Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does Psalms Chapter 53 mean?

This psalm opens with a declaration that “the fool” denies God’s existence. The Hebrew word translated as “fool” in this verse is nā’bāl. This doesn’t imply someone who is stupid or incapable. It means someone senseless, irrational, or lacking in wisdom. Even intelligent people can act like fools, and there is nothing more foolish than denying the very existence of God (Psalm 53:1).

The name used for “God” in this psalm is Elohim, the God of creation. This contrasts to other Old Testament passages which use the expression YHWH, sometimes transliterated as Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God. Those who deny the existence of their own creator are not only foolish but also corrupt. Immorality is not something reserved for atheists, of course. God observes the entire human race as wayward, corrupt, and void of meritorious good deeds (Psalm 53:2–3).

David notes that there are wicked ones who persecute God’s people, but he realizes God will cause those evildoers to be destroyed. This psalm makes a strong point that God puts those who attack Him and His people to shame. Some scholars think this might be a vague prophecy about what God did to the Assyrian army that encamped around Jerusalem in the time of King Hezekiah. The depiction of God scattering bones evokes bodies being strewn around without burial—this is a graphic and potent warning about the eternal wrath of God (Psalm 53:4–5).

As David considers the rampant evil in the world, he longs for God to deliver Israel and establish His kingdom on earth. When God fulfills David’s desire for the kingdom, Israel will experience great joy. According to prophecies in books such as Zechariah, this plea will be granted, someday (Psalm 53:6).

Chapter Context
This brief collection of verses is arranged for use in music or worship. It is similar to Psalm 14 and is quoted in part in Romans 3. Here David depicts the human race as evil and incapable of producing any truly good deeds in God’s sight. David, the psalmist, longs for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. When the kingdom arrives, there will be great joy. Ephesians 2:1–3 also portrays humanity as spiritually evil, and Isaiah 12 also describes the kingdom as a time of great joy.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;there is none who does good.

Use of the term “fool” here does not necessarily mean a person is unintelligent. Rather, it means that this particular choice is irrational, unwise, or ridiculous. Jesus told a story about a rich farmer whose land produced abundant crops. He decided to build bigger barns to accommodate the bumper crops, and he told his soul to take life easy. “Relax, eat, drink, be merry,” he said to his soul (Luke 12:19). He may have been a smart and capable farmer, but God called him a fool because he valued material possessions instead of God. God said to him: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20).

It is because the fool rejects God that his life is corrupt and his iniquity is abominable. Without the admission that God exists, the fool does not respect God’s laws, so he leads a lawless life. His life is sinful and lacks any moral goodness. Worse, denial of God’s existence leads to the assumption that humanity is free to define right and wrong according to their own preferences. That eventually leads to a “might makes right” approach that excuses atrocities.

Whoever denies God is sure to worship a false god. Some fools worship themselves or a celebrity or wealth or fame.

Context Summary
Psalm 53:1–3 describes the folly of those who deny God’s existence and explains God’s view of the human race. Romans 3:10–23 affirms this view, and Ephesians 2:1–3 describes unsaved human beings as following the dictates of the Devil.

Verse 2. God looks down from heavenon the children of manto see if there are any who understand,who seek after God.

This verse presents the divine perspective on humanity. From His lofty position in heaven God looks down on mankind to see if any human beings understand spiritual truth and seek for Him. As with other references to God, the explanation is given in human terms. God is not literally seeking information—He already knows—and the description of Him looking is meant to emphasize something to which God is paying special attention.

Nothing escapes His eye. Hebrews 4:13 declares: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” When Hagar fled from Sarai, she received a visit and a revelation from the angel of the Lord. She was in an isolated place on that occasion, but she was not out of God’s sight. Genesis 16:13 reports that “she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’”

Today, too, God searches the hearts and minds of human beings. That includes our own. What does He see there?

Verse 3. They have all fallen away;together they have become corrupt;there is none who does good,not even one.

In the prior verse, God was poetically said to be searching “to see if” anyone was fully willing to follow Him. Here, we’re given an answer that precisely evaluates the human race. It says every human being has fallen away and become corrupt. No one does what is good in God’s sight. This is a cornerstone concept in Christianity: that no person, anywhere, can claim to be “good enough” to meet God’s standards.

Adam and Eve were the first human beings. When they sinned, they passed sin onto the human race. Soon their son Cain displayed a wicked spirit by killing his brother Abel (Genesis 4). Several generations later sin had snowballed to point that the human race was completely corrupt. In the days before the flood, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

This trend is not something of the past; it’s a constant presence in human hearts. The prophet Isaiah wrote that all of us have gone astray, and like sheep we have gone our own way (Isaiah 53:6). Our way is the opposite of God’s way. He is completely holy; we are completely unholy.

The declaration here is echoed in Romans 3:11. People seek some form of the divine, but no one is naturally interested in the truths about sin. A common quip says that sinners do not seek God for the same reason criminals do not seek a police officer.

Verse 4. Have those who work evil no knowledge,who eat up my people as they eat bread,and do not call upon God?

David expresses shock that the wicked are ignorant of the evil they commit by persecuting God’s people. They are so blind to their own evil that they do not “call on” God, either in the sense of obeying Him or even acknowledging His existence.

While it’s true that some sin is extremely deliberate, some evils are done when a person confuses, fools, or distracts themselves and doesn’t consciously grasp the full truth of their actions. When Jesus hung on the cross He prayed for forgiveness for those who crucified Him. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). When Peter addressed a crowd of Jews in Solomon’s Portico, he accused the Jews of killing Jesus, the Author of life, in ignorance (Acts 3:15, 17). In his letter to Timothy, Paul recounted his former life of unbelief and described himself as “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” However, he added, “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13).

Undoubtedly millions of unbelievers today display ignorance of God by ridiculing believers and by not calling on God. The reason such people are still accountable for that is because such ignorance can be overcome (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:18–20). They need to strip off their ignorance and trust in the Savior before it is too late.

Context Summary
Psalm 53:4–6 writes about the judgment God brings on the wicked. Psalm 73:18–20 also speaks about the terror the wicked will experience when God judges them. By contrast the future of the righteous is bright. Salvation will come to Israel in the form of Messiah’s kingdom.

Verse 5. There they are, in great terror,where there is no terror!For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

This verse might be a prophetic remark about the destruction of the Assyrian army. This happened long after David, during the time of King Hezekiah when the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (2 Kings 19:35).

Prophetic or not, Psalm 53:5 pictures the destruction of those who do not fear God but experience great terror when God judges them. This terror might also be aimed at the armies that follow the Devil at the end of the millennium. They, too, will lay siege to Jerusalem, but they will experience terror when God judges them by raining fire upon them (Revelation 20:7–9).

The reference to the dead bodies scattered by God indicates the dreadful disgrace that He will inflict on the wicked. Under Mosaic law, even the body of an executed villain was to be respectfully buried. Deuteronomy 21:22–23 instructs: “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” For God to scatter corpses is a sign of immense shame and wrath.

Verse 6. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!When God restores the fortunes of his people,let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

In this verse David’s thoughts turn from the negative to the positive. After writing about the judgment of the wicked, he expresses his hope for Israel’s salvation. The Bible teaches that God will restore the kingdom to Israel after purging the nation in the tribulation period.

Zechariah 12:7 says the Lord will give salvation to Judah. Verse 10 prophesies that the Jews will receive “a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy” so that they will look on “him whom they have pierced” and repent. Zechariah 13:1 predicts there will be a fountain of cleansing opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Zechariah 13:9 prophesies that God will judge the nation, and two thirds of the people will perish; however, one third will survive. According to Zechariah chapter 14, Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives and establish His kingdom at that time. Verse 9 says, “And the LORD will be king over all the earth.”

What David prays in this verse will, one day, come to pass. Salvation will come to Israel and the nation will rejoice.

End of Psalm 53

Please Note:

The material use in this post, video is from BibleRef.com which is from Got Questions Ministries and is posted here to be read by Immersive reader in the Edge Browser. If you copy this material please follow these rules:

•Content from BibleRef.com may not be used for any commercial purposes, or as part of any commercial work, without explicit prior written consent from Got Questions ministries.

•Any use of our material should be properly credited; please make it clear the content is from BibleRef.com.

•BibleRef.com content may not be altered, modified, or otherwise changed unless such changes are specifically noted.