The Fool Says In His Heart There is No God

So we go to the sermon text from Psalm 14.

I forgot, I remember I forgot to introduce myself.

I'm Chris Bradley.

I'm one of the ruling elders here,

and I'm here because the session has given Matthew the week off

to prepare an Advent series, which starts next week.

So we're taking a break from 1 Peter,

and before our Advent series,

we'll be in the Psalms again for one week,

and it'll be Psalm 14.

So if you open your worship guides or your Bible to Psalm 14,

and if you have your Bible next to you,

it would be good to turn forward to Romans 1 and 3,

because we'll be there too, all right?

As we do that, let's open the Word of God

and hear what He has for us this morning from the Psalms.

Psalm 14, starting in verse 1,

to the choir master of David.

The fool says in his heart,

there is no God.

They are corrupt.

They do abominable deeds.

There is none who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

They have all turned aside.

Together they have become corrupt.

There is no one who does good,

not even one.

Have they no knowledge,

all the evildoers who eat up my people

as they eat bread,

and do not call upon the name of the Lord?

There they are in great terror,

for God is with the generation of the righteous.

You would shame the plans of the poor,

but the Lord is His refuge.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion

when the Lord restores the fortunes of His people.

Let Jacob rejoice.

Let Israel be glad.

And may the Lord add His blessing to the reading

and the careful hearing of His Word.

Amen.

Amen.

So we've been in the Psalms before,

earlier in the summer,

and when Pastor Capone introduced the Psalms,

he introduced types of Psalms,

and all the Psalms have one or more categories

that they'll fit into.

And this is a Psalm that fits into two categories, really.

It's a Psalm of lament,

and it's a Psalm of wisdom.

We've talked about the Psalms of wisdom before.

A Psalm of wisdom gives us answers to

what is wisdom and what is foolishness.

And this Psalm, in particular,

describes the fool and contrasts him with God's people

who are called the righteous.

We are the righteous in the Psalms, God's people.

And it's also a Psalm of lament.

A lament is a complaint

that comes in brutally honest terms.

Now, it's not just another word for a scripture,

a piece of scripture that's a downer.

That's not what lament is, really.

It instructs us how to grieve.

It is when we are down, when we are grieving,

that we can go to the Psalms,

and the Psalms are our instrument that God gives us

to grieve for the sin both in us

and for the sin around us.

And it is both things.

There is the sin in us that we grieve,

and there is the sin around us that we grieve.

The question that's posed by the lament

frequently in scripture is,

how long, O Lord?

And though those words aren't in here,

in verse seven, that is the lament.

How long, O Lord, till you redeem Israel?

Now, before we go into it,

we have to be honest at the outset

of how this Psalm strikes us,

because we are a culture that doesn't like to judge.

We're a culture that doesn't like to call others foolish

and call ourselves righteous.

We talked about this a little bit

in Sunday school this morning.

Judgmentalism is almost the unforgivable sin

in our culture.

But when we read Psalm 14,

we see in pretty stark terms,

God contrasting the fool with the righteous.

And what we're gonna be doing today

is saying what scripture says,

saying the same thing,

confessing scripture about how fools act

and how the righteous are to act.

Starting with verse one,

the fool says in his heart,

there is no God.

So who is the fool, first of all?

The Psalm is describing it for us.

We find the term in the Bible frequently,

and we need to understand its meaning.

We speak of fools

and speak of the term in a different way.

We talk about stupid people or ignorant people,

but that's not the meaning of the biblical word.

The fool is something different.

The fool is ignorant, yes, ignorant of something,

but he's more than that.

The fool is evil.

The fool is corrupt,

like verse two says,

doing abominable deeds.

A fool, in short,

is someone who rejects wisdom.

And you look in the Proverbs

to see that borne out.

The fool is who rejects wisdom

for the sake of their own evil.

It's not how we use the term

when we wanna describe someone

who has just this sort of benign ignorance.

It's a word for someone

who in their malevolent rejection of God

hates wisdom.

That's the fool.

And it's not something benign.

The kingdom of God is under attack

by fools and their foolishness.

And this is what David's psalm was lamenting.

Now, a word about language.

Because kids, you have a role in this too.

I'm gonna call on you in a minute.

But one thing we have to say

about the language we use

in this sermon and in the psalms,

because your parents may have told you

not to call people fools,

not to call people stupid.

And that's good advice.

Let's just say that first.

That's good advice to all children.

Don't call people fools.

It's good advice for adults.

Don't call people fools.

But I'm gonna give you an exception today.

And the exception is this.

When the Bible calls someone a fool,

we need to say the same thing.

And that's good advice for you kids.

It's good advice for us adults.

When the Bible calls someone a fool,

we should say the same thing.

And the reason why you're not

to use that word lightly,

you're not to use it casually

for someone you're angry with,

is because the fool is someone

who's condemned by God.

When you call someone a fool,

you're using the condemnation of God

and naming it among people.

So we don't use that word lightly.

We don't call down God's condemnation on people.

That's up to God alone.

Jesus gives us an example.

This is in Luke 9,

when the disciples are going through Samaria,

sharing the gospel with the Samarians,

and they're rejecting them.

And one of the disciples says,

these were James and John,

they said,

Lord, do you want us to call fire

to come down from heaven and consume them?

In other words,

call down condemnation on these fools

who were rejecting the gospel,

and Jesus rebuked them.

He said no.

So why did Jesus rebuke his disciples here?

Because only God knows the time and place

for his judgment.

And that time was not the time and place.

Jesus' ministry was not the time and place

for judgment.

So we are not to call down judgment on others.

But we are to say the same thing

that scripture says.

Romans 12 says,

Repay no one for evil for evil,

but give thought to what is honorable

in the sight of all.

If possible,

so far as it depends on you,

live peaceably with all.

Beloved,

never avenge yourselves,

but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written,

Vengeance is mine.

I will repay,

says the Lord.

The calling of the Christian

is to bear with foolishness,

to call it what it is,

but to bear with it

and not return evil for evil.

And so we don't use the word lightly,

but we must use it

when scripture does

because foolishness can't be ignored.

It's not something benign to be laughed at.

It's a threat to God's people.

It's a threat to God's kingdom.

As the psalmist tells us,

the threat of foolishness

is a real threat to the people of God

because God is concerned

with defending the defenseless

and the weak.

And this is what the fool says in his heart.

Verse one,

There is no God.

Notice what the fool says.

It's not from his lips that he says

there is no God.

It's from his heart.

So is the psalmist speaking of just atheists here?

I think the answer is no.

We could include them

under the rubric of a fool,

but that's not who the psalmist David

is speaking of.

It's not those atheists that say

with their lips there is no God.

It's those who say it in their heart.

And what they're saying is,

there is no God who rules over me.

That's the practical atheism.

Even if it's not atheism professed with one's lips,

it's the heart that says it.

There is no God who is responsible for me,

who I am subject to.

The denial of God

isn't necessarily a verbal denial

of his existence or of atheism.

Though that is what is unique

about our time in history.

There's a movement now in our culture

called popular atheism.

And there's a category for it

that the philosophers call it

rationalist atheism.

All right, that's the category

that they describe it with.

A rationalist,

by rationalist,

I don't just mean rational.

Rational just means using your own reason.

And that's a good thing.

It's a good thing to use your own reason.

But a rationalist believes

that his own power of reasoning

is all he needs to arrive at the truth.

He doesn't need an authority above him.

He just needs his own reason.

That's the rationalist.

And it's an intellectual trend

that's only emerged recently.

It would have been foreign to David.

There would be no atheist

who would speak such with their lips

that would say,

all I need is my own reason.

That's a recent trend.

It's the idea that you need nothing

but your own reasoning power

to show that God does not exist.

And as Christians,

we should see the problem with that.

Because our rationalism

doesn't factor in sin.

The fact that in our unrighteousness,

we suppress the truth.

So as much as our reasoning has power,

it's deceived.

Because in unrighteousness,

we suppress the truth.

So that means those who

outright deny God's existence,

the rationalist atheists,

they're just one special kind of fool.

But they do provide an example

of when the foolishness of man

arrives at its peak.

Rationalist philosophers, for example,

try to deal with this question.

The question that philosophers deal with

is what or why does anything

in the world exist at all?

Or put another way is

why is there something

rather than nothing?

And maybe some of you

have thought about this question.

Why is there something

rather than nothing?

It poses a problem for the atheist.

But it's a simple question.

And it has a simple answer.

And you kids

have learned this question

and have learned this answer.

I'm going to test this.

I'm putting a,

I'm taking a risk here.

But kids, when I say,

who made you?

What do you say?

Yeah.

When I say, kids,

who made you?

God made me.

Right?

You kids know this

and pay attention, church.

It's from these lips

that God has ordained praise.

They understand

the simple question

and they understand

they're wise enough

to answer simply.

Why is there something

rather than nothing?

Who made you?

God made me.

So take note.

On the other hand,

there are atheists

who answer this way.

They say,

the question,

who made you,

is the wrong question.

Because there's no who.

It's where did you come from?

That's the right question.

And the answers

were from the universe.

And in one instant,

the universe exploded

from nothing.

The stars,

the planets,

life, energy,

everything,

each one of them

created themselves

in effect.

If you want a working

definition of foolishness,

it's this,

that there is no creator.

That everything

just became

of itself.

Now, kids,

again,

if I taught you this,

if I taught you

that the world you live in

created itself,

what does the Bible say

you ought to call me?

A fool.

We know this.

We know this as children.

When someone says to you,

there is no God.

Everything that you are,

everything around you

just came to be.

There's no God over you.

There's no judge.

There's no father.

This is where

you use the words

of scripture.

And you say,

you are a fool.

That is foolish.

And because you're Christians,

you should say it

with gentleness and respect

or you shouldn't say it.

Okay?

That's also important.

But from then on,

you ought to stop listening

because wisdom,

as the Bible says,

is known by her fruits

and a fool doesn't have them.

This kind of fool

will reject

the plainest knowledge

that there is

that all that's around us

had to come from something

or someone.

Someone who is beyond

all of it.

Who isn't just matter.

Who is eternal

and uncreated.

And kids,

you're going to find this.

You're going to find it in school,

especially if you go to college.

There are fools

who teach you

that you came from nothing.

But,

are those atheists

just stupid?

That is not true

because there are

some very important

and smart people

who profess atheism.

No, this foolishness

isn't stupidity.

It's something worse.

This foolishness

is the result

of a heart

that hates God.

Practical atheism

is what we call it.

Practical atheism

is what caused Peter

to deny Christ

because he was ashamed of him.

Remember Peter

who confessed to Jesus,

you are the Christ,

the son of the living God,

the believer

who then,

weeks later,

when Jesus was on trial

and Peter was recognized

as disciples,

he said,

I don't know him.

That's practical atheism.

And believers,

like Peter,

are subject

to practical atheism.

A theologian

said it this way,

all sin

is founded

in secret atheism.

All sin

is founded

in secret atheism.

You see what that means.

It means that

though you are a believer

in Christ

by the Holy Spirit,

you still have a heart

that secretly holds on

to its own atheism.

It does that

so that you can justify

your own lusts

and follow

your own temptations.

and it's very clever

at doing it as well.

One of my favorite authors

is Fyodor Dostoevsky,

a Russian author.

And he said this,

he took a take on

Mark 10, 27

where Jesus said,

with God,

all things are possible.

And Dostoevsky

recorded this ironically

and he said,

without God,

all things are possible.

Do you see his meaning

in that?

Without God,

all things are possible.

It means if you can

just get rid of God,

then you can do anything

you set your heart on.

Because your heart

will say anything

to give you an excuse

to do what you want.

The phrase might never

come to your lips,

there is no God,

but your heart

will say it constantly.

Without God,

you can lie

for what we call

good reasons.

Without God,

you can follow

your own lusts

wherever they lead you.

Without God,

you can live

like you are the only person

that you are responsible to.

Without God,

you can justify murder.

And without God,

you are completely free

from judgment

for all those things.

Then on the other hand,

the very idea

of a righteous God

would ruin your heart's liberty

to justify

its own abominable deeds.

So it's the latent atheism

within you,

within us,

that says,

as you sin,

it says,

I'll never be judged

for this.

Or,

Christian,

when you say in your heart,

God will forgive me

for this.

What is that

but practical atheism?

Though on your lips

you might say,

God will forgive me,

and that's true.

In your heart,

you're doing it

because you're rejecting God.

You're denying

his holiness,

and you're denying

the calling

that he put on you,

the name that he put on you

to live a holy life.

And we rationalize

our own actions

by saying,

God will forgive me

for this.

Our fool's heart

says there is no God

simply because

it's what we want

to be true.

There's no intellectual reason.

It's just what we want

to be true.

When a sinner

wants what's evil,

he or she will always

reject God

to justify their sin.

That's why atheism

can exist.

That's why

Westminster Larger Catechism,

number 28,

says the Lord sent

strong delusions

because they rejected

the truth

so that they would

believe further lies.

Scripture gives us

these words

to remind us

of the universality

of that foolishness.

Believer,

unbeliever,

Jew,

and Greek,

no one

seeks for good.

It catches up

all of humanity

in its net.

Now as we move

on to verse 4,

verses 4 to 6,

the Bible speaks

of what it is

that the fool

does to the people

of God,

the kind of threat

that foolishness

is to the people

of God.

And he says,

as if he puts

the words

in the psalmist's lips,

have they no knowledge,

all the evildoers

who eat up my people

as they eat bread

and do not call

upon the name

of the Lord?

They are all

in great terror

for God is with

the generation

of the righteous.

You would shame

the plans of the poor

but the Lord

is his refuge.

Here's what God

finds particularly grievous

about the deeds

of the fool

or the one

who rejects God.

They eat up my people

as they eat bread,

he says,

and they do not

call upon the name

of the Lord.

How can they do this

is what the psalmist

is asking.

Have they no knowledge?

It's words of shock.

How can you do this?

It's like you have

no knowledge at all.

Have they no knowledge,

the psalmist asks.

Or in other words,

how is it possible

to be such fools

so consistently?

It's like the reaction

you have when you know

someone's about to do

something monumentally stupid.

And we see this

if you look at videos

on the internet.

This is the way

I think of it.

When I look at a video

on the internet

and it starts with

one of two things.

It starts with

someone on a skateboard

or someone lighting

a firecracker.

That tells you

something very stupid

is about to happen.

We've all seen this.

And you say in your heart,

have they no knowledge?

Are they not even thinking?

And then what happens,

you watch the video unfold

and you watch it

because it's going

to be funny.

That's why I got

on the internet.

And you watch.

But while you watch,

you think to yourself,

don't they think?

What made them think

this was a good idea?

Don't they know

what's going to happen?

So it is when God says,

or that God says,

when someone decides

to do something like

steal from the poor,

and I'm thinking specifically

of payday lenders.

They hang out

around military bases

a lot

where they can charge

36, 40% interest,

up to 500% effective interest

for someone to bring

your pay stub in

so that you can get

an advance on your next paycheck

while they take

a third of it out.

Why do they do that?

Because they've taken

so much money from you

that you have to

come back again.

And you get deeper

and deeper in debt.

They take people

who have a need

and they sell them a loan

and plunge them into debt.

They eat up my people

as they eat bread,

the Lord says.

They steal from the poor.

How can you do that?

How can you do that

and feel like it's okay?

You won't be judged.

Or the evildoers,

the fools,

trap vulnerable people

in addiction.

Think of gambling.

Think of sex.

Think of alcohol.

We used to live in Las Vegas.

You go to the casinos there

and they have ways

of trapping you

into all three at once

because you'll go in there

and all three will be present.

Gambling, alcohol, and sex

because they know

you're likely to get trapped

by at least one of them.

And they want to plunge you

in your temptations.

They want to eat up

the people of God

as they eat bread.

Or they could convince a woman

that she should claim

her reproductive rights

and destroy her child.

That's atheism.

You can't do that

if you believe

there's a God over you,

that there's a God

who will judge.

When this happens,

the Lord says

that these fools

are eating up my people

as they eat bread.

How can anyone be so shameless

is what the psalmist asks.

The psalmist asks,

have they no knowledge?

How could anyone

so high-handedly

do these things

to men and women

who belong to God?

Do they think

that he doesn't see?

Do they think

that he doesn't care?

The problem is

that the fool does know.

It's not a knowledge problem.

It's a sin problem.

The knowledge is there.

In verse 4,

we read it.

All the evildoers

who eat up my people

as they eat bread

and do not call upon

the name of the Lord.

As if the Lord is there,

the knowledge is there,

but they're not calling upon him.

God is holding

all humanity accountable

for calling upon

the name of the Lord.

The first chapter of Romans,

if you'll turn

to your Bibles there,

Romans chapter 1,

Romans 1 · chapter mention

and I'm going to read

verses 19 and 22.

The first chapter of Romans

says that each of us,

whether we call ourselves

believers or unbelievers,

we do know God

in an important sense.

Not the sense of knowing him

as a savior necessarily,

but the sense of knowing him

as our creator.

And this is what

Romans 1 tells us.

Romans 1,

and I'll read

verses 19 to 22.

Follow with me.

For what can be known

about God

is plain to them,

and he speaks of the fool,

the one who suppresses

the truth,

because God has shown it

to them.

For his invisible attributes,

namely his eternal power

and divine nature,

have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation

of the world

and the things

that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God,

they did not honor him

as God

or give thanks to him.

But they became futile

in their thinking,

and their foolish hearts

were darkened.

Claiming to be wise,

they became fools.

They knew God,

but they didn't call upon God.

And God is holding those accountable

for calling upon him.

And he's holding those accountable

for following him

and defending the defenseless,

because that's who God cares for.

God is caring for the defenseless.

So though they knew God,

they were completely blind

to the fact

that there is a just God

in heaven.

Yes, knowing God,

even having that knowledge,

they became fools

because of the evil

that they wanted to follow.

This is a fearful psalm

for the fool,

but even as it admonishes us

for the foolishness

that still lives in our hearts,

it's also a great comfort

for God's people.

Because though they are reckless

and shameless in their evil,

devouring people,

as the scripture says,

in a manner of speaking,

like it was their daily food,

God sees.

God is not standing aloof.

God will put an end to evil

for the sake of his people.

He isn't just watching,

aloof and uncaring.

What is God doing?

God is watching judgment

pile up on evildoers

for his judgment,

his righteous judgment.

Because what does it say

in verse five?

God is with the generation

of the righteous.

Who are the righteous?

Own it, people of God.

You are God's righteous

if you are in Christ.

Foolish as your heart is,

you are God's righteous.

Here's where the lament

of scripture is so needed

for God's people,

and that's right there

in verse five.

For God is with the generation

of the righteous.

Among all the fools of humanity,

God has still called

to himself a people.

And if you are a believer

in Christ,

though you know

your own foolishness,

you are also his righteous.

And we need Psalm 14

because we need to say

that to ourselves.

Because we don't say

that to ourselves.

We don't like to consider

ourselves a holy huddle,

to be holier than thou

when we look at the world

around us.

But we need scripture

to say that to us,

that God is with the generation

of the righteous.

And when I speak the psalm

in my lament,

when I speak the psalm

when I'm suffering

for my own sin,

when I'm suffering

from the sins of others,

I need to look at the psalm

and say,

I am God's righteous

and God is for me.

And he will put an end

to evildoers.

In the meantime,

we lament.

We lament with the psalmist

who says,

how long, O Lord?

That's the lament

of scripture.

And it's in different words

here in verse 7.

The psalmist says,

oh, that salvation

for Israel would come

out of Zion.

When the Lord restores

the fortunes

of his people,

let Jacob rejoice,

let Israel be glad.

When he says

that the Lord

will come from Zion,

he's meaning

God's holy hill,

not necessarily

the physical location

of Zion

and present

earthly Jerusalem,

but God is going

to come from

the capital of his kingdom,

in this case from heaven,

to rescue the righteous

and put an end

to evildoers.

And that should not

terrify us

because we are

his righteous

and we need to have

confidence in that.

When we lament

over our own sin

and we lament

over our own foolishness,

the word of God

has to have priority

because we have

to call ourselves

righteous

when scripture

calls us righteous.

Though we know

our own foolishness.

So that's how

and why

we ought to lament,

particularly when we lament

with Psalm 14.

Because when we do it

on our own,

we grieve on our own,

we lament on our own,

what do we do?

We do one of two things.

We either devolve

into self-pity

because we have

no hope for ourselves

or we absolve,

what's the word,

devolve

into self-righteousness

because we look

at all the sin

around us

and we call

ourselves better.

We don't look

at the foolishness

in our hearts,

we look at the foolishness

in others

and we get self-righteous.

We could be

in self-pity

as we lament

or we could be

in self-righteousness.

Scripture doesn't allow

either error to happen.

When we see the foolishness

of unbelief around us,

we are sometimes tempted

just to wag our fingers

but then we look

at the words

of the psalmist

and he says,

when God looks from heaven

down on the children of man,

what does he see?

No one.

No one who seeks for good.

And what does Paul say

that we read earlier

in the preparation

for worship

in Romans 3?

Jew and Gentile alike,

educated and uneducated,

professing atheist

or professing believer,

all alike,

do not seek God.

If we are to have

any hope

to be saved,

it's not in our hope

of finding God,

it's in our hope

of God seeking us.

He is the one who seeks

and he's the only one

who seeks.

Which is why David says

in verse 7,

oh, that salvation

for Israel would come

out of Zion.

It has to come from him

because we don't seek him.

When the Lord restores

the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice

and let Israel be glad.

So when we lament

with the scriptures,

we're not given

the option of self-pity

and we're not given

the option of self-righteousness

because it wraps up

all men alike

under the same umbrella

of the fool

and it rescues

God's people specifically

from the fool.

God's spirit

takes away

our self-righteousness

and in its place,

he gives us hope

in God's righteousness.

The Lord gave us

this psalm

as a lament

that his people can share.

When we follow

scripture's laments,

we hear God

expressing words

assuring us

that he sympathizes

with our weaknesses

and with our sufferings.

Because, after all,

God knows

what it's like

to be eaten up

by evildoers

like bread.

Now, don't let those words

escape your notice

when they eat up

God's people

as they eat bread.

That's what the evildoers

are described as.

Did that occur to you

that we lament

the evildoers

who want to eat up

God's people?

Because God himself

gave his body

as bread

to a people

who previously hated him.

I don't think

those words

are an accident

when the psalmist

uses the metaphor

of bread

because Jesus Christ

was willingly

eaten up like bread

by fools

who did not

call upon his name,

who did not seek him.

He sought them out

and he gave us

the Lord's Supper

as a symbol

of how he has sought us

and what it cost him

to seek us,

to bring people

who hated him

into his kingdom.

The symbol

of our communion

with Christ

is even given to us

in this picture,

that Christ

was eaten up

like bread

for people

who in their foolishness

did not

call upon the Lord.

In fact,

this is the Lord's Supper.

It's many things,

but one thing it is,

it's God's people

remembering

how we in our foolishness

ate up a just man

just like bread

because God knows

that of this human race

on whom he looks

down from heaven,

there is no one

who seeks for God,

no one

who does good.

Every one of those

that God calls his,

they are his

because he sought

them out himself.

The Lord is the one

who seeks.

Before you were

sought by God,

all of you,

without exception,

whether you came

to faith as a child

or later in life,

all of you,

without exception,

everyone were by nature

haters of God.

Practical atheists,

we could say,

who don't say

there is no God

with their lips maybe,

but they say it

in their hearts.

Knowing God,

but pretending not to.

We pretend not to know God,

so we can follow

our lusts.

So for all us

who suffer with evil,

God sympathizes

because God did more.

He knows what we endured

because he endured it

himself in Christ.

He also knows

how powerless we are

over our own foolishness,

which is why he gave us

wisdom from himself.

He rescued us

from our foolishness,

not by making us smarter,

but by giving us

the Holy Spirit,

his Holy Spirit

who enlightens us

to know wisdom.

And more important

than knowing wisdom,

loving wisdom.

He had to give us

a heart to love wisdom

before we would

seek wisdom.

So when we lament

with the words of Scripture,

we lament rightly

and with hope.

And this kind of lament,

the lament in Psalm 14,

brings us nearer

to the gospel

because it culminates

in this hope

that salvation will come

from Zion,

from God's holy hill.

We've seen the first fruits

of that salvation already

when Paul in Romans 11 writes

and he declares

what the psalmist says,

the deliverer will come

from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness

from Jacob,

and this will be

my covenant with them

when I take away

their sins.

That salvation is not

just freedom

from the evil around us,

though that is part

of our freedom,

it's the freedom

from the evil within us.

That when the psalm

makes believers face

the practical atheism

that's even in themselves,

what comes out of us

is a lament for deliverance

from our own evil

finally and for good.

And this God will do

because he promised

that God is with

the generation

of the righteous.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven,

it's you who teach us

through the Holy Spirit.

So do that now

as we reflect

on this lament

from your word.

Accept the pleas

of the fools

that you saved

and be pleased

with the feeble

attempt at obedience

that we're making

as we're inspired

to give it to you

and to give you glory.

And we do indeed

give you glory

as the one who sought us,

the only one who sought us.

When we of ourselves

wanted nothing else

to be free

from our sovereign king

and judge,

to follow our own desires,

to follow our own rule,

you rescued us

from our self-will.

Now keep us firmly

in your hand,

not allowing our foolish hearts

to draw us away

from the love

that you showed us

in Christ.

Now make the praises

we give in song

now be pleasing to you

as we repent

and are assured

that you have called us

your righteous.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.