so that it is out of the
corruption of his heart and will, and not out of the natural
apprehension of his brain and conceit, that he doth set down his
opinion, as the comical poet saith, "Then came my mind to
be of my opinion, "as if himself and his mind had been two
diverse things; therefore, the atheist hath rather said, and
held it in his heart, than thought or believed in his heart that
there is no God. Francis Bacon (1560-1626), in "Thoughts
on Holy Scripture".
Verse 2. That did seek God. Although all things
are full of God, yet is he to be sought for of godly men,
by reason of the darkness which compasseth our minds through
original sin. For both the flesh, and the senses, and earthly
affections do hinder us from knowing of him, yea, though he be
present. Peter Martyr, 1500-1562.
Verses 2-3. Their sin is described in gradation. They
do not understand, because a true knowledge of things
divine forms the basis of proper conduct towards God; they do not
ask for God, because they only care for him whose clear and
sure insight apprehends him as their highest possession; they
are gone aside, because he who cares not for him is sure
to get estranged from him, and to deviate from his paths; and
they are altogether become filthy (i.e.,
worthless), because man's proper strength and fitness for virtue
must well from the fountain of communion with God. Agustus F.
Tholuck.
Verse 3. They are altogether become filthy.
wxlag neelachu. They are become sour and rancid; a
metaphor taken from milk that has fermented and turned sour,
rancid, and worthless. Adam Clarke, 1760-1832.
Verse 3. (second clause). The word wxlag,
rendered they are become filthy, might be read, they
have become rotten or putrid. John Morison, 1829.
Verse 3. (last clause). Evil men are not only
guilty of sins of commission, having done abominable iniquity,
but they are guilty of many sins of omission. In fact, they have
never done one holy act. They may be moral, decent, amiable,
they may belong to the church; but there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. William S. Plumer.
Verse 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
Conscience is a means to curb and restrain, control and rebuke
corrupt nature, and the swelling forms of it. It is not there as
a native inhabitant, but as a garrison planted in a rebellious
town by the great Governor of the world, to keep the rebellion
of the inhabitants within compass, who else would break forth
into present confusion. David, speaking of the corruption of man
by nature, after this question, Whether there be not some
knowledge to discover their evil doings to them? yes, says he, Have
they no knowledge, who eat up my people as bread Yes; and
therefore (Ps 53:5) They are often in fear, God having
placed this there to overcome them with fear; and by that to
restrain them from many outrages against God's people, whom in
their desires, and sometimes practice, they eat up as bread
Therefore this knowledge is put in as a bridle to corrupt
nature, as a hook was put into Sennacherib's nostrils (Isa
37:29) to rule and tame men, and overcome them with fear. If
they had no knowledge they would eat up one another, and the
church, as bread; but there is their fear, says he, that is,
thence it comes to pass they are kept in awe Thomas Goodwin,
1600-1679.
Verse 4. Who eat up my people as they eat bread
C'est, n'en font non plus de conscience, que de manger un
morceau de pain. (That is, they have no more scruple in
doing this than in eating a morsel of bread.) French Margin.
Verse 4. My people. David may call the serious his
people, because of his regard for them, and because they
were his supporters and friends. They adhered to him in all his
afflictions. ("Thy people shall be my people, and thy God
my God, " Ru 1:16.) Benjamin Boothroyd, 1836.
Verse 5. There were they in great fear, where no
fear was. There is a fond and superstitious fear, when men
are afraid of their shadows, as Pisander was afraid of meeting
his own soul; and Antenor would never go forth of the doors, but
either in a coach closed upon all sides, or with a target borne
over his head, fearing, I guess, lest the sky should fall down
upon it, according to that in the Psalm, They fear where no
fear is. John King, 1559-1621.
Verse 5. There were they in great fear, where no
fear was. Behold how fearful a hell a wounded conscience is!
For why is Cain afraid to be killed, seeing there is none living
to perform it, but his father and mother, and perhaps some women
children, which the Scripture nameth not? It is God's just
judgment, that they that will not fear the Lord who is only to
be feared, should stand in fear of them who are justly no cause
of fear. He that lately feared not to kill his brother, is now
made a terror to himself. Hereby also we may consider what is
the repentance of the wicked; they see perhaps the fault
together with the punishment, but they admit the fault and
lament the punishment. Nicholas Gibbens, 1602.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
See the hints on Psalm 14.
Verse 1. The fool's inside and outside.
Verse 1.
1. The folly of atheism. He who says there is no God is a
fool.
(a) No reason for the assertion.
(b) All reason against it.
2. The seat of atheism is the heart; it is a moral unbelief
not an intellectual, the language of the will not of the
understanding.
3. Cause of atheism.
(a) Loving evil.
(b) Hating good. G. R.
Verse 2.
1. God has not left the world to itself.
2. He takes particular notice of all that is in it.
3. The only thing he values in it is the knowledge of
himself. G. R.
Verse 4. How far knowledge is and is not a restraint
upon ungodliness.
Verse 4. It is a sin not to call upon God.
1. What is it to call upon God? Three things required in it.
(a) A drawing near to him.
(b) A speaking to him. 1Sa 1:12-13.
(c) A praying to him.
2. How should we call upon God?
(a) Reverently, considering (1) God's holiness and greatness;
(2) our own sin and weakness. Ge 18:27.
(b) Understandingly. 1Co 14:15. (1) Of what we ask. (2) Of
whom we ask it.
(c) Submissively.
(d) Believingly. Mr 11:24 Jas 1:6.
(e) Sincerely. Jas 4:3.
(f) Constantly. (1) So as to be always in a praying frame.
(2) So as to take all occasions of pouring forth our souls in
prayer to God. (3) So as to let no day slip without prayer.
3. How it appears to be a sin not to call upon God.
(a) He hath commanded it. Isa 55:6 1Ti 2:8.
(b) Because praying is one of the principal parts of worship
we owe to God.
4. Who are guilty of this sin?
(a) All who pray to any one else but God.
(b) All who neglect either public, private, or family prayer.
(c) All who pray, but not aright. William Beveridge
(1636-1708), in "Thesaurus Theologicus."
Verse 5.
1. What persecutors are to themselves-their own tormentors,
full even of groundless fears.
2. What they are to one another-though in concert here, their
bones are scattered hereafter.
3. What they are to those whom they persecute—made ashamed
before them.
4. What they are to God-a contempt and derision. G. R.
Verse 6.
1. There is salvation for Israel.
2. That salvation is in Zion.
3. Their salvation remains there when they are banished from
it.
4. Their joy becomes greater when they return. G. R.