"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good." — Psalm 53:1
Psalm 53 is nearly a carbon copy of Psalm 14, yet there are enough differences to make it evident that it is a fresh issue, modified by the Holy Spirit for His own purpose. One may be inclined to wonder why the same truth would be reiterated twice in such similarity.
Perhaps the apostle Paul gives us a clue when he writes to the Philippians, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe [Phil. 3:1]." In other words, for very practical reasons some things bear repeating.
God does not repeat Himself because He is absent-minded. His repetition is born of the importance of the subject. And if, in the economy of scripture, God elects to repeat Himself, we may wisely conclude that the matter bears the most careful consideration. There is nothing man in his vanity and pride would rather not hear than what is here said of the condition of the human race, and nothing man needs to hear more than this indictment of the human condition: "Corrupt are they… there is none that doeth good." Not only is this truth twice repeated in the Psalms, but it is underscored in the New Testament where we read, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one… there is no fear of God before their eyes… For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God [cf Rom. 3:10-23]."
Man's retreat from this sweeping judgment is, ultimately, to deny the existence of God and to attribute his origin, maintenance and destiny to mindless mechanisms that would deny us any meaning or moral significance for our existence. In the process, the Word of God is dismissed as fiction and the Son of God is declared to be a liar or an idiot— or both! This is folly: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." That is not my judgment, it is God's.
To deny the existence of God is not only to destroy meaning for man, but it is also to destroy hope. The God who passes His awful judgment on the human condition is also the One who has intervened in behalf of this corrupt race, sending His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins, "and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world [I John 2:2]." Whatever hope there is for this tottering race lies only in the gospel of the grace of God.
There is, however, an even greater folly prevalent in the human race. There is the fool who may, in fact, believe that God is, but is disinclined to obey His will. The apostle Paul speaks of those who "profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [Titus 1:16]." This is greater intellectual folly than the former. The philosophical atheist is at least consistent; he denies the existence of God and behaves accordingly. He who affirms that God is, but ignores or deliberately disobeys His word is a practical atheist inconsistent with himself.
So, to deny the existence of God is to be classified a fool in God's eyes. But to believe that He is, then say "no" to His will is the greater folly. Don't be a fool!
"Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
With eternity in view,
"Pastor" Frasier
Psalm 53 is nearly a carbon copy of Psalm 14, yet there are enough differences to make it evident that it is a fresh issue, modified by the Holy Spirit for His own purpose. One may be inclined to wonder why the same truth would be reiterated twice in such similarity.
Perhaps the apostle Paul gives us a clue when he writes to the Philippians, "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe [Phil. 3:1]." In other words, for very practical reasons some things bear repeating.
God does not repeat Himself because He is absent-minded. His repetition is born of the importance of the subject. And if, in the economy of scripture, God elects to repeat Himself, we may wisely conclude that the matter bears the most careful consideration. There is nothing man in his vanity and pride would rather not hear than what is here said of the condition of the human race, and nothing man needs to hear more than this indictment of the human condition: "Corrupt are they… there is none that doeth good." Not only is this truth twice repeated in the Psalms, but it is underscored in the New Testament where we read, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one… there is no fear of God before their eyes… For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God [cf Rom. 3:10-23]."
Man's retreat from this sweeping judgment is, ultimately, to deny the existence of God and to attribute his origin, maintenance and destiny to mindless mechanisms that would deny us any meaning or moral significance for our existence. In the process, the Word of God is dismissed as fiction and the Son of God is declared to be a liar or an idiot— or both! This is folly: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." That is not my judgment, it is God's.
To deny the existence of God is not only to destroy meaning for man, but it is also to destroy hope. The God who passes His awful judgment on the human condition is also the One who has intervened in behalf of this corrupt race, sending His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins, "and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world [I John 2:2]." Whatever hope there is for this tottering race lies only in the gospel of the grace of God.
There is, however, an even greater folly prevalent in the human race. There is the fool who may, in fact, believe that God is, but is disinclined to obey His will. The apostle Paul speaks of those who "profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [Titus 1:16]." This is greater intellectual folly than the former. The philosophical atheist is at least consistent; he denies the existence of God and behaves accordingly. He who affirms that God is, but ignores or deliberately disobeys His word is a practical atheist inconsistent with himself.
So, to deny the existence of God is to be classified a fool in God's eyes. But to believe that He is, then say "no" to His will is the greater folly. Don't be a fool!
"Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
With eternity in view,
"Pastor" Frasier
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