Absolute Universal Depravity

1   The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
There is none who does good.
2   God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
3   Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.

(Verse 1) - The fool - The word “fool” is often used in the Scriptures to denote a wicked man - as sin is the essence of folly. (Compare Job 2:10; Ps. 74:18; Gen. 34:7; Deut. 22:21). The Hebrew word is rendered “vile person” in Isa. 32:5-6. Elsewhere it is rendered “fool, foolish,” and “foolish man.” It is designed to convey the idea that wickedness or impiety is essential folly, or to use a term in describing the wicked which will, perhaps, more than any other, make the mind averse to the sin - for there is many a man who would see more in the word “fool” to be hated than in the word “wicked;” who would rather be called a “sinner” than a “fool.”

Hath said - That is, has “thought,” for the reference is to what is passing in his mind.  It is his conviction that there is no God.  That is a foolish conviction or conclusion because it flies in the face of all of the evidence and testimony of nature, etc. that God does, indeed exist.

In his heart – (See Ps. 10:11). He may not have said this to others; he may not have taken the position openly before the world that there is no God, but such a thought has passed through his mind, and he has cherished it; and such a thought, either as a matter of belief or of desire, is at the foundation of his conduct. He “acts” as if such were his belief or his wish. This phrase first appears in Psalm 14; however, the only change in this verse - a change which does not affect the sense - is the substitution of the word “iniquity,” in Ps. 53, for “works,” in Ps. 14.

There is no God - And this he does because he is a fool. Being a fool he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool he meddles with a great subject, and comes to a wild conclusion. The atheist is, morally, as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in philosophy. With the denial of God as a starting point, we may well conclude that the fool’s progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one. He who begins at impiety is ready for anything. “No God,” being interpreted, means no law, no order, no restraint to lust, no limit to passion. Who but a fool would be of this mind? What a Bedlam, or rather what an Aceldama, would the world become if such lawless principles came to be universal! He who heartily entertains an irreligious spirit, and follows it out to its legitimate issues is a son of Belial, dangerous to the commonwealth, irrational and despicable. Every natural man, is, more or less a denier of God. Practical atheism is the religion of the race.

Corrupt are they -  They are rotten. It is idle to compliment them as sincere doubters, and amiable thinkers - they are putrid. There is too much dainty dealing nowadays with atheism; it is not a harmless error, it is an offensive, putrid sin, and righteous men should look upon it in that light. All men being more or less atheistic in spirit, are also in that degree corrupt; their heart is foul, their moral nature is decayed. “And have done abominable iniquity.” Bad principles soon lead to bad lives. One does not find virtue promoted by the example of your Voltaires and Tom Paines. Those who talk so abominably as to deny their Maker will act abominably when it serves their turn. It is the abounding denial and forgetfulness of God among men which is the source of the unrighteousness and crime which we see around us. If all men are not outwardly vicious it is to be accounted for by the power of other and better principles, but left to itself the “No God” spirit so universal in mankind would produce nothing but the most loathsome actions. - “There is none that doeth good.” The one typical fool is reproduced in the whole race; without a single exception men have forgotten the right way. This accusation twice made in the Psalm, and repeated a third time by the inspired apostle Paul, is an indictment most solemn and sweeping, but he who makes it cannot err, he knows what is in man; neither will he lay more to man’s charge than he can prove.

(Verse 2) - God looked down from heaven … - The only change which occurs in this verse is the substitution of the word “Elohim” rendered “God,” for “YAHWEH,” rendered LORD, in Ps. 14:2. The same change occurs also in Ps. 14:4, 6. It is to be observed, also, that the word “YAHWEH” does not occur in this psalm, but that the term used is uniformly. In Ps. 14 both terms are found - the word Elohim three times (Ps. 14:1-2, 5), and the word Yahweh four times, (Ps. 14:2, 4,6-7). It is impossible to account for this change. There is nothing in it, however, to indicate anything in regard to the authorship of the psalm or to the time when it was written, for both these words are frequently used by David elsewhere.

The original word here for “looked down” conveys the idea of “bending forward,” and hence, of an intense and anxious looking, as we bend forward when we wish to examine anything with attention, or when we look out for one who is expected to come. The idea is that God looked intently, or so as to secure a close examination, upon the children of men, for the express purpose of ascertaining whether there were any that were good. He looked at all men; he examined all their pretensions to goodness, and he saw none who could be regarded as exempt from the charge of depravity. Nothing could more clearly prove the doctrine of universal depravity than to say that an Omniscient God made “an express examination” on this very point, that he looked over all the world, and that in the multitudes which passed under the notice of his eye not “one” could be found who could be pronounced righteous. If God could not find such an one, assuredly man cannot. God is intensely interested in the affairs of men, and particularly in the affairs of His children.  There is absolutely no support for the Deistic view of a God Who is “way up there” but not involved in His creation.

Upon the children of men - Upon mankind; upon the human race. They are called “children,” or “sons” (Hebrew), because they are all the descendants of the man that God created - of Adam. Indeed the original word here is “Adam”. Also , it may be questionable whether, since this became in fact a proper name, designating the first man, it would not have been proper to retain the idea in the translation - “the sons of Adam;” that is, all his descendants. The phrase occurs frequently to denote the human race, (Deut. 32:8; Ps. 11:4; 21:10; 31:19; 36:7; 57:4);.

To see if there were any that did understand - If there were one acting wisely - to wit, in seeking God. “Acting wisely” here stands in contrast with the folly referred to in the first verse. Religion is always represented in the Scriptures as true wisdom.

And seek God - The knowledge of him; his favor and friendship. Wisdom is shown by a “desire” to become acquainted with the being and perfections of God, as well as in the actual possession of that knowledge; and in no way can the true character of man be better determined than by the actual interest which is felt in becoming acquainted with the character of him who made and who governs the universe. It is one of the clearest proofs of human depravity that there is no prevailing desire among people thus to ascertain the character of God.  Had there been one understanding man, one true lover of his God, the divine eye would have discovered him. Those pure heathens and admirable savages that men talk so much of, do not appear to have been visible to the eye of Omniscience, the fact being that they live nowhere but in the realm of fiction. The Lord did not look for great grace, but only for sincerity and right desire, but these he found not. He saw all nations, and all men in all nations, and all hearts in all men, and all motions of all hearts, but he saw neither a clear head nor a clean heart among them all. Where God’s eyes see no favorable sign we may rest assured there is none.

(Verse 3) - Every one of them is gone back - See the notes at Ps. 14:3. The only variation here in the two psalms is in the substitution of the words used for “go back”- words almost identical in form and in sense. The only difference in meaning is, that the former word - the word used here - means “to draw back,” or “to go back;” the other, the word used in Ps. 14, means “to go off, to turn aside.” Each of them indicates a departure from God; a departure equally fatal and equally guilty, whether people turn “back” from following him, or turn “aside” to something else. Both of these forms of apostasy occur with lamentable frequency. This verse states the result of the divine investigation referred to in the previous verse. The result, as seen by God himself, was, that “all” were seen to have gone aside, and to have become filthy. The word rendered “gone aside” means properly to go off, to turn aside or away, to depart; as, for example, to turn out of the right way or path, (Exo. 32:8). Then it means to turn away from God; to fall away from his worship; to apostatize, (1 Sam. 12:20; 2 Kings 18:6; 2 Chr. 25:27). This is the idea here - that they had all apostatized from the living God. The word “all” in the circumstances makes the statement as universal as it can be made; and no term could be used more clearly affirming the doctrine of universal depravity. The whole mass of manhood, all of it, is gone back. In the fourteenth Psalm it was said to turn aside, which was bad enough, but here it is described as running in a diametrically opposite direction. The life of unregenerate manhood is in direct defiance of the law of God, not merely apart from it but opposed to it.

They are all together become filthy - The word “all” here is supplied by the translators. It was not necessary, however, to introduce it in order that the idea of universal depravity might be expressed, for that is implied in the word rendered “together.  That word properly conveys the idea that the same character or conduct pervaded all, or that the same thing might be expressed of all those referred to. They were united in this thing - that they bad become defiled or filthy. The word is used with reference to “persons,” as meaning that they are all “in one place,” (Gen. 13:6; 22:6); or to “events,” as meaning that they occurred at one time, (Ps. 4:8). They were all as one. (Compare 1 Chr. 10:6). The idea is that, in respect to the statement made, they were alike. What would describe one would describe all. The word rendered “become filthy” is, in the margin, rendered “stinking.” In Arabic the word means to become “sharp,” or “sour” as milk; and hence, the idea of becoming corrupt in a moral sense. The word is found only here, and in the parallel Ps. 53:3, and in Job 15:16, in each of which places it is rendered “filthy.” It relates here to character, and means that their character was morally corrupt or defiled. The term is often used in that sense now. The whole lump is soured with an evil leaven, fouled with an all–pervading pollution, made rank with general putrefaction. Thus, in God’s sight, our atheistic nature is not the pardonable thing that we think it to be. Errors as to God are not the mild diseases which some account them, they are abominable evils. Fair is the world to blind eyes, but to the all - seeing Jehovah it is otherwise.

There is none that doeth good, no, not one - Nothing could more clearly express the idea of universal and complete depravity than this expression. It is not merely that no one could be found who did good, but the expression is repeated to give emphasis to the statement.

This entire passage is quoted in Rom. 3:10-12, in proof of the doctrine of universal depravity. How could there be, when the whole mass was leavened with so evil a leaven? This puts an end to the fictions of the innocent savage, the lone patriarch, “the Indian whose untutored mind,” etc. Pope’s verse -

Father of all, in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, or by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,”

evaporates in smoke. The fallen race of man, left to its own energy, has not produced a single lover of God or doer of holiness, nor will it ever do so. Grace must interpose or not one specimen of humanity will be found to follow after the good and true. This is God’s verdict after looking down upon the race. Who shall gainsay it?

As unpleasant as this doctrine is, I must come to grips with it and preach it clearly – men are depraved and completely corrupted!  It is only in this context that the Gospel can truly be what God intended it to be!