Psalms 14

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

The historic occasion of this psalm seems clearly indicated. The class of men bearing rule, and giving character to the age, is atheistic. Hebrew and heathen have alike sunk into godlessness and corruption. The Hebrew people are in great reproach and oppression. Their enemies are rampant and pitiless, (Psalms 14:4;) but salvation is still looked for from Zion, from which they are in distant captivity, (Psalms 14:7.) These are not the indications of an internal struggle of a faithful few against a majority party of apostates. No state of the nation could meet all the conditions of the case but one of foreign captivity, with arrogant oppressors, as in the time of Belshazzar. It seems against this view that the authorship is assigned to David; but this is obviated by supposing the body of the psalm to have been written by him, and revised and altered by a later hand, especially inserting Psalms 14:4; Psalms 14:7 to suit it to the captivity. It is evident, from its insertion twice in the Psalter, with variations, (see Psalms 53:0,) that it has been altered from an original, perhaps fragmentary, copy. (See further in the notes.) So far as the psalm approaches a strophical arrangement, it falls into seven verses Psalms 14:1-4; Psalms 14:7, of three lines, and Psalms 14:5-6, of two lines, each. Psalms 14:1, a general declaration of the corruption and atheism of the times; Psalms 14:2, the divine inspection into the extent of the degeneracy, Psalms 14:3, the divine decision upon the universal depravity of the nations; Psalms 14:4, the divine expostulation and warning; Psalms 14:5, the terror of the people at the apprehended judgment of God; Psalms 14:6, the cause of the hatred of his people shown to be on account of their religion; Psalms 14:7, the faith and prayer of the psalmist for the redemption of his people.