Psalm 14: Workers of Iniquity- You Who Break the Law
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one. 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord? 5 There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. 6 You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. 7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord turns back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
“‘The fool.’— the unregenerate race of fallen man. “In Zephaniah 1:2, we have the whole Adamic race referred to in the singular ‘man.’ It is the same here. The Hebrew word for ‘fool’ here is [~Nabal- as the man who repaid David evil for good], which does not mean a simpleton, but one whose moral thinking is perverted and who has deliberately closed his mind against the reality of God and to the imperatives of God's moral government.’” (Burton Coffman)— “’has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’; no Governor, no Providence, no Judge.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— “He may not have said this to others; he may not have taken the position openly before the world that there is no God, but such a thought has passed through his mind, and he has cherished it; and such a thought, either as a matter of belief or of desire, is at the foundation of his conduct. He ‘acts’ as if such were his belief or his wish.” (Albert Barnes)
“‘Yahweh looked down from heaven upon the children of men, ’as opposed to the children of God,.. as Genesis 4:26; Genesis 6:2.” (John Trapp)— ’to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.’ As in the days of Noah, when all flesh had corrupted its way.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “God knoweth all things without any inquiry; but this is a figure called anthropopathia, whereby Scripture oft speaks of God after the manner of men.” (Matthew Poole) “What is to be the issue of the strongly contrasted situation in these two verses: beneath, a world full of godless lawlessness; above, a fixed eye piercing to the discernment of the inmost nature of actions and characters?” (Alexander McLaren) Likewise, the Spirit of this message is confirmed in Genesis 11:5, “where similarly ‘Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded.” (John Trapp) Compare also God’s inquiry into the state of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah prior to destruction ( Genesis 18:21). "I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know." Revelation refers to these workers of inequity existing at the end of time and call them by the name of “mystery Babylon” referring to the tower.
“This might well be twentieth century man.“ (Kidner) “’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 condition [of fallen man] in the end of the age.” (Arno Gaebelein) “‘They have all turned aside,’ have departed from truth, and the God of truth. ‘they have together become corrupt; ’— Heb. neelachu or filthy. They are so hateful to all men. particularly to God’s people. They “’eat up,’ i.e. devour and destroy, as this word signifies, Deuteronomy 7:16 Proverbs 30:14 Jeremiah 1:17 Nahum 3:15.— ‘my people,— i.e. the poor and godly Israelites, of whom he principally speaks; whom he calleth my people.” (Matthew Poole)—“’as they eat bread.’-conduct at once rapacious and unconcerned.” (John Dummelow) “‘There is none, that doeth good;’ none of their actions are really and thoroughly good or pleasing to God; for if some of them be materially good, as when they do an act of justice or charity, yet they are poisoned with bad principles or ends, not being performed by them out of a good conscience, and serious care to please God, for then they would do one good action as well as another, but in hypocrisy, or with vain-glory, or some sinister and unworthy design.” (Matthew Poole)
“They are those whose understanding is darkened, who, professing themselves to be wise, become fools. Such men, who make a boast of their reason, and would fain walk by the light of their reason, prove how little their reason is worth.” (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
"‘And"- lastly- these "do not call on Yahweh’—Such wickedness is naturally prayerless.” (John Dummelow) Thus: “This must be understood of man left to himself, man as he is by nature, without regeneration. And St. Paul quotes the passage to prove the need which both Jews and Gentiles have of redemption and salvation by grace, and through faith in Christ. (Romans 3:10-20.)” (Thomas Scott)— ending with “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
“‘There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous’— a prophetic look at a future generation, the church age. “You shame the counsel of the poor, but Yahweh is his [or her] refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!’ Will this end? Is there to be a better day than violence and wickedness? When will that day come? It comes when the salvation comes out of Zion (Romans 11:26), when the Lord turns back the captivity of His people, when [all true] Israel is redeemed.” (Arno Gaebelein) “‘When the Lord turns back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.’ David and Paul “citing the words of Isaiah, says, ‘There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’ Isaiah 59:20. Romans 11:25. Jeremiah 14:8, prayed in the same sense. ‘Oh the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble. Why shouldst Thou be as a stranger in the land?’ To whom could the prophets appeal in the time of trouble, but to the only Hope of Zion.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
"The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.' (Isaiah 45:17) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For 'whoever calls on the name of 'Yahweh-saves' shall be saved.' (Joel 2:32) (Romans 10:8-13)