Psalms 53:1

David describeth the corruption of a natural man: he convinceth the wicked by the light of their own conscience: he glorieth in the salvation of God.

To the chief musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.

Title. לדוד משׂכיל מחלת על למנצח lamnatseach al machalath maskiil ledavid.] The occasion of this Psalm, which varies but little from the 14th, and for which variation it is not easy to account, is supposed to have been the next revolt which the Israelites in general made immediately after the rebellion of Absalom, before David had quite recovered Jerusalem, and upon the quarrel which arose between the men of Judah and the men of Israel about precedency in bringing back the king; when Sheba blew the trumpet of rebellion afresh; and, it is said, every man of Israel left David. See 2 Samuel 20:2. מחלת על al machalath, Upon Mahalath, is rendered by some, Upon the hollow instruments; and by Houbigant, Upon the chorus. Mudge says, Mahalath is probably a kind of music, denominated from a song, in which was that word; which signifies a malady or illness; designed, if one may guess from Psalms 88 to raise in the mind a melancholy, or sort of pensive gloominess. Fenwick is nearly of the same opinion. See his Thoughts, p. 57. The Syriac title informs us, that the Psalm was occasioned by Achitophel's advising Absalom to pursue David, and put him to death: but, with respect to Christians, it intimates the revelation of our Saviour, and deliverance from atheistic people. There was, most probably, more of it in the original Syriac copy. See the notes on the 14th Psalm.