Psalm 14:1
For the director of music. Of David.
Read Psalm 14:1 Using Other Translations
What does Psalm 14:1 mean?
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 ) .
F25 Vid. Jarchi, Kimchi & Ben Melech in loc.
F26 (wtyxvh) "corruperunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "corrumpunt", Junius & Tremellius; "corrumpunt se", Piscator.
