THE GODLESS FOOL, Part 2 Meditations in Psalms (Psalm 14)
As we continue with Psalm 14 let us consider verses 4-6 and see the effects of sin and an anticipation of the coming judgment upon the impenitent wicked who have no shame or regret: “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD? There were they in great fear; For God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, Because the LORD is his refuge.” In verse 1 David writes “the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt;” man’s nature is addressed here, read Romans 3, “All Have Sinned,” a good description of mankind. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9). “Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee; verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity” (Psalm 39:5). Man is irretrievably corrupt, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6); as to his actions ”they have done abominable works; to his universally, “there is none that doeth good.” The indictment of the sinner, ”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.” Charged with treason, they have deserted God and His system of law; seeking to incite a revolution against God, “there is no God, no God for me.” Attempting to overthrow God’s government, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Total unrighteousness is the sinner in his willful ignorance, “there is none righteous, no, not one.” BUT there is deliverance, “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” (v 7). (A comparison of Psalm 28:2 shows this is not the period of the Babylonish exiles, that the captivity referred to is not literal, but metaphorical.) Here we see an earnest desire for the speedy deliverance of God’s elect from the evils of their own nature and from the malice of their enemies. Man’s depravity can only be cured by the Savior who came out of Zion. Often the distress of God’s people is the distress likened to “the children of disobedience.” They are bound with this foolishness not of “”No God for me,” but, “Is there No God for me” (see Psalm 28:2 again). Where is their hope of deliverance? In the heavenly “Zion” and the mighty Jehovah. First by breaking their foolish will (Hosea 2:1-7): then drawing them to “Return” unto the God of their righteousness and casting themselves upon His mercy found only in Christ. Oh believer “forget not thy God.” ~~Terry Worthan, 1938-2022
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