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14:1.
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The fool (nabal: 1 Sam. 25:25)
hath said....There is no God. This is not “atheism” in the
modern sense of the term, but in the same sense as 10:4,6,11-13 and 97:7:
‘God is inactive; He will take no notice; and if He does, He
certainly won’t punish.’ This is precisely the attitude of
many religious people today: they are willing to believe in God and follow
religious observance so long as God leaves them alone and lets them run their
affairs in their own way. Notice the change from “the fool”
(singular: Saul?) to “they” (plural: Saul and
Doeg?).
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They are corrupt: s.w. Gen. 6:12; Judg. 2:19. But
literally this Hebrew word means: they have caused to destroy, with
reference to Doeg and the priests of Nob in 1 Sam. 22:18,19. Hence the phrase:
abominable works (changed to the more specific “iniquity” in
53:1).
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14:2.
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The Lord looked down: s.w. “looked” in Gen.
18:16, where the angels begin their investigation of Sodom. This is the language
of direct Divine intervention, as at the time of the Flood: Gen.
6:5,12.
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The children of men. The sons of Adam. But,
because of the absence of vowel pointing in the original manuscripts, this could
as easily read: the sons of Edom, with reference to Doeg the
Edomite.
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14:3.
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Became filthy. For what kind of uncleanness was Doeg
detained before the Lord (1 Sam. 21:7)?
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14:4.
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Who eat up my people as they eat bread. An allusion to
Doeg’s ruthless massacre of the priests: 1 Sam. 22:18. The Hebrew could
read: ‘Did they not know, those who eat up my people who eat the bread of
God? They (i.e. my people, the priests) did not cry out.’ Thus there are
historical references to priests, shewbread (‘bread of God’), and
the heathen ignorance and indifference of Doeg, in the enormity of his
crime.
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14:5.
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There were they in great fear. This was the ultimate
outcome of Saul’s mania for persecuting David and his friends: 1 Sam.
28:5. And the jealousy and hatred of God’s enemies was finally turned to
great fear before the Philistines.
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53:5.
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Where no fear was. Initially, Saul’s (and
Doeg’s) marked lack of the fear of God.
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God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against
thee. This describes the end of Saul the persecutor: 1 Sam. 31:9-13. (But
David’s bones were kept: contrast Psa. 34:20!) By a very slight
alteration, this last phrase would read: him that was hanged, on the
walls of Beth-shan!
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Because God hath despised them, RV: rejected.;
s.w. 1 Sam. 16:1: God’s rejection of Saul. This exposition indicates
that this 53:5 was added by David at some later time — the interval
between 1 Sam. 22 and 1 Sam. 31 at least) — or even when the psalm was
appointed for sanctuary use, at the time the ark was brought to Zion (2 Sam.
6).
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14:6.
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Ye have treated shamefully the counsel (given by
Ahimelech the priest) to the poor (David, in flight), when the Lord
was his refuge (at Nob).
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14:7.
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Jacob....Israel suggests allusion to Gen. 32:24-32;
33:1, when Jacob’s fear of Esau/Edom, the fool who had no fear of God, was
removed.
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1.
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The fool hath said....There is no God.
Rabshakeh’s tirade against the God of Israel: Isa. 37:23,28.
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1,4.
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Corrupt....abominable works....who eat up my people.
The enormities of the Assyrian invasion.
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5
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(and especially 53:5). The siege of Jerusalem and its
shattering outcome: Isa. 37:36. In great fear, where no fear was (53:5)
is wonderfully appropriate to the arrogant self-confident Assyrians.
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6.
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Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is
his refuge. Rabshakeh’s mockery: Isa. 37:12,13.
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7.
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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. This might even be Hezekiah’s addition (like
89:49-52), for assuredly Israel’s salvation did come out of Zion then,
and a great captivity did return home with gladness (Whittaker, Hezekiah
the Great, pp. 85,86).
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1.
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The worldly unscrupulousness, manifested in Saul and his
minions, was even more marked in Caiaphas and the rulers of the Jews.
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There is none that doeth good. LXX:
chrestoteta, suggesting “Christ-like”. Paul
applies these words and verses 2b, 3 to Jew and Gentile (like Saul and Doeg),
alike impervious to the gospel (Rom. 3:10-12). Compare the citation of Psalm 2
in Acts 4:25-28, where Jews = Herod and the priests, and Gentiles = Pilate and
the Roman soldiers. Contrast the generation of the righteous (v. 5), i.e.
the new Israel in Christ (Rom. 11:5).
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3.
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LXX and Rom. 3:12: There is none that doeth good, not until
One, with reference to the extraordinary and absolutely unique
One!
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4.
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See alternative rendering (Par. 2) and compare Christ, the
true priest, “devoured” by his enemies just after he ate the bread
of God (at his Passover). Or, Christ (who is the bread of God: John 6:35,
etc.) complacently “devoured” by his unheeding enemies. Like a lamb
led to slaughter (Isa. 53:7), he did not cry out.
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7.
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Oh that salvation....were come out of Zion. Apparently
a highly- inappropriate verse in this psalm, but how well it describes the
climax of salvation in Christ and the bringing in of his kingdom! The one who
was brutally slain (see v. 4) is now raised from the dead, at last to return to
the scene of his death, but now in glorious triumph (cp. with Isa. 59:20, cited
in Rom. 11:26; see Whittaker, Isaiah, p. 512).
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1.
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In his heart. Contrast what the fool says in his heart
(here) with what the righteous says in his (15:2)!
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Abominable. Some things may be abominable to God even
though they are highly esteemed by men: e.g. covetousness (Luke 16:15). And
men’s works can be abominable even when they profess to know God: Tit.
1:15,16.
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2.
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To see if there were any. “Neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in his sight” (Heb.
4:13).
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Understand = Hebrew maschil,
exactly as in the title of Psa. 53.
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That did seek God could be an ironic allusion to 1 Sam.
21:7. Doeg was “detained before the Lord”, possibly for some
ceremonial uncleanness, but certainly not to “seek God” in any
meaningful sense!
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3.
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All gone aside: s.w. Exod. 32:8. The repetition of
“all” suggests the experience of Noah’s day, when mankind was
a lost race, except for one lone family.
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Filthy Hebrew alach = worthless, rancid,
tainted — as sour milk; “stinking” (mg.);
“unprofitable” (Rom. 3:12). NEB, expressively: “rotten to the
core”! A word that graphically describes character deterioration. Compare
the idea in Isa. 64:6,7.
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4.
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Who eat up my people. Similar references in Psa.
79:6,7; Prov. 30:14; Lam. 2:16; Jer. 10:25; Mic. 3:3,4. “To eat”, as
the wild beast or gluttonous man does, eagerly devouring, without remorse or
regret.
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5.
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God is in the generation of the righteous. Contrast
12:7.
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6.
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Salvation is an intensive plural, meaning: God’s
great salvation.
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7.
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Oh that salvation were come out of Zion. Zion was the
home of Melchizedek. Nob, the location of the sanctuary and the priests, was
hard by Zion (1 Sam. 21; Isa. 10:32; cp. 1 Sam. 17:54 with 22:10. Is Nob to be
identified with Golgotha? see Psa. 8, Par. 10). After the murders of the
priests, this sanctuary was probably left desolate until David took Jerusalem (2
Sam. 6). But then the memory of that gruesome slaughter might be partially
erased, when God’s glorious ark was at last brought to its secure resting
place.
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When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people.
See Psa. 85:1; Deut. 30:3; and many a verse in the second half of
Isa. 49.
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53:5.
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God hath scattered the bones of him that encamped against
thee. An allusion back to Goliath (1 Sam. 17:54; 21:9)? The LXX has
“the men-pleasers”, an alternative reading of 53:5.
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