Psalms 14:1-6

The Folly of the Godless and God’s Final Triumph

1

For the [music] director. Of David.

1 [The] fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good.

2 Yahweh looks down from heaven upon the children of humankind to see whether there is one who has insight, one who cares about God.

3 All have gone astray; they are altogether corrupt. There is not one who does good; there is not even one.

4 All who do evil--do they not know, [they] who eat my people [as though] they were eating bread? They do not call on Yahweh.

5 There {they are very fearful} because God [is] with [the] generation of [the] righteous.

6 You would put to shame [the] plan of [the] poor, because Yahweh [is] his refuge.

Psalms 14:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, [a Psalm] of David. The argument of this psalm, according to Theodoret, is Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, when he sent Rabshakeh to Hezekiah, with menaces and curses; upon which Hezekiah implored divine help, and obtained it, and the Assyrian army was destroyed by an angel; of all which he thinks this psalm was prophetic.

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm
• [b]. Literally "they feared a fear"
• [c]. Or "but"