Psalm 14:6 Komentář

It does not appear upon what occasion this psalm was penned nor whether upon any particular occasion. Some say David penned it when Saul persecuted him; others, when Absalom rebelled against him. But they are mere conjectures, which have not certainty enough to warrant us to expound the psalm by them. The apostle, in quoting part of this psalm (Rom 3:10, etc.) to prove that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (Rom 3:9) and that all the world is guilty before God (Rom 3:19), leads us to understand it, in general, as a description of the depravity of human nature, the sinfulness of the sin we are conceived and born in, and the deplorable corruption of a great part of mankind, even of the world that lies in wickedness, Jo1 5:19. But as in those psalms which are designed to discover our remedy in Christ there is commonly an allusion to David himself, yea, and some passages that are to be understood primarily of him (as in Psa 2:1-12, Psa 16:1-11, 22, and others), so in this psalm, which is designed to discover our wound by sin, there is an allusion to David's enemies and persecutors, and other oppressors of good men at that time, to whom some passages have an immediate reference. In all the psalms from the 3rd to this (except the 8th) David had been complaining of those that hated and persecuted him, insulted him and abused him; now here he traces all those bitter streams to the fountain, the general corruption of nature, and sees that not his enemies only, but all the children of men, were thus corrupted. Here is, I. A charge exhibited against a wicked world (Psa 14:1). II. The proof of the charge (Psa 14:2, Psa 14:3). III. A serious expostulation with sinners, especially with persecutors, upon it (Psa 14:4-6). IV. A believing prayer for the salvation of Israel and a joyful expectation of it (Psa 14:7). To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 14 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. The argument of this psalm, according to Theodoret, is Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, when he sent Rabshakeh to Hezekiah, with menaces and curses; upon which Hezekiah implored divine help, and obtained it, and the Assyrian army was destroyed by an angel; of all which he thinks this psalm was prophetic.

You have shamed the counsel of the poor,.... The poor saints, the Lord's people, the generation of the righteous, who are generally the poor of this world; poor in spirit, and an afflicted people: and the counsel of them intends not the counsel which they give to others, but the counsel which they receive from the Lord, from the Spirit of counsel, which rests upon them, and with which they are guided; and this is to trust in the Lord, and to make him their refuge; and which is good advice, the best of counsel. Happy and safe are they that take it! But this is derided by wicked and ungodly men; they mock at the poor saints for it, and endeavour to shame them out of it; but hope makes not ashamed; see Psa 22:7; because the Lord is his refuge: he betakes himself to him when all others fail; and finds him to be a refuge from the storm of impending calamities, and from all enemies.

These words that are now put forth can be understood in my opinion in light of the Jews trying to upset the plan of the Savior, because they thought that he was lacking power. They did not consider carefully the treasure of his divinity. So they always contradicted his teaching, and the power of his miracles they misrepresented as not from divine power but as having been worked through some other source.

Like the general over the soldiers and the king over the senate, God is over the generation of the righteous.… If God is in the midst of two or three, how much more is he found in the generation of the righteous where there is a battle-free life, a lack of sadness, rest and inheritance and a kingdom without end.

"For God is in the just generation." It refers to what went before, so that the sense is, "shall not all they that work iniquity know that the Lord is in the just generation;" that is, He is not in them who love the world. For it is unjust to leave the Maker of the worlds, and "serve the creature more than the Creator." [Romans 1:25] You have shamed the counsel of the poor, for the Lord is his hope [Psalm 14:6]: that is, you have despised the humble coming of the Son of God, because ye saw not in Him the pomp of the world: that they, whom he was calling, should put their hope in God alone, not in the things that pass away.

And he shows this by a sign: because "you have confounded the counsel of the poor man," that is, you have considered it contemptible and have blasphemed it as far as you were able: and this is the counsel of the poor man, that he may know that the Lord is his hope: Ps. 21: "He hoped in the Lord; let him deliver him, let him save him, since he desires him" (Mt. 27). He who says, "If you wish to be perfect," etc. (Mt. 19). This counsel the rich always despise: Prov. 1: "You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reproofs." And whence? "Because the Lord is his hope": because they have nothing in the world from which they may hope except in God, who is the hope of the saints.

The practical atheism and total and universal depravity of the wicked, with their hatred to the good, are set forth. Yet, as they dread God's judgments when He vindicates His people, the Psalmist prays for His delivering power. (Psa 14:1-7) Sinners are termed "fools," because they think and act contrary to right reason (Gen 34:7; Jos 7:15; Psa 39:8; Psa 74:18, Psa 74:22). in his heart--to himself (Gen 6:12).

The psalmist himself meets the oppressed full of joyous confidence, by reason of the self-manifestation of God in judgment, of which he is now become so confident and which so fills him with comfort. Instead of the sixth tristich, which we expected, we have another distich. The Hiph. הבישׁ with a personal object signifies: to put any one to shame, i.e., to bring it about that any one must be ashamed, e.g., Psa 44:8 (cf. Psa 53:6, where the accusative of the person has to be supplied), or absolutely: to act shamefully, as in the phrase used in Proverbs, בּן מיבישׁ (a prodigal son). It appears only here with a neuter accusative of the object, not in the signification to defame (Hitz.), - a meaning it never has (not even in Pro 13:5, where it is blended with הבאישׁ to make stinking, i.e., a reproach, Gen 34:30) - but to confound, put to shame = to frustrate (Hupf.), which is at once the most natural meaning in connection with עצת. But it is not to be rendered: ye put to shame, because..., for to what purpose is this statement with this inapplicable reason in support of it? The fut. תּבישׁוּ is used with a like shade of meaning as in Lev 19:17, and the imperative elsewhere; and כּי gives the reason for the tacitly implied clause, or if a line is really lost from the strophe, the lost clause (cf. Isa 8:9.): ye will not accomplish it. עצה is whatsoever the pious man, who as such suffers reproach, plans to do for the glory of his God, or even in accordance with the will of his God. All this the children of the world, who are in possession of worldly power, seek to frustrate; but viewed in the light of the final decision their attempt is futile: Jahve is his refuge, or, literally the place whither he flees to hide himself and finds a hiding or concealment (צל, Arab. dall, סתר, Arab. sitr, Arabic also drâ). מחסּהוּ has an orthophonic Dag., which obviates the necessity for the reading מחסּהוּ (cf. תּעלּים Psa 10:1, טעמּו Psa 34:1, לאסּר Psa 105:22, and similar instances).