Commentary LibraryCommentaries on Psalms 53:1
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John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 53 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David. The word "mahalath" is only used here and in Psalms 88:1. Some, with Aben Ezra, take it to be the first word of a song, to the tune of which this psalm was set; others, with Jarchi, that it is the name of a musical instrument on which it was sung; a hollow instrument; of the same nature with "nehiloth",...
John Gill
The fool hath said in his heart, [there is] no God,.... The Targum adds, "of whom is revenge"; or there is no God to punish and avenge the wicked; corrupt are they; the Chaldee paraphrase is, "the wicked have corrupted their ways"; as all flesh had done in the old world, Genesis 6:12; and have done abominable iniquity; iniquity is the abominable thing that God hates, and makes men abominable in...
Matthew Henry
God speaks once, yea, twice, and it were well if man would even then perceive it; God, in this psalm, speaks twice, for this is the same almost verbatim with the fourteenth psalm. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins, to set us a blushing and trembling because of them; and this is what we are with so much difficulty brought to that there is need of line upon line to this purport. The...
Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 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...