2 Jehovah from the heavens Hath looked on the sons of men, To see if there is a wise one -- seeking God.
From the heavens hath Jehovah looked, He hath seen all the sons of men. From the fixed place of His dwelling, He looked unto all inhabitants of the earth;
And God seeth the earth, and lo, it hath been corrupted, for all flesh hath corrupted its way on the earth.
There is none who is understanding, there is none who is seeking after God.
but good things have been found with thee, for thou hast put away the shrines out of the land, and hast prepared thy heart to seek God.'
Purify themselves, yea, make themselves white, yea, refined are many: and the wicked have done wickedly, and none of the wicked understand, and those acting wisely do understand;
`Who `is' simple? let him turn aside hither.' And whoso lacketh heart -- she said to him,
Look attentively from the heavens, And see from Thy holy and beauteous habitation, Where `is' Thy zeal and Thy might? The multitude of Thy bowels and Thy mercies Towards me have refrained themselves.
Didst Thou not rend the heavens? Thou didst come down, From thy presence did mountains flow,
And Jehovah cometh down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men have builded;
In the withering of its branch it is broken off, Women are coming in setting it on fire, For it `is' not a people of understanding, Therefore pity it not doth its Maker, And its Former doth not favour it.
And when they say unto you, `Seek unto those having familiar spirits, And unto wizards, who chatter and mutter, Doth not a people seek unto its God? -- For the living unto the dead!
Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path.
Who `is' wise, and observeth these? They understand the kind acts of Jehovah!
A brutish man doth not know, And a fool understandeth not this; --
They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.
who hath prepared his heart to seek God -- Jehovah, God of his fathers -- yet not according to the cleansing of the sanctuary;'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 14
Commentary on Psalms 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 14
It does not appear upon what occasion this psalm was penned nor whether upon any particular occasion. Some say David penned it when Saul persecuted him; others, when Absalom rebelled against him. But they are mere conjectures, which have not certainty enough to warrant us to expound the psalm by them. The apostle, in quoting part of this psalm (Rom. 3:10, etc.) to prove that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (v. 9) and that all the world is guilty before God (v. 19), leads us to understand it, in general, as a description of the depravity of human nature, the sinfulness of the sin we are conceived and born in, and the deplorable corruption of a great part of mankind, even of the world that lies in wickedness, 1 Jn. 5:19. But as in those psalms which are designed to discover our remedy in Christ there is commonly an allusion to David himself, yea, and some passages that are to be understood primarily of him (as in Psalm 2, 16, 22, and others), so in this psalm, which is designed to discover our wound by sin, there is an allusion to David's enemies and persecutors, and other oppressors of good men at that time, to whom some passages have an immediate reference. In all the psalms from the 3rd to this (except the 8th) David had been complaining of those that hated and persecuted him, insulted him and abused him; now here he traces all those bitter streams to the fountain, the general corruption of nature, and sees that not his enemies only, but all the children of men, were thus corrupted. Here is,
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 14:1-3
If we apply our hearts as Solomon did (Eccl. 7:25) to search out the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness, these verses will assist us in the search and will show us that sin is exceedingly sinful. Sin is the disease of mankind, and it appears here to be malignant and epidemic.
In singing this let us lament the corruption of our own nature, and see what need we have of the grace of God; and, since that which is born of the flesh is flesh, let us not marvel that we are told we must be born again.
Psa 14:4-7
In these verses the psalmist endeavours,