Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?
David lays bare a corruption so complete that it seized nearly the whole people: practical atheism, a denial whispered in the heart where conscience cannot reach it. He speaks as if God Himself grieves over this disorder, yet he comforts himself that God will soon provide a remedy, though meanwhile the distress cuts deep.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 14:1-7
Hatred of God and corruptness of life are the motive forces which produce persecution. Men who having no saving knowledge of divine things, enslave themselves to become workers of iniquity, have no heart to cry to the Lord for deliverance, but seek to amuse themselves with devouring the poor and despised people of God.
In these verses the psalmist endeavours, I. To convince sinners of the evil and danger of the way they are in, how secure soever they are in that way. Three things he shows them, which, it may be, they are not very willing to see - their wickedness, their folly, and their danger, while they are apt to believe themselves very wise, and good, and safe. See here, 1.
Commenting on Psalm 14:4-7