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Psalms 14

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The Fool's Rejection of God 1–3

1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 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. ​
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.

Judgment on the Workers of Iniquity 4–7

4
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. ​
5
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. ​
6
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalm 14

Verse 1

The fool hath said in his heart — ‘Fool’ is nabal, the impious, the man whose name Abigail turned on her husband: ‘as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him’ (1 Sam 25:25). ‘Corrupt’ is shachath, the word of Gen 6:12, ‘it was corrupt’. Ps 53:1 repeats the verse, and Paul draws on this psalm in Rom 3:10, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’.

Verse 2

to see if there were any that did understand — ‘Looked down’ is shaqaph, to lean out and look, as when Abraham ‘looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah’ (Gen 19:28). ‘Seek’ is darash, the verb of Ps 10:4, ‘will not seek after God’. Paul quotes the verse in Rom 3:11, and Heb 11:6 names who pleases God: those ‘that diligently seek him’.

Verse 4

eat up my people as they eat bread — ‘Workers of iniquity’ is pa’al aven, the phrase of Ps 6:8. ‘Eat’ is akal and ‘bread’ is lechem, so the harm is done as a daily meal, as Mic 3:3 says of rulers who ‘eat the flesh of my people’. ‘Call not upon’ is qara’; Ps 53:4 puts the same line with ‘they have not called upon God’.

Verse 5

There were they in great fear — ‘In great fear’ is the verb and the noun of one root, pachad, ‘they feared a fear’. Ps 53:5 adds ‘where no fear was’. The cause is ‘God is in the generation of the righteous’, the ‘generation of them that seek him’ (Ps 24:6). The fear that fell on the nations at the Red Sea was also pachad (Ex 15:16).

Verse 7

the salvation of Israel… out of Zion — ‘Bringeth back’ is shub and ‘captivity’ shebuth, the phrase for a turning of fortune, as ‘the LORD turned the captivity of Job’ (Job 42:10) and ‘turned again the captivity of Zion’ (Ps 126:1). Ps 53:6 repeats the verse. Paul has Zion in view in Rom 11:26, ‘There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer’.