(To the chief Musician. On Mahalath an instruction. Of David.) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God! They have corrupted themselves, and have done abominable iniquity there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 53 opens with a verdict, not an argument: it names the man who denies God, then shows what that denial does to him. Commentators read the verse in two ways — as the state of the human heart in every age, and as a picture of the world in the last days.
The psalm puts atheism in the heart, not on the lips. One writer treats the denial as something said inside, whether or not anyone ever hears it:
Oh the heart! What a fountain-head of mischief and misery it is! Well says the Scripture, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And so we read that "The fool says in his heart, 'No God!'" (Ps. 14:1). Such a saying may never have reached the lips — may never have taken spoken form; but in unspoken heart-language the words are said: "No God!"
(Both Scripture lines here are quoted in an older wording; the ESV reads "desperately sick" and "There is no God.")
The word "fool" here is not about a lack of intelligence. Kelly sets reasoning against revelation:
Only the fool has said in his heart, No God; he is a fool morally and in the worst sense. Reasoning, if sound, may argue that this or that must be so; revelation says that so it is. Nothing is so simple, satisfying, and deep as the truth.
Why would anyone want the denial to be true? One writer traces it to conscience, and to Adam hiding from God:
Man gained the knowledge of good and evil in the fall. It has so shaped him that judgment is the only action of God's power he understands. Of course he resists it. He speaks against God, because his conscience tells him he must be the object of His righteous vengeance. So he tries to quiet his conscience. He persuades himself that he is not wicked. He hides from God like Adam, and in his folly grabs at the smallest excuse for denying His existence.
The verse reaches further than open unbelief. It also touches people who would never say such a thing:
To act independently of God is in practice to deny Him. Atheism is involved, in principle, in the very first step the creature takes away from simple dependence on God. It is the assertion of an independent will, and so the exercise, as it were, of an independent life. But man is God's creature — his life is God's breath. So to live without God — in defiance of Him, or even in forgetfulness of Him — is virtually atheism. It is the heart-atheism of the fool, who says in his heart, "There is no God" (Ps. 14; 53).
The verse moves from the denial to the corruption it breeds. One writer reads it both of the last days and of every age:
The fool tries to persuade himself there is no God. But the reason he does this is plain. Along with many others, he has corrupted himself. He prefers abominable iniquity to doing good, and he hopes he will not be answerable to any God. What futility! The antichrist will think he has succeeded in his rebellion, but for how long? No more than a few years! Yet at that time the general condition of mankind will be the same: "there is none who does good" (v. 1). Of course, in an absolute sense this is true of mankind in every age, though generally the fact is ignored or refused.
One writer shows where this verdict lands in the New Testament:
All — whether Gentiles or Jews — are under sin. The Old Testament Scriptures confirm this. None are righteous. No person of Adam's race does good in God's sight; no, not one… We do not walk naturally in the fear of God. Such is the sad fact of our condition before Him in sin. This is the conclusion (see Psalms 14 and 53) reached after the law was given.
Psalm 53 repeats Psalm 14 almost word for word. One writer points to the one clear difference — which name of God is used:
In both psalms the divine Name is found seven times. In the earlier one it is four times Jehovah, while in this one Elohim (God) is used in every case. Either way, the psalm affirms God seven times over in front of the crowd of ungodly people who deny Him. That surely has significance.
- Heart. The denial begins inside, in "heart-language" that may never be spoken aloud. Scripture calls that folly, and the folly is moral.
- Wish. Conscience expects judgment, so the heart looks for any excuse to deny the God it must answer to.
- Life. Living independently of God is atheism in principle, even where the words are never used.
- Verdict. The denial breeds corruption. The verse ends "there is none who does good" — the charge the New Testament brings against everyone.
- Answer. The crowd says there is no God. The psalm answers by naming Him seven times over.
God looked down from the heavens upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
Men deny God, and this psalm gives His reply. He does not answer from a distance — He looks down and searches the whole human race for anyone who understands Him or seeks Him.
The verse pictures God taking a look at the human race. The look matters, because the verdict that follows is not guesswork. One writer, commenting on the same words in Psalm 14, asks why God bothers to look at all:
But Jehovah Himself will give His testimony. He already knows every heart perfectly. Even so, He will not give His verdict without 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 is stirred by the need and misery of his condition and seeks after Him. Their sins have shut Him off from them.
The verse names two things God looks for: understanding and seeking. Seeking Him is man's duty, yet the search comes up empty.
Although it is always the duty of men to seek after God, in fact they refuse to do so. The words of Psalm 53:2 are deeply solemn… The great and gracious Creator looked over the whole human race. He could not see one person who wanted Him, or who even understood why he was created!
The search also shows how God deals with men who deny Him:
Still, the God whom men deny is watching man with patience. God does not judge hastily. He looks at men, and searches for any who have understanding and seek after Him. His search finds no one who does good. Apart from the grace of God, He finds the whole human race corrupt.
Psalm 14 says almost the same thing, and readers notice. The clearest difference is the divine name. Psalm 14 uses Jehovah; this psalm uses Elohim, God. One writer ties that change to Israel's place at the time — outside their own land:
Here you have "God" used more than Jehovah. The link is broken, because they are out of the land. See the difference between Psalms 14 and 53. In the one it is Jehovah, in the other it is God.
Another writer counts how often the name appears and finds design, not careless repetition:
The fifty-third psalm mostly repeats the fourteenth, and that has drawn various criticism. Both psalms use the divine Name seven times. In the earlier psalm it is Jehovah four times; in this psalm it is Elohim (God) every time… Either way, God is named seven times in front of a crowd of men who deny Him, and that must have meaning.
It is tempting to read the verse as a description of pagans only. One writer, comparing this psalm with Psalm 14, says the opposite. Paul quotes these words in Romans 3 and aims them at people who had every religious advantage:
For substance it is the same as Psalm 53… Yet in the right place it will be shown that the apostle in Romans 3 quotes the later of the two [Psalm 53], not the earlier one before us [Psalm 14]. But both speak of those "under the law," that is, the Jews. Everyone could see that the pagan nations were wicked. Someone might have argued that the Jews were not… But no, says the apostle: what the law says, it says to those who are under the law… Can anyone doubt that it looks ahead to the age of Antichrist and his followers? But the first coming of Christ already brought out in moral terms what His second coming will make plain. This is man at his best without Christ and denying God.
If no one seeks God, the account should end there. But the seeking comes from the other side:
Since this is the true state of things, all would perish in their appalling folly, except for God's activity in grace. If men do not want Him, He wants them! Right after the rebellion in the garden of Eden, God called out, "Where are you?" The Gospel tells us — oh, blessed thought! — that God is now the Seeker after men. This is the meaning of the coming among us of His beloved Son… "the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
- The look. God does not judge from a distance. He looks down and inspects each person, so His verdict rests on evidence.
- The search. He is looking for two things — understanding and seeking — and the search is patient, not hasty.
- The finding. He found no one who wanted Him or grasped the purpose for which he was made.
- The reach. Paul aims this psalm at people with every religious privilege. It shows man at his best, not only at his worst.
- The answer. Since no one seeks, God becomes the Seeker — and that seeking is the meaning of the coming of His Son.
Every one of them is gone back, they are together become corrupt there is none that doeth good, not even one.
This verse reports what God found when He looked down from heaven, and it ends with "not even one." Psalm 14 says the same thing, and Paul later turns these words on the whole human race.
The verse follows God looking down to see whether anyone understood or sought Him. One writer traces that sequence and says what it would take to change it.
God watches mankind with deep interest. He closely observes what every person does. But their sinful nature is such that they do not understand or seek God (v. 2). All have turned away from Him and become corrupt. Not one really does good (v. 3). This is true of all people by nature. To change it needs a definite work of God in giving new birth, as the New Testament shows.
Psalm 14 says the same thing in almost the same words. One writer asks what that repetition is for.
This passage is found twice in the Psalms (Ps. 14 and Ps. 53). The repetition seems to show that its statements are very important, and that we must not miss them. Yet they are the kind of statements we would be very glad to miss, if we had our way.
The two psalms are not identical. Psalm 14 says Jehovah; this one says God. One writer explains the change, and names the only exception to the verdict — the faithful few kept by grace.
In Psalm 53 we have the wicked in general — the whole mass of the people, all of them, except where grace had come in. It is the same as Psalm 14, but it does not speak of Jehovah; it speaks of God, because the remnant are no longer in the place of covenant relationship.
The verse does not only say that people fail one by one. It says they fail together, and one writer shows what adding them together produces.
All are astray. All of them, even massed together, are useless. You may add zeros to zeros by the thousand, and it all still comes to nothing. And last, all man's works, as well as his ways, are wrong. He may do a thousand things that look very fine on the surface. Yet they are all wrong, because they come from a completely wrong motive. No work is right except the work that springs from seeking God and His interests. And that is exactly what man never seeks; he seeks his own interests instead.
The psalm's own scope is narrower than the whole human race. One writer explains why that does not weaken the apostle's use of it.
The apostle applies the statements of this verse to the whole human race, and (apart from the grace of God) they must be applied that way. That does not mean the aim here is not more limited. Each psalm as a whole does clearly have such a limited application. But "as in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man," and this fully justifies the apostle's teaching that there is "no difference."
David had already owned his own sin earlier in the Psalms. One writer sets that admission beside this verse and asks the reader where he stands.
Did not David say, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me"? Are you any different, or better, than the sweet psalmist of Israel? ... He convicts himself of sin in the first passage, you and me in the second. How solemn!
God looked down on men and found no one who did good. But God also spoke about His own Son, and there the verdict was the opposite.
God has found His rest in Jesus, and our peace and joy depend on knowing this. "God looked down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." "They have all fallen away": "None is righteous, no, not one." But God bore witness to Jesus: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." God is well pleased in Christ. God rests in His Son. He rests not only in His life, though that was holy and acceptable to Him, but in His work on the cross. ... We cannot look for righteousness from the creature, but we can look for the fruit of righteousness — the thing itself is only in Christ.
- Looked — God Himself watched every person closely; the verdict is a finding, not a guess.
- Turned — every one has gone aside; the failure is in the nature, so nothing short of new birth changes it.
- Together — numbers add nothing; zeros added to zeros still come to zero, and fine-looking works are wrong because the motive behind them is wrong.
- None — the psalm's own scope is narrower, yet the apostle applies it to the whole race, leaving "no difference" between people.
- One — God found no righteous man on earth. He found His rest in His beloved Son, and righteousness is only in Christ.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, eating up my people [as] they eat bread? they call not upon God.
Psalm 53 repeats Psalm 14 almost word for word. Here God Himself speaks about men who devour His people and never turn to Him, which raises two questions: how can people be this blind, and who are the "my people" He names?
God's question is not about missing information. It is about a dullness that shows itself in how these men treat other people. One writer finds this strange from the believer's side.
To believers it seems surprising that the workers of iniquity are so lacking in intelligence as to treat others as mere objects for persecution, and have no interest in calling on God (v. 4).
The same question stands in Psalm 14. Another writer answers it there by pointing to the way these men behave.
God has looked upon this scene of unparalleled wickedness; now He speaks. He asks, "Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers?" 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. What is more, man goes his own way in complete independence of God — they "do not call upon the LORD." So three things prove the world ripe for judgment: its own absolute corruption and filthiness, the way it treats God's people, and its utter independence of God.
The picture of eating carries a fixed sense right through the Bible.
Besides its everyday sense, this word also stands 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.
The psalm has just said that no one does good. Yet here God speaks of a people He calls His own. One writer points to where that difference comes from.
There are those, however, in whom God has wrought: those of whom God can speak as "my people." The wicked who deny God devour His people without any fear of God (compare Jeremiah 10:25; Lamentations 2:16).
In Psalm 14 these men do not call on the LORD — Jehovah, God's covenant name. In Psalm 53 they do not call on God. Two writers link that change to the people themselves. The first sees a people who can no longer use the covenant name at all.
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Psalm 53 is about the wicked Jews in general, the many, for God remained what He is, even if they can no longer call on Him as Jehovah (compare Psalm 14).
The second sees the psalm reaching the point where God's name is denied outright.
The name of Jehovah does not occur. In this it differs from Psalm 14. The outright denial of everything called God seems to have come already. So God rises up to avenge His name. He acts against the one who takes that name for himself, and who counterfeits the attributes of the Divine Majesty by the power of Satan (2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation 13).
It would be easy to read this verse as being about other people. One writer traces its line straight to the whole human race.
The "wilful king" of the last days is surely pictured in "the fool" or atheist of this Psalm. But man is man. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." And so the apostle can quote this Psalm when describing men in Romans 3. For all of us by nature have the mind of the wilful one, or the atheist — alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4).
Commentators differ on how far to press the psalm. Some read it of the wicked in Israel in the last days. Others read it of every man by nature.
- No knowledge. The charge is not lack of facts. It is a dullness that shows itself in how these men treat God's people.
- No fear. In the Bible, "eating" can mean consuming and destroying. These men devour God's people as easily as they eat bread, with no fear of God.
- No prayer. They never call on God. That independence is the outward mark of a heart that has denied Him.
- No name. Psalm 14 says they do not call on Jehovah; Psalm 53 drops the covenant name entirely — the denial has gone all the way down.
- No exception. Yet God still says "my people," of those in whom He has worked; and Romans 3 turns the verse on every one of us by nature.
There were they in great fear, where no fear was; for God scattereth the bones of him that encampeth against thee. Thou hast put [them] to shame, for God hath despised them.
Psalm 53 repeats Psalm 14 almost word for word until this verse. Here the wording changes, an armed enemy appears, and terror falls on people who had just said there is no God — at a moment when nothing around them looks dangerous.
The two psalms run side by side until verse 5, and the change here is not decoration. One writer reads it as a step forward in the story:
In Psalm 53 we can recognise Psalm 14 with changes. The word God now takes the place of Jehovah… This change marks progress in the events of the last days. In the first Psalm we see only the righteous and the wicked among the Jews… In the second, besides these two classes, an invading enemy has now camped against them. Those who had turned away from God were afraid, because they did not trust in Him. But there was no reason to fear, as the outcome showed. God could do, and did do, what His people could not. He scattered the bones of the people's opponents, putting the invading army to shame, because God had despised them.
Psalm 14 uses the name Jehovah; Psalm 53 uses Elohim, the word for God. The swap shapes what each psalm draws out of the same event:
Psalm 14 uses Jehovah. So it says, "They were in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous."… Psalm 53 uses Elohim. It records the historical fact of what they were in the sight of Elohim. So we read that they were in great terror where there was no terror, because Elohim scattered the bones of the enemy camped against them… These psalms teach the same truths. But where the psalm says Jehovah, the thought of relationship stands out; where it says Elohim, we see the general result for the enemy.
One writer names who panicked, and why the panic had no cause:
The unrighteous Jews were in fear where there was no need for fear. "The sinners in Zion are afraid, though they have made a covenant with death, and are at agreement with hell." But there was no need to fear from this pride of men, for God scattered the bones of those who were encamped against Jerusalem.
Another writer traces the fear to what these people are, not to what surrounds them:
The very character of such people produces in them great fear when there is no outward reason for fear (v. 5).
The judgment lands in a moment, and the weakest of God's people share in carrying it out:
At last, and in a moment, the panic of their doom falls on them. Here this psalm turns away from Psalm 14, which states the general principle, and announces the doom of those camped against Jerusalem as if it were already done: "God has scattered the bones of those that encamped against you." The feeble remnant also become the executors of divine judgment: "you have put them to shame, because God has despised them."
Another writer explains what the scattered bones stand for:
But "God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you" — that is, their defence is torn apart and they are put to shame, "because God has despised them." How terrible to be the object of God's contempt!
Where the ESV says God has rejected them, the older translation these writers quote says God has despised them.
Faith reads this verse as a description of God's stance — with the believer and against the mocker. One summary of the psalm puts verse 5 in three words: "faith sees Elohim for you and against all such" (G. V. Wigram). The timing is the point:
This is the great folly of man, and the Jews were the most guilty of all in it. They denied the One to Whom we owe everything, the One Who had chosen and favoured them above all others. Their fear is to come, whatever their contempt and hatred of God's people now. As for the righteous, they have no reason to fear: God's judgment will fall on the wicked when least expected. And His word proclaims it across the ages.
The same writer who compared the two psalms says what God's people are to do in the meantime:
A clue to this state of things is given in the Prophet Isaiah (8:12), where the remnant are urged not to fear like the ungodly among them, for Jehovah of Hosts will be for them in the time of their trouble… To wait for God will be the people's wisdom, and this Psalm says so beforehand. Tied to the events of those days will be the salvation of Israel — full, final, and everlasting.
- Denial — The psalm opens with a man saying there is no God. Verse 5 answers him, and the answer is fear.
- Fear — Their terror comes from inside them, not from anything around them: "great fear when there is no outward reason for fear."
- Scattering — God does what the deniers said He could not. He scatters the bones of the army camped against His people, and tears their defence apart.
- Shame — The frightened remnant becomes God's instrument of judgment: they put the enemy to shame.
- Reversal — Those who feared nothing end under God's contempt. The righteous, who seem to have every reason to fear, have none.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God turneth again the captivity of his people, Jacob shall be glad, Israel shall rejoice.
This psalm has been full of human corruption. Its last line turns to hope — a wish for rescue out of Zion, and a picture of the day God brings His people home.
The psalm does not end with the deliverance in hand. It ends with a wish, and the same wish had already closed Psalm 14:
The psalm ends, as Psalm 14 does, with a longing wish: that Israel's salvation had really come. Faith sees it ahead and speaks of it. The wish is that it were already a fact in experience.
The verse names a place. Salvation comes from the royal city, and that fixes when it can happen:
In that day "all Israel" will indeed "be saved." But what will bring it about? "The coming of the Deliverer out of Zion," the apostle answers. But is Christ not the Deliverer? And has He not come? Yes — but not out of Zion. He has come out of Bethlehem, and out of Nazareth, and, thank God, out of the grave as well. But not yet out of Zion. Zion is the royal city, David's city. When the King of kings reigns there, then Israel's deliverance will indeed be complete.
Psalm 14 ends with almost identical words, but says "the LORD" where this psalm says "God." That change is deliberate, and it fits people who have lost their privileges:
The times were dark, and getting darker. But if the godly remnant fall back on what God — Elohim — is, when they no longer enjoy covenant privileges, then they look ahead in faith to God scattering the ruined enemy. And they long for final salvation to come out of Zion as His centre, when His people as a whole would return with everlasting joy.
Being rescued from enemies is not all this verse asks for. One writer keeps two things apart:
The psalm then expresses the desire for Israel's full salvation out of Zion as a centre — not only for God's deliverance by judgment from enemies outside. The power that comes from heaven and destroys the faithless oppressor is one thing. Setting up in Zion what covenant power brings, as promised, is another.
Another writer draws the same line, and adds the state the people were in:
They are not only corrupt. They do not seek God. They have fallen away from Him, and no longer call on Him. Yet He had already stepped in for His own. This is a solemn and striking state, and it shows that stepping in with power is a different thing from settling His people in grace. Faith longs for that second thing, so that God's people may rejoice.
The verse uses two names for one people, and each name carries its own weight — the older name of the man, and the name God gave him afterwards:
This will mean the complete salvation of Israel from their captivity, so that Jacob, the once humiliated servant of the Lord, will rejoice, and Israel, the newborn "prince with God" will be glad. Thus, the restoring grace of God will be magnified, and the renewing power of God also.
The verse names the people twice. The same writer weighs each name, and answers the fool who said there is no God:
Jacob will rejoice — Jacob the name of a faltering, undeserving people. And Israel will be glad — Israel the name God has given in pure grace to that nation, "a prince with God." What an answer to the fool's claim: "no God"!
Paul uses this psalm twice, for two different ends:
In Romans 11 the apostle Paul quotes the close of Isaiah 59, shaped by Psalm 53:6, to prove that the Lord will come in the future to save Israel. But he also quotes the earlier verses of this psalm in Romans 3, to show their utter moral ruin as a present fact. He meets that ruin with the grace of God in the gospel, offered now to every believer. And he holds out the coming of the Redeemer later on, when God will restore Israel and give them the kingdom according to prophecy.
- Ruin — Paul quotes this psalm's earlier verses in Romans 3 to show Israel's moral ruin now. Verse 6 is the door out.
- Longing — the closing words are a wish, not a report. Faith speaks of the rescue as if it had already come.
- Place — salvation comes "out of Zion." Christ came out of Bethlehem, out of Nazareth and out of the grave, but not yet out of Zion. So the rescue waits for the King to reign there.
- Distinction — scattering the enemy is one thing. Settling the people in grace is another. Only the second answers this prayer.
- Joy — Jacob, the undeserving name, rejoices. Israel, the name God gave in grace, is glad. That is the answer to the fool who said there is no God.