One of the interesting aspects of human life is that we tend to cherish certain things to the extent that we know that they were undeserved. For instance, though you may very well be thankful for a paycheck, you do not cherish a paycheck the way that you cherish an unexpected check that has just come in the mail. Why is this the case? In the former instance, the money has been earned – it is owed to you, but in the latter instance, the money is a gift. You can see this same reality in the life of a person who has broken the law, and yet – for whatever reason – has their just sentence of condemnation lessened or even removed. That person, assuming they are sorry for what they have done, is much more joyous than the innocent person who was wrongly accused. Why is that the case? The innocent person did not deserve the condemnation – their freedom is owed to them, but the person who was guilty has had something given to them that they did not deserve. As a result, they cherish that freedom because it was unmerited.
For those of us who are Christians, one of the central realities of our faith is that our salvation is a free gift of God that we did not earn or merit in any way. However, one of the challenges of the Christian life is keeping in mind that this is the case. For those of us who are Christians, even if we have had \"miraculous\" conversion experiences and have experienced salvation from \"terrible\" sins, we are always tempted to get used to grace. At worst, we may slip into the ditch of thinking that we somehow earned the grace that God has given us. But even if we guard against that error, we still oftentimes forget about who we were, what we deserved, and the true nature of grace as an unmerited, undeserved gift of God. For that grace is as unmerited today as it was yesterday or twenty years ago or forty years ago. The thing that makes grace so amazing is that it was so undeserved.
So how do we guard against such a problem of getting used to grace and how do we labor to always live life as if we are the most blessed people in the entire world because we have had our sins forgiven? There are various answers, but one clear answer is that we do these things by immersing ourselves in the Scriptures which remind us continually of what we, as human beings, are by nature. In particular, the psalms we will look at this morning - Psalms 14 and 53 - serve as meditations in which David lays out the character of all human beings. So, as we look at the realities laid out in these psalms, we will see very clearly the character of man, the character of God, and the amazing nature of salvation in Jesus Christ.
As we look at the psalm, we will see that David is operating within a particular framework that consists of God, God's people (the righteous), and those who are not God's people (the wicked). In order to understand the psalm, we must keep in mind these three entities. We must do this, because the psalm addresses each of these three in turn.
Those who reject God: the wicked (14:1-3, 53:1-3)
The psalm starts with a bold declaration of fact: \"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.\" No doubt, this statement immediately causes us to think of those who we call atheists: people who profess that there is no God. But such a conclusion, while not wrong, does seem to miss the central point of the psalm. David is saying nothing about the profession of the mouth; his focus is on the attitude of the heart. And David is making clear that the fool believes in his heart that there is no God.
Why make the distinction between those who say with their mouth that there is no God and those who say in their heart that there is no God? We must make the distinction because the heart is the true seat of what we, as human beings, believe. And, as the psalm goes on, we recognize that David is not just talking about the words that someone says but about the way that they live. How do we know that someone believes in his heart that there is no God? We know this because we look at their lives! Notice the logic of the psalm's first verse: \"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good\" (14:1, 53:1). In short, David is declaring that people prove what they believe about God by the way that they live. These people are corrupt and do abominable deeds, because (and as evidence of the fact that) they choose not to believe in God in their hearts. In the words of Romans 1, these people \"exchanged the truth about God [that is, that He exists - something they can see from the creation] for a lie [that is, that He does not exist] and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator\" (Rom. 1:25). So this psalm, from its very beginning, indicts these wicked people for having rejected God, and it even goes so far as to label their wickedness as foolishness.
David goes on to make clear just how pervasive this wickedness is. It is so widespread that even the Lord cannot find anyone that does not fit this description: \"The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one\" (14:2-3, 53:2-3). These statements by David are sweeping indictments of the sheer corruption of human beings. Rather than holding an overly positive view of those who are not part of the people of God, David is brutally honest in assessing the human condition. Those who are not part of the people of God are fools who refuse, in the depths of their heart, to understand and believe that there is a God. They evidence this rejection of God through their corrupt, wicked deeds. There is not a single person who does good things, desires to do good things or even desires to desire to do good things. There is no one who seeks after God (14:2). In David's view, these people are lost and ruined, separated from God by their wickedness and firm in their refusal to change any of that.
God himself: the judge (14:4-5a, 53:4-5)
Having described the wicked who reject God, David asks a question that actually serves to reveal his knowledge about God. He asks, \"Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?\" (14:4, 53:4). In plainer language, David is asking, \"Don't they understand what they are doing by refusing God and persecuting His people?\" The answer to this question is not spelled out as clearly in Psalm 14 as David simply declares, \"There they are in great terror\" (14:5a). However, he does spell out the thought more in Psalm 53 as he declares: \"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\" (53:5). Here we see what drives David's incredulous question in 14:4. David is amazed that these people would act in such a way, because he knows that God will destroy those who refuse Him. David understands that there are consequences to the refusal of the wicked to believe in God. Their refusal to acknowledge God does not nullify the fact that He does exist, and God will eventually make clear to these people the utter foolishness of their refusal. As we will see in a moment, God's work will involve redeeming His people, but it will also involve the judgment of those who have rejected Him.
Having seen what David declares about the character of those who reject God, these meditations on the character of the God that has been rejected are crucial. God will not simply overlook the rejection - it brings consequences. In the words of David, God will \"scatter the bones\" of the one who rejects Him. In an ironic twist, God will reject the One who rejects Him (53:5). The seriousness of this is that the rejection of God by man does not affect God at all - we are not that powerful. However, the rejection of a man by God is terrible because it results in utter condemnation and death and hell.
Those who trust God: the righteous (14:5b-6)
Thankfully, the judgment of God is not the last word. As David meditates on these realities, he also brings to light the fact that those who trust in God will have His favor rather than His judgment. After alluding to the judgment of those who reject God, David declares: \"God is with the generation of the righteous. You [the wicked] would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge\" (14:5b-6). Here is the glorious \"other side of the coin.\" It is absolutely true that God is a terrible judge to those who reject Him, but it is equally true that God is a gracious Savior to those who trust in Him - to the righteous. Whereas God rejects those who reject Him, God is with those who trust in him. Whereas the Lord will scatter the bones of His enemies, those who trust in Him can run to Him for a refuge. Rather than a condemning Judge, those who trust God - refusing to refuse Him - will find a gracious Lord who cares for them, provides for them and protects them.
This further knowledge is not just theoretical knowledge for David. Rather, it is knowledge that affects the way he encounters the wickedness of this world today as well as knowledge that sustains him by granting him confident hope in the future. David closes the psalm by declaring, \"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\" (14:7, 53:6). Here we see why this further aspect of God's character is so crucial - because the faithful can come to God and find a gracious, caring Lord, the faithful should come to God! As opposed to the wicked (as seen in 14:5) who are in great terror because God is not on their side, the righteous can boldly come to the Lord because He is on their side. And moreover, they can firmly trust in the fact that He will provide. It is instructive to notice that David asks for salvation for God's people, and then he immediately declares his confidence that when it happens, God's people will rejoice. When God is on our side, there is help as well as confident hope. And the glory of this help and this hope is made all the brighter by being compared to the helplessness and hopelessness of those who have rejected God.
As we step back and consider how this psalm speaks to us, we must have a firm grasp of our place in it. It is tempting to immediately assume that we fall into the category of those who know God and are part of His people, thus ignoring what the psalms have to say to God’s enemies except in so far as it encourages us to think that some of our enemies might one day be destroyed. Such an approach to this psalm fails to rightly understand the depths of human depravity by nature.
By nature, we are all wicked people who have rejected God
In order to rightly understand this psalm – and rightly understand how we should respond to it – we must understand that by nature, all of us are the foolish, wicked people that David speaks about in the first three verses of this psalm. Paul makes this absolutely clear in Romans 3 when he declares, “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 the power of 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’” (Rom. 3:9-12). Paul goes on to quote more Scripture that highlights the wickedness of all human beings – both Jew and Greek. But it is important, for our purposes, to notice that the first verse Paul quotes to support his claim that all people are under sin is part of Psalm 14. The importance of this is clear: in order to rightly understand this psalm, we have to understand that – by nature – we all fall into the group of people described in the first three verses of the psalm.
The implications of this are clear. First, for those who are not Christians, you must not entertain any illusions regarding your status before God. And you need to look no further than your own actions for evidence of your status before God. David has already made clear that the one who rejects God is corrupt and does wicked things. You may answer that you are not as bad as some others, but you need to know that the standard is not others but the law of God. As Paul declares later in Romans 3: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19-20). By nature, you are a sinner. Based on David’s logic, that means you have rejected God in your heart, and – as a result – you are an enemy of God. But Romans 3 – which makes clear that you are a sinner and that you are justly condemned for your sin – also makes clear that there is hope: you can be justified by grace as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus to die on the cross in the place of sinners, so that those sinners who trusted in Jesus and submitted to Him as Lord could have their sins forgiven and become part of the people of God. There is hope for sinners – Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and follow him, and you will be saved.
For those of us who are believers, we also must never entertain any illusions regarding who we used to be. We never merited the grace of God. We never earned it or deserved it. We were by nature objects of wrath – fools who had rejected God and were corrupt and committed abominable acts. We were those who were not doing good and were not seeking God, as David so eloquently declared. And yet, “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10). Such a reality is glorious and wonderful, but it will never appear glorious and wonderful to us without a proper understanding of who we were before God saved us. Just as the prisoner that I spoke of at the beginning, our freedom is only amazing if we understand how bound and enslaved we were.
Moreover, for those of us who are believers, we should seek to live holy lives. Implicit in Psalms 14 and 53 is an assumption that if the wicked actually did know God and have proper knowledge of Him, they would act differently. It is almost as if David is assuming that if the fools of 14:1 would change their ways and believe that there is a God, they would not act in the ways described in 14:1b-3. If a person who rejects God lives in wickedness, it makes sense to assume that a person who follows God will live in righteousness. Even David’s incredulous question in 14:4 seems to assume that if the evildoers did have knowledge, they would not act wrongly toward God’s people. A proper knowledge of God should bring about a particular way of life. That is God’s intention in saving us! Paul, again in Romans, told his readers that God predestined them “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). In fact, just as the wickedness of wicked people is evidence that they have rejected God, the righteousness of those who follow God is evidence that they follow him. John makes this clear: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him” (1 John 2:29). As those who have followed God by trusting in Christ, our lives should demonstrate what we claim to have believed.
As we come to the table, we come remembering the one through whom our salvation has come. Having remembered that we were wicked people who rejected God, we are reminded of God’s great love for us in sending his only Son to die in our place – paying the penalty for our wickedness – so that we might be accepted by God and become part of His people. This reality is glorious, and remembering our previous state of rebellion makes it all the more glorious. May we celebrate appropriately and live faithfully as we remember again what Christ has done for us. Amen.