Psalm 53 - The Folly and Wickedness of Men

 

Psalm 53 A Psalm of David with Comments by Dennis Edwards.

Psalm 53 is a repetition of Psalm 14 with a few minor changes. It is tucked in between two prayers against David’s enemies: Saul, who knew God and had been baptised by the Holy Spirit, but in self-pride and men-pleasing turned away from the Lord; and Doeg, who seems to have not known God. Doeg was led by his desire to move up in the world, and was willing to commit whatever atrocities necessary, in order to do so.  

Both these men are fools, and typify the antichrist types: Saul, the former believer who has lost faith and becomes embittered against God and becomes God’s enemy; and Doeg, the unbeliever who has no faith and lives for this present evil world and the lusts thereof, and as a result is the enemy of God.  

In James we read, “You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God,” James 4:4.

Instead of loving the Lord God with all their heart, mind, body, and soul; they love the world. As a result, they are committing spiritual fornication with the world and the things of the world.

Apostle John makes a similar point:

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever,” 1 John 2:15-17.

Jesus Himself had said, “If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you,” John 15:19.

In Revelation 17, we see that the great commercial city system of the world is depicted as a great whore, “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication,” Revelation 17:2.

By loving the world and the things of the world, we are committing spiritual fornication with the world. However, ultimately, none of those things, whether they be power, wealth, or sex and pleasure; can satisfy the deepest longer of our soul, which yearns for communion with its Maker.

God’s first commandment to the children of Israel reflects that very reality: “I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,” Exodus 20:2a-5a.

Solomon tells us, if we do not search and find our greater purpose in life, we are no more than the beats of the field. He concludes that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments, Ecclesiastes 12:13.

Psalm 53:1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that does good.

If we do not fear God, if we do not have God in our understanding, we open the door to becoming our own gods. We open the door to Dostoevsky’s conclusion: “If there is no God, everything is permissible.”

As a result of culture abandoning God, each person becomes his own moral authority and seeks to do his own thing. Self-identity becomes the great driving concept of society, rather than loving God and having our identity revolve around our relationship with Him.  

Psalm 53:2-3 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one.

Without God in our lives, we strive in our own righteousness to be and do good. However, as a result of our sinful nature from the fall of Adam and Eve, we are incapable of being righteous. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. As Apostle Paul honestly confesses, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24.

But, the victory is in Jesus. The victory is in humbly confessing and admitting that we cannot do it in our own strength. We cannot be righteous and do righteously continuously. We fail over and over again. We are in need of a Redeemer, the Promised Seed, which shall bruise the head of the Serpent and deliver us from the bondage of sin and death.

The fool, however, the atheist, believes he can make it on his own. He can do it his way.

Psalm 53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

If we do not call upon God, we remain in darkness and become capable of the most heinous acts. Apostle Paul tells us what happens.

Romans 1:28 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those thins which were not convenient.”

When King Saul was little in his own sight God made him head of the tribes of Israel. But pride and the fear of man caused him to disobey the voice of the Lord. The Prophet proclaimed, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:23. As a result, seeing that Saul only feigned repentance so that the Prophet would worship God with him in the presence of the people, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him,” 1 Samuel 16:14.

Going back to Apostle Paul we read that as a result of rejecting God, men are “filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventers of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” Romans 1:29-32.

Psalm 53:5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against you: you have put them to shame, because God has despised them.

We that believe on the Lord, fear not, because He has redeemed us, He has called us by His name, and we are His, Isaiah 43:1. He has told us not to be dismayed. He will strengthen us. He will help us. He will uphold us with the right hand of His righteousness, Isaiah 41:10.

He has told us that when we pass through the waters, He will be with us; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow us: when we pass through the fire, we shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon us, Isaiah 43:2.

But for the wicked, it is not so, but a fearful looking forward to of judgment.

“For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, (and we all have received the knowledge of the truth through creation and moral consciousness, and yet some suppress the truth and their foolish hearts become darkened, Romans 1:21), there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries,” Hebrews 10:26-27.

Psalm 53:6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

The salvation of Israel has come out of Zion in the person of Jesus Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham. God has brought back the salvation of His people through the blood of Jesus Christ. All that call upon His name and follow His precepts shall be saved.