The Psalms 14: The Fool Says There Is No God

We often get caught up in worrying over what’s going on in the world, and what our “leaders” are doing. But what if we were to really live out what we believe. If we all actually had the courage to live our convictions, would life feel this way. It’s not on me or you, it’s on all of us. We are the Body of Christ, and if we would start to live that way then we would be the greatest force for good in the world.

I started out with a thought and after a few words I went a totally different direction there. I’m going to trust that somebody needed to read that.

Let’s look at Psalms 14!

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.

We’re stuck in a weird place these days. Many of what society considers to be the smartest men in the world openly declare that there is no God. These are the people who we count on for advances in science and technology. These are the people who we count on for advances in government. An interesting thought which is brought up in the Believer’s Bible Commentary is that the very statement “There is no God” is itself a statement which needs to be made by deity. To be able to declaratively state that there is no God is to state that there is no way that there is anything outside of your knowledge which could exist. This requires omniscience, which is an aspect of deity. So, upon closer inspection, saying that there is no God is not only a slap in the face to those who believe in an all-powerful God, but it is also a declaration that the speaker is a god in and of themselves.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.

Is this hyperbole? Is this a statement made in frustration by David? How high a percent of the population would have to be evil for a statement like this to be made? Thankfully, we don’t have to be left alone to interpret this one. Paul, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, does this for us. In Romans 3:10-12 these verses are quoted and we see that the Pauline interpretation has to do with man without the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This is the natural state of man. It’s shortly after this that Paul writes, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We’re talking about the sinful nature and not necessarily a pandemic of hatred and violence like we would’ve seen back in Noah’s day, though we’re also told that this will return as well (Matt 24:37). It’s our sinful nature that David has in view here. Without the loving presence of God, we will find ourselves slipping into sin and the works of the flesh (adultery, fornication, uncleanness lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries)(Gal 5:19-21).

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the LORD?

This thought is juxtaposed against other places in the Bible where the Word of God is considered ‘bread’ (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3). So what type of bread are the workers of iniquity eating? It is a bread which is removed from Yahweh and it causes you to fight against the people of God.

5 There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. 6 You shame the counsel of the poor, But the LORD is his refuge.

Never forget, when you’re going about your day-to-day life that the counsel of the poor is a good place to get your advice. Speaking of the Kingdom, we live in an upside-down society. Our trust should always be in the Father but society tells us that in order to be successful we need to get a high paying job and make lots of money. When we do this we start to rely on our own strength to get us through the day. When you have less in the way of worldly possessions then you’re more likely to be reliant on God. This is why the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6:10). You can have money and it not be evil but when you start relying on it to get you by instead of God then that is the place that you’ve crossed a line. Always remember to seek first the Kingdom of God. If you can keep that target in sight then you’ll always have what you need! (Matt 6:33)

7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
(Psa 14:1-7 NKJV)

I want to focus on the middle part of this verse. I mean, it’s fairly obvious that the rest of this verse is talking about a future Messianic fulfillment, but there’s something more sandwiched in the middle here. “When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people,…” With the rest of this being Messianic, there are a few ways to interpret this statement. There have been some scholars who have chosen to believe, based entirely on this line, that this psalm was not written by David (or, at the very least, this line was added in later, while the Jews were in exile).

We’ve all been exiled into the slavery of sin but Jesus came to lead our exodus to the Kingdom of Heaven. The gospel, truly the good news, is that our King has come and has taken our captivity captive (Eph 4:8, Ps 68:18) so that we can finally live in freedom from bondage. When the Israelites left Egypt in the shadow picture of this greater exodus, they eventually came into the land of the Kingdom but the celebration was their freedom from bondage. God didn’t put them in bondage again as part of the celebration, He showed them the way to live to optimize their freedom. And then, after they were ready, they were led into the Promised Land, dispossessing those who had laid siege to their inheritance. The spiritual dynamic of this speaks to us today so plainly that an explanation isn’t even necessary. If it is, let me know and I’ll go into it in more detail!

This was first posted at my personal blog at the following address:
http://thepoiema.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-psalms-14-fool-says-there-is-no-god.html