The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
The Lord looked (looks, Hengstenberg and Chaldaic) down from heaven ... to see if there were any that did understand. Yahweh is not, as unbelievers think, indifferent about man's conduct. Nay, He is continually taking strict note of all the thoughts, words, and acts of His creatures. Appropriately God (Hebrew, 'Elohiym (H430)), whose existence the worldly ignore, changes His name into " Yahweh" (H3068) (the English version "the Lord"), the personal God, faithful to His promises and to His threats. So far from corrupt fools being, as man's self-love supposes, an exceptional few, they constitute the masses of the world, and even of the professing church. Those few who "understand" - i:e., act on true wisdom, which is piety (Psalms 111:10; Daniel 12:10), form the exception; the multitudes who are "fools" and "corrupt," the rule.
The children of men. The Psalmist has in view Genesis 11:5, where similarly "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded:" cf. also Genesis 18:21.
And seek God - 'Elohiym (H430). Compare Deuteronomy 4:29; Jeremiah 29:13; 2 Chronicles 15:2. 'Elohiym is from an old Hebrew root to worship ['aalah] (Arabic, alaha), akin to a root х 'uwl (H193)] to be strong. The primary idea is that of strength, so that 'Elohiym expresses the Deity in His manifold power, without reference to His personality and moral attributes. The plural form indicates the fullness and richness of the divine powers, as comprehending in Himself all those several perfections of might which the pagan afterward attributed to their numerous deities respectively. 'Elohiym expresses the Deity in the abstract. It is more the philosophical, than the devotional term. YAHWEH is the revealed 'Elohiym, the manifest, only, personal, one. The name may be read rather as х Yahweh (H3068)], 'the Existing One.' 'Elohiym indicates the Creator; Yahweh indicates the Redeemer. In the Pentateuch Moses accurately observes the theological difference of idea, in his use of the names Yahweh and 'Elohiym respectively (Havernick).