(To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves, they have done abominable works there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14 is not a survey of what the world believes. It is God's verdict on it. And that verdict starts inside a person, long before it shows in what he does. The verse ties three things together: a private thought about God, a corrupt life, and a search that finds no exception.
The denial sits in the heart, not on the lips. One writer shows how much a person can say without speaking a word:
Oh the heart! What a source of mischief and misery it is! Scripture says it well: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And so we read that "The fool has said in his heart, 'No God!'" (Ps. 14:1). Such a saying may never have reached the lips. It may never have been put into words out loud. But in the unspoken language of the heart, the words come out: "No God!"
The denial has a motive. Conscience already expects judgment, so the mind looks for any excuse to remove the One who judges:
Man gained the knowledge of good and evil in the fall. It has shaped him so that judgment is the only action of God's power he understands. Of course he resists that judgment, and blasphemes God. The reason is his conscience: it tells him he must be the object of His righteous vengeance. So, to calm his conscience, he tries to persuade himself that he is not wicked. He hides himself from God, like Adam. And in his folly he grabs at the smallest excuse for denying His existence. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalms 14; 53.)
The same writer traces the wish behind the words — no authority, no restraint, no reckoning — and calls it something present in everyone: "Sin has produced that wish; and how easy to move from the idea to the belief, from the wish to the word, 'No God!'"
The problem is not a shortage of evidence:
The universe holds millions of proofs of wonderful design. Bias is as blind to them as a bat is in the light of the noonday sun. Bias is not a matter of the head, but of the heart. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps. 14:1).
The verse moves in a single breath from "the fool" to "they." That shift is the point:
The "fool" of the first sentence becomes a multitude in the very next. They "are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good." This is what man away from God comes to by nature. God is the true life of man. The body decays once it is apart from the soul that gives it life, and the soul decays in the same way once it is apart from God. There can be no exception here. No law is surer than this: "there is none who does good."
Commentators differ on how far the verse looks ahead. Some read the fool as a figure of a coming time of open apostasy:
The characteristic man of this terrible time will be "the fool" — the man who has no fear of God. In his heart he says, "No God"; and his corrupt and abominable life shows the thought of his heart.
This verse is not left in the Psalms. It reappears in the New Testament as the charge against everyone:
The first quotation is from Psalm 14. There the words are joined to the statement that "the Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." What follows gives the result of God's searching gaze. So the truth here is not a description of how we appear before one another. It is how we appear before God, as fallen children of Adam — as in the flesh. In the quotations from this Psalm God strips us of everything we might boast in as natural men — the very things we naturally use to justify ourselves before Him.
The right response to such a sweeping verdict is not argument but surrender:
In the face of statements as sweeping as these, anyone who pleads righteousness with God has no feeling for the real state of things. It suits us all better to admit that we are truly guilty. Then we can throw ourselves without reserve on God's unlimited grace.
- Heart — the heart says "No God" without a sound. The lips may never say it, but the heart has said it.
- Wish — the denial has a motive. Conscience expects judgment, so a man grabs at any excuse that removes the Judge.
- Bias — this is folly of the heart, not of the mind; design surrounds him and he cannot see it.
- Spread — one fool becomes a multitude. Cut off from God, the soul decays as a body does without the soul: "there is none who does good."
- Refuge — Scripture repeats this verdict to strip away every boast. One move is left: admit the guilt and throw yourself on God's grace.
Jehovah looked down from the heavens upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
The fool of verse 1 has just said in his heart that there is no God. Heaven's answer is not an immediate blow but a search — God looks across the whole human race to find anyone who wants Him.
This is not God's general awareness of the world. This look has a pattern behind it in Scripture.
Wickedness has reached its height. The world is ripe for judgment, and God looks down upon the children of men as One about to act in judgment. This is not merely the truth that everything is always under God's eye. This is the look that comes before judgment. The Lord came down to see before the judgment at Babel. Again He looked toward Sodom before its destruction (Gen. 18:16); and again we read that the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians before their overthrow (Ex. 14:24).
He already knows the answer. Yet He goes and looks anyway, person by person, so that the verdict rests on evidence.
But Jehovah Himself will give His testimony. He knows every heart perfectly beforehand. Even so, He will not pass sentence except from actual experience. He looks down from heaven and considers every soul of man among the children of Adam. He looks for anyone who truly understands — anyone who, stirred by the need and misery of his condition, seeks after Him whom men's sins have shut off from them.
The verse names two things: understanding and seeking. God ran that search over every person alive.
The great and gracious Creator surveyed the whole human race. He could not see one who wanted Him, or one who even understood the purpose for which he was created!
Because the observer is God, the finding is not a survey of how people rank against their neighbours.
So the truth here is not a description of how we appear before one another. It is how we appear before God, as fallen children of Adam — as in the flesh. In the quotations from this Psalm God strips us of everything we might boast in as natural men. He takes away the things we naturally use to try to justify ourselves before God.
The apostle later quotes this verse against those who assumed the law placed them outside its reach.
The law, he says, belongs to you. You boast that it refers to you exclusively. Very well: hear then what it says about the people, about yourselves. It speaks to you, as you admit. There is not one righteous man among you, then, on whom God can look down from heaven. He quotes Psalm 14:2-3; Isaiah 59:7-8, to set out the judgment pronounced on them by the very oracles they boasted in. So every mouth was shut, and all the world guilty before God.
The failed search does not end the story. It settles who has to make the first move.
Man never thought to find a friend in God. He had no natural confidence in his Creator. He broke with God when he became a sinner, and to this day he has no desire for the breach to be healed. He does not wish to have anything to do with God, and he would never have sought God if left to himself. But God had desires toward man, and if man will not seek God, God will seek him. If there is none who seeks after God, there is a God who seeks after man.
So how does anyone ever come to seek Him?
Are there any who understand and seek God? None whatever, until God by grace works in their hearts... They influence one another, but not for good. God's estimate of people generally is that "there is none who does good, not even one." The only remedy must come from God.
Yet the same psalm still names "the generation of the righteous" (v. 5). Where did they come from?
Though the people were outwardly under law, grace had always been active. What pure law could not achieve, grace had achieved. In the middle of a nation of rebellious sinners, grace produced "the generation of the righteous" (v. 5).
- He looked. This look from heaven matches the look that came before Babel, Sodom and the fall of Egypt's army. It comes just before God acts.
- He looked closely. God already knows every heart. Even so, He inspects each person, so His sentence rests on evidence.
- He looked for one. He searched for one person who understood why he was made and who wanted God.
- He found none. The verdict measures how we stand before God, not how we compare with each other. Paul turns it on the most religious hearers, so every mouth is shut.
- So He came seeking. Since no one seeks God, God seeks man. Everyone who does understand and seek is the fruit of that grace — the "generation of the righteous" in this same psalm.
They have all gone aside, they are together become corrupt there is none that doeth good, not even one.
In verse 2 God looks down from heaven, searching for one person who understands and seeks Him. Verse 3 is the report He brings back. Is this verdict poetry or fact? Does it leave anyone out?
This verdict is not a distant opinion. God searches first, then speaks:
They have not sought nor cared: they have turned aside; they have gone after their lusts; there is none who does good, not even one. What the grace of God does is another matter. Apart from this, evil just repeats itself. One generation follows another, only adding its own sins to its fathers'. This is the result, then, and God Himself is the witness. He certifies it after actually inspecting every single person.
Readers often look for exceptions. The words themselves leave no room for one, and God had said the same about people before:
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). The words "every," "only" and "continually" leave no room for any redeeming feature in man's condition before God. Again, "The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one" (Ps. 14:2-3). Here again the expressions "all" — "none" — "not even one" — rule out any single redeeming quality in man's condition, as God judges it.
This is not God simply watching, as He always does. In Scripture this kind of look comes before judgment:
Wickedness has reached its peak, so the world is ripe for judgment. God looks down upon the children of men as one about to act in judgment. It is not simply that all is under the eye of God, which is always true, but this is the look that precedes judgment. The Lord came down to see before the judgment at Babel. Again He looked towards Sodom before its destruction (Gen. 18:16); and yet again we read that the Lord looked upon the army of the Egyptians before their overthrow (Ex. 14:24). God sees that the wickedness of man is such that there is no other way to defend His majesty except by judgment.
The psalm's sharpest edge falls on Israel, the nation God had favoured and worked over, and to whom He gave His law:
In Psalm 14 the LORD takes account of the most favoured nation upon the earth... God had taken Israel up and put them in relationship with Himself as His people, and He had spent much labour on them. It is to this people He comes seeking some reward for all His toil. But He has to say, "They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one." He got no return for His labour from the people He had given the law.
Paul later uses the verse to silence religious pride:
The law, he says, belongs to you. You boast that it refers to you exclusively. Very well: then hear what it says of the people, of yourselves. It speaks to you, as you acknowledge. There is not one righteous man among you on whom God can look down from heaven. He quotes Psalm 14:2-3; Isaiah 59:7-8, to set out the judgment pronounced on them by those oracles they boasted in. So every mouth was shut, and all the world guilty before God.
If the verse were the last word, no one could be saved. But grace was already at work in the same psalm:
Though the people were outwardly under law, grace had always been active. What pure law could not do, grace had done. In the middle of a nation of rebellious sinners there was found, through grace, "the generation of the righteous" (v. 5).
Man's search failed. God has a search of His own:
Man never thought to find a friend in God... He wishes not to have to do with God, nor would he ever have sought God if left to himself. But God had desires after man, and if man will not seek God, God will seek him. If there is none that seeks after God, there is a God who seeks after man. He sought after Adam and Eve when they had abandoned Him, and when they were doing their best to make it impossible for Him to find them.
- Searched — God did not guess at this verdict. He looked down and inspected every person before He gave it.
- Sentenced — "All," "none," "not even one" — the words close every loophole. Nothing good in man survives that search.
- Solemn — This particular look is the kind that came before Babel, Sodom and the overthrow of Egypt: judgment is near.
- Spread — Paul aims the verse at the nation that owned the law. Every mouth is shut, and the whole world stands guilty.
- Sought — No one seeks God, so God seeks man. He sought Adam and Eve while they hid, and grace still finds "the generation of the righteous."
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, eating up my people [as] they eat bread? They call not upon Jehovah.
God has just looked down on the whole human race and found no one who does good. Verse 4 turns that survey into a direct question, and the evidence God brings against these people is how they treat those He calls "my people."
God has watched this scene in silence. Now He speaks. One writer treats the question as a charge of stupidity, and finds its answer in the two clauses that follow.
God has looked upon this scene of unparalleled wickedness; now He speaks. He asks, "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" Has man become stupid like the beasts? (compare Isaiah 1:3). The way men treat the people of God answers the question. They ill-treat God's people in utter indifference to God, just as they eat bread without reference to God. Moreover man pursues his way in utter independence of God — they "call not upon the Lord." So three things prove the world ripe for judgment: its own complete corruption and filthiness, the way it treats God's people, and its complete independence of God.
The charge of having "no knowledge" is not about intelligence. Another writer ties the missing knowledge to the missing God, and traces where that leaves a person.
But the workers of vanity — have they no knowledge, then? They would eat up God's people just as they eat bread: in every way like beasts, for these, too, do not call on Jehovah. It is man's privilege to know God. Not knowing Him, he has no real human "knowledge." So "workers of vanity" they will surely be… But the human beast here shows his fallen condition by what he hates. He is against God and His people, as we see. He is such a beast as the serpent was when the devil got into him. Sadly, that is the case: he has let the devil in.
"Eat up" is a picture. A reference work lists this verse among the places where eating means something other than a meal.
Besides the ordinary use of this word, it is also used as a symbol for 'consume, destroy': they "eat up my people as they eat bread." Psalm 14:4; compare Proverbs 30:14; Habakkuk 3:14; 2 Timothy 2:17.
They destroy God's people as easily as they reach for a slice of bread at dinner.
Verses 1–3 said there is no one who does good. Verse 4 then speaks of a group belonging to God. One writer explains how both can be true at once, and what happens next in the psalm.
He looks down to see if any understand or seek Him among men; but there are none. A remnant is there, formed by grace, and He already owns them as His people (v. 4). These the wicked eat up as they would bread — they do not call on Jehovah. It is man's full-blown pride and wickedness. But all is soon changed: God is in the congregation of the righteous. Fear falls on the proud, who a short time ago were scorning the poor for trusting Jehovah.
The distinction matters. Another writer keeps the two groups apart, and adds one more thing the attackers fail to know.
Those whom God calls His people are not to be confused with these men. God's people are being eaten up like bread by the scornful men described here. Yet these scorners are only workers of vanity — without knowledge. They do not even know their own weakness, which would have brought them to call on God.
The scorn described here is not confined to one era. A writer applies it to the ordinary experience of a believer surrounded by unbelief, and points out who ends up afraid.
When one is born again, he marvels at the ignorance of unbelievers, for the truth of God is clear and simple to a believing heart. Yet there are many who are proud of their unbelief and treat believers with contempt and scorn. In their ignorance, "they do not call on the Lord." But the believer may be in calm rest and confidence, while unbelievers will be "in great fear." They are too proud to admit their fear (v. 5)… Those who reject God cannot understand where the believer's confidence comes from, for the unseen God is with the righteous.
- No knowledge. God's question is not about brainpower. Knowing God is what makes knowledge truly human. Without Him, a man lives like a beast.
- No God. The same people who devour others are the people who never call on the Lord. Independence from God is the root; cruelty is the fruit.
- No thought. "As they eat bread" is the terrible detail. Eating pictures consuming and destroying, and these men do it as easily as they eat a daily meal.
- My people. God finds no one who does good. Yet grace has already formed a remnant He owns as His people. How the world treats them is the evidence against it.
- Then fear. The scorners end up afraid, because God is in the congregation of the righteous. Fear falls on the proud who once mocked the poor for trusting the Lord.
There were they in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Psalm 14 has just described God looking down from heaven and finding no one who does good. Now terror falls — not on His people, but on the proud who were scorning them, because God is with the generation He calls righteous.
The psalm has been describing human pride at full height. Verse 5 is where that pride breaks.
In Psalm 14 the evil has reached its peak in God's sight. What is always true of human nature is now brought under God's eye, at the time when He is about to judge. It is man's full-blown pride and wickedness. But all is soon changed: God is in the congregation of the righteous. Fear falls upon the proud, who but a while ago were scorning the poor for trusting Jehovah.
The same contrast shows up in everyday life.
The believer may rest in calm confidence, while unbelievers will be "in great fear." They are too proud to admit that they are afraid (v. 5). Why are they in great fear? Because "God is with the generation of the righteous." The ungodly cannot see where the believer's confidence comes from. The unseen God is with the righteous.
The fear is not superstition. It is the first shadow of judgment, and a weak and hated people can cast it without lifting a hand.
At the fifth verse, as already said, God Himself comes into the scene. And man is with Him: "God is with the generation of the righteous." That is the real fear that comes upon the persecutor — the shadow of his approaching doom. How often have these weak, despised people thrown a panic into the army of their enemies! They did it simply by the light that shone out of them and around them. It is in effect what Peter says of the Christian: "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." (1 Peter 4:14.) ... The people of God have lifted no weapon and drawn up no battle line. Yet they have forced the mightiest to admit, "The LORD fights for them."
The word does not mark off a slice of time. It marks a moral character.
Parkhurst observes that "generation" is also used for people of the same quality and disposition, even though they are not from one place or one age. "God is with the generation of the righteous." (Psalm 14:5.) We also have "the generation of the upright," "the generation of those who seek Him," and "the generation of His wrath."
Verses 2–3 say no one does good. Verse 5 says God is with the righteous. Both stand, because grace makes people righteous. God does not find them so.
He had always been working His sovereign grace in the hearts of those who were the objects of His eternal purpose. The heirs of promise were always there. Even when He looked down from heaven on the children of men and saw them all turned aside and corrupt, there was still "the generation of the righteous," among whom He loved to be (Ps. 14:2-5). From Abel down to the coming of Christ there had been those who were the subjects of the sovereign grace of God.
Psalm 53 repeats this psalm almost word for word. What changes is the name used for God — and the scene.
In the first Psalm we see only the righteous and the wicked among the Jews. God is in the generation of the righteous, and He makes those who deny His existence afraid. In the second Psalm, besides these two groups, an invading enemy has now camped against them. Those who had turned away from God were afraid, because they did not trust Him. But there was no reason to fear, as what followed showed. God could do and did what His people could not.
Two names for God stand behind these psalms. The choice of name changes what each one brings out.
These psalms teach the same truths. But where the name Jehovah is used, the thought of relationship comes first. Where the name Elohim is used, we get the general result for the enemy.
- Presence — The verse turns on one fact: God is with a people. Everything else in it follows from that.
- Panic — That presence is what produces the terror. It is "the shadow of his approaching doom" falling on the persecutor, not fear in His people.
- People — "Generation" means a kind of person, not a period of time: people of the same quality and disposition, "even though they are not from one place or one age."
- Preserved — Though no one seeks God, grace keeps a company among whom He "loved to be." They are righteous by His work, not their own record.
- Proof — The same fact steadies the weak and terrifies the strong: the unseen God is with His people, and "the LORD fights for them."
Ye have shamed the counsel of the afflicted, because Jehovah [was] his refuge.
Psalm 14 spends four verses weighing man and finding nothing good. Then it turns: the people the scorners despise are the people God is with. Verse 6 catches the mockers mid-sneer and names the one thing they cannot reach.
The psalm is short, and its shape is easy to see. Its seven verses fall into two parts, and the break comes at verse 5.
There are seven verses, a true set of seven made of 4 + 3. The first four test man; the last three show God. This is very plainly marked. The estimate is complete, as it is brief. The verdict is easy to reach and quickly spoken. It is a judgment from which no appeal is possible.
The "plans" of the poor are what older translations call his "counsel": his settled choice to trust God. Unbelief cannot see the sense of that choice, so it answers with scorn.
When one is born again, he marvels at the ignorance of unbelievers, for the truth of God is clear and simple to a believing heart. Yet there are many who are proud of their unbelief and treat believers with contempt and scorn... The ungodly cannot understand the source of the believer's confidence, for the unseen God is with the righteous. In fact, is it not true that people's fear causes them to lash out at the poor who trust God, trying to shame them? "But the Lord is his refuge."
The mocking does not last. Those who tried to shame the trusting poor end up the frightened ones.
Man rises up in pride before Him: yes, He judges because flesh does so... It is man's full-blown pride and wickedness; but all is soon changed: God is in the congregation of the righteous. Fear falls upon the proud, who only a little while ago were scorning the poor for trusting Jehovah.
The oppressor may shame the plan. He cannot touch the One the plan rests on.
Here, then, is the enemy's limit. "You would put to shame the counsel of the humble; but Jehovah is his refuge." "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people." (Ps. 125:2.) Blessed security! He who gave His life for the flock is with them, now "in the power of an endless life." And He says Himself, "Because I live, you also will live."
The same writer shows what happens to the persecutor once Jehovah appears.
Jehovah has appeared, and He is seen to be with the generation of the righteous. That at once changes everything for their persecutor. He is only dashing himself against the rock.
Psalm 53 repeats Psalm 14 almost word for word, but changes the name of God. Psalm 14 keeps "Jehovah", the LORD, the name of relationship; Psalm 53 uses "Elohim" instead.
The name Jehovah brings relationship with it, and verse 6 shows that relationship in the presence of Elohim with the righteous. "You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because Jehovah is his refuge." Psalm 53 uses Elohim instead. It gives the historical fact of what they were in the sight of Elohim... The two psalms teach the same truths. But the thought of relationship rules where the psalm says Jehovah, while where it says Elohim we get the general result for the enemy.
Commentators read the psalm as a picture of a coming time when godlessness reaches its full height. Verse 6 is what the godly hold on to then.
In a few brief words this psalm shows us the awful state of the world during the reign of Antichrist. On the surface, every moral foundation is gone. The faithful are no more. God is hidden. People fall away from Him completely, and sin lifts itself up against God.
Yet this is not only about the future. What will be plain then was already shown when Christ first came.
Can one doubt that prophetically it looks on to the age when Antichrist and his followers are in question? But the truth is that the first coming of Christ brought out morally what will be manifest at His second. This is man at his best without Christ and denying God... Remnant there is; but those of it renounce man and rest on Christ from God, as all saints since man fell.
- Refuge tested. The first four verses weigh man and find nothing good. The last three show God, and verse 6 stands in God's half, not man's.
- Refuge mocked. The scorner attacks the poor man's plan, which is simply to trust God. Unbelief meets that choice with contempt.
- Refuge held. The mocker can shame the plan, but not the Person behind it. The Lord surrounds His people like the mountains around Jerusalem. The scorner is "only dashing himself against the rock".
- Refuge named. The name here is Jehovah, the LORD, the name of relationship. God is not only strong. He is the afflicted man's own refuge.
- Refuge shared. This pride will reach its height in a coming day. The same choice stands now: turn from man and rest on Christ, as saints have done since man fell.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Jehovah turneth again the captivity of his people, Jacob shall be glad, Israel shall rejoice.
The psalm has just described a world where no one seeks God and the wicked eat up His people like bread. Then the mood turns. The psalmist stops looking at the ruin, begins to long for rescue, and names the place it must come from.
The closing verse is a prayer, and one writer shows how much it holds: what kind of hope it is, where the rescue comes from, and where the people still are.
Verse 7 shows us that all this looks ahead. It is prophetic, and it tells us where and how it will happen. It is what the godly man desires, and faith gives him that understanding. Notice that he looks for it out of Zion, and he is not content until the LORD establishes praise there. Notice too that the people are seen as being in captivity.
Another writer names what drives the prayer, and who this salvation turns out to be.
In verse 7 it is not fear that moves the psalmist, but a deep longing for the Lord to step in publicly in the affairs of men. We may wonder whether David fully understood what he was asking for, but "the salvation of Israel" is the Lord Jesus Himself, as Luke 2:28-30 suggests.
The place matters because a Person is coming from it.
But the psalm ends with the salvation of Israel still only in view. It comes out of Zion, through the Deliverer who is to come there — the King once rejected, and then welcomed by a willing people who gladly submit to Him. It will happen suddenly, and then their captivity will be turned in a moment: "let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad."
That truth once settled a dispute about where God should be worshipped. The Samaritans had their own rival place of worship on Mount Gerizim.
The Lord clearly rejected the claims of Gerizim and the worship carried on there: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." The Samaritans condemned themselves, because the Deliverer was to come out of Zion (Ps. 14:7), and the King would come from the family line of Jesse (Isa. 11:1). By standing apart from the Jews, they denied this.
Has this prayer already been answered? Some point to the group who came home from exile in Babylon. Others take it as a picture of the church. One writer weighs both against the size of the words.
Psalm 14 looks ahead to the time of Israel's final freedom — "Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!" (v. 7). Such language is far too big for the weak remnant who returned from Babylon, and it has nothing to do with the Church. It points to the time all the prophets speak of: the reign of Messiah and the glory of Israel.
(Several writers here quote older translations. Where they say "brings back the captivity," the ESV says "restores the fortunes of his people.")
The verse ends with two names for the same people, and each name carries its own weight.
At that time the Lord will fully bring back the captivity of His people. Jacob will rejoice — Jacob, the name of a faltering, undeserving people. And Israel will be glad — Israel, the name God gave that nation in pure grace, meaning "a prince with God." What an answer to the fool's claim that there is "no God"!
Romans 3 quotes this psalm's picture of human sin. One writer compares the rescue the psalm asks for with Paul's answer, which turns on propitiation — a sacrifice that fully satisfies God about sin.
Take Psalm 14 and Isaiah 59, and compare what they mean in the Old Testament with the use Romans 3 makes of them. In the psalm, the terrible picture of the people's sin ends with the desire that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, and with the hope of their joy when the LORD brings back the captives. In the prophecy, a similar picture of their moral ruin ends with the clear promise that the Redeemer will come to Zion. In both, it is redemption by power. But look at what follows when Paul quotes these scriptures: it is plainly God's free justification by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. But how? Is it by His coming in power and glory to deliver? No — "whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."
The name Jacob also points back to the man himself, who had to wait for God's salvation.
Jacob had to wait for it. Many centuries later old Simeon could say, "my eyes have seen your salvation," and each of us can now say that we have experienced it in heart and life. But in the sense Jacob meant it, the cry still goes up: "Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!" (Ps. 14:7).
- Cry — The verse is faith's desire, not despair. After seeing that no one seeks God, the psalmist longs for God to act in public.
- Place — Salvation comes out of Zion because the Deliverer comes from there. This salvation is a Person, the Lord Jesus Himself, so Gerizim had no claim to it.
- Scope — The words are too large for the return from Babylon, and they do not describe the church. They point to Messiah's reign.
- Grace — Jacob is the name of an undeserving people. Israel is the name grace gave them. Their joy is God's answer to the fool who said there is no God.
- Blood — Romans 3 quotes this psalm's verdict on man. Paul answers it with propitiation through Christ's blood, not with rescue by power. And the cry for Israel's own rescue still goes up.