Psalm 53

Introduction & Background

“Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms. And in this episode, we’ll be looking at Psalm 53, very short psalm, but it also has something else that makes it very unique, and that is this. It is almost word for word identical to Psalm 14.

I encourage you to go back and listen to that teaching on Psalm 14, or at least read the psalm again on your own, and then come back here to Psalm 53, and you’ll see that they’re almost identical. There’s one major difference later in the psalm. One verse completely departs from Psalm 14.

But the question is, why is this basically same psalm found twice? And then why the changes that have been made? Well, I don’t have an answer for that, and the rabbis surmise why this is, but I’ll give you my thoughts, my idea, and you can take it or leave it.”

David vs. Doeg – The Background

“In Psalms 51 and 52, we read about two background stories. In Psalm 51, the background story is David had committed a terrible sin by committing adultery to Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah killed. And you find that right in the approbation of the psalm.

In Psalm 52, the background story is the story of Doeg the Edomite. And if you listen to the teaching of Psalm 52, you notice there’s some interesting comparisons between David and Doeg. And Doeg also committed a terrible sin, as did David.

But there’s a major difference between these two men. Even though they both committed the sin of murder and David—well, let me put it this way. Though Doeg was involved in the sin of murder, David actually did have a man killed and did commit adultery with his wife. But here’s the major difference between the two men: David was a righteous man, and he fell. He messed up. He really tripped, fell on his face.

But when he was confronted by Nathan the prophet about his sin, David immediately repented. He immediately went before God and confessed his sin and prayed. And he returned to a place of living righteously. He would suffer the consequences of his sin for the rest of his life, but he repented. He was a righteous man who just really messed up.

Doeg, on the other hand, was not a righteous man. Never had been, never would be after this great sin of his. And he was a wicked man to the core. To me, one of the greatest villains in the Bible.”

Psalm 53 as a Portrait of Doeg

“And so in Psalm 14, which talks about the fool who said in his heart, there is no God, and Psalm 53 starts out the same way. I have to believe that Psalm 53 is somehow describing Doeg and comparing the difference between David and Doeg.

And anyways, you tell me what you think. You can leave comments below and email me, but I just find this insertion of Psalm 53 here with its alterations very interesting, very informative.

Anyways, without further yammer for me, let’s get right into the psalm itself. Now, the approbation is a little different from Psalm 14. This says to the choir master, and 14 just says to the choir master of David, a psalm of David. This says to the choir master, according to Machalat, Machalat. This is only found twice in the Psalms, here and in Psalm 88.”

Machalat – A Dirge-like Melody

“Machalat, the rabbis tell us, comes from the Hebrew word chala, which means to be ill. And so Machalat, they perceive as being a melody that is very slow, like a dirge, something that’s very mournful. And when you read Psalm 88, you’ll find it is probably just about the saddest psalm in the entire book of Psalms.

So, this is a sad psalm, but it is still a Maskeel. It is still an instructive psalm, a teaching psalm. So let’s get right into it.”

God’s Name: Elohim Instead of Adonai

“It opens up the same way Psalm 14 does. Now, let me say this. One of the major differences between 14 and 53 is that in Psalm 14, the name Adonai, Yad He Vav He, is used throughout the psalm. Four times, God’s name is used.

But God’s name is not used in this psalm. Instead of Yad He Vav He, this uses the name Elohim four times. So it’s a direct substitution. The four Yad He Vav He’s of 14 are replaced with four Elohims in the psalm.

Why does this matter? Well, according to Jewish understanding, when you see God’s name Yad He Vav He—we just say Adonai—it’s referring, it’s talked about God in the context of his loving kindness, his mercy. But when you see Elohim, it’s referring to God in the context of strict justice. And so everything about this Psalm 53, you see God taking more of an attitude of I’ve had enough. This is coming to an end. I’m, I don’t—don’t make me come down there.

And so it’s Elohim that is being used here. He’s ready to judge.”

Verse 1 – The Fool’s Claim

“Now it starts out, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. And in your English translations, the quotation marks are put right after that.

Quote, there is no God, unquote. But in the original Hebrew, there is no punctuation. There are no quotation marks.

And to me, it makes a lot more sense to put the quotation marks where I put them. And you can see on the screen, the fool says in his heart, quote, there is no God. They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. There is none who does good, unquote.

That’s what the fool says in his heart.”

Atheistic Cynicism

“There is none who does good, unquote. That’s what the fool says in his heart. I have found that people who choose not to believe in God are usually very cynical.

And they say, nobody does good. Everybody’s a mess. No one’s any better than anybody else.

And the people who claim to believe in God and serve Him, they’re all just a bunch of hypocrites. In other words, this entire verse, not just the part, there is no God, but the entire verse to me describes the person with the atheistic mindset. There’s no God, everybody’s corrupt, everybody’s a mess. It’s every man for himself.

Now one of the changes between verse one of this psalm and verse one of Psalm 14 is this word iniquity. What it says over in Psalm 14 is that they’re doing abominable deeds. But this psalm says they’re doing abominable iniquity. It’s even worse. It’s even worse.”

Verses 2–4 – Elohim Looks Down

“And let’s continue. Verses two through four. Now you’ll notice I put God here in bold because that’s the word Elohim.

Elohim looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if they are any who are prudent. Now that word prudentis the exact same word as Maskeel back in the approbation. Maskeel. This is a teaching psalm.

And that is the word that’s used here. And then it says, he looks down to see if there are any who are prudent, who seek after Elohim, seek after God.

They are all fallen away. Now, back in Psalm 14, it says they are all sar. They have all gone astray. It’s like they kind of wandered off, like sheep are prone to do. But this is something that’s a little stronger.

This is not sar. This is the word sug. And there you can see it in Hebrew. Very interesting word. And the rabbis don’t agree on exactly how this should be translated. Rashi is very adamant that we should translate it as dross. They are all dross. In other words, when you apply heat to a molten metal, you melt it in the dross. All the impurities just float to the top.

And it says they’re all just dross. They just need to be scraped away. They have no value whatsoever.”

Verse 3 – The Word “Sug”

“I’m not quite sure how they arrive at that, but they’re pretty adamant. That’s what it is. But the thing is, for me, the key to understanding the Hebrew word is to go back and see the first place it’s used.

And when we find the first appearance of this word, sug, it is back in Deuteronomy 19, verse 14, which just so happens to come from this week’s Torah portion. Deuteronomy 19:14, he says, you shall not sug your neighbor’s boundary stone, his boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, and your inheritance which you shall inherit in the land that Adonai your God gives you to possess.

And then the next time it’s found is in Deuteronomy 27, verse 17. This is where Moses is describing how six of the tribes would be on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses, six on Mount Gerizim to pronounce the blessings. And one of the curses is this, cursed is he who sugs his neighbor’s boundary mark. And all the people shall say, amen.

So the first two times you find this word sug, it has to do with moving a boundary mark. Now we think of Psalm 14, the word used there as sar, to kind of go astray. But sug is something more purposeful.

Sug is an intentional act of theft. And even more than that, it’s an act of theft that tries to change history. The ancestors set the boundary marks, so that everything to this side belongs to man A, everything on this side belongs to man B. And so one of the men moves the boundary mark. So man A’s inheritance shrinks, so man B’s increases. God says, that man is cursed.

This is a very, very serious sin in God’s eyes. And it’s been suggested that this boundary mark, these boundary stones are actually an analogy for God’s laws. God has set laws, has set bounds on our activities, what is permitted and what is not permitted, what is forbidden. And if we want to really get a curse in our lives, start moving those boundary stones and say, oh, God doesn’t care if you do such and such. That old law is done away with. And they move the boundary stone.

And so that’s one way to think about this. I’ll leave that up to you to make of it what you will. But this is a very serious thing that the people are being accused of here in verse three of this psalm. So they are all sug. They’re, think of it as they’re stealing, they’re moving the boundary stones. They are purposely, not just going astray, but they are purposely changing what the paths are. They’re purposely calling evil good and good evil.

By the way, let me give you a third occurrence of this word sug. This is also very insightful. Proverbs 14:14, the backslider, and guess what that word for backslider is? Sug. The sug in heart will have his fill of his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.

So the word for backslider here in Hebrew is the same word. It’s someone who knows what’s right, besides I’m not going to do it. I’m going to go back to do things my own way.”

Verses 3–4 – Corruption and Evil

“Okay, so we continue on. They are all sug, whatever that means. Together they have become corrupt. There’s none who does good, not even one. Of those who work evil, no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon Elohim.

And now this is where, in verse five, where this psalm takes a drastic change from Psalm 14. They bear very little resemblance. Well, what’s interesting, there are a few words here that are almost homophones for some of the words in Psalm 14. They’re very similar, but have completely different meanings. They’re different words.”

Verse 5 – Great Terror

“It says, there they were in great terror who had not known terror. For God scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You put them to shame for Elohim has rejected them.

What does this mean? There they were in great terror who had not known terror. The rabbis suggest, and I totally agree with them, it’s referring to an enemy who has attacked many others and always won.

And so, they’re never afraid. When they go on the attack, they have so many victories under their belt that when they go on the attack, they experience no fear because they are the champions and they’re undefeatable. But God is saying, but when they come against my people, those who had not known terror will be in great terror.

Why? Because God scattered the bones of him who will camp against you. In other words, you’re going to see how God defends his own. And the bones from the fallen bodies of the enemies will just be scattered like dust. You put them to shame for Elohim has rejected them.

So it’s like in the psalm, it’s injecting this bit to those who are righteous, saying, listen, don’t be intimidated by the wicked who seem to always get away with what they’re doing. Don’t be intimidated by them. Because when they come against you, though they may not have known fear and terror before, they’re going to know it now. And I’m going to reveal to them what I do to the enemies of my people.”

Verse 6 – Closing Prayer

“And then we come to the close of the psalm. Oh, that salvations for Israel. Now, this is plural, salvations. In 14, it’s singular. And the word here, of course, is Yeshua. In Psalm 53, it’s Yeshuaot, which is the plural of the word salvation.

Oh, that Yeshuaot, salvations for Israel would come out of Zion, when Elohim restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad.

I think it’s insightful to compare the close of the psalm with its opening. The Navaal, the fool, has said in his heart, there is no God, everybody does wrong, they’re all corrupt, every man’s for himself. But then God says, no, that’s not the case, because God will restore the fortunes of his people.

So let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad.”

Closing Reflections

“It’s a very stark difference. And again, I want to go back to Psalms 51 and 52, the psalm of David’s sin, the psalm written in response to Doeg’s horrible sin. Though both sins were horrible, the two men were very different. We all mess up, we all fall, hopefully not nearly as severely as David did.

But for a David who falls, there’s so much hope. And God restores. And though your life may never be the same again because of the scars left by your sin and the repercussions of your sin, you can still have close and intimate fellowship with your Creator.

But don’t be a Doeg. Doeg was sinful from the get go. It doesn’t appear that he ever did anything right. He was a total Navaal. He was a total fool. And though he would have claimed to be an obedient Jew, to be a follower of God and a keeper of God’s commandments, in his heart he didn’t believe in God at all.

And I know that in rubbing elbows with many Christians, I have run into a number of what I call Christian atheists. Christian atheist. Their theology is, oh yes, there’s one God and his son, Yeshua, is our Savior, and the word of God is the Bible as we have it, and they say all the right things.

Well, when it comes right down to practice, they don’t believe in God. They live their lives the way they want to live their lives. They don’t resubmit to God’s authority. And when there comes a testing, they don’t really trust God to bring them through. They don’t trust in his promises, and they think you’re foolish if you do.

We have to be practical. That’s what we have to say. That’s what they tend to say. We just have to be practical. And for them, practical faith is silly. And so, in essence, they’re Christian atheist. They’re Christian in their theology, atheist in their practice.

That’s what Doeg was. And if you find yourself to be one of these, then Psalm 53 is for you. But let’s not be a Doeg. Let’s not be a Christian atheist or a Messianic atheist or a Jewish atheist. Let’s have faith in our God that He really does take care of us and that there is a judgment day coming when everything is made right.

And sin will be exposed as sin and righteousness will be exposed as righteousness and there will be rewards, there will be punishment and everything will be done fairly and everything will be done exactly in order and there will be no more confusion.

So that’s a day to look forward to, not to dread. So I hope this short teaching on Psalm 53 had some things in it that are useful to you and helpful. But I do encourage you to go back to Psalm 14, where I really get into the essence of what these two psalms are saying.

And whereas here I’m basically talking about the differences between the two psalms. So anyways, until next time when I meet you back here for Psalm 54, I wish you shalom and may God bless.”