Day 831: The root of all foolishness - Psalm 53

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, ('who act wisely'), who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

4 Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God? 5 There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them. 6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. Psalm 53 English Standard Version

Some things are so important they need repeating, and Psalm 53 is a good example. The reason I say this is because it is almost identical to Psalm 14. The only small difference in them is that vs 5 of Psalm 14 says: “There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge.”

But that's not the only repetition of the Psalm. When the apostle Paul was showing Jewish readers that they needed the salvation of Christ just as much as the Gentile nations, he quoted Psalms 14 and 53. He wrote: “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.'” (Romans 3:9-12)

So the first important truth that needs repeating is the truth that there is no man or woman who ever lived, apart from Jesus Christ, who was without sin in their life. The Bible teaches that all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone of us needs to seek God's forgiveness for what we are by nature, and for the many wrong things we've done in our lifetime.

In Psalms 14 and 53, however, the writer was looking more at why ungodly people sought to persecute those who were trying to follow God's righteous laws. He describes that situation in vs 4. Has that not been the situation for true believers in God throughout the ages? They have often come under cruel persecution in the world. The writer is amazed that people should do that and says: “Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?” It's as if he says: “Don't they realize what they are doing and who they are actually fighting against?”

What is the eventual outcome to this situation he's just described according to verse 5 in both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53?

God will put to shame those who have persecuted His people because He is a refuge to the righteous. That’s the theme of the writer's prayer and longing in vs 6. He longs to see days when God brings about His rescue of the saints. The New Testament teaches us that this will ultimately take place at the return of Jesus Christ. Do we pray for His soon return?

But there’s another truth in vs 1 that's worth repeating. What does that verse (which is also in Psalm 14) tell us about the root cause of all the foolishness and stupidity he could see in the world, and which is very much still the case of the world today?

It begins with the rejection of the God of the Bible. Whether it’s the denial of there being a God at all, or a denial that God is bothered about what goes on in the world, it leads to the same result. Men and women behave like foolish people who show no knowledge or understanding of good and evil, right and wrong. The result is the persecutions we've seen over the centuries, as well as the widespread rejection today of all morality. Let's take the words of verse 6 to our own hearts and pray that Jesus would soon return and bring an end to the foolishness of sin, and give His people great cause to rejoice.