Psalms 53:2

For a while God as it were overlooked the growing corruption. At length He -looked down" (Psalms 33:13-14). So in the yet simpler language of the Pentateuch He is said to have -come down to see" the wickedness of Babel and Sodom (Genesis 11:5; Genesis 18:21; and note the use of -look down" in the latter narrative though in a different connexion, Psalms 18:16). Were not these typical examples of human corruption in the Psalmist's mind? God (in Psalms 14:2 Jehovah) looked down … to see if there were any that did understand (or deal wisely, R.V. marg., for the verb often includes the idea of right action), that did seek after God. Cp. Psalms 9:10. The use of God, not Jehovah, in Psalms 14 as well as here, is significant. It is of mankind in general, not of Israel, that the Psalmist is speaking. God made Himself known through the voice of conscience and in the works of creation, but men would not follow the light of conscience or read the book of nature. See Acts 14:17; Acts 17:27; and especially Romans 1:19 ff.