Psalm 53
6 verses · Psalm of lament
There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.
Introduction
David, the Fool's Denial, Book 2: The Elohistic Psalter, Poetry, Psalms Overview.
This psalm is David's by its heading, and it is nearly the same poem as Psalm 14, placed again in the second book of the Psalter. The change is in the name of God and in one verse about an army scattered in the field. It speaks to a congregation that watched men live as though no one in heaven noticed. Listen for the verdict passed on the whole human race, and for the difference in the fifth verse when you set it beside the earlier copy. It closes on a longing for rescue.
Context
- Who
- Worshippers tempted to believe that nobody was watching the world
- What
- A second copy of Psalm 14 on the fool who says there is no God, with a new verse on a routed army.
- Where
- Israel under the monarchy, with the psalm naming no place of its own beyond Zion.
- When
- The monarchy, about 1000 BC by the superscription, which names no event.
- Why
- To answer the man who lives as though God is not watching, and to turn Israel's hope toward salvation from Zion.
Historical context
The heading gives the psalm to David and sets it to a tune. It is a near twin of Psalm 14, and ancient songbooks reused material freely. The clearest difference between the two is the name for God, since through this middle section of the collection the plain word God stands where other sections use the covenant name. The fool of verse 1 is a moral term, and the Hebrew word describes a man who knows better and lives as though he did not. The denial in view is that God is watching this, here, now. Verse 5 is where this version parts from Psalm 14, and it is a battlefield picture: an army that camped against God's people ends as remains nobody gathered, which was the deepest disgrace one army could inflict on another.
Significance
Israel's enemies looked unstoppable and unpunished. The song said that the men who act as though the sky is empty end as bones in a field. God looks down on all people and finds none who does good, so the verdict begins abroad and arrives at home.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
This psalm stands twice in the Psalter, once here and once as Psalm 14, and Rashi says so and assigns each copy a date:
He already recited another psalm resembling this one (above 14): “The fool said in his heart, ‘there is no God, etc.’ “, One relates to the destruction of the First Temple and this one, to the Second Temple. (Rashi on Psalms 53:1:1)
He then reads the fool of the second line as a named man out of the history of the second destruction:
The fool said in his heart This is Titus; when he cut into the curtain and his sword was dripping with blood, he said that he had killed [God] Himself. (Rashi on Psalms 53:2:1)
That is the whole difference between the Jewish reading of this psalm and the Christian one in a sentence. Paul takes the same lines as a verdict on every human being, and this site carries the question on its Psalm 14 study and in the page it owes on the twin psalms. Rashi takes them as a verdict on the empire that burned the Temple. Both readings are about who the fool is, and each reads the psalm's corruption of all men against a different horizon. Ibn Ezra stands on this chapter at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:6:1 and 53:7:1, Radak at Radak on Psalms 53:2:1 and 53:6:1, Malbim at Malbim on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:3:1, 53:5:1 and 53:7:1 and Metzudat David at Metzudat David on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:3:1, 53:4:1, 53:5:1 and 53:7:1. Sefaria holds no English version of those references, so this card cites them without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records 7 places where the rabbinic literature takes up a line of this psalm, 7 of them in the Midrash, which is the smallest count in this range. The Midrash on the Psalms treats it at Midrash Tehillim 53:1, 53:2, 53:3, 14:7 and 53:4, Midrash Lekach Tov at Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 9:14:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov at Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 9:14:3. Each is a locator, so the saying stands at its reference and is read there. The twin psalm at Psalm 14 carries the rest of the rabbinic material on these lines.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Psalms, in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under a CC-BY licence; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Psalms, cited at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:6:1 and 53:7:1; Radak, Radak on Psalms, cited at Radak on Psalms 53:2:1 and 53:6:1; Malbim, Malbim on Psalms, cited at Malbim on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:3:1, 53:5:1 and 53:7:1; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Psalms, cited at Metzudat David on Psalms 53:1:1, 53:2:1, 53:3:1, 53:4:1, 53:5:1 and 53:7:1; Midrash Tehillim, the Midrash on the Psalms, cited at Midrash Tehillim 53:1, 53:2, 53:3, 14:7 and 53:4; MannaFest, the twin psalms, Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, in the feature pages owed at docs/lanes/FEATURE-PAGES-OWED.md, 2026; MannaFest, the Sefaria corpus at scripts/data/sources/sefaria/psalms/53.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
Psalms 53:1-2
The fool says in his heart: The denial is said in the heart, and the verdict follows at once, that no one does good. Verse 2 has God looking down from heaven to see whether any man understands or seeks Him. Psalm 14:2 says the LORD where this says God.
Psalms 53:1
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. And this he does because he is a fool. Being a fool he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool he meddles with a great subject, and comes to a wild conclusion. The atheist is, morally as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in philosophy. With the denial of God as a starting point, we may well conclude that the fool's progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Psalms 53:1
“It makes men filthy, altogether filthy. Wilful sinners are offensive in the nostrils of the God of heaven and of the holy angels. What decency soever proud sinners pretend to, it is certain that wickedness is the greatest defilement in the world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
to see if any understand: God looks down to search for one who understands. John Gill notes that Psalm 14:2 reads the LORD at this point and agrees with this verse in every other word. Charles Spurgeon held that had there been one such man, the divine eye would have found him.
Psalms 53:2
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men,.... In Psa 14:2, it is read, "the Lord" or "Jehovah"; in everything else there is an agreement in this verse; See Gill on Psa 14:2; to see if there were any that did understand; the Targum is, "that were understanding" in the law; it doubtless means understanding in divine and spiritual things; that did seek God; the above paraphrase is, "seeking doctrine from before the Lord".”
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 53:2
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men. He did so in ages past, and he has continued his steadfast gaze from his all surveying observatory. To see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Had there been one understanding man, one true lover of his God, the divine eye would have discovered him. Those pure heathens and admirable savages that men talk so much of, do not appear to have been visible to the eye of Omniscience, the fact being that they live nowhere but in the realm of fiction.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
All have turned away: and become corrupt together, and no one is left out of it. Paul quotes the line at Romans 3:12 for his case that Jews and Greeks alike are under sin. Verse 2 looked for one who understands.
Psalms 53:3
“Every one of them is gone back,.... From God, and the way of his commandments. In Psa 14:3, it is, "they are all gone aside"; See Gill on Psa 14:3; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. What follows in this verse is the same as Psa 14:3.”
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 53:3
“Every one of them is gone back. The whole mass of manhood, all of it, is gone back. In the fourteenth Psalm it was said to turn aside, which was bad enough, but here it is described as running in a diametrically opposite direction. The life of unregenerate manhood is in direct defiance of the law of God, not merely apart from it but opposed to it. They are altogether become filthy. The whole lump is soured with an evil leaven, fouled with an all pervading pollution, made rank with general putrefaction.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
the workers of iniquity: The psalm turns to a question, whether the workers of iniquity will ever learn. They devour my people like bread, which is what a man eats daily and without thinking about it. The last clause says they refuse to call upon God.
Psalms 53:4
“Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?.... In Psa 14:4, it is, "have all the workers", &c. There are none of them but what have, unless given up to judicial blindness, and hardness of heart, to believe a lie, as antichrist and his followers, 2Th 2:10; See Gill on Psa 14:4; who eat up my people, as they eat bread; and drink their blood, and are drunken with it, Rev 17:6; they have not called upon God; but upon their idols, upon the Virgin Mary, and saints departed. In Psa 14:4, it is, "upon the Lord".”
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 53:4
“Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? They have no wisdom, certainly, but even so common a thing as knowledge might have restrained them. Can they not see that there is a God? that sin is an evil thing? that persecution recoils upon a man's own head? Are they such utter fools as not to know that they are their own enemies, and are ruining themselves? Who eat up my people as they eat bread.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
overwhelmed with dread: The bones of the besiegers lie scattered, an army left unburied on the ground. The men who said there is no God are the ones God has despised. Their dread fell where there was nothing to fear.
Psalms 53:5
“Instead of assurances of God's presence with the pious, and a complaint of the wicked, Ps 14:5, 6 portrays the ruin of the latter, whose "bones" even "are scattered" (compare Ps 141:7), and who are put to shame as contemptuously rejected of God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 53:5
“There were they in great fear, where no fear was. David sees the end of the ungodly, and the ultimate triumph of the spiritual seed. The rebellious march in fury against the gracious, but suddenly they are seized with a causeless panic. The once fearless boasters tremble like the leaves of the aspen, frightened at their own shadows. In this sentence and this verse, this Psalm differs much from the fourteenth. It is evidently expressive of a higher state of realisation in the poet, he emphasises the truth by stronger expressions. Without cause the wicked are alarmed.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
the salvation of Israel: The psalm ends on a cry for the salvation of Israel to come from Zion. Jacob and Israel are the two names of one man, given at Genesis 32:28, and the last line uses both. The rejoicing waits on God restoring His captive people.
Psalms 53:6
“Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Would God the final battle were well over. When will the Lord avenge his own elect? When will the long oppression of the saints come to its close, and glory crown their heads? The word salvation is in the plural, to show its greatness. When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Inasmuch as the yoke has been heavy, and the bondage cruel, the liberty will be happy, and the triumph joyous.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 3 (1872)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 53:6
“There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a salvation from sin. Oh that it might be hastened! for it will bring in glorious and joyful times. There were those in the Old-Testament times that looked and hoped, that prayed and waited, for this redemption.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A second setting of Psalm 14, with the same words carried into a collection that says God where the other says the LORD, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The saying quoted from inside a man | The psalm opens by quoting a sentence nobody spoke aloud, said in the heart. Spurgeon reads the denial as the act of a fool speaking according to his nature, meddling with a great subject and reaching a wild conclusion. The site's exposition note records that the verdict follows at once rather than after an argument.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 53:1. | Psalm 53:1 |
| No one, said three times | Verse 1 ends with no one who does good, verse 2 looks for any who understand or seek God, and verse 3 closes with no one who does good, not even one. The search and its result are stated in the same words on either side of the looking.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Psalm 53:3. | Psalm 53:1, Psalm 53:2, Psalm 53:3 |
| Dread where there was nothing to fear | Verse 5 turns the psalm's own subject back on the men who held it. They said there is no God, and then terror took them in a place that held no threat. Spurgeon reads the fear as causeless and sudden, falling on men marching in fury against the gracious.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 53:5. | Psalm 53:5 |
The pattern of the psalm is a search that comes back empty. God looks down to see whether any understand, and the answer at verse 3 uses the same words the psalm had already used at verse 1.
6 more paragraphs on the patterns
The New Testament's use
Paul quotes the psalm in the catena of Romans 3:10 to 12. There the line that no one does good, not even one, carries his case that Jews and Greeks alike are under sin. The site's exposition note for verses 2 and 3 records the quotation at Romans 3:12. The apostle's use takes the verdict at full strength and applies it to the whole race rather than to a class of scoffers, which is how the church has read the psalm since.
The debate
The relation between Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 is the psalm's open question. Delitzsch and the commentators who follow him read the two as one psalm in two settings, gathered for different uses before the collection was joined, which the divine names support. Clarke reads them as the same psalm and refers his notes across. Neither reading changes a line of the text, and the site presents both rather than deciding.
Where it stands
Read it with Psalm 14 first, then with Romans 3, and the three together make one argument. Inside this book of the Psalter it stands beside Psalm 52, which describes one corrupt man, and Psalm 55, which describes a corrupt friend.
Keep studying
Words8
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Psalm 53:1 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 53:1.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The painting
Sower with Setting Sun. Vincent van Gogh, mid July 1888. Sotheby's, New York, 18 November 2025, lot 4. Public domain.