Psalms 14:2-3

2, 3. The Lord looked down… to see An anthropomorphism, simply denoting that he made special judicial inquiry; that is, that he took accurate judicial knowledge of men’s acts, such as we arrive at only by a process of close investigation.

Understand, and seek God This was the test of character, the issue between God and men. The quotation of this by the apostle applies to the universal race, “both Jews and Gentiles.” Romans 3:9-12. They are all reckoned in sin, and as the argument is addressed to the Jews, it shows that this was the sense in which they understood the text. The same universality is expressed in the text by children of men, (Hebrews sons of Adam,) and in Psalms 14:3 by the terms all, together, none, no, not one. The bearing of this upon the historical occasion of the psalm shows that it was such as could not be limited to the dominance of a corrupt Jewish party, but included the Gentile nations as well, who now held sway. As a proof of universal, and hence hereditary, depravity, it is decisive.