to sing the jubilates of divine grace, he must not disdain to chant the
misereres of human depravity. This is the second time he has had the
same Psalm entrusted to him_ (see Psalm xiv.), _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_ xiv., _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 re-written 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 XIV., “Treasury of David,”
Vol. I._]
EXPOSITION.
The fool hath said in his heart, _There is_ no God. Corrupt are
they, and have done abominable iniquity: _there is_ none that doeth
good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if
there were _any_ that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy;
_there is_ none that doeth good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people
_as_ they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
5 There were they in great fear, _where_ no fear was: for God hath
scattered the bones of him that encampeth _against_ thee: thou hast
put _them_ to shame, because God hath despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel _were come_ out of Zion! When God
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
_and_ Israel shall be glad.
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.
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.
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 pardonable 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?
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 widows’ 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.
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.
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
gladsome, 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 scorn’d;
Their bones lay scatter’d o’er the fields,
Unburied and unmourn’d.
Let Zion’s foes be filled with shame;
Her sons are bless’d 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 xiv. 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, Psalm lx. 6-12;
cviii. 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 later 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
re-wrote 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. This 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 xiv. In each of these
two Psalms the _name_ of God occurs seven times. In Psalm xiv. 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 a-blushing, and to set us a-trembling
because of them; there is need of “line upon line” to this purpose. God,
by the Psalmist, here shows—
I. 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.
II. The _fault_ of sin. It is iniquity (verses 1, 4); it is an
unrighteous thing; it is that in which there is no good (verses 1, 3);
it is going back from God (verse 3).
III. 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.
IV. 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. Verse 4.
V. The _filthiness_ of sin. Sinners are “corrupt” (verse 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.
VI. 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.
VII. The _fear and shame_ that attends sin (verse 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.”
VIII. The _faith_ of the saints, and their hope and power touching this
great evil (verse 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 the 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 is 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 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—1st.
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
now within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of God, you
have a heart fit to do the deed. 2nd. The amazing love of Christ—“While
we were enemies, Christ died for us.”—_Robert Murray M’Cheyne,
1813-1843._
_Verse 1.—“There is no God.”_ אֵין is properly a noun, and means
nonentity, or non-existence: “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 אֵין 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 Exodus
xxii. 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.—_Augustus F. Tholuck, 1856._
_Verse 3.—“They are altogether become filthy.”_ נֶאְֶלָחוּ _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 נֶאְֶלָחוּ, 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, 1867._