Psalms 53:1

PSALM 53 THE ARGUMENT This Psalm, some few words excepted, is wholly the same with Psa 14, and therefore the reader must resort thither for the interpretation of it. And it is repeated, partly because the matter of it is so important and necessary to be known and considered; and partly because there arose some new and suitable occasion which made David sing it a second time, and that with some small alterations. And the compiler or compilers of David's Psalms had so great a reverence for their composer, whom they knew to be guided by Divine inspiration, that they would not lose any of his fragments, and therefore repeated this Psalm with the variations which he had made. 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 Psa 10 Psa 14. No text from Poole on this verse.