1.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
Mahalath seems to be the name of a musical instrument, or tune; wherein, as in the rest of them, it is better to confess our ignorance, as the Hebrew doctors themselves do, than to give way to vain and groundless conjectures about them.
David describeth the atheism and corruption of men, &c. See Psalms 10; Psalms 14.
2.
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3.
Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
4.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
5.
There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
Where no fear was, i.e. where there was no great nor sufficient cause of fear. See Leviticus 26:36; Deuteronomy 28:65; Job 15:21; Proverbs 28:1. They who designed to secure themselves from all fear and danger by their contempt of God, and by the persecution of good men, and by other wicked courses, were by those means filled with the terrors which they sought to avoid.
Hath scattered the bones; hath not only broken their bones, i.e. their strength and force, which is oft noted by the bones, as Psalms 6:2; Psalms 31:10; Psalms 51:8, but also dispersed them hither and thither, so as there is no hopes of a reunion and restoration.
Against thee, i.e. against my people, expressed, Psalms 53:4, or Israel, or Zion, as it is in the next verse.
Thou, O Zion, or Jerusalem, which they besiege,
hast put them to shame, for the great and strange disappointment of their hopes and confidence. It was a great reproach to them, for such numerous and mighty forces to be baffled and conquered by those whom they thought to swallow up at a morsel.
Despised them; or, rejected them; cursed them. Therefore it is no wonder if they could not stand before thee.
6.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.