1 To the Overseer. -- `On a disease.' -- An instruction, by David. A fool said in his heart, `There is no God.' They have done corruptly, Yea, they have done abominable iniquity, There is none doing good.
To the Overseer. -- By David. A fool hath said in his heart, `God is not;' They have done corruptly, They have done abominable actions, There is not a doer of good. Jehovah from the heavens Hath looked on the sons of men, To see if there is a wise one -- seeking God. The whole have turned aside, Together they have been filthy: There is not a doer of good, not even one. Have all working iniquity not known? Those consuming my people have eaten bread, Jehovah they have not called. There they have feared a fear, For God `is' in the generation of the righteous. The counsel of the poor ye cause to stink, Because Jehovah `is' his refuge. `Who doth give from Zion the salvation of Israel? When Jehovah doth turn back `To' a captivity of His people, Jacob doth rejoice -- Israel is glad!
The wicked according to the height of his face, inquireth not. `God is not!' `are' all his devices.
according as it hath been written -- `There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who is understanding, there is none who is seeking after God. All did go out of the way, together they became unprofitable, there is none doing good, there is not even one. A sepulchre opened `is' their throat; with their tongues they used deceit; poison of asps `is' under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Swift `are' their feet to shed blood. Ruin and misery `are' in their ways. And a way of peace they did not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.' And we have known that as many things as the law saith, to those in the law it doth speak, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may come under judgment to God; wherefore by works of law shall no flesh be declared righteous before Him, for through law is a knowledge of sin. And now apart from law hath the righteousness of God been manifested, testified to by the law and the prophets, and the righteousness of God `is' through the faith of Jesus Christ to all, and upon all those believing, -- for there is no difference, for all did sin, and are come short of the glory of God -- being declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that `is' in Christ Jesus, whom God did set forth a mercy seat, through the faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the bygone sins in the forbearance of God -- for the shewing forth of His righteousness in the present time, for His being righteous, and declaring him righteous who `is' of the faith of Jesus. Where then `is' the boasting? it was excluded; by what law? of works? no, but by a law of faith: therefore do we reckon a man to be declared righteous by faith, apart from works of law. The God of Jews only `is He', and not also of nations? yes, also of nations; since one `is' God who shall declare righteous the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through the faith. Law then do we make useless through the faith? let it not be! yea, we do establish law.
A brutish man doth not know, And a fool understandeth not this; --
for sufficient to us `is' the past time of life the will of the nations to have wrought, having walked in lasciviousnesses, desires, excesses of wines, revelings, drinking-bouts, and unlawful idolatries,
And, according as they did not approve of having God in knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mind, to do the things not seemly;
because, having known God they did not glorify `Him' as God, nor gave thanks, but were made vain in their reasonings, and their unintelligent heart was darkened,
but I -- I say to you, that every one who is angry at his brother without cause, shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever may say to his brother, Empty fellow! shall be in danger of the sanhedrim, and whoever may say, Rebel! shall be in danger of the gehenna of the fire.
As to Samaria, as the half of thy sins -- she hath not sinned, And thou dost multiply thine abominations more than they, And dost justify thy sisters by all thy abominations that thou hast done.
And Jehovah seeth that abundant `is' the wickedness of man in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil all the day; and Jehovah repenteth that He hath made man in the earth, and He grieveth Himself -- unto His heart.
A Song, a Psalm, by sons of Korah, to the Overseer, `Concerning the Sickness of Afflictions.' -- An instruction, by Heman the Ezrahite. O Jehovah, God of my salvation, Daily I have cried, nightly before Thee,
He said in his heart, `God hath forgotten, He hath hid His face, He hath never seen.'
He hath said in his heart, `I am not moved,' To generation and generation not in evil.
and also a whoremonger hath been in the land; they have done according to all the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel.
`Thou dost not do so to Jehovah thy God; for every abomination of Jehovah which He is hating they have done to their gods, for even their sons and their daughters they burn with fire to their gods.
`Ye are not defiled with all these, for with all these have the nations been defiled which I am sending away from before you; and the land is defiled, and I charge its iniquity upon it, and the land vomiteth out its inhabitants: and ye -- ye have kept My statutes and My judgments, and do not `any' of all these abominations, the native and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst, (for all these abominations have the men of the land done who `are' before you, and the land is defiled), and the land doth not vomit you out in your defiling it, as it hath vomited out the nation which `is' before you; for any one who doth `any' of all these abominations -- even the persons who are doing `so', have been cut off from the midst of their people; and ye have kept My charge, so as not to do `any' of the abominable statutes which have been done before you, and ye do not defile yourselves with them; I `am' Jehovah your God.'
And the earth is corrupt before God, and the earth is filled `with' violence. And God seeth the earth, and lo, it hath been corrupted, for all flesh hath corrupted its way on the earth. And God said to Noah, `An end of all flesh hath come before Me, for the earth hath been full of violence from their presence; and lo, I am destroying them with the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 53
Commentary on Psalms 53 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 53
God speaks once, yea, twice, and it were well if man would even then perceive it; God, in this psalm, speaks 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 trembling because of them; and this is what we are with so much difficulty brought to that there is need of line upon line to this purport. The word, as a convincing word, is compared to a hammer, the strokes whereof must be frequently repeated. God, by the psalmist here,
Some little variation there is between Ps. 14 and this, but none considerable, only between v. 5, 6, there, and v. 5 here; some expressions there used are here left out, concerning the shame which the wicked put upon God's people, and instead of that, is here foretold the shame which God would put upon the wicked, which alteration, with some others, he made by divine direction when he delivered it the second time to the chief musician. In singing it we ought to lament the corruption of the human nature, and the wretched degeneracy of the world we live in, yet rejoicing in hope of the great salvation.
To the chief musician upon Mahalath, Maschil. A psalm of David.
Psa 53:1-6
This psalm was opened before, and therefore we shall here only observe, in short, some things concerning sin, in order to the increasing of our sorrow for it and hatred of it.