#733 Psalm 53 Practical and Professed

The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;
there is no one who does good.


2 God looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.


4 Do all these evildoers know nothing?


They devour my people as though eating bread;
they never call on God.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;
you put them to shame, for God despised them.


6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! Psalm 53 NIV

A psalm upon the mahalath (lyre) to the director of music, a maskil (person versed in Hebrew or Yiddish literature) of David.

The fool has said in his heart - Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Many will pass this passage off upon the atheist, but one may profess God intellectually, believe because there is a creation that there is a Creator, yet their hearts are so far from Him. The demons believe there is a God, many religions profess a creator, the former know for certain Who, and the latter often make their own. The Bible tells us that the heart is wicked and deceitful above all things, what good is it to say God exist, yet live as if it doesn't matter Who He is or what He says?

This means that the man David had in mind is not an atheist for primarily intellectual reasons. “Honest intellectual agnosticism does not necessarily produce immorality; dishonest emotional atheism always does.” (Morgan)

It means that when we speak with those who deny God, we should not only – or even primarily – speak to their head, but also to their heart. “Let the preacher aim at the heart, and preach the all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God’s grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel than any hundred of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments to the head.” (Spurgeon)

"There is no God" - I came to a point in my life where my heart professed this, and I sought long and hard to convince my head. Even after I was certain in my head that there was a Designer, someone Who made the universe, that there was a cause to this great effect, I still would have no God for me in my heart. For me the reasons were simple, life was not the way I wanted it to be, and the excuses were many. "Look at those who claim to be Your people, God, all hypocrites. Look at how my family struggles for money, that I am fatherless, an epileptic, bullied." I thought God's way of putting my trust in Him, forgiving others as He was willing to forgive me, was bland at best. I thought for the hypocrite I could beat him by being more honest and open in my sin. For money, it easier to sell drugs then to work hard, and with that I would have no end of "friends", girls and excitement. For the bully, I learned not to be afraid, whether the one that came with words or those that like to throw fist, insult for insult, swing for swing. I believed there was a Creator, but I didn't want Him, I was the fool who said in his heart, "there is no God."

There is none who does good - I would always contest this because I knew atheist who did good deeds, Buddhist, Roman Catholics, hippies, but I held a fundamental error, in not worshipping the true God, I was forgetting where the ability and providence came from. Since I would not take God seriously, test His word carefully, acknowledge my place as created, I would hold up my feelings and emotions as superior to His omniscience, and yet again I was the fool.

“This is no exaggeration, since every sin implies the effrontery of supposedly knowing better than God, and the corruption of loving evil more than good.” (Kidner)

God looks down from heaven - Oh Lord, I remember yet another time, when I realized I could not put the reality of You away, I asked that You just leave me alone. Maybe that was my Arminian upbringing, that I thought my spirit rested somewhere safely in a prayer I had said as a child, but for now just leave me alone. God has a right over His creation, and a duty to His just and Holy nature, He is not the Author of sin, and we are not the authors of our salvation. How arrogant for me to ask Him to go away, as if this body that I did not make is mine, and this world that I did not create is outside His grasp. Again, I am the fool.

If there are any who understand - We may look at a parking lot full of cars in front of a church, and many will assume that these are followers of God. During the psalmist time they had the tabernacle, the laws of Moses, but this is not a question merely for the intellect, God did not hide Himself from those people, nor His intentions, but many had a form of godliness as we discussed in the past chapter on ritualism. Everyone tries to create in their own mind a bare minimum, make some aspect or sign the greatest value in their religion, yet God says back, be Holy as I am Holy. Repent and be saved, but no we say, that would require faith, to put all our hope and trust in God rather than ourselves. 

Refuse to see

Devour my people as those eating bread - The enemies of God's people hate God, and the lives of His people they count as nothing. They find it fit to destroy with no remorse, and there is no question of motive or tactics for they are right in their own eyes. Wherever we make the creature equal to God then we are the fools, and wherever I have made the creature less than the image of God, yet again I am the fool.

. “It is in his heart he says this; this is the secret desire of every unconverted bosom. If the breast of God were within the reach of men, it would be stabbed a million times in one moment. When God was manifest in the flesh, he was altogether lovely; he did no sin; he went about continually doing good: and yet they took him and hung him on a tree; they mocked him and spat upon him. And this is the way men would do with God again.” (Macheyne, cited in Spurgeon)

Where there was nothing to dread - The higher we sit upon the throne of our own vain glory, if we have more money than we think a man could ever need, great health, beauty, possessions and power, this is all that we thought should be our comfort. David's enemies have the advantage, many times I have gone up against men and women who had a great advantage in their mind, that I had told the truth, and they were not going to. Many times the martyrs of old hung upon the cross, burned at the stake, and those, who were champions here over them, thought for sure they had won, but oh the terror, when one day they will meet their God. I see those who trust in anything but God, anxious over things that are not even a reality, fearful of shadows, clinging to things that are passing, sinking but congratulating themselves that they are the captains of this ship.

When God restores His people - Abraham saw the promise afar off, and so oft he saw the obstacles, but over time and through the gracious acts of God, he came to know a God Who laughs at obstacles. In the world we will have tribulation, but Christ has overcome the world. 

5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.…Isaiah 53: 5-6

They thought they put an end to God, how happily they nailed Him to that tree.