Psalms 14:1

The Bible says in Psalms 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Every person makes a decision in their heart to believe in Jesus or to not believe in Him. The heart is the innermost being. This is a freedom to make your own decision about God. God gives you a free will. Just be careful what decision that you make If you make the wrong decision, God calls you a “fool.” In other words an atheist is completely devoid of wisdom about what is true and what is important. It will be a terrible day when an atheist closes his or her eyes for the last time and wakes up at the judgment of God. Of course, no one can be saved without believing in God. It says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” To get saved obviously you must believe that God exists and that He will reward you when you seek Him: and then you come to Jesus and you get saved through faith in Jesus.

Two words are used to describe the atheists: “corrupt” and “abominable.” But then the Holy Spirit says at the end of verse one: “there is none that doeth good.” It is not just the atheists who are sinners. Everyone is a sinner. We call this the depravity of man, meaning that no one is “good.” To be good you must be totally and completely and entirely good all the time. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 19:17, “There is none good but one, that is, God.” The greatness of man’s sin is an important Bible teaching. It is the reason that Jesus came and died on the cross for us. It is the reason that we all need to be saved from our sins. Romans chapter three is a chapter that talks about the sinfulness of man and it quotes from several verses here in Psalm chapter 14.

The Bible says in Psalm 14:2-3, “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.[3] They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” God is watching. He is observing the human race: every single person in the human race. God’s conclusion is: “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” What does God look for when He watches human beings? He looks to see if there were “any that did understand.” God knows what you know and God sees what you think about. He sees your mind. God is looking to see if you know what you need to know. He is looking to see if you know the Truth. Jesus is the Truth. God is also looking to see what you are seeking. Do you “seek God?” Jesus said, “Seek and ye shall find.” What you are seeking says everything about you. God knows.

The Bible says in Psalms 14:4, “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.” We know the answer to the question that is asked in the first part of this verse: the workers of iniquity have no knowledge at all in regards to God and spiritual truth. They do not know that the judgment is coming and they are one heartbeat away from that judgment. And so they do the things that will bring them their harshest judgment and their greatest pains in hell: they persecute God’s people. And they “call not upon the LORD.” God wants us to call upon Him. We were born to serve the Lord Jesus and to communicate with Him. The first time that we call upon the Lord in Spirit and in truth is when we are saved by faith in Jesus. It says in Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The Bible says in Psalms 14:5, “There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.” This is a verse about the people of God. Believers sometimes are as lambs for the slaughter. This can be a vicious world with great hatred against God, against Jesus, and against His children. Our desire is to do the right thing, to tell the truth, and to help others. Why are we hated? We are hated because God is hated, and they treat us the same way that they would treat God. That is exactly what it says in Psalms 14:6, “Ye have shamed the council of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.” If you are surrounded and they are coming after you and your family, you will be in “great fear.” But you still have the Lord and heaven to look forward to. The eternal state is what matters.

The Bible says in Psalms 14:7, “O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people. Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.” Sometimes the word “salvation” refers to the salvation of the soul from hell to heaven. And sometimes the word “salvation” refers to be delivered from some danger in this life. This verse refers to the latter. Since this life can have its enemies and its difficulties, the believers look forward to the day that God delivers us from all of the negatives. That day will come at the rapture of the believers for those alive in the age of grace in which we live. That day will come for those believers who are alive at the end of the Great Tribulation at the return of Christ. By the way, the Second Coming of Christ is when this prayer of David’s will be finally and fully answered because after wiping out the armies of the antichrist at the battle of Armageddon, Jesus will reign on the throne of David from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. What a wonderful day that will be. Because of Jesus “Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.”

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