Psalms 53:6, commentary and pictures

Psalm 53 stands nearly identical to Psalm 14, differing only by a few verbal changes, among them the use of a different divine name in the four places where Psalm 14 uses Jehovah. The closing cry expresses the hope of Israel's deliverance from captivity, and it belongs with those psalms that describe the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives while assuring them of divine help and final deliverance from their persecutors during the Babylonian captivity in its latter part under Belshazzar. It is a cry for the salvation of Israel to come out of Zion, set after the portrayal of the sad condition of fallen man in the character of the fool who says in his heart there is no God.

The fool is not only the open atheist but everyone who is abominably wicked by breaking God's commandments, first denying Him in the heart and then in works. The psalm's account of corruption and unrighteousness describes the real condition of the fallen race of Adam when viewed in the light of God's holy law. The language of the psalm as quoted in Romans shows that this wicked state is the real condition of the fallen race when viewed in the light of God's holy law.

The teaching held beside this is that the psalm's account of corruption and unrighteousness applies to the Jews, those under the law, not to Gentiles or to mankind in general. In that understanding, the language of the psalm as quoted in Romans 3:10-19 speaks of those under the law to show Jewish guilt and to raise the question of what advantage the Jew has over the Gentile. The cry looks for God to end the captivity of His people and bring rejoicing to Jacob and gladness to Israel, which is the same longing for God's salvation and righteous word when men have made void His law.