Psalm 14

Psalm 14  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
Listen from:
This gives the character of the wicked. It is the full contrast of the children of men and Jehovah. So the Apostle uses it. How according to its full meaning (as necessarily) is the Holy Ghost's use of this, its testimony—the testimony of the Spirit of Christ as knowing it! Israel was the scene of its most painful and nearest; not its least proof “If I had not," etc., John 15. Therefore "what the law saith, it saith to them under the law; that every mouth" etc., and then it was too “of many sins" (pollon hamartematon).
The Psalm states the implication of the Jews, as a body, in the common principles of the ungodly. The fears of the godly drive them to God—of the hypocrite, to alliance with evil. We are warranted, by the Apostle, in applying this Psalm to the Jews, and indeed it flows from the discovery that so had they corrupted their way, that there were none that understood; compare Isa. 33:14, 1514The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 15He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; (Isaiah 33:14‑15). The captivity is not reckoned to be brought back by the Lord, till the full blessing apparently. Note also, the children of Lo-ruhamah, i.e., of Israel, ought not, it would seem, to have part in the special trials of Jerusalem and Judah in the last day; nor is “the day of Jezreel" to be till after that, when both should be brought together.