What does Psalm 53:3 mean?

In the prior verse, God was poetically said to be searching "to see if" anyone was fully willing to follow Him. Here, we're given an answer that precisely evaluates the human race. It says every human being has fallen away and become corrupt. No one does what is good in God's sight. This is a cornerstone concept in Christianity: that no person, anywhere, can claim to be "good enough" to meet God's standards.

Adam and Eve were the first human beings. When they sinned, they passed sin onto the human race. Soon their son Cain displayed a wicked spirit by killing his brother Abel (Genesis 4). Several generations later sin had snowballed to point that the human race was completely corrupt. In the days before the flood, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5).

This trend is not something of the past; it's a constant presence in human hearts. The prophet Isaiah wrote that all of us have gone astray, and like sheep we have gone our own way (Isaiah 53:6). Our way is the opposite of God's way. He is completely holy; we are completely unholy.

The declaration here is echoed in Romans 3:11. People seek some form of the divine, but no one is naturally interested in the truths about sin. A common quip says that sinners do not seek God for the same reason criminals do not seek a police officer.