What does Psalm 53:5 mean?
This verse might be a prophetic remark about the destruction of the Assyrian army. This happened long after David, during the time of King Hezekiah when the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (2 Kings 19:35).Prophetic or not, Psalm 53:5 pictures the destruction of those who do not fear God but experience great terror when God judges them. This terror might also be aimed at the armies that follow the Devil at the end of the millennium. They, too, will lay siege to Jerusalem, but they will experience terror when God judges them by raining fire upon them (Revelation 20:7–9).
The reference to the dead bodies scattered by God indicates the dreadful disgrace that He will inflict on the wicked. Under Mosaic law, even the body of an executed villain was to be respectfully buried. Deuteronomy 21:22–23 instructs: "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God." For God to scatter corpses is a sign of immense shame and wrath.