Psalms 66:5

66:5 Come and witness ¹  God’s exploits! ² 

His acts on behalf of people are awesome! ³ 

Psalms 14:1

Psalm 14 ⁴ 

For the music director; by David.

14:1 Fools say to themselves, ⁵  “There is no God.” ⁶ 

They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁷ 

none of them does what is right. ⁸ 

[66:5]  ¹ tn Or “see.”

[66:5]  ² tn Or “acts” (see Ps 46:8).

[66:5]  ³ tn Heb “awesome [is] an act toward the sons of man.” It is unclear how the prepositional phrase relates to what precedes. If collocated with “act,” it may mean “on behalf of” or “toward.” If taken with “awesome” (see 1 Chr 16:25; Pss 89:7; 96:4; Zeph 2:11), one might translate “his awesome acts are beyond human comprehension” or “his awesome acts are superior to anything men can do.”

[14:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 14. The psalmist observes that the human race is morally corrupt. Evildoers oppress God’s people, but the psalmist is confident of God’s protection and anticipates a day when God will vindicate Israel.

[14:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “a fool says in his heart.” The singular is used here in a collective or representative sense; the typical fool is envisioned.

[14:1]  ⁶ sn “There is no God.” The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically (see Ps 10:4, 11).

[14:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “they act corruptly, they make a deed evil.” The verbs describe the typical behavior of the wicked. The subject of the plural verbs is “sons of man” (v. 2). The entire human race is characterized by sinful behavior. This practical atheism – living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions – makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

[14:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “there is none that does good.”