Psalms 53

The Folly of the Godless and Salvation for Israel

1

For the [music] director, according to Mahalath. A maskil of David.

1 [The] fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt and they have done abominable iniquity. There is none who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of humankind to see whether there is one who has insight, one who seeks God.

3 {All of them} have turned back. They are altogether corrupt. There is none who does good; there is not even one.

4 Do not evildoers know, [they] who eat my people [as though] they were eating bread? They do not call on God.

5 There {they are very fearful} [where] no fear had been, because God has scattered the bones of him who encamps [against] you. You have put [them] to shame, because God has rejected them.

6 {Oh, that from Zion} would come salvation [for] Israel! When God returns the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Psalms 53 Commentary

Chapter 53

The corruption of man by nature.

- This psalm is almost the same as the 14th. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins. God, by the psalmist, here shows us how bad we are, and proves this by his own certain knowledge. He speaks terror to persecutors, the worst of sinners. He speaks encouragement to God's persecuted people. How comes it that men are so bad? Because there is no fear of God before their eyes. Men's bad practices flow from their bad principles; if they profess to know God, yet in works, because in thoughts, they deny him. See the folly of sin; he is a fool, in the account of God, whose judgment we are sure is right, that harbours such corrupt thoughts. And see the fruit of sin; to what it brings men, when their hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. See also the faith of the saints, and their hope and power as to the cure of this great evil. There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a salvation from sin. God will save his church from its enemies. He will save all believers from their own sins, that they may not be led captive by them, which will be everlasting joy to them. From this work the Redeemer had his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins, Mt. 1:21 .

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
• [b]. Literally "The whole of it," i.e. all of humankind
• [c]. Literally "they feared a fear"
• [d]. Literally "Who will give [that] from Zion"
• [e]. Or "captivity"

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David. The word "mahalath" is only used here and in Psalm 88:1. Some, with Aben Ezra, take it to be the first word of a song, to the tune of which this psalm was set; others, with Jarchi, that it is the name of a musical instrument on which it was sung; a hollow instrument; of the same nature with "nehiloth," See Gill on "Ps 5:1," title. Though it may relate to the argument or subject matter of the psalm, and be rendered, "concerning sickness" or "infirmity" {e}; and, as Jarchi observes, some interpret it, "concerning the sickness or weakness of Israel," when the temple was destroyed. But it seems much better to understand it of the sickness and disease of sin, and the weakness following upon that, to which all mankind are subject; since the psalm manifestly treats of the general corruption and depravity of human nature. This psalm is the same with Psalm 14:1, and is expressed in the same words, with some little difference; the reason of its repetition is variously conjectured. Some think that the compiler of the book of Psalms, observing various readings in it occasioned by copying, thought fit to insert it both ways; but it is most likely to be composed by David himself, at different times, and it may be on different occasions, and with different views. Some think the former, namely the fourteenth psalm, was written concerning Nabal, and this concerning Doeg; according to Jarchi, that was concerning Nebuchadnezzar, this concerning Titus Vespasian; or, as others think, Antiochus Epiphanes. Kimchi is of opinion that this psalm, being placed between one that relates to Doeg, and another that refers to the Ziphites, points at the likeness there is between the case of David and the Messiah; that as David had many who sought to ensnare him, yet God rewarded them, and established him in the kingdom; so it will be with the Messiah: but it is much more reasonable with others to conclude, that it is repeated either because of the importance of it; because that as the former may refer to the corruption of the Jews in the times of David, this to the corruption of men in the times of Christ and his apostles, and under the Gospel dispensation, until the second coming of Christ, especially under the reign of antichrist. The argument of the psalm, according to the Syriac version, is concerning Ahithophel, who gave counsel to Absalom to pursue his father David and kill him: and, according to the Arabic version, it is a prophecy concerning Babel and Sennacherib; so Theodoret: but rather concerning mystical Babylon, and the man of sin.

{e} tlxm le "de miseria," Tigurine version, "vel infirmitate"; so Ainsworth.