Psalm 13 — The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”

^13:1^ Unto the end, a psalm for David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways; there is no one who does good; no, not one.

^13:2^ The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand and seek God. ^13:3a^ They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together. There is no one who does good; no, not one.

^13:3b^ Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips.

^13:3c^ Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood.

^13:3d^ Destruction and unhappiness in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes.

^13:4^ Shall not all those who work iniquity know, who devour my people as they eat bread? ^13:5^ They have not called upon the Lord; there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. ^13:6^ For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man, but the Lord is his hope.

^13:7^ Who shall give out of Zion the salvation of Israel? When the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.

96. Above, the psalmist reproached the deceit of his enemies; here he describes their wickedness.

The title is unto the end, a psalm for David.

And he considers two points regarding this.

First, he shows their wickedness.

Second, he describes his hope to be delivered from them, at shall not all those know.

He discusses two aspects of their wickedness.

First, he shows their wickedness.

Second, he makes certain that this wickedness really is within them, at the Lord has looked down.

He shows their wickedness in two steps.

First, he describes the root of their wickedness;

second, the progress of their wickedness: they are corrupt.

The beginning of every sin is pride, and the beginning of the pride of man is to fall away from God (Sir 10:13). For a man to not have God in his heart is the beginning of wickedness, and so he says, the fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” For wisdom will not enter a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins (Wis 1:4).

But can this really be said? To speak in the heart is to think. But can it really be thought that there is no God? Anselm says that no one can do this. (Anselm, Proslogion 4.) Damascene does also. (John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 1.1 and 1.3 (Patrologia Graeca [Migne], 94:789–90 and 793–94).) The knowledge of God is naturally implanted in all, but no one is able to naturally think what is not.

But it must be known that we can speak about the knowledge of God in two ways: either in itself or in relation to us.

If we mean it in the first way, it is without a doubt true that no one can think that he is not. For no proposition can be thought false which is of the nature that the predicate is included in the definition of the subject.

But it must be noticed that in God, existence is different than in other things, since the being of God is his very substance. Therefore, he who speaks about God as he is in himself says that he is being itself; and so as he is in himself no one can think that he is not. (Cf. ST I, q. 2, a. 1.)

And the words of Damascene are explained, since that knowledge which is naturally implanted in man is known indeterminately, namely, that God is, but this is not the same sort of knowledge as the knowledge that God is which is held by faith. (John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 1.9 (Patrologia Graeca [Migne], 94:835).)

God is named from the word Theos, which means to burn every evil. (Cf. ST I, q. 13, a. 8, obj. 1.) Therefore, someone at some time says that God is not when he thinks that he is not omnipotent and that he does not concern himself with human things. Who is the Almighty, that we might serve him? (Job 21:15).

It could also refer to the Jews saying that Christ was mere man and not God. You, being a man, make yourself God (John 10:33). These Jews, not believing what he had promised in the law, said that this one—namely, he who is preaching to us—is no God. And he called this one the fool, since those who refuse to receive the wisdom of God have the eyes of the mind blinded. They have not known, nor understood (Ps 81:5). For their own malice blinded them (Wis 2:21).

Or, the sinner is rebuked here:

first, for the sin of the heart in consent, at the fool has said;

second, for the sin of deed, at they are corrupt;

and third, for the sin of habit, at and abominable.

First, he calls the sinner a fool since he does not have wisdom, as he says. It is also because they do not understand spiritual things: the sensual man does not perceive those things which are of God (1 Cor 2:14).

Afterwards, the progression of wickedness is shown: they are corrupt, and are become abominable. Just as the two parts of justice are to do good and to avoid evil, so there are two parts to injustice, namely, to do evil and to avoid good. He describes the first part first and then the second.

He describes two aspects of doing evil:

first, the depravity of the vices;

second, their abomination.

In physical things, corruption comes about through the exhalation of natural warmth driven out by alien heat. Now the natural heat of the soul is the love of God. Therefore, when the alien heat of concupiscence and other sins enters in, God withdraws.

And so, after he says, there is no God, it immediately follows that they are corrupt. They have denied God, and said, “It is not he” (Jer 5:12), namely, the one who condemns sinners and rewards the just. The heart of the fool, namely, of the sinner, is like a broken vessel (Sir 21:17).

Therefore, they, the sinners, are corrupt, through their evil actions. For their works were evil (John 3:19), since after they lost, through consent, the goods given freely, their natural qualities became corrupted, and so punishment follows. A fire shall go before him, and shall burn his enemies round about (Ps 96:3).

Just as when a body putrefies, it becomes abominable, so the soul of a man is acceptable to God when the love of God is in it, but when it is corrupted through sin it becomes abominable. (Cf. ST I-II, q. 110, a. 1, ad 1.)

The abominable is that from which the human appetite flees, and so he says, they, namely sinners, are become abominable to God and men through the habit of sinning. How exceeding base you are become, going your ways! (Jer 2:36). They alienated themselves in confusion, and became abominable as those things were, which they loved (Hos 9:10).

And he said, in their eager ways, since through them they became abominable.

Or: they did them eagerly, according to Jerome. For God detests the will that is eager to sin more than the sin itself. Who as it were on purpose have revolted from him, and would not understand all his ways (Job 34:27).

Another text has, they have corrupted and detested the pursuit that belongs to wisdom and discipline. Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord (Prov 1:29). You shall see greater abominations (Ezek 8:6).

Next, he treats the ruin of the good: there is no one who does good, since there is no just man upon the earth who does good and sins not (Eccl 7:21).

One, that is, Christ, who alone neither contracted nor committed sin. The Blessed Virgin had contracted sin. (Cf. ST III, q. 27, a. 1. Thomas’s statement here conflicts with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, officially defined by the Church in 1854 (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus).) One man among a thousand have I found, a woman among them all I have not found (Eccl 7:29).

Or, not one, since there is not even one who does good perfectly. This is true, supposing that they have said, there is no God, and that they are corrupt.

97. The Lord has looked down. Here, he first makes certain of their guilt;

second, explains it, at sepulcher.

Now, sin is proven through wickedness, and so he records the inquiry of God, saying, “You say that there is no God, but this is false, since the Lord has looked down from heaven upon the children of men.” All the ways of a man are open to his eyes (Prov 16:2). Therefore, the Lord, the Father, has looked down by sending his own Son from heaven, that is, from the inner heart of his piety. Heaven is my throne (Isa 66:1).

Or, the Lord has looked down from heaven, that is, Christ, through whom he will judge sinners.

Or, it can be taken in another way, so that some say that God does not know singular and changeable things, since he is immaterial and simple and eternal. And so he does not know in accordance with the movement of things, but only according to the mode of his own ability to be known.

The response is that, on the contrary, he knows material things immaterially, as Dionysius concludes. (Dionysius, The Divine Names 7 (Patrologia Graeca [Migne], 3:869–70); Cf. ST I, q. 14, a. 11.) And so he knows intellectually, and so he says, from heaven, that is, from the height of his own dignity and nature, he has looked down upon the children of men.

And he desires, with his antecedent will by which he desires all to be saved, to find in us that which belongs to salvation—namely, that we know God with our intellect, and love him with our affections, and desire him. (Cf. ST I, q. 19, a. 6, ad 1.)

And so he says, to see, that is, to cause sight, since he himself always sees. If there are any who understand through the intellect: O that they would be wise and would understand (Deut 32:29). Or who seek God through the affection.

Will he find what he is seeking? On the contrary, he will find that they are all gone aside.

He describes three things:

their going aside from God,

their unprofitable action,

and their ceasing to do good.

Therefore, he says, they are all gone aside from God. I know that after my death you will do wickedly, and will quickly turn aside from the way that I have commanded you (Deut 31:29). There is no truth, there is no knowledge, there is no mercy of God in the land (Hos 4:1). No man speaks what is good; there is no one who does penance for his sin (Jer 8:6).

Also, because he has fallen away from God, he has become unprofitable, since that is unprofitable which does not attain that for which it was made. Now, man was made to enjoy God. The multiplied brood of the wicked shall not thrive (Wis 4:3). So he says, they are become unprofitable together.

Likewise, they have ceased to do good, since there is no one who does good. This has already been explained.

99. Their throat is an open sepulcher.

Jerome says that the Apostle uses the witness of these verses: their throat is an open sepulcher. (Jerome, Commentarioli in Isiaiam, prol.; Pseudo-Jerome, Breviarium in Psalmos (Patrologia Latina [Migne], vol. 26).) And this image is found elsewhere in Sacred Scripture in Romans 3, where he says something that is taken from Isaiah 59 and partly from other places in the Psalter, and not from this psalm alone, since he was Hebrew and would know that this is not found here in the Hebrew.

Nevertheless, it is included in the edition called the Vulgate, either because the common people use it or because it is not attributed to any specific person.

An open sepulcher exhales a stench, and so while the psalmist verified the malice or the guilt of his enemies above, here he explains it further.

He explains their guilt through two points.

First, he shows how sinners are unprofitable to others;

second, to themselves, at destruction and unhappiness.

He describes two ways they hurt others.

First is how they hurt others by word;

second, is how they do this by deed: their feet are swift.

He makes two points about the harm from words.

First, he describes the promptness of the mouth to harm;

second, the way it harms: with their tongues they acted deceitfully.

Therefore, he says, their throat is an open sepulcher. Now just as this is prepared for no other purpose than to receive corpses, so the mouth of the one who is always ready to kill through detraction is an open sepulcher. And from their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone (Rev 9:17).

Or, notice their voracity, since the throat serves to consume.

But sometimes he harms by deceit,

sometimes by malice,

and sometimes by harshness.

First, he describes the deceit which they have in their tongues: with their tongues they acted deceitfully, by outwardly speaking blandly. Their tongue is a piercing arrow; it has spoken deceit (Jer 9:8) in accordance with the deceit in their heart: the poison of asps is under their lips.

Hidden poison is deadly, but the poison of asps is incurable, and they cannot be charmed. Like a deaf asp that stops her ears (Ps 57:5), the poison of which kills by putting to sleep.

For among my people are found wicked men, who lie in wait as fowlers to catch men. As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit (Jer 5:26–27). They draw birds to their snares with a sweet song. In this, their cruelty, their stubbornness, and their malice are shown. Their cruelty is shown because they strive to kill; their stubbornness, because hatred is always in their hearts, and so he says, the poison of asps.

99. Their mouth is full of cursing. Here he shows how they harm openly, since they detract by their words and bitterness, that is, bitter words. You shall not speak evil of the deaf (Lev 19:14).

Or this is when he speaks words against God to provoke to harshness or anger. Their roaring like that of a lion (Isa 5:29).

Here he shows how they harm by deeds: their feet are swift to shed blood: for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood (Prov 1:16).

100. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways. Here he shows how they are harmful to themselves.

Someone harms himself in two ways:

by destroying the good which he has,

and by failing to attain that for which he hopes.

Therefore, he says, destruction is in their ways, since the good which they have is destroyed.

And unhappiness, since they do not reach the hoped-for good, namely, happiness. Wasting and destruction are in their ways and they have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps (Isa 59:7–8).

Or their destruction is in this world and their unhappiness is after death, which is the opposite of happiness. The wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath (Job 21:30).

This comes along with what is opposed to the love of neighbor, since the way of peace they have not known, that is, what it is.

Or, the way of peace they have not known, that is, Christ, since his ways are the ways of peace. Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable (Prov 3:17).

They have not known it because by sinning they killed Christ himself.

Another action is against the love of God, so he says, there is no fear of God before their eyes, and because of this they have sinned, since, as is said, by the fear of the Lord everyone declines from evil (Prov 15:27). Therefore, since they do not have this, they are an open sepulcher.

101. Shall not all those who work iniquity know? Here he discusses the hope of deliverance.

First, he shows that the wicked do not have hope, since they shall not know.

Second, he shows what sort of hope it is, at who shall give out of Zion.

He discusses two aspects of the wicked’s lack of hope.

First, he shows that they do not know this hope.

Second, he gives a sign of it: you have confounded the counsel.

First, he brings the question forward;

and then, he interposes the guilt of the wicked.

He speaks in this way, “I say that you are an open sepulcher, and that God is not in your heart, but surely you know that the Lord is in the just generation?” It is as if he were to say that they ought to know and that the Lord is in it. You, O Lord, are among us, and your holy name (Jer 14:9). But you dwell in the holy place, the praise of Israel (Ps 21:4). Therefore, the Lord is in it just as he is in the temple.

And all those who work iniquity, namely, in regard to God, and who devour my people as they eat bread, in regard to their neighbors, who devour them by taking away their goods. Let everyone devour the flesh of his neighbor (Zech 11:9). Who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have flayed the skin off of them (Mic 3:3). The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; he who defrauds them of it is a man of blood (Sir 34:25).

They have not called upon the Lord, that is, they do not have hope from God. They have not called upon God (Ps 52:6), and it follows from this that they do not have security, and so he says, they have trembled (Ps 52:6). The wicked man flees, when no one pursues (Prov 28:1). The sound of dread is always in his ears and when there is peace, he always suspects treason (Job 15:21).

But those who call upon God are saved. Those who call upon the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32). The name of the Lord is a strong tower (Prov 18:10).

Therefore, this sort do not know that the Lord is in the just generation. And he shows that they do not, through a sign, since you have confounded the counsel of the poor man, that is, you considered him as one able to be shamed and blasphemed as much as you could.

And the counsel of the poor is that he knows that the Lord is his hope. He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him. Let him save him, seeing he delights in him (Ps 21:9; Matt 27:43). It is he who says, if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and come, follow me (Matt 19:21). The rich always despise this counsel. You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reproofs (Prov 1:25).

And where does the counsel of the poor come from? Because the Lord is his hope, since he has nothing in this world in which he can hope except in God, who is the hope of the saints.

102. All of the ancients looked for this. The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah (Gen 49:10). But they looked for this from Zion, that is, from the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22).

But when? I respond: we will have this when the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, who are in captivity to sin and the prison of hell. Verily, the captivity will be taken away from the strong, and what was taken by the mighty (Isa 49:25). And then Jacob, that is, the people of God, shall be glad interiorly, and Israel shall rejoice exteriorly.