Psalm 53
6 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 14×3Romans 3×2Psalms 10×1Isaiah 55×12 Chronicles 15×1Jeremiah 16×1
Summary
Chapter summary
The twin of Psalm 14, sounded again in Book II with 'Elohim' throughout: 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' God looks down from heaven; every one of them is gone back, filthy together, 'no, not one' doing good, the double witness Paul gathers into Romans 3. One new note: 'God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee.' Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 53The history
This psalm is a near twin of Psalm 14. Ancient songbooks reused material freely — the same words served different services, the way a hymn appears in more than one hymnal today. The clearest difference is the name for God: through this middle section of the collection the plain word God stands where other sections use the covenant name, which suggests these psalms were gathered for a particular use before being folded into the whole.
The fool of the opening line is not a slow learner. The Hebrew word describes moral senselessness — a man who knows better and lives as if he does not. And what he says in his heart is not a philosophy lecture. Almost nobody in the ancient world denied that gods existed. What he denies is that God is watching this, here, now.
The line about scattered bones is where this version parts from Psalm 14. It is a battlefield picture: an army that camped against God's people and ended as remains nobody gathered. Leaving the dead unburied was the deepest disgrace an ancient army could inflict, and it is exactly what the psalm says happens to the men who assumed nobody was keeping score.
What it meant to them
Israel's enemies looked unstoppable and unpunished. The song says the ones who act as though the sky is empty end as bones in a field.
But it does not let Israel enjoy that too much. God looks down on all people and finds none doing good, not one. The verdict starts abroad and lands at home.
Sources cited
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 53. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.