Psalms 14:1

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Psalms

Psalms 14

For the director of music. Of David.

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

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Psalms 14:1 in Other Translations

KJV

1 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.

ESV

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

NLT

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!

MSG

1 Bilious and bloated, they gas, "God is gone." Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison Rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop.

CSB

1 The fool says in his heart, "God does not exist." They are corrupt; their actions are revolting. There is no one who does good.

Psalms 14:1 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 14:1

The fool hath said in his heart
This is to be understood not of a single individual person, as Nabal, which is the word here used; nor of some Gentile king, as Sennacherib, or Rabshakeh his general, as Theodoret; nor of Nebuchadnezzar, nor of Titus, as some Jewish writers ^F25 interpret it, making one to be here intended, and the other in the fifty third psalm: the same with this; but of a body, a set of men, who justly bear this character; and design not such who are idiots, persons void of common sense and understanding; but such who are fools in their morals, without understanding in spiritual things; wicked profligate wretches, apostates from God, alienated from the life of God; and whose hearts are full of blindness and ignorance, and whose conversations are vile and impure, and they enemies of righteousness, though full of all wicked subtlety and mischief: these say in their hearts, which are desperately wicked, and out of which evil thoughts proceed, pregnant with atheism and impiety; these endeavour to work themselves into such a belief, and inwardly to conclude, at least to wish,

[there is] no God;
though they do not express it with their mouths, yet they would fain persuade their hearts to deny the being of God; that so having no superior to whom they are accountable, they may go on in sin with impunity; however, to consider him as altogether such an one as themselves, and to remove such perfections from him, as may render him unworthy to be regarded by them; such as omniscience, omnipresence and to conceive of him as entirely negligent of and unconcerned about affairs of this lower world, having nothing to do with the government of it: and thus to deny his perfections and providence, is all one as to deny his existence, or that there is a God: accordingly the Targum paraphrases it,

``there is no (anjlwv) , "government" of God in the earth;''

so Kimchi interprets it,

``there is no governor, nor judge in the world, to render to man according to his works;''

they are corrupt;
that is, everyone of these fools; and it is owing to the corruption of their hearts they say such things: they are corrupt in themselves; they have corrupt natures, they are born in sin, and of the flesh, and must be carnal and corrupt: or "they do corrupt", or "have corrupted" ^F26: they corrupt themselves by their atheistic thoughts and wicked practices, ( Jude 1:10 ) ; or their works, as the Chaldee paraphrase adds; or their ways, their manner and course of life, ( Genesis 6:12 ) ; and they corrupt others with their evil communications, their bad principles and practices, their ill examples and wicked lives;

they have done abominable works:
every sinful action is abominable in the sight of God; but there are some sins more abominable than others; there are abominable idolatries, and abominable lusts, such as were committed in Sodom; and it may be these are pointed at here, and which are usually committed by such who like not to retain God in their knowledge; see ( Romans 1:24 Romans 1:28 ) ;

[there is] none that doeth good;
anyone good work in a spiritual manner; not in faith, from love, in the name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory of God: nor can any man do a good work without the grace of God, and strength from Christ, and the assistance of the Spirit of God: hence, whatsoever a wicked man does, whether in a civil or in a religious way, is sin; see ( Proverbs 21:4 Proverbs 21:27 ) . Arama takes these to be the words of the fool, or atheist, saying, there is no God that does good, like those in ( Zephaniah 1:12 ) .

FOOTNOTES:

F25 Vid. Jarchi, Kimchi & Ben Melech in loc.
F26 (wtyxvh) "corruperunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "corrumpunt", Junius & Tremellius; "corrumpunt se", Piscator.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible