Psalm 14
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
TITLE. This admirable ode is simply headed, "To the Chief
Musician, by David." The dedication to the Chief Musician stands
at the head of fifty-three of the Psalms, and clearly indicates that
such psalms were intended, not merely for the private use of
believers, but to be sung in the great assemblies by the appointed
choir at whose head was the overseer, or superintendent, called in
our version, "the Chief Musician," and by Ainsworth, "the Master of
the Music." Several of these psalms have little or no praise in them,
and were not addressed directly to the Most High, and yet were to be
sung in public worship; which is a clear indication that the theory
of Augustine lately revived by certain hymn-book makers, that nothing
but praise should be sung, is far more plausible than scriptural. Not
only did the ancient Church chant hallowed doctrine and offer prayer
amid her spiritual songs, but even the wailing notes of complaint
were put into her mouth by the sweet singer of Israel who was
inspired of God. Some persons grasp at any nicety which has a gloss
of apparent correctness upon it, and are pleased with being more
fancifully precise than others; nevertheless it will ever be the way
of plain men, not only to magnify the Lord in sacred canticles, but
also, according to Paul's precept, to teach and admonish one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their
hearts unto the Lord.
As no distinguishing title is given
to this Psalm, we would suggest as an assistance to the memory, the
heading —CONCERNING PRACTICAL ATHEISM. The many conjectures as
to the occasion upon which it was written are so completely without
foundation, that it would be a waste of time to mention them at
length. The apostle Paul, in Romans 3, has shown incidentally that
the drift of the inspired writer is to show that both Jews and
Gentiles are all under sin; there was, therefore, no reason for
fixing upon any particular historical occasion, when all of history
reeks with terrible evidence of human corruption. With instructive
alterations, David has given us in Psalm 53 a second edition of this
humiliating psalm, being moved of the Holy Ghost thus doubly to
declare a truth which is ever distasteful to carnal minds.
DIVISION. The world's foolish creed (verse 1); its practical
influence in corrupting morals, 1, 2, 3. The persecuting tendencies
of sinners, 4; their alarms, 5; their ridicule of the godly, 6; and a
prayer for the manifestation of the Lord to his people's joy.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "The fool." The Atheist is the fool
pre-eminently, and a fool universally. He would not deny God
if he were not a fool by nature, and having denied God it is no
marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and
as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most
High, so it is also the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no
God is to belie the plainest evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose
the common consent of mankind, which is stupidity; to stifle
consciousness, which is madness. If the sinner could by his atheism
destroy the God whom he hates there were some sense, although much
wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the existence of fire
does not prevent its burning a man who is in it, so doubting the
existence of God will not stop the Judge of all the earth from
destroying the rebel who breaks his laws; nay, this atheism is a
crime which much provokes heaven, and will bring down terrible
vengeance on the fool who indulges it. The proverb says, "A fool's
tongue cuts his own throat," and in this instance it kills both soul
and body for ever: would to God the mischief stopped even there, but
alas! one fool makes hundreds, and a noisy blasphemer spreads his
horrible doctrines as lepers spread the plague. Ainsworth, in his
"Annotations," tells us that the word here used is Nabal,
which has the signification of fading, dying, or falling away, as a
withered leaf or flower; it is a title given to the foolish man as
having lost the juice and sap of wisdom, reason, honesty, and
godliness. Trapp hits the mark when he calls him "that sapless
fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking sepulchre of himself, in
whom all religion and right reason is withered and wasted, dried up
and decayed. Some translate it the apostate, and others the
wretch. With what earnestness should we shun the appearance of
doubt as to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for all
such mistrust is of the nature of folly, and who among us would wish
to be ranked with the fool in the text? Yet let us never forget that
all unregenerate men are more or less such fools.
The fool "hath said in his
heart." May a man with his mouth profess to believe, and yet in
heart say the reverse? Had he hardly become audacious enough to utter
his folly with his tongue? Did the Lord look upon his thoughts as
being in the nature of words to Him though not to man? Is this where
man first becomes an unbeliever?—in his heart, not in his head? And
when he talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart speaking, and
endeavouring to clamour down the voice of conscience? We think so. If
the affections were set upon truth and righteousness, the
understanding would have no difficulty in settling the question of a
present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes the good and the
right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that Elohim, who
is the great moral Governor, the Patron of rectitude and the Punisher
of iniquity. While men's hearts remain what they are, we must not be
surprised at the prevalence of scepticism; a corrupt tree will bring
forth corrupt fruit. "Every man," says Dickson, "so long as he lieth
unrenewed and unreconciled to God is nothing in effect but a madman."
What wonder then if he raves? Such fools as those we are now dealing
with are common to all time, and all countries; they grow without
watering, and are found all the world over. The spread of mere
intellectual enlightenment will not diminish their number, for since
it is an affair of the heart, this folly and great learning will
often dwell together. To answer sceptical cavillings will be labour
lost until grace enters to make the mind willing to believe; fools
can raise more objections in an hour than wise men can answer in
seven years, indeed it is their mirth to set stools for wise men to
stumble over. Let the preacher aim at the heart, and preach the
all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God's grace win more
doubters to the faith of the gospel than any hundred of the best
reasoners who only direct their arguments to the head.
"The fool hath said in his heart,
There is no God," or "no God." So monstrous is the
assertion, that the man hardly dared to put it as a positive
statement, but went very near to doing so. Calvin seems to regard
this saying, "no God," as hardly amounting to a syllogism, scarcely
reaching to a positive, dogmatical declaration; but Dr. Alexander
clearly shows that it does. It is not merely the wish of the sinner's
corrupt nature, and the hope of his rebellious heart, but he manages
after a fashion to bring himself to assert it, and at certain seasons
he thinks that he believes it. It is a solemn reflection that some
who worship God with their lips may in their hearts be saying, "no
God." It is worthy of observation that he does not say there is no
Jehovah, but there is no Elohim; Deity in the abstract is not so much
the object of attack, as the covenant, personal, ruling and governing
presence of God in the world. God as ruler, lawgiver, worker,
Saviour, is the butt at which the arrows of human wrath are shot. How
impotent the malice! How mad the rage which raves and foams against
Him in whom we live and move and have our being! How horrible the
insanity which leads a man who owes his all to God to cry out, "No
God"! How terrible the depravity which makes the whole race adopt
this as their hearts desire, "no God!"
"They are corrupt." This refers
to all men, and we have the warrant of the Holy Ghost for so saying;
see the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Where there is
enmity to God, there is deep, inward depravity of mind. The words are
rendered by eminent critics in an active sense, "they have done
corruptly:" this may serve to remind us that sin is not only in our
nature passively as the source of evil, but we ourselves actively fan
the flame and corrupt ourselves, making that blacker still which was
black as darkness itself already. We rivet our own chains by habit
and continuance.
"They have done abominable
works." When men begin with renouncing the Most High God, who
shall tell where they will end? When the Master's eyes are put out,
what will not the servants do? Observe the state of the world before
the flood, as pourtrayed in Genesis 6:12, and remember that human
nature is unchanged. He who would see a terrible photograph of the
world without God must read that most painful of all inspired
Scriptures, the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Learned
Hindoos have confessed that the description is literally correct in
Hindostan at the present moment; and were it not for the restraining
grace of God, it would be so in England. Alas! it is even here but
too correct a picture of things which are done of men in secret.
Things loathsome to God and man are sweet to some palates.
"There is none that doeth good."
Sins of omission must abound where transgressions are rife. Those who
do the things which they ought not to have done, are sure to leave
undone those things which they ought to have done. What a picture of
our race is this! Save only where grace reigns, there is none that
doeth good; humanity, fallen and debased, is a desert without an
oasis, a night without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell
without a bottom.
Verse 2. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of
men." As from a watchtower, or other elevated place of
observation, the Lord is represented as gazing intently upon men. He
will not punish blindly, nor like a tyrant command an indiscriminate
massacre because a rumour of rebellion has come up to his ears. What
condescending interest and impartial justice are here imaged! The
case of Sodom, visited before it was overthrown, illustrates the
careful manner in which Divine Justice beholds the sin before it
avenges it, and searches out the righteous that they perish not with
the guilty. Behold then the eyes of Omniscience ransacking the globe,
and prying among every people and nation, " to see if there were
any that did understand and seek God." He who is looking down
knows the good, is quick to discern it, would be delighted to find
it; but as he views all the unregenerate children of men his search
is fruitless, for of all the race of Adam, no unrenewed soul is other
than an enemy to God and goodness. The objects of the Lord's search
are not wealthy men, great men, or learned men; these, with all they
can offer, cannot meet the demands of the great Governor: at the same
time, he is not looking for superlative eminence in virtue, he seeks
for any that understand themselves, their state, their duty,
their destiny, their happiness; he looks for any that seek