Psalms 14 & 53

I’m going to concentrate on two psalms today, since they are virtually identical. If it's in there twice, someone must have thought this one was pretty important.

Psalm 14

¹The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.

² The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
³ They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.

⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call on the Lord?
⁵ There they are in great fear,
For God is with the generation of the righteous.
⁶ You shame the counsel of the poor,
But the Lord is his refuge.

⁷ 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.

Psalm 53

¹The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;
There is none who does good.

² God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
³ Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.

⁴ Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon God?
⁵ There they are in great fear
Where no fear was,
For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you;
You have put them to shame,
Because God has despised them.

⁶ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God brings back the captivity of His people,
Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

This foolish person does not just say with his mouth that there is no God, but in his heart. He truly believes that there is not God, and no lasting consequences for his actions.

The Lord looks down from heaven, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. There is none who does good

The contrast between this and the earlier phrase is remarkable. A foolish man says there is no God. God says there is no righteous man. I’m sure it doesn’t mean “there are no good people anywhere.” Since the echo is clear, I think that God is calling out the foolish people from verse 1.

 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?

I like the contrast between foolishness and knowledge. However, this knowledge is not just general knowledge. The workers of iniquity probably know lots of stuff, like how a car engine works, how to perform open heart surgery, how many species of sharks there are, or how to translate ten languages into English. This isn’t that kind of knowledge. This is knowledge of the true, living God. Foolish people, in their foolishness, choose to ignore God, choose to believe that He doesn’t exist, and choose to do wrong to good or helpless people.

The difference between the two psalms happens in verses 5 and 6. Psalm 14 concentrates on God’s aid to those who are righteous among such wicked people, while psalm 53 focuses on God’s punishment of the wicked. I would like to say that perhaps the difference in calling Him Lord (Adonai, in Hebrew) in psalm 14 or God (Elohim) in psalm 53 might be concentrating on different aspects of God. But as far as I can see, there just isn’t much of a difference there, at least not one that would make a difference in these two psalms. Still, the answer that both are giving is clear. God takes care of His people, whether it’s through offering them safety from the foolish or by removing the foolish from their power.