not content with acting as though there were no God, but directly denies that there is a God, i.e., a personal God. The psalmist makes this prominent as the very extreme and depth of human depravity, that there can be among men those who deny the existence of a God. The subject of what follows are, then, not these atheists but men in general, among whom such characters are to be found: they make the mode of action, (their) doings, corrupt, they make it abominable. עלילה, a poetical brevity of expression for עלילותם, belongs to both verbs, which have Tarcha and Mercha (the two usual conjunctives of Mugrash) in correct texts; and is in fact not used as an adverbial accusative (Hengstenberg and others), but as an object, since השׁהית is just the word that is generally used in this combination with עלילה Zep 3:7 or, what is the same thing, דּרך Gen 6:12; and התעיב (cf. 1Ki 21:26) is only added to give a superlative intensity to the expression. The negative: “there is none that doeth good” is just as unrestricted as in Psa 12:2. But further on the psalmist distinguishes between a דור צדיק, which experiences this corruption in the form of persecution, and the corrupt mass of mankind. He means what he says of mankind as κόσμος, in which, at first the few rescued by grace from the mass of corruption are lost sight of by him, just as in the words of God, Gen 6:5, Gen 6:12. Since it is only grace that frees any from the general corruption, it may also be said, that men are described just as they are by nature; although, be it admitted, it is not hereditary sin but actual sin, which springs up from it, and grows apace if grace do not interpose, that is here spoken of.
Verse 2
The second tristich appeals to the infallible decision of God Himself. The verb השׁקיף means to look forth, by bending one's self forward. It is the proper word for looking out of a window, 2Ki 9:30 (cf. Niph. Jdg 5:28, and frequently), and for God's looking down from heaven upon the earth, Psa 102:20, and frequently; and it is cognate and synonymous with השׁגּיח, Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14; cf. moreover, Sol 2:9. The perf. is used in the sense of the perfect only insofar as the divine survey is antecedent to its result as given in Psa 14:3. Just as השׁהיתוּ reminds one of the history of the Flood, so does לראות of the history of the
