Psalms 14:1 - Exposition

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God . An atheism is here depicted which goes beyond even that of Psalms 10:1-18 . There the existence of God was not so much denied as his providence. Here his existence is not only denied, but denied in the very depths of the man's heart. He has contrived to convince himself of what he so much wishes. The psalmist regards such a state of mind as indicative of that utter perversity and folly which is implied in the term nabal ( נָבַל ). They are corrupt ; literally, they have corrupted themselves (comp. Gem 6:12; 2:19 ). Their atheism is accompanied by deep moral corruption. We have no right to say that this is always so; but the tendency of atheism to relax moral restraints is indisputable . They have done abominable works (comp. Psalms 10:3 and Psalms 10:4 ). There is none that doeth good ; i.e. none among them. The psalmist does not intend his words to apply to the whole human race. He has in his mind a, " righteous generation" ( Psalms 10:5 ), "God's people" ( Psalms 10:4 ), whom he sets over against the wicked, both in this psalm and elsewhere universally (see Psalms 1:1-3 ; Psalms 2:12 ; Psalms 3:8 ; Psalms 4:3 , etc.).