“Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
The universal description of human corruption—all have turned aside, all have become corrupt, none do good—expresses a radical doctrine of human depravity while remaining situated in the covenant context where God's grace provides the possibility of restoration. The emphasis on universal turning aside suggests that estrangement from God is not merely the result of individual bad choices but reflects a fundamental orientation of the human species away from the divine. The repetition of "all" and "none" emphasizes the totality of the condition: no partial goodness or residual righteousness can be credited to humanity apart from divine intervention. This verse echoes Isaiah's vision of human sinfulness and establishes the theological foundation for the necessity of divine grace and redemption.
Church Fathers on Psalms 53:3
1. Of this Psalm we undertake to treat with you, as far as the Lord supplies us. A brother bids us that we may have the will, and prays that we may have the power. If anything in haste perchance I shall have passed over, He that even to us deigns to give what we shall be enabled to say, will supply it in you. The title of it is: “At the end, for Maeleth, understanding to David himself.” “For Maeleth,” as we find in interpretations of Hebrew names, seems to say, For one…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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