Psalm 14

To the choirmaster. Of David.

1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, [that act wisely] who seek after God.

3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Foolishness begins with a denial of God’s judgment. It starts with, “God doesn’t see, he doesn’t know, he doesn’t care. Therefore, I am accountable to no one”, and from there it moves to full on atheism. You don’t have to be an atheist to be a fool when it comes to God. Living as if God doesn't exist is what we call “practical atheism.” The result of convincing yourself that there is no judgment is corruption, the committing of abominable deeds, and a ceasing of doing good. These three descriptors are repeated to varying degrees in verse 3 - they have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt, and none does good, not even one. The Lord looks down from heaven to see if there are any who understand and act with wisdom, if there are any that seek after God, but there are none. Now on one level, the psalmist is overstating his case. There are good people in the world, but no one is perfect. Also, he’s overstating it because he likely does not consider himself in this category. He is certainly one who still believes in God or he would not be praying to Him. He surely thinks of himself as one of the good guys (don’t we all?) He is thinking of everyone else, or at least most everyone else, when he describes them as corrupt and turning aside from the way of God. There is no awareness here of the psalmist’s own sin. Certainly that’s always the way I’ve always read this psalm: “Thank you Lord that I’m not like those fools who deny the reality of God and do whatever they please!” As soon as I pray that, immediately the words of Jesus come to me in his parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. I am the Pharisee who justifies himself. Declaring everyone guilty may not have been the original intent of the psalmist, but that’s how Paul saw it when he quotes this text at length in Romans. Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees had no doubt prayed this psalm many times as I have, “Thank you God that I’m not like them.” Then he has a Damascus road experience and he realizes that he is in fact, the “chief of sinners”. And so am I. God does look down from heaven to see if any act wisely. I certainly don’t. I have my own hidden sins, known only to me and God. I pretend that I’m one of the good guys, and I do feel that I am better than most. But the psalmist is right. Paul is right. God is right. I am a sinner. There is none who can justify themselves, not even one. (I could sure use some good news at this point. I guess we’ll have to wait until the last verse). 

4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?

By knowledge here, the psalmist is likely referring to a knowledge of God. Denying the reality of God they build a worldview around his absence. Removing a central component of the equation gets you a wildly different answer. The individual who is unbound by God and moral restraint places himself on the throne and does whatever he can. The cannibalism metaphor here is strong and offensive. Cannibalism is one of the last remaining taboos and it produces a strong revulsion in most people. Yet this is what a denial of God inevitably leads to -- the treating of human beings as commodities, material goods to be bought, sold, and consumed. This is evident across all societies. Women are bought and sold in pornography and human trafficking, Children are the ultimate in powerlessness so they are used, abused, tossed aside or killed before they take a breath. Men fight and kill one another to get to the top of the pile. It’s a “dog eat dog” world out there, and the psalmist declares that this behavior comes from a fundamental worldview that denies the judgment of God. They have no knowledge of God and they do not call upon the Lord. They don’t think about God in their calculus and they don’t pray to him. They are materialists who live only for these few years on this earth, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. It’s no way to live as an individual, and it’s a terrible way to organize society. Some societies (like communism) do this quite overtly; the individual is subsumed to the needs of the state. Others (like liberal democracies) do this less obviously, asserting that individual rights trump all else. The individual consumes all that they can in the pursuit of happiness. Both lead to the consuming of others -- one for the sake of the collective, the other for the sake of the individual. This verse is central to the psalm and offers a graphic picture of a world without God. 

5 There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

6 You would shame the plans of the poor, But [for] the Lord is his refuge.

The practical atheist is in a place of terror. The psalmist doesn’t identify a specific context, so I assume it is a general position in which they find themselves. Living without God is frightening. God is with the generation of the righteous, but to live without God is terrifying. This is a compelling reason to believe in God. One of the problems that an atheist has is how to face death. If you do not want to believe that there is a God and an afterlife, some type of spiritual dimension that transcends time, can you deal with death in any kind of comforting way? It’s frightening to believe that death is the end of everything. It’s even more terrifying to realize that there is a judgment at the point of death for everything that you’ve done in this life. Have you had those moments where you’ve done something wrong and you’re convinced you’re going to get caught? Recall that moment of terror when you see your sin come to light before everyone and how your world could come immediately crashing down. Imagine that this is what you see in the moment that you face death. It is terrifying. Do you want to be in the moment alone? God is with the generation of the righteous. At the moment of our death we have an Advocate who is by our side. Yes we will stand before the judge, but we are not alone. The ungodly would shame the plans of the poor, presumably in making a mockery of their attempts to climb out of their oppressive situation, but the Lord is their refuge. They are not alone. This seems to be one of the great contrasts between the believer and the unbeliever -- one of them is alone. Loneliness is rampant in the West where we have jettisoned the family and institutions like the church in exchange for unfettered individual pleasure. At the end of the day we are left alone with our devices (literally, our devices) and an emptiness in the place where God should dwell. It’s terrifying being alone. This is the consequence of atheism. 

7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

The psalm concludes with a prayer that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. There is a dramatic shift in tone (which is fairly common in the psalms) and the psalmist expresses confidence that YHWH will restore the fortunes of his people. At this, the people of God will rejoice. Looking at the sorry state of the world where atheists rule, where individual happiness is exalted, and as a result, people are commodified and devoured like bread, it’s easy to see how the dramatic action of God coming from Zion would be a welcome thing. What does that salvation look like? What is the psalmist expecting? Usually it means physical rescue of some kind, a decisive military victory where the enemies of the nation are trounced. But David isn’t living in such a time. There are no imminent foreign threats against Jerusalem. Is he thinking of economic well-being? He does speak of “restoring the fortunes”, but where this occurs elsewhere (Psalm 126), it is not used in reference to material wealth specifically (it is reference to the return from exile). Some have suggested that this verse was added by a post-exilic editor because of the similarity with Psalm 126. If that’s the case, David’s psalm would end with verse 6 and would be lacking a prayer, the element of request that is common to psalms of lament (and while this psalm is lament, it also begins as a wisdom psalm). So perhaps David is praying for salvation for the soul, the soul that struggles between atheism and theism. In spite of what my head knows to be true about God, my heart is often at war, and I choose to live as if there were no God. I might as well say it outloud when I betray him, “There is no God”. Wouldn’t it be great if God put this internal battle to a decisive end? What if God came out of Zion bringing salvation? That would be a cause for celebration wouldn’t it. And that is exactly what he has done. Salvation has come out of Zion and his name is Jesus. He answers the question with a resounding “Yes, there is a God” and he comes with salvation, a decisive victory over sin, removing fear of judgment, and fear of failure in meeting his divine and holy standard. He did this coming out of Zion, achieving complete victory outside the city of God on a hill called Calvary.