Psalms 14:2

_THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN UPON THE CHILDREN OF MEN, TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY THAT DID UNDERSTAND, AND SEEK GOD._ The Lord looked (looks, Hengstenberg and Chaldaic) down from heaven ... to see if there were any that did understand. Yahweh is not, as unbelievers think, indifferent about man's conduct. Nay, He is continually taking strict note of all the thoughts, words, and acts of His creatures. Appropriately God (Hebrew, _ 'ELOHIYM_ (H430)), whose existence the worldly ignore, changes His name into " _ YAHWEH" _ (H3068) (the English version "the Lord"), the personal God, faithful to His promises and to His threats. So far from corrupt fools being, as man's self-love supposes, an exceptional few, they constitute the masses of the world, and even of the professing church. Those few who "understand" - i:e., act on true wisdom, which is piety ...

2._Jehovah looked down from heaven. _God himself is here introduced as speaking on the subject of human depravity, and this renders the discourse of David more emphatic than if he had pronounced the sentence in his own person. When God is exhibited to us as sitting on his throne to take cognisance of the conduct of men, unless we are stupified in 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 inquisition or search;...

Verse Psalms 14:2. _THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN_] Words spoken after the manner of men. From this glorious eminence God is represented as looking down upon the habitable globe, _to see if there were any_ _that did understand_ that there was a Supreme Being, the governor and judge of men; and, in consequence, _seek God_ for his mercy, support, and defence....

THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN - The original word here - שׁקף _shâqaph_ - conveys the idea of “bending forward,” and hence, of an intense and anxious looking, as we bend forward when we wish to examine anything with attention, or when we look out for one who is expected to come. The idea is that God looked intently, or so as to secure a close examination, upon the children of men, for the express purpose of ascertaining whether there were any that were good. He looked at all men; he examined all their pretensions to goodness, and he saw none who could be regarded as exempt from the charge of depravity. Nothing could more clearly prove the doctrine of universal depravity than to say that an Omniscient God made “an express examination” on this very point, that he looked over all the world, and that in the multitudes which passed under the notice of his eye not “one” could be found who...

EXPOSITION IT has been strongly argued, from the mention of the "captivity" of God's people in Psalms 14:7, that this psalm was written during the sojourn in Babylon, and therefore not by David (De Wette). But "captivity" is often used metaphorically in Scripture (Job 42:10; Ezekiel 16:53; Romans 7:23; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Ephesians 4:8, etc.); and to "return to the captivity "—which is the expression used in...

THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN UPON THE CHILDREN OF MEN,.... As he did when all flesh had corrupted its way, and before he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, Genesis 6:12. This is said in direct opposition to the atheistic thoughts and reasonings of wicked men, in Psalms 14:1. There is a God, and he takes notice of the children of men, and of what is done by them; though his throne is in the heavens, and his dwelling there, yet he looks down from thence, and takes cognizance of all human affairs. This must be understood consistent with the omniscience and omnipresence of God; it is an anthropopathy, or a speaking after the manner of men; and denotes the exact notice which God takes, and distinct observation he makes, and the perfect and accurate knowledge he has of men and their action

Psalms 14:1. _The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God._ He was a fool to think it. He was not fool enough, however, to say it except in his heart. Fools have grown more brazen-faced of late; for now, they not only say it in their heart, but they say with their tongues, «There is no God.» Oh, no; I have made a mistake! They do not call them «fools» now; they call them «philosophers.» That, however, is often exactly the same thing. Psalms 14:1. _They are corrupt,_ It is always so. When they will have no God, they will have no goodness «They are corrupt.» That is the secret of infidelity. The psalmist has put his finger on it: «They are corrupt.» Psalms 14:1. They ha

Psalms 14 _ 1. The days of Noah repeated (Psalms 14:1)_ 2. Salvation and glory (Psalms 14:7) Psalms 14:1. As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when the Son of Man cometh. Here we have a prophetic forecast of these coming days of corruption and violence. Iniquity abounds, wickedness is on all sides. None doeth good, none seeketh after God. While all this is used by the Spirit of God in the Epistle to the Romans to describe the condition of the race at large, here dispensationally it describes the moral conditions in the end of the age. Psalms 14

PSA 14. and 53. This Ps. occurs twice in the Psalter, and an examination of the double form in which we have it, is important for the light it throws on the value of MT. It proves that the text presented variants and corruptions which go back beyond the present compilation of the Heb. Pss. This Ps. was inserted in an early collection, and afterwards in the Elohistic Psalter, Psalms 42-83. In this latter collection the name Yahweh seldom occurs, Elohim (God) constantly replacing it. Hence whereas in Psalms 14 Yahweh is found four times, in Psalms 53 it is always replaced by God. In Psalms 14:4 each recension is corrupt, for though EV gives good sense it is not philologically justified. The addition of one letter would make this translation possible. Either emend thus or read, though they have eaten the bread of Yahweh, on Yahweh they have not called. In...

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. Figure of speech _Epanadiplosis_ (App-6). The verse beginning and ending with "Jehovah" (see note on "GOD", Psalms 14:1). Psalm not for public use: but for David's private use. LOOKED... TO SEE. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._ CHILDREN. sons. MEN. Hebrew. _'adam._ App-14....