Psalms 53:1

For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.

1 ^[a][b][c]The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.

Psalms 53:1 in Other Translations

1 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.

1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.

1 Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!

1 Bilious and bloated, they gas, "God is gone." It's poison gas - they foul themselves, they poison Rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop.

1 The fool says in his heart, "God does not exist." They are corrupt, and they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.

Psalms 53:1 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 53:1

The fool hath said in his heart, [there is] no God
The Targum adds, "of whom is revenge"; or there is no God to punish and avenge the wicked;

corrupt are they;
the Chaldee paraphrase is, "the wicked have corrupted their ways"; as all flesh had done in the old world, ( Genesis 6:12 ) ;

and have done abominable iniquity;
iniquity is the abominable thing that God hates, and makes men abominable in his sight; in ( Psalms 11:1 ) , it is read, "abominable worlds": the Targum paraphrases the words, "they are far from good, for iniquity is found in them"; see ( Revelation 21:8 Revelation 21:27 ) ;

[there is] none that doeth good; (See Gill on Psalms 14:1).

Psalms 53:1 In-Context

1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

4 Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on God.

5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 74:22; Psalms 107:17; Proverbs 10:23; Psalms 14:1-7; Romans 3:10
• 2. Psalms 10:4

Footnotes

• [a]. In Hebrew texts 53:1-6 is numbered 53:2-7.
• [b]. Title: Probably a musical term
• [c]. Title: Probably a literary or musical term