Introduction: “The evil nature of man is here brought before our view a second time, in almost the same inspired words [Psalm 14]. All repetitions are not vain repetitions. We are slow to learn, and need line upon line. David after a long life, found men no better than they were in his youth. Holy Writ never repeats itself needlessly, there is good cause for the second copy of this Psalm; let us read it with more profound attention than before. If our age has advanced from fourteen to fifty-three, we shall find the doctrine of this Psalm more evident than in our youth” (C.H. Spurgeon).
Mathew Henry asserts that we can learn the following from this Psalm:
1. The fact of sin – vs.1-2 – “God looked down from heaven”
2. The fault of sin – vs.3-4 – “everyone has gone back”
3. The fountain of sin – vs.1 & 4 – No fear of God
4. The folly of sin – vs.1 – “The fool . . .”
5. The filthiness of sin – vs.1 – “Corrupt” & “Abominable”
6. The fruit of sin – vs.4 – Cruelty is as common as eating bread
7. The fear and shame that attends sin – vs.5
8. The faith of the saints – vs.6
Verse 1. “It is to be noted that Scripture saith, ‘The fool hath said in his heart’, and not ‘thought in his heart;’that is to say, he doth not so fully think it in judgment, as he hath a good will to be of that belief; for seeing that it makes not for him that there should be a God, he doth seek by all means accordingly to persuade and resolve himself, and studies to affirm, prove, and verify it to himself as some theme or position, all which labour, notwithstanding that sparkle of our creation light, whereby men acknowledge a Deity, burneth still within; and in vain doth he strive utterly to alienate it or put it out, so that it is out of the corruption of his heart and will, and not out of the natural apprehension of his brain and conceit, that he doth set down his opinion, as the comical poet saith, ‘Then came my mind to be of my opinion,’ as if himself and his mind had been two diverse things; therefore, the atheist hath rather said, and held it in his heart, than thought or believed in his heart that there is no God. Francis Bacon (1560-1626), in ‘Thoughts on Holy Scripture’.”
Magnify! 