Photo by Bobby Mc Leod on Unsplash
By Mike Chaffin
The 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.
Have you ever had such a bad life experience that everything going on in society doesn’t make sense. Oppression, depression, and sedition seep into every waking moment. David had that experience. He wrote Psalms 11 -14 to show us the proper way to complain to God. Each successive lament got more focused and David started to see the cause of so many of the problems we see and face daily. Psalm 14 is the crescendo. So good that Jesus taught it to the rich young ruler and Paul quotes it when discussing the vileness fallen humanity exhibits.
We must come to the realization that we are not good. I am not good. On my own I am lost and dying. What makes it worse is most people don’t think they are bad. Most polls show people think if they are good enough God will let them into Heaven. It is not going to happen without a relationship with Jesus Christ. David closes this four-chapter lament begging for salvation to finally come. Jesus did, He died for our sins, He rose so we may have life in Him. When we come to terms with our fallen state, realize we are lost and ask Jesus to live in us and save us we can then fully understand life, and rejoice in our newfound victory over death and sin. God is good, we are not. But once we are covered by the righteousness of Christ we are redeemed.
