Psalms 53

Psalms 53:1-6

God speaketh over, yea twice, and it were well if man would even then perceive it. This psalm is the same almost verbatim with the fourteenth: the scope of it is to convince us of our sins; and abundant need there is that this essential point should be repeatedly touched upon. God, by the psalmist here, 1. Shows us how bad we are, ver. 1. 2. Preises it upon us by his own certain knowledge, ver. 4, 3. 3. He speaks terror to persevere, the world of sinners, ver. 4, 5. 4. He speaks encouragement to God: perfected people, ver. 6.

Or, consuming undermery a PC. exult. 6. 10. 5 PC. 10. 6. 7 Rom. 10. To the chief musician + upon Mahalath, ¹ Mašchil, A psalm of David.

1. THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God; corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doth good. 2.

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3. Every one of them is gone back, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth good, no not one. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people, as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. 5. There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee, thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. 6. O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Mahalath, in the title of this psalm, is by some supposed to be a musical instrument, but by others referred to the subject of the psalm, concerning infirmity, that is, the deplorable alouds of sin, under which the fallen nature labours; a truth of deep moment, and needs to be again and again inculcated, as it is the ground of all true humiliation, and, in a fact, a key to all the doctrines of the gospel.

1. The practical atheism of the natural heart is observed, v. 1. We will leave God far above out of our fight, and then dare sin securely.

2. The universal guilt of mankind is asserted, v. 2. Not some, or a few in one age or nation, but all in every age, in every nation, have come short of the glory of God. There is none that doth good, according to the perfect rule of God’s law, no not one.

3. The greatness of this guilt is noticed, as flowing from that deep and desperate corruption in the nature, which produces abominable iniquity in the practice; particularly, v. 4. selfishness, covetousness, oppression, and habitual neglect of prayer. Note, Sin is the abominable thing God hates: the least spot of it, uncleaned, most eternally exclude us from his presence.

4. The folly, as well as the wickedness, of sinners is great: they live without consideration; they have no knowledge of themselves, or of God; of their guilt here, or their ruin hereafter; the god of this world hath blinded their eyes.

5. Their security will be thereby at an end, and termes overtake the finally impenitent, v. 5. They shall be in great fear, where before they laughed at danger; ruin unavoidable shall destroy them, everlasting confusion cover them, and God shall despise their impotent resistance.

6. The psalmist concludes with an earnest wish, that God would hasten the salvation of his people, rescue them from amidst the world that lieth in wickedness, and cause them to rejoice in Jesus, their glorious Redeemer and Saviour. Note, (1.) Though we are all by nature formed from the same mass of corruption, they who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, are saved from the pollutions that are in the world. (2.) All sinners, of whatever rank and degree, and especially those who in the spirit of Antichristi oppose the power of true religion, and persecute its professors, will perish together, in the day when the triumphs of God’s saints shall be completed. (3.) We shall assuredly join the psalmist’s prayer, if our hearts possess his hopes, and cry, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.