Psalms 53
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm says that people who tell themselves there is no God act corruptly, and that when God looks down from heaven he finds no one who does good. It describes those who do evil devouring God's people and never calling on him, and then says they were seized with terror where there was nothing to fear, because God scattered and rejected them. It closes with a wish that rescue for Israel would come from Zion, and says that when God brings his captive people back, Jacob and Israel will be glad.
The fool says to himself, "There is no God." People like that are corrupt. The things they do are disgusting and wrong. Not one of them does good.
1The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
"Fool" here translates a Hebrew word (nabal) for someone morally bankrupt rather than unintelligent, a person whose judgment is corrupt, not one who is slow to learn. This psalm is almost word for word Psalm 14, with "God" where that one has "the LORD". "Says to himself" is literally "says in his heart"; in Hebrew the heart is the seat of thought and will, not feeling, so this is what the person actually believes and acts on, not necessarily what he says out loud. This psalm is a near-duplicate of Psalm 14, with small differences in wording.
2God looked down from heaven at human beings, to see if there was anyone who understood, anyone who was looking for God.
2God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3Every one of them has turned away. Together they have become foul. There is no one who does good. Not a single one.
3Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
4Do these people who do evil never learn? They eat up my people the way a person eats bread. They never call on God.
4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
"Eat up my people the way a person eats bread" is a stock Hebrew image for consuming someone completely and casually, devouring the poor as a matter of ordinary daily business. The speaker shifts here: "my people" is God speaking.
5There they were, filled with terror, in a place where there was nothing to be afraid of. For God scattered the bones of those who set up camp against you. You put them to shame, because God rejected them.
5There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
Leaving a body unburied, its bones scattered on open ground, was among the worst disgraces imaginable in this culture, the fate of an army destroyed in the field with no one left to bury it. "Those who set up camp against you" means a besieging army encircling a city.
6I wish that rescue for Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings his captured people home, Jacob will celebrate and Israel will be glad.
6Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Zion was the hill in Jerusalem on which the temple stood; the name stands for Jerusalem itself and for God's presence there. Deliverance "coming out of Zion" pictures help issuing from that place. The Hebrew behind "brings his captured people home" is a set phrase (shuv shevut) that can mean either returning prisoners or exiles, or more broadly reversing someone's fortunes; translators are divided, and the line carries both senses.
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