God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
PSALM 53 This psalm being almost identical with the fourteenth, it has not been considered necessary to subjoin any distinct commentary. Some slight differences will be found, on comparison, between this and the 14th psalm; the chief of which is in the 5th verse. For Calvin’s explanation of this verse, see volume 1, p. 199.
Commenting on Psalm 53:1-6
God's eye from His all-surveying observatory found no sincere lover of Him among all nations and all men. Those pure heathens men speak of exist only in fiction; the Lord looked not for great grace, but sincerity and right desire, and found neither a clear head nor a clean heart anywhere.
AI summary
Sin springs from a corrupt thought: men say in their hearts there is no God to account for them, and their bad practices flow from this evil fountain. Atheists, whether in opinion or practice, are the greatest fools alive, for they deny the very faculty that distinguishes man from brute beasts, his capacity for religion.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 53:1-6