Day 762: Belief and behaviour - Psalm 14 (A psalm 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.

2-3 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand (who act wisely), who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. 4-6 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord? 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.

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. Psalm 7 English Standard Version

In this Psalm, David, the man God raised up to be Israel's king, pictures God looking down from heaven to see if He could find any good people on earth. What was the sad conclusion? (vs 2-3)

There wasn't a single person to be found who was truly seeking after God. Everyone had turned aside from the path God wanted people to walk in. But what about David? Wasn't he a good man? Well, he certainly messed up quite a few times, sometimes in BIG ways! I think he would be the first to admit that any goodness there was IN him was the result of God's goodness TO him. But who did David particularly have in mind in this Psalm? (vs 4-6)

It seems he was thinking of those who were really set on harming people who had turned to God, and causing trouble for them. He describes them as eating God’s people up as casually as eating a loaf of bread. They especially took advantage of the poorer class. Why did they behave like this, and why is that people can end up doing really evil things? (vs 1)

Bad behaviour begins with bad belief. When people deny in their heart God's very existence, it quickly leads to all sorts of foolish perversions. Many of these will be the sexual perversions we read of as early as the days of Genesis, and which have led to pornography being one of the biggest money making industries of our generation. But it would also be other things such as cruelty and violence. And the point David makes is that these people don't realize that they are on a highway to terror, because God is on the side of His people! He says of them 'have they no knowledge?'. We might say 'will they never learn?' David finishes the Psalm with a prayer that God would come and save Israel. (vs 7) That verse indicates that the Psalm was essentially about the people who were attacking the nation of Israel. Does that mean the Israelites were all good people themselves? Look at the answer the apostle Paul gave to such a question.

In his letter to the Church at Rome he mentions how the Jews had wonderful advantages over the rest of mankind because they were entrusted with 'the oracles of God'. They had the whole Old Testament, which included God's good laws and commandments. But then he says: “Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we’ve already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, 'No one is righteous - not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.'” (Romans 3:9-12)

Paul applied David's words from Psalm 14 to all of mankind. He is saying that whenever God looks at the world, every single person is contaminated with sin. None of us was ever righteous in ourselves. The difference has been God's grace. He made Himself known to people, and His Spirit has touched lives with His message. Why He made Himself known to some rather than others we cannot tell. But it is His powerful work of salvation that has brought even atheists into His family. Our response to a Psalm like this is to freely admit that we are as guilty of sin as the rest of mankind. But we mustn’t take the foolish path and continue in sin, but rather call upon Him for salvation. For what we believe about God will have a big effect on how we go on behaving in the world.