The commentators already point out that the chapter before us appears twice: there is another psalm remarkably similar to it in wording, with only slight variations, and that is chapter 14. In our psalm it says, "For the conductor, upon Machalat, a Maskil of David," whereas there it reads, "For the conductor, of David." The verse "The scoundrel said in his heart, 'There is no God'" is almost completely identical, except that there it says, "They have acted corruptly, they have done abominable deeds," and here, "They have acted corruptly and done abominable iniquity." There it says, "Hashem looked down from heaven," while here it says, "God looked down from heaven" - and so throughout the entire chapter: the four-letter Name of Hashem in chapter 14 is replaced here with the Name Elohim.
Additional differences include: there, "They have all turned aside, together they have become depraved," while here, "Every one of them has turned back, together they have become depraved." There, "Do they not know, all the evildoers?" and here, "Do the evildoers not know?" And the more fundamental difference: there it says, "There they were filled with dread, for God is with the righteous generation," followed by, "You shame the counsel of the poor, because Hashem is his refuge" - whereas here it says, "There they were filled with dread, where no dread was, for God has scattered the bones of your besieger; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them." In the final verse there is also a slight variation: there it has "the salvation of Israel" in the singular (Yeshuat), while here it is "the salvations" in the plural (Yeshuot), and there it says, "When Hashem restores the captivity of His people," while here it reads, "When God restores." Our goal will be to understand why King David duplicated this psalm and wrote nearly the same subject in almost the same words twice.
לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל־מָחֲלַת מַשְׂכִּיל לְדָוִד׃ - For the conductor, upon Machalat, a Maskil of David.
Rashi explains that "Machalat" is the name of a musical instrument. He also brings another explanation based on the homiletic teaching of Chazal: "Al machalat" is related to the word for sickness (choli), referring to the sickness and affliction of Israel when the Temple is destroyed. Rashi adds that another psalm similar to this one was already stated in Tehillim 14, "The scoundrel said in his heart, 'There is no God'" - and the difference between them is that the first was said concerning the destruction of the First Temple, while this one was said concerning the destruction of the Second Temple. According to this, chapter 53 is interpreted regarding the destruction brought by Titus, and chapter 14 regarding the destruction brought by Nebuchadnezzar. For anyone seeking a mnemonic to remember the two chapters: the Beit HaMikdash is called "Gan Elohim" (the Garden of God), and the two psalms dealing with laying a hand upon the Beit HaMikdash are chapters 14 (Yud-Dalet) and 53 (Nun-Gimmel), which together correspond to the gematria of "sholach yad b'Gan Elohim" (laid a hand upon the Garden of God).
The Malbim also notes that this chapter already appeared in chapter 14 with minor changes, as he explained there. In his view, this has nothing to do with the destruction of the Temple; rather, King David originally composed the first psalm upon being saved from a mighty king and his vast army who came against him. In the days of Hezekiah, when a miracle was performed for them with the downfall of Sennacherib, they found that the psalm was precisely suited to their situation. They therefore adopted it and instituted it "upon Machalat" - meaning, to be played on a specific musical instrument. They maintained that while the primary force of the psalm was when David uttered it against the king who rose up against him, David, through Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit), intended to hint at their era as well. This is the meaning of "a Maskil of David": David, with profound insight, good understanding, and Ruach HaKodesh, recited this psalm for their generation as well, to deliver them from the army of Sennacherib.
אָמַר נָבָל בְּלִבּוֹ אֵין אֱלֹהִים הִשְׁחִיתוּ וְהִתְעִיבוּ עָוֶל אֵין עֹשֵׂה־טוֹב׃ - The scoundrel said in his heart, "There is no God"; they have acted corruptly and done abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
According to Rashi, who explains the chapter as referring to the destruction of the Second Temple, "The scoundrel said in his heart" refers to Titus, who tore the Parochet (Curtain), slashed it with his sword, and blood began spurting from it - whereupon he declared that he had, as it were, killed the Creator of the universe, Heaven forbid. This is "There is no God."
The Radak explains the placement of the psalm here, between the episode of Doeg in the preceding chapter and the episode of the Ziphites in the following chapter. The Ziphites came to Saul and informed him that David was hiding among them, and Doeg likewise pursued David; between these two persecutions, David inserted this psalm. The underlying idea is to draw a parallel between David's situation and that of Mashiach, his descendant. David was eagerly awaiting the kingdom, and the righteous of Israel were likewise waiting for him to reign, yet there were those who opposed him and plotted against him: Doeg and the Ziphites, who sought ways to distress him, slander him, and deliver him into the hand of Saul. But the Holy One, blessed be He, foiled their counsel and returned their recompense upon their own heads, while the kingdom of David remains established and enduring.
And so, says the Radak, is the case with Israel today: the nations plot to annihilate us in every generation, and David uttered his psalm as a prayer for our generations. They mock us over our hope for Mashiach ben David, asking: What do you believe in, and what are you waiting for? The Christians say this because for them the messiah has already come: we are still before, while they are already after. They say that the kingdom will never rise or come to be - precisely as they said to David that his kingdom would not be established, seeking to hand him over to Saul to eliminate him and his kingship. And so David said in Psalm 89: "With which Your enemies have taunted, Hashem, with which they have taunted the footsteps of Your anointed."
And so it will also be at the coming of Mashiach, when the nations will oppose the kingdom of the House of David and seek to put him to death, as in the prophecy of Gog and Magog, when Hashem's anointed one will go forth to battle against them. It will not find favor in their eyes that a kingdom has arisen and that there is a King Mashiach. Just as they attempted then to nullify the anointed king, so too will they attempt in the future. Regarding them, David says in verse 6, "For God has scattered the bones of those who encamp against you," referring to the nations encamping against Jerusalem and against Israel - these are Gog and Magog, who will come to encamp against Jerusalem to wage war against the people of Israel, and Hashem will scatter their bones. And regarding them it is said, "they have committed abominable injustice": they have made their ways abominable through the injustice they commit, corrupting through their deeds.
The Malbim explains, according to his approach that Chizkiyahu and his company applied this psalm to their own era, that Sancheiriv denied Hashem. Not only was he a denier, but he sent Ravshakeh and his men to taunt the ranks of the living God, declaring "there is no God": behold, your God could not save the Ten Tribes from me, so why do you think He will save you? Likewise, all his armies "acted corruptly and committed abominable injustice; there is none who does good." The Malbim notes precisely that "there is none who does good" does not refer only to the observance of Torah and mitzvos, but even from the perspective of basic human morality, not a single one among them could be found doing good.
The Midrash expounds: "'And Esau said in his heart' - the wicked are controlled by their heart, as it is said, 'The scoundrel said in his heart,' 'And Esau said in his heart,' 'And Jeroboam said in his heart,' 'And Haman said in his heart.' But the righteous control their heart: Hannah was 'speaking to her heart,' 'And David said to his heart,' 'And Daniel resolved upon his heart.' The heart is the seat of governance over a person and the seat of desires, as Scripture says, 'You have granted him his heart's desire.' When a person rules over his heart, he masters his desires; a righteous person rules in the fear of God.
And this is the nuance: the wicked person "speaks in his heart" - the heart is the speaker, guiding and leading him. The righteous person, however, "speaks to his heart" - the heart receives instructions; it does not hold the steering wheel and is not the leader. Hannah does not speak from out of her heart, but to it. In this respect, the righteous resemble their Creator, as it is written, "And Hashem said to His heart" (Bereishis 8:21), and they too speak to their heart.
אֱלֹהִים מִשָּׁמַיִם הִשְׁקִיף עַל־בְּנֵי־אָדָם לִרְאוֹת הֲיֵשׁ מַשְׂכִּיל דֹּרֵשׁ אֶת־אֱלֹהִים׃ - God looked down from heaven upon the sons of man, to see whether there is any who has understanding, who seeks God.
The Malbim explains: We have said that there was none among them who did good at all, not even civic, courteous good. And even though there were ministers among them who showed respect for the Name of Hashem - as Chazal said regarding Nebuchadnezzar, who was spared because he was a scribe, and when Merodach-baladan son of Baladan sent letters to Chizkiyahu and placed the name of Chizkiyahu before the Name of Hashem, Nebuchadnezzar ran after the messenger three or four paces and brought him back to correct it - seemingly implying that he believed in Hashem and did not say "there is no God."
Regarding this, the Malbim says: Nevertheless, God, Who knows the hidden things of the heart, gazes down from heaven "to see whether there is any who has understanding, who seeks God" - to see if there is even one among them who seeks God because he is an enlightened thinker, meaning out of true intellect and internal discernment, which is the only way to seek Him genuinely. And if you do find those who seek God, it does not stem from complete, authentic faith, but merely from the lips outward. That is to say: behold, you may see individuals among them who perform good deeds, yet Scripture informs you that this does not stem from inward sincerity, and it is not considered "one who has understanding, who seeks God."
The Binah LeIttim explains the verse in another way: "Is there an intellectual" who nevertheless "seeks God?" Often, when a person is intellectually accomplished, he no longer seeks God. Once, a very clever man approached a Rebbe and said to him: "Honored Rabbi, thank God I know such-and-such languages and have studied such-and-such subjects, yet I have no bread to eat." The Rabbi said to him: "After all, concerning this it is said, 'Bread does not belong to the wise.'" He replied: "True, but I am asking why." The Rebbe answered him: "You are wise? Provide for yourself on your own!"
And this is the idea: when a person is clever, he says in his heart, "I will accomplish, I will achieve; this is why I studied, and this is why I have knowledge." The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: "You are wise? Go ahead, make a living on your own." And then the person sees that he cannot and is incapable. Intellectual arrogance is a great peril that can bring a person to believe that he manages all on his own. Therefore, heaven searches to see, "Is there an intellectual" who nevertheless "seeks God?" - and that is a rare thing indeed.
And so it is said of David: "And David was wise in all his ways, and Hashem was with him." Despite being wise, he was connected to the Master of the Universe. And how non-trivial this is! Look at Shaul, of whom it is said, "Shaul was a year old when he began to reign" - meaning he was free of sin like a one-year-old infant - yet despite all this, he did not subjugate his intellect to the will of Hashem. He followed his own reasoning and did not wait for Shmuel regarding the burnt offering, and he followed his own reasoning and did not destroy the sheep and cattle of Amalek. With David, however, we find the supreme virtue: though he was brilliant and discerning, he was one who sought God, bending and nullifying himself entirely to the Divine will.
In the name of Rabbi Reuven Bengis, and also cited in the book Tehillot Hashem, a wonderful homiletic insight is brought on this verse. The Gemara relates that Shimon HaAmsoni would expound every occurrence of the word et in the Torah. When he reached, "You shall fear [et] Hashem your God," he hesitated and withdrew, until Rabbi Akiva arrived and expounded: "Et" comes to include Torah scholars. According to this: "To see if there is any who is wise, who seeks [et] God" - often a person is wise, even learned in Torah, but has no reverence for Torah scholars. Therefore, let us see if there is an intelligent person who, despite everything, expounds the word et next to God, that same et of "You shall fear Hashem your God" which includes Torah scholars. He may be brilliant in his own right, but he fails to seek and respect the et.
כֻּלּוֹ סָג יַחְדָּו נֶאֱלָחוּ אֵין עֹשֵׂה־טוֹב אֵין גַּם־אֶחָד׃ - Everyone has turned back, together they have become depraved; there is none who does good, not even one.
The Malbim explains: "Everyone is dross [kulo sag]" - it is truly like silver dross glazed over earthenware. God looked down from heaven to see if there was anyone wise, and behold, Nebuchadnezzar showed honor to Hashem, Blessed be He. Yet the verse tells you: do not be impressed. It looks like silver, but it is merely silver glaze over pottery. Scratch beneath the surface and you find earthenware shards; it was all lip service. "Together they have become depraved" - loathsome; "there is none who does good," and "not even one": even that single individual who appeared to honor Hashem and ran several paces in His honor did not do so sincerely, but was just as wicked as his peers. For later he destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, and had there been genuine fear of God within him, how could he have destroyed His House? Rather, even the good you found in him was like silver glazed over clay, silver devoid of any substance.
Rashi likewise interprets kulo sag as deriving from dross (sigim). In his interpretation, which refers to Titus and his cohorts during the destruction of the Second Temple, "not even one" means that not a single one of Titus's soldiers came without malicious intent; not one can be cleared of guilt, and not one of them protested his actions. Thus, every one of them came with the deliberate aim and desire to destroy the Beit HaMikdash.
Metzudat David explains that sag does not mean dross, but rather comes from the root of retreat (nasog): all the people retreated, veered away from the good path, and corrupted their deeds. And ne'elachu denotes something spoiled, that has grown rancid, foul-smelling, and ruined.
הֲלֹא יָדְעוּ פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן אֹכְלֵי עַמִּי אָכְלוּ לֶחֶם אֱלֹהִים לֹא קָרָאוּ׃ - Do the workers of iniquity not know? The devourers of My people eat bread; they do not call upon God.
Metzudat David explains: How can they say, "There is no God"? Do the workers of iniquity not know - those who devour My people just as one eats bread, meaning without any pangs of conscience or any feeling of doing something improper, just like someone casually eating bread? They do not realize that seeing My people delivered into their hands is not because there is no God. There is a God! And why does He not stop you? Because "they do not call upon God."
That is to say: the fact that you succeeded, Titus, in overcoming Israel is not due to your own might, nor is it because there is no God. On the contrary, it is because they did not call upon God. Had the people of the First and Second Temple eras served Hashem properly, what befell them would never have occurred, there would have been no destruction, and you would never have been able to overpower them. Do not view this as your own valor, nor, Heaven forbid, as a shortcoming in the Creator of the Universe as though He were unable to save His people. Quite the opposite: your ability to harm them is the will of the Creator, because they did not observe Hashem's commandments, and this is their punishment.
שָׁם פָּחֲדוּ פַחַד לֹא־הָיָה פָחַד כִּי־אֱלֹהִים פִּזַּר עַצְמוֹת חֹנָךְ הֱבִשֹׁתָה כִּי־אֱלֹהִים מְאָסָם׃ - There they were in great dread, where there was no fear, for God has scattered the bones of those who encamped against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.
Rashi explains "there was no fear": This was not like the first terror that struck Belshazzar. With Belshazzar, a hand suddenly emerged and wrote upon the walls of his palace, "Mene, mene, tekel, u-farsin," and "in that night Belshazzar was slain" - he died that very night. He had brought out the vessels of the Beis HaMikdash out of confidence that seventy years had passed without the Jewish people being redeemed, concluding they would never be redeemed. Here, however, the fear is not of this kind, for in this redemption the Holy One, blessed be He, scattered the bones of those encamped against you, Jerusalem. According to Rashi, the text shifts here from speaking of Titus to speaking of Gog and Magog and the future redemption: Hashem will scatter the bones of those encamped against you, in the sense of "their flesh shall rot away," and Menachem explains similarly. Rashi cites another explanation in the name of Dunash, that "chonach" (those encamped against you) is related to "Educate (chanoch) the child according to his way," though it is not elaborated how the verse is interpreted according to this. "You put them to shame" - You, Hashem, shamed all my enemies, "for God has rejected them" - You shamed them because You rejected them and their ways.
The Radak explains "You put them to shame" as referring not to the Holy One, blessed be He, but to the King Mashiach: You, Mashiach, who will wage war against Gog and Magog, you will shame them. Their pride, believing they were coming to wage war over the Land of Israel and conquer it, will turn into disgrace and shame for them. And why? "For God has rejected them" - because Hashem rejected them and was with you, King Mashiach.
The Metzudat David interprets this as referring to the era of Chizkiyahu: "There," in Jerusalem, where Sancheriv came and besieged it, "they were in great dread, where there was no fear" - that is, a dread the likes of which had never occurred before, for they all fell as dead corpses at the gates of Jerusalem, and the dread that fell upon them was terrible. "For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you" - He scattered the bones of those who encamped against you, Jerusalem. And as for your having shamed Israel through slaughter and ruin, it was only because Hashem rejected them. Once again the theme returns: Do not think that your success indicates any weakness, Heaven forbid, in the Creator of the universe. Rather, just as it says, "those who consume My people ate bread" because "they did not call upon God," and that is why you were able to overpower them. Even the fact that you initially shamed and defeated us was not due to your own greatness, but "for God has rejected them" - because we corrupted our ways, and therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought this upon us.
The Malbim explains the verse in a novel way. In the days of King David, a great dread hung over the generation because of a sin and deficiency among them, and one hundred young men were dying every day. Chazal recognized that the deficiency lay in the fact that they were not reciting blessings of praise over what they ate and over other pleasures they enjoyed. Consequently, they instituted the recitation of one hundred blessings daily, as a rectification for failing to bless and praise the Creator of the universe.
According to this, the verse is interpreted as follows: "The eaters of My people ate bread" does not refer to enemies who devour My people, but rather to those from within My people who ate bread and "did not call upon God" - they failed to recite the blessings of praise, and that is what brought the calamity upon them. "There they were in great dread" - from where did this dread come? From the fact that they did not call upon God. And from this very point you learn that they were righteous, for their entire failing was only regarding the blessings of praise, which are a rabbinic enactment; if this was their sole shortcoming, then they were indeed a generation of tzaddikim. This is also the meaning of "for God is in the generation of the righteous" in the parallel psalm.
Once they instituted the practice of one hundred blessings and repented, the calamity departed from them, and this is "there was no fear" - the dread they felt concerning Sancheriv did not materialize. "For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you" - the camp of Sancheriv that encamped against Jerusalem: Hashem scattered their scorched bones, as Chazal taught that they were burned, though there are different opinions as to precisely how this occurred. "You put them to shame" - and what was their shame? That they were never gathered and never buried. And why? "For God has rejected them."
The Midrash explains this beautifully: "There they were in great dread" - the righteous revere the Holy One, blessed be He, in this world; "there," in this world, they experienced fear. Therefore, "there was no fear" here, in the World of Truth. Whoever fears in this world will have no fear in the World to Come. This is the meaning of "Fortunate is the person who always fears": a person who lives with awe in this world and clings to the Holy One, blessed be He, will have no fear there, in the World to Come.
It can also be expounded in reverse: "There they were in great dread" refers to the wicked in the World to Come, who experience great dread there. And why? "There was no fear" - because in this world they harbored no fear, conducting themselves here without any dread and without fear of Heaven; consequently, "there they were in great dread." One who fears here will not fear there, and one who did not fear here will fear there. We learn from this that when a person fears in the right and proper place, he thereby removes from himself fears in places where the terror is far greater and vastly more daunting.
מִי־יִתֵּן מִצִּיּוֹן יְשֻׁעוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּשׁוּב אֱלֹהִים שְׁבוּת עַמּוֹ יָגֵל יַעֲקֹב יִשְׂמַח יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - Oh, that the salvations of Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the captivity of His people, Jacob shall exult, Israel shall rejoice.
The Malbim explains that at that time they hoped for the great salvation, and as he elaborated in several places, there was an anticipation that Mashiach would come then. Indeed, Chazal said: "The Holy One, blessed be He, sought to make Chizkiyahu the Mashiach, but he did not recite song." Thus, there was a real expectation that Mashiach would arrive at that time. It is regarding this that the verse prays: "Oh, that the salvations of Israel would come out of Zion" - that the salvation of all Israel should come from Zion, and through this, "when God restores the captivity of His people" - that Hashem will return the Ten Tribes who had already been exiled by Sancheiriv, bringing about the future redemption, as the time was then ripe for it.
"Jacob shall exult, Israel shall rejoice": Jacob represents the Ten Tribes, for the people of Israel in their lowly state are called Jacob (Ya'akov), from the word akeiv (heel), whereas in their greatness they are called Israel (Yisrael), denoting authority and stature. "Jacob shall exult" refers to the dispersed tribes; "Israel shall rejoice" refers to the people of Judah, who were still in the land in the generation of Chizkiyahu and held greater prominence.
One should note the precision of the language: the Malbim explained several times earlier that gilah (exultation) applies to a sudden, newfound joy, while simchah is a continuous, steady rejoicing. For the exiles, who had until now been in captivity and are suddenly redeemed, this is a dramatic renewal, hence "Jacob shall exult (yagel)". In contrast, Israel - the people of Judah, who had been here all along and now witness Chizkiyahu being revealed as Mashiach - this is not a sudden reversal of fortune, but rather "Israel shall rejoice (yismach)": they merit to see redemption arrive, but it is not the kind of upheaval that evokes gilah.