Psalm XIV

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, — there is none that doeth good.

2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men. To see if there was any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they arc altogether become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

PSALM XIV. — VIEW OF EARTH AND ITS PROSPECTS.

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?

Who eat up my people as they eat up bread, and call not upon the Lord.

5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the

righteous.

6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.

7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

As we read these verses, we seem to pass from gloom to deeper gloom; and when ver, 7 suggests a remedy, it is as if a “spark of light had been struck out from solid darkness.” David wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but we know not when; it may have been in his wilderness-days, when Judah seemed nearly as indifferent to Jehovah as were the realms of the Gentiles. The title “Upon Mahalath,” as in Psalm lxxxviii., has been considered by Hengstenberg, to be not a name for a musical instrument, but as meaning “Upon the sickness,” the moral sore and sickness described in the Psalm. Perhaps the title of Psalm lxxxviii. favours this view. But after all, some special instrument, used for melancholy subjects, may be meant, and Gesenius has found for it an Ethiopic root signifying, “to sing.”

Messiah is the speaker far more than David; for though David could call the sheep of the house of Israel “my people,” as being given him by the Lord, yet it is Messiah that is wont to speak in this manner. He is the shepherd whose voice we recognise here, saying, “They eat up my people.” (ver. 4.) He it is who describes our world’s condition — Oh, how unlike the heaven He had left! But amid the flood. He descries the waters receding. He sees the overthrow of the ungodly (ver, 5), and whence the grand deliverance is to come, (ver. 7.) Deliverance is to appear on the walls of Zion. “Salvation is of the Jews.” (John iv. 22.) From Israel comes the Saviour, born at Bethlehem, but crucified, rising, ascending at Jerusalem. Out of Israel too, comes life from the dead to the world, when the Redeemer returns again; for, “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” (Isaiah Ix. 2, S).

Let us, then, read this Psalm as our Lord’s report regarding the state in which earth and its multitudes are found.

(Ver. 1.) O Father, they are denying that thou hast any The contents, being. The whole earth is replenished with fools, who say in their heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; they are doing abominable deeds; there is none that doeth good.

(Ver. 2.) O sons of men, the cry of earth’s wickedness came up to heaven. The Lord looked down to see if there were any that understood and sought after God.

(Ver. 3.) Alas! it is altogether according to the cry. They are all gone aside. They are altogether become filthy. There I is none that doeth good: NO, not one.

j (Ver. 4.) Yet they see not their folly. Who has bewitched i them? Have they no knowledge, that they eat up my people, i and call not on Jehovah?

I (Ver. 5.) But their damnation slumbereth not. On the very spot where their folly has been wrought I see them trembling. “Terror overtakes them; for God is among the generation of the righteous.”

(Ver. 6.) Where is now your mouth, wherewith ye said, Who is the Lord that we should serve Him? Is not this the people whom ye despised? (Jud. ix. 38.) Ye cast shame on the counsel of the poor, because he made the Lord his refuge. Ye scorned the policy of those who made the Lord their wisdom; but the Lord has now laughed you to scorn.

(Ver. 7.) O let the day dawn and the shadows flee away! Come quickly, year of my redeemed! (Isaiah lxiii. 4.)

“Ld Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad, At the Lord’s bringing back the captivity of His people.”

Let the time come when earth’ shall hear Israel’s shouts of joy at the opening of their prison, at the termination of their exile, at the restoration of their long-lost prosperity, at the return of their Shepherd to dwell among them. For when earth shall hear that shout of joy, it shall be a token that now at length has the time arrived when the full accomplishment shall take place of that promise to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”

Thus does the true Righteous One survey the world lying in wickedness, and turn his eye toward the dawn of day, every member sympathizing with the Head. We may describe the Psalm as being a setting forth of

The Righteous One’s view of earth, and its ‘prospects.