Bible Commentaries

This psalm, the same as the fourteenth, is repeated here, and was sung in plaintive strains when Sennacherib invaded Judea, as is affirmed by Origen, Theodoret, and others.

Psalms 53:1. The fool, the brutish, the sottish man, who sets up his judgment and pleasure above all law, and all religion. The being of a God is the foundation of all worship and obedience. Assuredly there is a Creator, a judge, a ruler of the whole earth.

Psalms 53:4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? We must catechise and instruct the rising age, or the people will perish for lack of knowledge.—They eat up my people as they eat bread. The Chaldean army devoured the land, which is here called eating and devouring the people, who in another place are said to be devoured by the sword.

Psalms 53:6. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. The Vulgate more exactly renders the Hebrew, Quis dabit ex Zion salutare Israel? Who will give out of Zion One to save Israel? The glory or shekinah dwelt in Zion, and Messiah arose of David’s line. Therefore this prayer is addressed to the Messiah in time of trouble, and in unison with all prayers of a like nature. “Thou that dwellest between the cherubims shine forth.” Psalms 80:1. Other prophets have used the same language. “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people.—Oh the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble.” Habakkuk 3:13. Jeremiah 14:8. To this refuge we must always run in the evil day. See the answer to those prayers in 2 Chronicles 32:21. See also on Psalms 14.