in corrupting morals, 1, 2, 3. The persecuting tendencies of sinners, 4;
their alarms, 5; their ridicule of the godly, 6; and a prayer for the
manifestation of the Lord to his people’s joy._
EXPOSITION.
The fool hath said in his heart, _There is_ no God. They are
corrupt, they have done abominable works, _there is_ none that doeth
good.
“_The fool._” The Atheist is _the_ fool pre-eminently, and _a_ fool
universally. He would not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and
having denied God it is no marvel that he becomes a fool in practice.
Sin is always folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very
existence of the Most High, so is it also the greatest imaginable folly.
To say there is no God is to belie the plainest evidence, which is
obstinacy; to oppose the common consent of mankind, which is stupidity;
to stifle consciousness, which is madness. If the sinner could by his
atheism destroy the God whom he hates there were some sense, although
much wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the existence of fire
does not prevent its burning a man who is in it, so doubting the
existence of God will not stop the Judge of all the earth from
destroying the rebel who breaks his laws; nay, this atheism is a crime
which much provokes heaven, and will bring down terrible vengeance on
the fool who indulges it. The proverb says, “A fool’s tongue cuts his
own throat,” and in this instance it kills both soul and body for ever:
would to God the mischief stopped even there, but alas! one fool makes
hundreds, and a noisy blasphemer spreads his horrible doctrines as
lepers spread the plague. Ainsworth, in his “Annotations,” tells us that
the word here used is _Nabal_, which has the signification of fading,
dying, or falling away, as a withered leaf or flower; it is a title
given to the foolish man as having lost the juice and sap of wisdom,
reason, honesty, and godliness. Trapp hits the mark when he calls him
“that sapless fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking sepulchre of
himself, in whom all religion and right reason is withered and wasted,
dried up and decayed.” Some translate it _the apostate_, and others _the
wretch_. With what earnestness should we shun the appearance of doubt as
to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for all such mistrust
is of the nature of folly, and who among us would wish to be ranked with
the fool in the text? Yet let us never forget that all unregenerate men
are more or less such fools.
The fool “_hath said in his heart_.” May a man with his mouth profess to
believe, and yet in heart say the reverse? Had he hardly become
audacious enough to utter his folly with his tongue? Did the Lord look
upon his thoughts as being in the nature of words to him though not to
man? Is this where man first becomes an unbeliever?—in his heart, not in
his head? And when he talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart
speaking and endeavouring to clamour down the voice of conscience? We
think so. If the affections were set upon truth and righteousness, the
understanding would have no difficulty in settling the question of a
present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes the good and the
right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that Elohim, who is
the great moral Governor, the Patron of rectitude and the Punisher of
iniquity. While men’s hearts remain what they are, we must not be
surprised at the prevalence of scepticism; a corrupt tree will bring
forth corrupt fruit. “Every man,” says Dickson, “so long as he lieth
unrenewed and unreconciled to God is nothing in effect but a madman.”
What wonder then if he raves? Such fools as those we are now dealing
with are common to all time, and all countries; they grow without
watering, and are found all the world over. The spread of mere
intellectual enlightenment will not diminish their number, for since it
is an affair of the heart, this folly and great learning will often
dwell together. To answer sceptical cavillings will be labour lost until
grace enters to make the mind willing to believe; fools can raise more
objections in an hour than wise men can answer in seven years, indeed it
is their mirth to set stools for wise men to stumble over. Let the
preacher aim at the heart, and preach the all-conquering love of Jesus,
and he will by God’s grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel
than any hundred of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments
to the head.
“_The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God_,” or “_no God_.” So
monstrous is the assertation, that the man hardly dared to put it as a
positive statement, but went very near to doing so. Calvin seems to
regard this saying “no God,” as hardly amounting to a syllogism,
scarcely reaching to a positive, dogmatical declaration; but Dr.
Alexander clearly shows that it does. It is not merely the wish of the
sinner’s corrupt nature, and the hope of his rebellious heart, but he
manages after a fashion to bring himself to assert it, and at certain
seasons he thinks that he believes it. It is a solemn reflection that
some who worship God with their lips may in their hearts be saying, “no
God.” It is worthy of observation that he does not say there is no
Jehovah, but there is no Elohim; Deity in the abstract is not so much
the object of attack, as the covenant, personal, ruling and governing
presence of God in the world. God as ruler, lawgiver, worker, Saviour,
is the butt at which the arrows of human wrath are shot. How impotent
the malice! How mad the rage which raves and foams against him in whom
we live and move and have our being! How horrible the insanity which
leads a man who owes his all to God to cry out, “_No God_”! How terrible
the depravity which makes the whole race adopt this as their hearts’
desire, “no God”!
“_They are corrupt._” This refers to all men, and we have the warrant of
the Holy Ghost for so saying; see the third chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans. Where there is enmity to God, there is deep, inward
depravity of mind. The words are rendered by eminent critics in an
active sense, “they have done corruptly:” this may serve to remind us
that sin is not only in our nature passively as the source of evil, but
we ourselves actively fan the flame and corrupt ourselves, making that
blacker still which was black as darkness itself already. We rivet our
own chains by habit and continuance.
“_They have done abominable works._” When men begin with renouncing the
Most High God, who shall tell where they will end? When the Master’s
eyes are put out, what will not the servants do? Observe the state of
the world before the flood, as pourtrayed in Genesis vi. 12, and
remember that human nature is unchanged. He who would see a terrible
photograph of the world without God must read that most painful of all
inspired Scriptures, the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans.
Learned Hindoos have confessed that the description is literally correct
in Hindostan at the present moment; and were it not for the restraining
grace of God, it would be so in England. Alas! it is even here but too
correct a picture of things which are done of men in secret. Things
loathsome to God and man are sweet to some palates.
“_There is none that doeth good._” Sins of omission must abound where
transgressions are rife. Those who do the things which they ought not to
have done, are sure to leave undone those things which they ought to
have done. What a picture of our race is this! Save only where grace
reigns, there is none that doeth good; humanity, fallen and debased, is
a desert without an oasis, a night without a star, a dunghill without a
jewel, a hell without a bottom.
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see
if there were any that did understand, _and_ seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are _all_ together become filthy:
_there is_ none that doeth good, no, not one.
“_The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men._” As from a
watch-tower, or other elevated place of observation, the Lord is
represented as gazing intently upon men. He will not punish blindly, nor
like a tyrant command an indiscriminate massacre because a rumour of
rebellion has come up to his ears. What condescending interest and
impartial justice are here imagined! The case of Sodom, visited before
it was overthrown, illustrates the careful manner in which Divine
Justice beholds the sin before it avenges it, and searches out the
righteous that they perish not with the guilty. Behold then the eyes of
Omniscience ransacking the globe, and prying among every people and
nation, “_to see if there were any that did understand and seek God_.”
He who is looking down knows the good, is quick to discern it, would be
delighted to find it; but as he views all the unregenerate children of
men his search is fruitless, for of all the race of Adam, no unrenewed
soul is other than an enemy to God and goodness. The objects of the
Lord’s search are not wealthy men, great men, or learned men; these,
with all they can offer, cannot meet the demands of the great Governor:
at the same time, he is not looking for superlative eminence in virtue,
he seeks for _any that understand_ themselves, their state, their duty,
their destiny, their happiness; he looks for any that _seek God_, who,
if there be a God, are willing and anxious to find him out. Surely this
is not too great a matter to expect; for if men have not yet known God,
if they have any right understanding, they will seek him. Alas! even
this low degree of good is not to be found even by him who sees all
things; but men love the hideous negation of “No God,” and with their
backs to their Creator, who is the sun of their life, they journey into
the dreary region of unbelief and alienation, which is a land of
darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death without any
order and where the light is as darkness.
“_They are all gone aside._” Without exception, all men have apostatized
from the Lord their Maker, from his laws, and from the eternal
principles of right. Like stubborn heifers they have sturdily refused to
receive the yoke, like errant sheep they have found a gap and left the
right field. The original speaks of the race as a whole, as a totality;
and humanity as a whole has become depraved in heart and defiled in
life. “_They have altogether become filthy_;” as a whole they are
spoiled and soured like corrupt leaven, or, as some put it, they have
become putrid and even stinking. The only reason why we do not more
clearly see this foulness is because we are accustomed to it, just as
those who work daily among offensive odours at last cease to smell them.
The miller does not observe the noise of his own mill, and we are slow
to discover our own ruin and depravity. But are there no special cases,
are all men sinful? “Yes,” says the Psalmist, in a manner not to be
mistaken, “they are.” He has put it positively, he repeats it
negatively, “_There is none that doeth good, no, not one._” The Hebrew
phrase is an utter denial concerning any mere man that he of himself
doeth good. What can be more sweeping? This is the verdict of the
all-seeing Jehovah, who cannot exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of
finding a solitary specimen of a good man among the unrenewed human
family might be harboured for an instant. The Holy Spirit is _not_
content with saying all and altogether, but adds the crushing threefold
negative, “_none, no, not one_.” What say the opponents to the doctrine
of natural depravity to this? Rather what do we _feel_ concerning it? Do
we not confess that we by nature are corrupt, and do we not bless the
sovereign grace which has renewed us in the spirit of our minds, that
sin may no more have dominion over us, but that grace may rule and
reign?
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my
people _as_ they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
Hatred of God and corruptness of life are the motive forces which
produce persecution. Men who having no saving knowledge of divine
things, enslave themselves to become workers of iniquity, have no heart
to cry to the Lord for deliverance, but seek to amuse themselves with
devouring the poor and despised people of God. It is hard bondage to be
a “_worker of iniquity_;” a worker at the galleys, or in the mines of
Siberia, is not more truly degraded and wretched; the toil is hard and
the reward dreadful; those who have no knowledge choose such slavery,
but those who are taught of God cry to be rescued from it. The same
ignorance which keeps men bondsmen to evil, makes them hate the freeborn
sons of God; hence they seek to eat them up “_as they eat
bread_,”—daily, ravenously, as though it were an ordinary, usual,
every-day matter to oppress the saints of God. As pikes in a pond eat up
little fish, as eagles prey on smaller birds, as wolves rend the sheep
of the pasture, so sinners naturally and as a matter of course
persecute, malign, and mock the followers of the Lord Jesus. While thus
preying, they forswear all praying, and in this act consistently, for
how could they hope to be heard while their hands are full of blood?
5 There were they in great fear: for God _is_ in the generation of
the righteous.
Oppressors have it not all their own way, they have their fits of
trembling and their appointed seasons of overthrow. _There_—where they
denied God and hectored against his people; _there_—where they thought
of peace and safety, they were made to quail. “_There were they_”—these
very loud-mouthed, iron-handed, proud-hearted Nimrods and Herods, these
heady, high-minded sinners—“_there were they in great fear_.” A panic
terror seized them: “they feared a fear,” as the Hebrew puts it; an
undefinable, horrible, mysterious dread crept over them. The most
hardened of men have their periods when conscience casts them into a
cold sweat of alarm. As cowards are cruel, so all cruel men are at heart
cowards. The ghost of past sin is a terrible spectre to haunt any man,
and though unbelievers may boast as loudly as they will, a sound is in
their ears which makes them ill at ease.
“_For God is in the generation of the righteous._” This makes the
company of godly men so irksome to the wicked because they perceive that
God is with them. Shut their eyes as they may, they cannot but perceive
the image of God in the character of his truly gracious people, nor can
they fail to see that he works for their deliverance. Like Haman, they
instinctively feel a trembling when they see God’s Mordecais. Even
though the saint may be in a mean position, mourning at the gate where
the persecutor rejoices in state, the sinner feels the influence of the
believer’s true nobility and quails before it, for God is there. Let
scoffers beware, for they persecute the Lord Jesus when they molest his
people; the union is very close between God and his people, it amounts
to a mysterious indwelling, for God is in the generation of the
righteous.
6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD _is_ his
refuge.
Notwithstanding their real cowardice, the wicked put on the lion’s skin
and lord it over the Lord’s poor ones. Though fools themselves, they
mock at the truly wise as if the folly were on their side; but this is
what might be expected, for how should brutish minds appreciate
excellence, and how can those who have owl’s eyes admire the sun? The
special point and butt of their jest seems to be the confidence of the
godly in their Lord. What can your God do for you now? Who is that God
who can deliver out of our hand? Where is the reward of all your praying
and beseeching? Taunting questions of this sort they thrust into the
faces of weak but gracious souls, and tempt them to feel ashamed of
their refuge. Let us not be laughed out of our confidence by them, let
us scorn their scorning and defy their jeers; we shall need to wait but
a little, and then the Lord our refuge will avenge his own elect and
ease himself of his adversaries, who once made so light of him and of
his people.
7 Oh that the salvation of Israel _were come_ out of Zion! when the
LORD, bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall
rejoice, _and_ Israel shall be glad.
Natural enough is this closing prayer, for what would so effectually
convince atheists, overthrow persecutors, stay sin, and secure the
godly, as the manifest appearance of Israel’s great Salvation? The
coming of Messiah was the desire of the godly in all ages, and though he
has already come with a sin-offering to purge away iniquity, we look for
him to come a second time, to come without a sin-offering unto
salvation. O that these weary years would have an end! Why tarries he so
long? He knows that sin abounds and that his people are down-trodden;
why comes he not to the rescue? His glorious advent will restore his
ancient people from literal captivity, and his spiritual seed from
spiritual sorrow. Wrestling Jacob and prevailing Israel shall alike
rejoice before him when he is revealed as their salvation. O that he
were come! What happy, holy, halcyon, heavenly days should we then see!
But let us not count him slack, for behold, he comes, he comes quickly!
Blessed are all they that wait for him.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Whole Psalm._—There is a peculiar mark upon this Psalm, in that it is
twice in the Book of Psalms. The fourteenth Psalm and the fifty-third
Psalm are the same with the alteration of one or two expressions at
most. And there is another mark put upon it, that the apostle
transcribes a great part of it.—Rom. iii. 10-12.
It contains a description of a most deplorable state of things in the
world—ay, in Israel; a most deplorable state, by reason of the general
corruption that was befallen all sorts of men, in their principles, and
in their practices, and in their opinions.
First, it was a time when there was a mighty prevalent _principle_ of
atheism got into the world, got among the great men of the world. Saith
he, “That is their principle, they say in their hearts, ‘There is no
God.’” It is true, they did not absolutely profess it; but it was the
principle whereby all their actings were regulated and which they
conformed unto. “_The fool_,” saith he, “_hath said in his heart, There
is no God._” Not this or that particular man, but the fool—that is,
those foolish men; for in the next word he tells you “_They are
corrupt_;” and verse 3, “_They are all gone aside._” “The fool” is taken
indefinitely for the great company and society of foolish men, to
intimate that whatsoever they were divided about else, they were all
agreed in this. “They are all a company of atheists,” saith he,
“practical atheists.”
Secondly, their _affections_ were suitable to this principle, as all
men’s affections and actions are suitable to their principles. What are
you to expect from men whose principle is, that there is no God? Why,
saith he, for their affections, “They are corrupt;” which he expresseth
again (verse 3), “They are all gone aside, they are all together become
filthy.” “All gone aside.” The word in the original is, “They are all
grown sour;” as drink, that hath been formerly of some use, but when
grown vapid—lost all its spirits and life—it is an insipid thing, good
for nothing. And, saith he, “_They are altogether become
filthy_”—“become stinking,” as the margin hath it. They have corrupt
affections, that have left them no life, no savour; but stinking,
corrupt lusts prevail in them universally. They say, “There is no God;”
and they are filled with stinking, corrupt lusts.
Thirdly, if this be their principle and these their affections, let us
look after their _actions_, to see if they be any better. But consider
their actions. They be of two sorts:—1. How they act in the world, 2.
How they act towards the people of God.
1. How do they act in the world? Why, consider that, as to their duties
which they omit, and as to the wickednesses which they perform. What
good do they do? Nay, saith he, “_None of them doeth good._” Yea, some
of them. “_No, not one._” Saith he, verses 1, 3, “There is none that
doeth good, no, not one.” If there was any one among them that did
attend to what was really good and useful in the world, there was some
hope. “No,” saith he, “their principle is atheism, their affections are
corrupt; and for good, there is not one of them doeth any good—they omit
all duties.”
What do they do for evil? Why saith he, “_They have done abominable
works_”—“works,” saith he, “not to be named, not to be spoken of—works
which God abhors, which all good men abhor.” “Abominable works,” saith
he, “such as the very light of nature would abhor;” and give me leave to
use the expression of the Psalmist—“Stinking, filthy works.” So he doth
describe the state and condition of things under the reign of Saul, when
he wrote this Psalm.
2. “If thus it be with them, and if thus it be with their own ways, yet
they let the people of God alone; they will not add that to the rest of
their sins.” Nay, it is quite otherwise, saith he, “_They eat up my
people as they eat bread._” “Those workers of iniquity have no
knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the
LORD.” What is the reason why he brings it in in that manner? Why could
he not say, “They have no knowledge that do such abominable things;” but
brings it in thus, “They have no knowledge who eat up my people as they
eat bread”? “It is strange, that after all my dealings with them and
declaration of my will, they should be so brutish as not to know this
would be their ruin. Don’t they know this will devour them, destroy
them, and be called over again in a particular manner?” In the midst of
all the sins, and greatest and highest provocations that are in the
world, God lays a special weight upon the eating of his people. They may
feed upon their own lusts what they will; but, “Have they no knowledge,
that they eat up my people as they eat bread?”
There are very many things that might be observed from all this; but I
aim to give but a few hints from the Psalm.
Well, what is the state of things now? You see what it was with them.
How was it with the providence of God in reference unto them? Which is
strange, and a man would scarce believe it in such a course as this is,
he tells you (verse 5), notwithstanding all this, they were in great
fear. “_There were they in great fear_,” saith he. May be so, for they
saw some evil coming upon them. No, there was nothing but the hand of
God in it; for in Psalm liii. 5, where these words are repeated, it is,
“There were they in great fear, where no fear was”—no visible cause of
fear; yet they were in great fear.
God by his providence seldom gives an absolute, universal security unto
men in their height of sin, and oppression, and sensuality, and lusts;
but he will secretly put them in fear where no fear is: and though there
be nothing seen that should cause them to have any fear, they shall act
like men at their wits’ end with fear.
But whence should this fear arise? Saith he, it ariseth from hence,
“_For God is in the generation of the righteous._” Plainly they see
their work doth not go on; their meat doth not digest with them; their
bread doth not go well down. “They were eating and devouring my people,
and when they came to devour them, they found God was among them (they
could not digest their bread); and this put them in fear; quite
surprised them.” They came, and thought to have found them a sweet
morsel: when engaged, God was there filling their mouth and teeth with
gravel; and he began to break out the jawbone of the terrible ones when
they came to feed upon them. Saith he, “God was there.” (Verse 5.)
The Holy Ghost gives an account of the state of things that was between
those two sorts of people he had described—between the fool and the
people of God—them that were devouring, and them that had been utterly
devoured, had not God been among them. Both were in fear—they that were
to be devoured, and those that did devour. And they took several ways
for their relief; and he showeth what those ways were, and what judgment
they made upon the ways of one another. Saith he, “_Ye have shamed the
counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge._”
There are the persons spoken of—they are “the poor;” and that is those
who are described in the verses foregoing, the people that were ready to
be eaten up and devoured.
And there is the hope and refuge that these poor had in such a time as
this, when all things were in fear; and that was “the LORD.” The poor
maketh the Lord his refuge.