14:1 - 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.
• The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”: David looked at those who denied the existence of God and came to the conclusion that they are fools. The idea behind this ancient Hebrew word translated fool is more moral than intellectual. David did not have in mind those not smart enough to figure God out (no one is that smart); he had in mind those who simply reject God.
• From the italics in the New King James Version we can see that what the fool actually says is, “No God.” “That is, ‘No God for me.’ So his is a practical as well as theoretical atheism. Not only does he not believe in God, he also acts on his conviction.” (Boice) David says this because of the plain evidence that there is a God: evidence in both creation and human conscience that Paul described in Romans 1. The fact that some men insist on denying the existence of God does not erase God from the universe; it instead speaks to their own standing as fools. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:22, Professing to be wise, they became fools.
• “The Hebrew word for fool in this psalm is nabal, a word which implies an aggressive perversity…He denies what is plainly evident, He believes in tremendous effect with no cause, He denies a moral authority in the universe, He believes only what can be proven by the scientific method, He takes a dramatic, losing chance on his supposition that there is no God, He refuses to be persuaded by the many powerful arguments for the existence of God.
• Arguments for the Existence of God: The Cosmological Argument: The existence of the universe means there must be a creator God…The Teleological Argument: The existence of design in the universe means there must be a designer God…The Anthropological Argument: The unique nature and character of humanity means there must be a relational God…The Moral Argument: The existence of morality means there must be a governing God.
• The fool has said in his heart: David not only found what the fool said to be significant; where he said it is also important (in his heart). The God-denying man David has in mind is not merely troubled by intellectual objections to the existence of God; in his heart he wishes God away, typically for fundamentally moral reasons.
• John 3:20 explains it this way: For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
• When we speak with one who denies God, we should not only – or even primarily – speak to his head, but also to his heart.
• If you asked an atheist if they believe in Christianity if it were proven to be true; most atheist will say “no.” that is because the issue at stake has nothing to do with intellectual evidence but a condition of the heart.
• The phrasing of said in his heart also reminds us that it is possible for one to say in his mind that there is a God, yet deny it in his heart and life. One may believe in God in theory, yet be a practical atheist in the way he lives.
• They are corrupt, they have done abominable works: David here considers the result of denying God. It leads men into corruption and abominable works. This isn’t to say that every atheist lives a dissolute life and every God-believer lives a good life; yet there is a marked difference in moral behavior between those who take God seriously and those who do not.
• There is none who does good: As David considered the sin of the God-denier, he looked out over the landscape of humanity and concluded that there is none who does good. He did not mean that there is no human good in this world, but that fallen man is so fallen that he does not by instinct do good, and even the good he may do is tinged with evil.
• We are born with both the will and the capacity to do evil; no one has to teach a child to do bad things.
14:2-3 - The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
• The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men: While man may wish to forget about God, God never forgets about man. He is always observing man, looking down from heaven upon the children of men.
• To see if there are any who understand, who seek God: When God does look down from heaven, one thing He looks for is if there is any understanding or seeking among humanity.
• God looks for a moral and spiritual judgment: if there are men who understand His heart and plan, and who seek Him for righteousness sake.
• We deceive ourselves into thinking that man, on his own, really does seek God. (Consider the garden)
• “You have gone through this form of worship, but you have not sought after God. I am sick of this empty religiousness. We see it everywhere; it is not communion with God, it is not getting to God; indeed, God is not in it at all.” (Spurgeon, from a sermon on Romans 3)
• They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt: When God looks, this is what He finds. He finds that man has turned away from God and has therefore become corrupt.
• There is none who does good, no, not one: When God finds none who does good, it is because there are none. It isn’t as if there were some and God couldn’t see them. David here observes and remembers that man is truly, profoundly, deeply fallen.
• David’s use of “there is none who does good” suddenly broadens the scope beyond the atheist to include us.
• Thus, there are atheists and practical atheists (those who might believe but live as if God doesn’t exist)
14:4-6 - Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the LORD? There they are in great fear, For God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, But the LORD is his refuge.
• Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge: David first considered the profound fallenness of man; now he deals with the fate of God’s people in such a fallen world. God’s people might seem like the weak fools, but David understood that it is the workers of iniquity who have no knowledge.
• Who eat up my people as they eat bread: It looks like the workers of iniquity are strong and have the upper hand. David wondered if the people of God are abandoned to the fools and the corrupt of this world, to those who do not call on the LORD.
• And do not call on the LORD: “Practical atheism is, of course, prayerless.” (Maclaren)
• There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous: After asking the question, David now answers it with great wisdom. The workers of iniquity seem strong and confident, but they are actually in great fear, because they can’t erase the consciousness that God is with the generation of the righteous.
• You shame the counsel of the poor, but the LORD is his refuge: David here announces it to the workers of iniquity previously mentioned – that they may work against the poor, but God has a refuge for them that cannot be breached. They are fighting against God and will never succeed.
• Spurgeon considered the ways that the poor takes counsel: He takes counsel with his own weakness and sees that he must depend upon God, He takes counsel with his observations and sees the end of the wicked, He takes counsel with the Bible and trusts it to be the word of God, He takes counsel with his own experience and sees that God answers prayer.
14:7 - 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.
• Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion: David knew that the LORD was a refuge for His people and that the workers of iniquity would never win. Yet that was hard to see at the present time, so David expressed his great longing that God would bring the victory and deliverance He had promised to His people.
• When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people: This was not the Babylonian Captivity, many generations after David’s time. Here captivity is used in a general sense, speaking of any time or situation where God’s people are oppressed and bound.
• Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad: David anticipates the coming deliverance, and calls the people of God to be joyful in consideration of it.
