John Calvin Commentary Psalms 14

Many of the Jews believe that this psalm contains a prediction concerning the future oppression of their nation, as if David, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, lamented the afflicted condition of the Church of God under the tyranny of the Gentiles. They therefore refer what is spoken here to the dispersed condition in which we see them today, as if they were that precious heritage of God which the wild beasts devour.

But it is very clear that, in wishing to cover the disgrace of their nation, they twist and apply to the Gentiles, without any valid reason, what is said concerning the perverse children of Abraham. We certainly cannot find a better qualified interpreter than the Apostle Paul, and he applies this psalm expressly to the people who lived under the law (Romans 3:19). Besides, even if we did not have the testimony of this Apostle, the structure of the psalm very clearly shows that David is referring to domestic tyrants and enemies of the faithful rather than foreign ones—a point that is very necessary for us to understand.

We know that it is an exceedingly painful temptation to see wickedness erupting and prevailing within the Church, the good and the simple unjustly afflicted, while the wicked cruelly domineer as they please. This sad spectacle almost completely disheartens us. Therefore, we greatly need to be fortified by the example David presents to us here, so that, in the midst of the greatest desolations we witness in the Church, we may comfort ourselves with this assurance: that God will finally deliver her from them.

I have no doubt that what is described here is the disordered and desolate state of Judea that Saul introduced when he began to rage openly. Then, as if the remembrance of God had been extinguished from people's minds, all piety had vanished. And concerning integrity or uprightness among people, there was just as little of it as there was of godliness.

The fool has said. As the Hebrew word נבל, nabal, means not only a fool but also a perverse, vile, and contemptible person, it would not have been inappropriate to translate it that way here. Yet, I am content to follow the more commonly accepted interpretation, which is that all profane people, who have cast off all fear of God and abandoned themselves to wickedness, are convicted of madness.

David does not charge his enemies with common foolishness but rather condemns the folly and insane audacity of those whom the world considers eminent for their wisdom. We commonly see that those who, in their own estimation and that of others, greatly excel in insight and wisdom, use their cunning to lay snares and use their mental ingenuity to despise and mock God.

It is therefore important for us, first, to know that however much the world applauds these crafty and scoffing individuals, who allow themselves to indulge in wickedness to any extent, the Holy Spirit still condemns them as fools; for there is no stupidity more senseless than forgetfulness of God.

However, we should also carefully note the evidence on which the Psalmist concludes that they have cast off all sense of religion. It is this: they have overthrown all order, so that they no longer distinguish between right and wrong, and have no regard for honesty or love for humanity.

David, therefore, does not speak of the hidden disposition of the heart of the wicked, except insofar as they reveal themselves by their external actions. The meaning of his language is: How is it that these men indulge in their lusts so boldly and outrageously that they pay no regard to righteousness or fairness—in short, that they madly rush into every kind of wickedness—if not because they have shaken off all sense of religion and extinguished, as much as they can, all remembrance of God from their minds?

When people retain any sense of religion in their hearts, they necessarily have some modesty and are somewhat restrained and prevented from entirely disregarding the dictates of their conscience. It follows from this that when the ungodly allow themselves to follow their own inclinations—so obstinately and audaciously as they are depicted here, without any sense of shame—it is evidence that they have cast off all fear of God.

The Psalmist says that they speak in their heart. They may not utter this detestable blasphemy, There is no God, aloud; but the unbridled licentiousness of their lives loudly and clearly declares that in their hearts, which are destitute of all godliness, they soothingly sing this song to themselves.

This is not to say that they maintain there is no God through lengthy arguments or formal syllogisms, as they call them (for, to make them all the more inexcusable, God periodically causes even the most wicked people to feel secret pangs of conscience, so that they are compelled to acknowledge His majesty and sovereign power). Instead, whatever right knowledge God instills in them, they partly stifle it by their malice against Him and partly corrupt it, until religion in them becomes dormant and finally dead.

They may not openly deny God's existence, but they imagine Him to be confined to heaven and stripped of His righteousness and power; and this is simply to fashion an idol in God's place. As if the time will never come when they must appear before Him in judgment, they strive, in all the transactions and concerns of their lives, to remove Him to the greatest possible distance and to erase from their minds all awareness of His majesty.

And when God is dragged from His throne and stripped of His character as judge, impiety has reached its peak. Therefore, we must conclude that David has most certainly spoken truthfully in declaring that those who take the liberty to commit all kinds of wickedness, in the self-deceiving hope of escaping without punishment, deny in their heart that there is a God.

As Psalm 53, with the exception of a few altered words, is largely a repetition of this psalm, I will show in the appropriate places, as we proceed, the differences between the two psalms. David here complains that they have done abominable work; but for the word work, the term used there is iniquity. It should be noted that David is not speaking of one or two works. But as he had said, that they have perverted or corrupted all lawful order, so now he adds that they have polluted their whole lives to such an extent as to make them abominable. The proof he offers for this is that they have no regard for uprightness in their dealings with one another, but have forgotten all humanity and all kindness towards their fellow human beings.

Jehovah looked down from heaven. God Himself is here introduced as speaking on the subject of human depravity, and this renders David's discourse more emphatic than if he had pronounced the sentence in his own person. When God is presented to us as sitting on His throne to take cognizance of the conduct of men, unless we are stupefied to an extraordinary degree, His majesty must strike us with terror.

The effect of the habit of sinning is that men grow hardened in their sins and discern nothing, as if they were enveloped in thick darkness. David, therefore, to teach them that they gain nothing by flattering and deceiving themselves as they do when wickedness reigns in the world with impunity, testifies that God looks down from heaven and casts His eyes on all sides, for the purpose of knowing what is done among men.

God, it is true, has no need to make inquiry or search; but when He compares Himself to an earthly judge, it is in adaptation to our limited capacity, and to enable us to gradually form some apprehension of His secret providence, which our reason cannot comprehend all at once.

Oh, that this manner of speaking would teach us to summon ourselves before His tribunal! And while the world flatters itself, and the reprobate try to bury their sins in forgetfulness through their thoughtlessness, hypocrisy, or shamelessness—blinded in their obstinacy as if intoxicated—may we be led to shake off all indifference and stupidity by reflecting on this truth: God, nonetheless, looks down from His high throne in heaven and beholds what is going on here below!

To see if there were any that did understand. As the whole order of a good and righteous life depends upon our being governed and directed by the light of understanding, David has justly taught us in the beginning of the psalm that folly is the root of all wickedness. In this clause, he also very justly declares that the commencement of integrity and uprightness of life consists in an enlightened and sound mind.

But as most people misapply their intellectual powers to deceitful purposes, David immediately afterward defines, in one word, what true understanding is: namely, that it consists in seeking after God; by this he means that unless men devote themselves wholly to God, their life cannot be well ordered.

Some understand the word משכיל, maskil, which we translated, that did understand, in too restricted a sense, whereas David declares that the reprobate are utterly destitute of all reason and judgment.

Every one of them has gone aside. Some translate the word סר, sar, which is used here, to stink—as if the reading were, Every one of them emits an offensive odor, so that it may correspond in meaning with the verb in the next clause, which in Hebrew signifies to become putrid or rotten. But there is no necessity for explaining the two words in the same way, as if the same thing were repeated twice.

The interpretation is more appropriate which supposes that men are here condemned as guilty of a detestable revolt, since they are estranged from God, or have departed far from Him. Afterward, the disgusting corruption or putrescence of their whole life is pointed out, as if nothing could proceed from apostates but what smells rank of rottenness and infection.

The Hebrew word סר, sar, is almost universally taken in this sense. In Psalm 53, the word סג, sag, is used, which signifies the same thing. In short, David declares that all men are so carried away by their capricious lusts that nothing of purity or integrity is to be found in their whole life.

This, therefore, is defection so complete that it extinguishes all godliness. Besides, David here not only censures a portion of the people but pronounces them all to be equally involved in the same condemnation. This was, indeed, a prodigy well fitted to excite abhorrence: that all the children of Abraham, whom God had chosen to be His peculiar people, were so corrupt, from the least to the greatest.

But it might be asked, how David makes no exception, how he declares that not a righteous person remains, not even one, when, nevertheless, he informs us a little later that the poor and afflicted put their trust in God? Again, it might be asked, if all were wicked, who was that Israel whose future redemption he celebrates in the end of the psalm?

Nay, as he himself was one of the body of that people, why does he not at least except himself? I answer: It is against the carnal and degenerate body of the Israelite nation that he here inveighs, and the small number constituting the seed which God had set apart for Himself is not included among them.

This is the reason why Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans 3:10, extends this sentence to all mankind. David, it is true, deplores the disordered and desolate state of affairs under the reign of Saul. At the same time, however, he doubtless makes a comparison between the children of God and all who have not been regenerated by the Spirit but are carried away according to the inclinations of their flesh.

Some offer a different explanation, maintaining that Paul, by quoting David's testimony, did not understand him as meaning that men are naturally depraved and corrupt. They argue that the truth David intended to teach is that the rulers and the more distinguished of the people were wicked, and therefore, it was not surprising to see unrighteousness and wickedness prevailing so generally in the world.

This answer is far from satisfactory. The subject Paul reasons upon there is not the character of most men, but the character of all who are led and governed by their own corrupt nature.

It is, therefore, to be observed that when David places himself and the small remnant of the godly on one side, and the body of the people in general on the other, this implies a manifest difference between the children of God, who are created anew by His Spirit, and all the posterity of Adam, in whom corruption and depravity exercise dominion.

From this it follows that all of us, when we are born, bring with us from our mother’s womb this folly and filthiness manifested in the whole life, which David here describes. We continue as such until God makes us new creatures by His mysterious grace.

This question is added to give a more amplified illustration of the preceding doctrine. The prophet had said that God observed from heaven the actions of men, and had found all of them gone astray; and now he introduces God exclaiming with astonishment: What madness is this, that those who ought to cherish My people, and diligently perform every kind service for them, are oppressing and attacking them like wild beasts, without any feeling of humanity? He attributes this manner of speaking to God, not because anything can happen that is strange or unexpected to Him, but to express His indignation more forcibly. The Prophet Isaiah, similarly, when addressing almost the same subject, says:

And God saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor (Isaiah 59:16).

God, it is true, does not actually experience such affections within Himself, but He portrays Himself as if He experienced them, so that we may feel the greatest horror and dread for our sins when He declares them to be so monstrous that He is, so to speak, thrown into agitation and disorder by them.

And if we were not harder than stones, our horror at the wickedness that prevails in the world would make our hair stand on end, seeing God Himself shows such a testimony of the detestation with which He regards it.

Moreover, this verse confirms what I said at the beginning: that David does not speak in this psalm of foreign tyrants or the avowed enemies of the church, but of the rulers and princes of his people, who possessed power and honor. This description would not apply to men who were complete strangers to the revealed will of God, for it would not be surprising to see those who do not possess the moral law—the rule of life—devoting themselves to violence and oppression. But the heinousness of the condemned actions is significantly aggravated by this circumstance: it is the shepherds themselves, whose duty it is to feed and take care of the flock, who cruelly devour it and do not spare even the people and heritage of God. There is a similar complaint in Micah 3:1-3:

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, etc.

If those who profess to know and to serve God were to exercise such cruelty towards the Babylonians or Egyptians, it would be an inexcusable piece of injustice; but when they glut themselves with the blood and flesh of the saints, just as they devour bread, this is such monstrous iniquity that it may well strike both angels and men with astonishment.

If such persons had even a particle of sound understanding remaining in them, it would restrain them from such fearfully infatuated conduct. They must, therefore, be completely blinded by the devil and utterly bereft of reason and understanding, since they knowingly and willingly flay and devour the people of God with such inhumanity.

This passage teaches us how displeasing to God and how abominable is the cruelty committed against the godly by those who pretend to be their shepherds. At the end of the verse, where he says that they call not upon the Lord, he again points out the source and cause of this unbridled wickedness: namely, that such persons have no reverence for God.

Religion is the best teacher for instructing us to maintain equity and uprightness towards one another; and where concern for religion is extinguished, all regard for justice perishes with it. With respect to the phrase calling upon God, as it constitutes the principal exercise of godliness, it includes by synecdoche (a figure of rhetoric by which a part is put for the whole), not only here but in many other passages of Scripture, the entire service of God.

There did they tremble with fear, The prophet now encourages himself and all the faithful with the best of all consolations, namely, that God will not forsake His people even to the end, but will finally show Himself to be their defender. Some explain the adverb of place there, as meaning that God will take vengeance on the wicked in the presence of His saints, because they exercised their tyranny upon them.

But I am more inclined to think that by this word there, is expressed the certainty of their punishment, as if the Psalmist pointed to it with his finger. It may also suggest what we may gather from Psalm 53: that the judgment of God would come upon them suddenly, and when they were not thinking about it. For it is added there, where no fear is, or, where no fear was.

Expositors, I am aware, differ in their interpretation of these words. Some supply the word equal or like, and read, There is no fear equal to it. Others refer them to those secret alarms with which the ungodly are tormented, even when there may be no ground for apprehension.

God threatens the transgressors of His law with such mental torment that they shall flee when none pursueth them (Leviticus 26:17 and Proverbs 28:1), and that the sound of a shaking leaf shall chase them (Leviticus 26:36). Just as we see that they are themselves their own tormentors and are agitated with mental trouble even when there is no external cause to create it.

But I think the meaning of the prophet is different: that when their affairs are in a state of the greatest tranquility and prosperity, God will suddenly launch against them the bolts of His vengeance.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

The prophet, therefore, encourages and supports the faithful with this prospect: that the ungodly, when they think themselves free from all danger and are securely celebrating their own triumphs, shall be overwhelmed with sudden destruction.

The reason for this is added in the last clause of the verse: because God is determined to defend the righteous and to take up their cause: For God is in the generation of the righteous. Now, in order to preserve them safe, He must necessarily thunder in His wrath from heaven against their enemies, who unjustly oppress and waste them by violence and extortion.

There is, however, some ambiguity in the word דור , dor, which we have translated generation. As this noun in Hebrew sometimes signifies an age, or the course of human life, the sentence might be explained as follows: Although God for a time may seem to take no notice of the wrongs inflicted upon His servants by the wicked, yet He is ever present with them and exercises His grace towards them during their whole life.

But it seems to me a more simple and natural exposition to interpret the clause this way: that God is on the side of the righteous and takes their part, as we say, so that דור , dor, will have the same meaning here which the word natio, (nation), sometimes has among the Latins.

In Psalm 53:5, the Psalmist adds a sentence which does not occur in this psalm: For God hath scattered the bones of him that besiegeth thee, thou shalt put them to shame; because God hath rejected them.

By these words, the prophet explains more clearly how God protects the righteous: by delivering them from the jaws of death, just as if one were to put to flight those who had laid siege to a town and were to set at liberty its inhabitants, who before were in great extremity and quite shut up.

From this it follows that we must patiently bear oppression if we desire to be protected and preserved by the hand of God at the time of our greatest danger.

The expression bones, is used metaphorically for strength or power. The prophet particularly speaks of their power; for if the wicked were not possessed of riches, ammunition, and troops, which render them formidable, it would not appear with sufficient evidence that it is the hand of God which finally crushes them.

The Psalmist next exhorts the faithful to a holy boasting and tells them to rest assured that an ignominious destruction hangs over the heads of the wicked. The reason for this is because God hath rejected them; and if He is opposed to them, all things must ultimately go ill with them.

As מאס, maäs, which we have translated to reject, sometimes means to despise, some render it this way: Because God hath despised them; but this, I think, does not suit the passage.

It would be more appropriate to read: He hath rendered them contemptible, or, subjected them to disgrace and ignominy. From this it follows that they only draw down upon themselves dishonor and infamy while they strive to elevate themselves, as it were, in defiance of God.

You deride the counsel of the poor. He inveighs against those giants who mock the faithful for their simplicity, in calmly expecting, in their distresses, that God will show himself to be their deliverer. And, certainly, nothing seems more irrational to the flesh than to turn to God when he still does not relieve us from our calamities; and the reason is, because the flesh judges God only according to what it presently perceives of his grace.

Whenever, therefore, unbelievers see the children of God overwhelmed with calamities, they reproach them for their groundless confidence, as it appears to them to be, and with sarcastic jeers laugh at the assured hope with which they rely upon God, from whom, nevertheless, they receive no perceptible aid. David, therefore, defies and derides this insolence of the wicked, and threatens that their mockery of the poor and the wretched, and their charging them with folly in depending upon the protection of God, and not sinking under their calamities, will be the cause of their destruction.

At the same time, he teaches them that there is no decision we can make which is wiser than the decision to depend upon God, and that to rest in his salvation, and on the assistance which he has promised us, even though we may be surrounded with calamities, is the highest wisdom.