The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"fool," Hebrew naval (נָבָל), the moral fool, not the simply unintelligent but the one who is godless and corrupt. This psalm is almost word for word the same as Psalm 14, the diagnosis repeated. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The naval is not a man of low intelligence but of corrupt morals; his folly is moral before it is intellectual.

"said in his heart," amar belibbo (אָמַר בְּלִבּוֹ). Notice where he says it. This is not chiefly a reasoned conclusion of the mind but a wish of the heart, spoken inwardly where no argument is required and no one can contradict him.

"no God," ein Elohim (אֵין אֱלֹהִים). The creed is only two words in Hebrew, and it is the whole of his religion. He does not speak of "the LORD," the covenant name, but of Elohim, the Creator whom even the nations know; it is his own Maker he is denying.

"corrupt," hishchitu (הִשְׁחִיתוּ), acted ruinously. The fruit of the creed is named at once. The denial does not stay in the heart; it works outward into ruinous conduct, so that what a man says inwardly about God is proved by what he does.

"abominable iniquity," avel (עָוֶל), injustice, wrong. The second fruit, and the plain word for it is injustice. A God who sees would judge the very wrong he means to do, which is precisely why the fool prefers a world with no God in it.

Explanation

Before we look at the fool, notice the striking fact that this psalm exists at all: it is almost an exact copy of Psalm 14. God does not usually repeat Himself word for word, and when He does, it is for emphasis, the way a teacher underlines a sentence twice. The diagnosis of the human heart is so grave, and so easily brushed aside, that the Spirit sets it down a second time, once near the front of Book One (Psalm 14) and again here in Book Two, as if to say: you did not mishear it the first time. There is even a quiet difference that sharpens the point. Psalm 14 mostly used the covenant name "the LORD" (YHWH); this psalm speaks only of "God" (Elohim), the name of the Creator that even the nations know. It is as if the second telling widens the verdict from Israel's covenant setting to the whole human race under its Maker. And the heart of the diagnosis is that word "in his heart." The fool's "There is no God" is not first the verdict of a mind that has weighed the evidence; it is the wish of a heart that does not want God to exist, because a God who sees would judge the "abominable iniquity" he means to do. Practical atheism usually runs downhill from desire to denial: first a man wants to sin, then he finds it convenient to conclude there is no one to answer to. The creed follows the craving.

Gospel Focus

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God", and the gospel of Jesus Christ meets the fool exactly where his folly begins, in the heart. Because the problem is not merely intellectual but moral, the cure is not merely information but a new heart. Christ came to give what the fool most needs, "a new heart also will I give you" (Ezekiel 36:26), and to turn the practical atheist into a worshipper. In the deepest sense the true and living God has answered "There is no God" by coming near in flesh, "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16); the God the fool denied has stepped into history in Jesus Christ, so that men "beheld his glory" (John 1:14). And wisdom, the opposite of the fool's folly, is found in Him, for Christ "of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30), and "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom" (Colossians 2:3). To come to Christ is to be turned from the fool's road, no longer saying in the heart "there is no God," but confessing "with thy mouth the Lord Jesus" and believing "in thine heart" (Romans 10:9). He alone can cleanse the corrupt heart from which the folly springs and write the knowledge of God upon it.

Word Study

"gone back," Hebrew sag (סָג), turned aside, fallen away. The verse before pictured God looking "down from heaven upon the children of men" to see "if there were any that did understand." Here is the result of that divine survey: "Every one of them is gone back." Not "most men" or "many men", but every one has turned aside.

"altogether," yachdav (יַחְדָּו), all together, as one. The verdict does not say they are partly tainted, but "altogether become filthy", all together, as a single spoiled batch. The race is judged not man by man but as one ruined whole.

"become filthy," ne'elachu (נֶאֱלָחוּ), gone sour, tainted, spoiled like curdled milk. The word pictures milk gone sour. It is not a stain on the surface that could be wiped off, but a souring that has gone through the whole, so that the thing itself is spoiled.

"none that doeth good," ein oseh-tov (אֵין עֹשֵׂה־טוֹב). In case a hopeful reader should still be searching the crowd for one good exception, the verse closes the door: "there is none that doeth good." And this is not man's estimate of man, which is always flattering, but the finding of the God who looked down from heaven to see for Himself.

"no, not one," ein gam-echad (אֵין גַּם־אֶחָד). The final phrase is not poetry piled on for effect; it is a legal seal, sealing off any escape. The verdict is total: not one exception.

Explanation

Weigh how carefully this verdict closes every loophole, because that is its whole design. It does not say "most men" or "many men" have gone wrong; it says "every one of them is gone back." It does not say they are partly tainted, but "altogether become filthy", all together, as a single spoiled batch. And in case a hopeful reader should still be searching the crowd for one good exception, it slams the last door: "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." That final phrase, "no, not one," is not poetry piled on for effect; it is a legal seal, sealing off any escape. And notice the setting: this is not man's estimate of man, which is always flattering, but God's estimate, for verse 2 says "God looked down from heaven" to run the survey Himself. The verdict of "none, no, not one" is the finding of the only Judge whose eyes miss nothing. This is why the Apostle Paul reached for these very words to prove the whole world guilty before God: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one... they are all gone out of the way... there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:10-12). The purpose of so bleak a verdict is mercy, for a man will never run to a Saviour until he has given up hope of saving himself. The door of self-righteousness must be shut, "no, not one," before the door of grace will be sought.

Gospel Focus

"There is none that doeth good, no, not one", Paul makes this verse the cornerstone of his case that all have sinned and need the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Having quoted it, he concludes, "that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19), so that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The universal "no, not one" is the dark background against which the gospel shines, for into a world where none is righteous comes One who is: Jesus Christ, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). He alone did good, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22), the single exception to "no, not one," and He gives His righteousness to all who believe, "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). So the verdict that condemns the whole race is the very thing that drives us to the Saviour: since none of us can do the good that saves, we must be saved by the good that Another has done. Give up the search for one righteous man within yourself, and look to the one righteous Man, Christ, in whom the ungodly are counted righteous by faith.

Word Study

"great fear," Hebrew pachadu pachad (פָּחֲדוּ פַחַד), they feared a fear, dreaded a dread. The Hebrew doubles the word for emphasis, verb and noun from the same root. The wicked, so bold in denying God, are suddenly gripped by panic: "There were they in great fear."

"where no fear was," lo-hayah pachad (לֹא־הָיָה פָחַד). This is the phrase where Psalm 53 parts from its twin Psalm 14 and speaks its own word. Terror falls on them for no visible cause, panic with no enemy in sight; the man who reasoned God out of existence so that he would never have to fear Him is seized by a fear he cannot explain.

"scattered," pizzar (פִּזַּר), strewn abroad. Behind the causeless panic lies a real act of God: "for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee." The besieging army is not merely defeated but broken up and strewn across the field.

"the bones," atzmot (עַצְמוֹת). The rout is total, down to the bones left lying unburied where they fell. Nothing remains of the proud besieger but what the field itself displays.

"him that encampeth against thee," chonakh (חֹנָךְ), the besieger. The word pictures an army pitched around a city, settled in for a siege. That settled, confident menace is exactly what God scatters.

"despised," me'asam (מְאָסָם), rejected them. The reason for the rout is given last: "because God hath despised them." The psalm that began with man despising God ends with God rejecting the proud who set themselves against His people.

Explanation

This is the one verse where Psalm 53 leaves its twin behind and adds a scene all its own, and it is worth asking why. Psalm 14 had said simply, "There were they in great fear." Psalm 53 keeps that line but adds three vivid, terrible words: "where no fear was." Think about what that phrase means. The fool who said "There is no God" prided himself on being free of fear, he had reasoned God out of existence precisely so he would never have to be afraid of Him. And then terror falls on him anyway, "where no fear was", panic with no visible enemy, dread rising out of nowhere. The man who abolished God to escape fear is seized by a fear he cannot explain, because the God he denied is still there. This is the secret dread that haunts the godless heart: it has talked itself out of God but cannot talk itself out of the fear, and the fear itself is a witness that its creed is a lie. And the psalm names the reality behind the panic: "God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee." The proud besieger is routed, his very bones strewn on the field, not because the righteous were mighty, but "because God hath despised them." So the psalm that began with man despising God ("there is no God") ends with God despising the proud who set themselves against His people. The fool imagines he has dismissed God; in the end it is God who dismisses him.

Gospel Focus

"There were they in great fear... for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee", the God who scatters His people's proud enemies has won the final victory in Jesus Christ, who spoiled the powers that besieged us. On the cross Christ "having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15); the great enemy that "encampeth against" the soul, sin, death, and the devil, is routed by the Saviour. And the psalm does not end in judgment but in hope, the same longing as its twin: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!" (v6). That salvation has come, out of Zion, in Jesus Christ, "there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer" (Romans 11:26). The cross answers both halves of the psalm at once: it deals with the fool's corrupt heart by giving a new one, and it scatters the enemy that encamps against God's people. So the believer need not fear the boasting of the godless, however they encamp against him, for God has already scattered the greatest foe in Christ, and one day "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20). The salvation longed for out of Zion is here; His name is Jesus, and in Him the fear of the wicked becomes the joy of the redeemed.