Psalm 14 | Psalms Series 2026

Speaker 1: So the reading today is from Psalm fourteen.

Speaker 1: Uh, Psalm fourteen on page four seventy seven.

Speaker 1: Psalm fourteen the fool says in his heart, there is no God.

Speaker 1: They are corrupt.

Speaker 1: They do vile deeds.

Speaker 1: There is no one who does good.

Speaker 1: The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if

Speaker 1: there is one who is wise, one who seeks God.

Speaker 1: All have turned away.

Speaker 1: All alike have become corrupt.

Speaker 1: There is no one who does good, not even one.

Speaker 1: Will evil doers never understand?

Speaker 1: They consume my people as they consume bread.

Speaker 1: They do not call on the Lord.

Speaker 1: Then they will be filled with dread.

Speaker 1: For God is with those who are righteous.

Speaker 1: You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the Lord

Speaker 1: is his refuge.

Speaker 1: Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come from Zion.

Speaker 1: When the Lord restores the

Speaker 1: fortunes of his people, let

Speaker 1: Jacob rejoice.

Speaker 1: Let Israel be glad.

Speaker 2: Keep that open.

Speaker 2: Let's start in verse one.

Speaker 2: The first phrase is well known.

Speaker 2: The full says in their heart.

Speaker 2: The full says there is no God.

Speaker 2: Verse one.

Speaker 2: Now it's tempting to think, as we hear here, this.

Speaker 2: The full says there is no God.

Speaker 2: It's tempting to think this is about, um, talking about people

Speaker 2: who are atheists or people who might argue against the

Speaker 2: existence of God.

Speaker 2: I do not believe in God, and here are the reasons why some

Speaker 2: logical reasoning x, y, z. This is why I don't believe in God.

Speaker 2: And so we can think that this is talking about reasoning from the

Speaker 2: intellectual level at the mind.

Speaker 2: And so maybe we might even think

Speaker 2: this is not talking about us, or

Speaker 2: it's talking about other people,

Speaker 2: or it might be talking about

Speaker 2: you.

Speaker 2: If you're a skeptic and you're kind of thinking, is there God

Speaker 2: and how that works?

Speaker 2: But look at look at where the fool denies God.

Speaker 2: To put it another way, what level does the full deny God?

Speaker 2: Have a look.

Speaker 2: Verse one.

Speaker 2: What does it say there?

Speaker 2: The full says in their mind.

Speaker 2: No. In their belly.

Speaker 2: No. In their hearts.

Speaker 2: In their hearts is where the

Speaker 2: fool says there is no God or

Speaker 2: denies God.

Speaker 2: What does that mean in the heart?

Speaker 2: The heart is relational.

Speaker 2: It's an area of commitment.

Speaker 2: It means denying God at the level of commitment.

Speaker 2: Uh. What is what hearts do?

Speaker 2: Hearts.

Speaker 2: Love.

Speaker 2: Hearts desire.

Speaker 2: Hearts are committed, you know, in the sense of I have children

Speaker 2: or I have family.

Speaker 2: I'm committed to them.

Speaker 2: At the heart level first, like whether they do things or not,

Speaker 2: it's not about the mind, is it?

Speaker 2: It's about devotion and commitment.

Speaker 2: At the heart.

Speaker 2: And so this is talking about a fool.

Speaker 2: And the problem is fools are not even it's not just about

Speaker 2: ignorance, but it's about a refusal to seek God, to know God

Speaker 2: and is not at the level of the mind, is it?

Speaker 2: Have a look at verse two here.

Speaker 2: Look at this.

Speaker 2: The Lord looks down from heaven on the human race to see if

Speaker 2: there is one who is wise.

Speaker 2: Opposite of fool wise.

Speaker 2: One who seeks God.

Speaker 2: And so the fool is the one who does not seek God.

Speaker 2: Who is willfully turned away from God.

Speaker 2: And this is talking about the fall.

Speaker 2: We intuitively recognize if God is there, Then I have to listen

Speaker 2: to to him.

Speaker 2: You'll have to respond to him.

Speaker 2: If God exists, I have to.

Speaker 2: I have to have to hear what he's got to say.

Speaker 2: I might have to adjust my life, you see.

Speaker 2: But the fool is more interested in.

Speaker 2: I can do it myself.

Speaker 2: It's not about evidence.

Speaker 2: It's not about understanding and having enough evidence to go, oh

Speaker 2: yes, there is God or no, there's not enough evidence.

Speaker 2: No, there's not God.

Speaker 2: It's about.

Speaker 2: It's a willful.

Speaker 2: Deliberate refusal.

Speaker 2: To accept that God is there.

Speaker 2: I can do it myself.

Speaker 2: Um, now, my children are a bit

Speaker 2: older now, but I remember a time

Speaker 2: when, uh, I won't name which

Speaker 2: one.

Speaker 2: Don't worry.

Speaker 2: When a couple of you are younger

Speaker 2: and one of you, uh, you know,

Speaker 2: I'm fixing.

Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't fixing stuff in my car.

Speaker 2: I'm not that good at it, but I was replacing some things and in

Speaker 2: the garage and so on and trying to fix things.

Speaker 2: And, um, one of my children is saying, no, this is when they're

Speaker 2: younger, uh, playing with some of the little car parts and

Speaker 2: saying, no, no, I can, I don't need help with this one.

Speaker 2: I can fix it myself.

Speaker 2: I can do this.

Speaker 2: I can change some of the spark plugs and things like that.

Speaker 2: I mean, you could you get maybe you get electrocuted or

Speaker 2: something or burn yourself or something like that.

Speaker 2: I can do it myself.

Speaker 2: And this is fine with children.

Speaker 2: And we understand that we are born this way.

Speaker 2: We have a deposit of foolishness.

Speaker 2: We need to be told.

Speaker 2: But this, of course is talking about someone who is saying to

Speaker 2: God, I can do it myself.

Speaker 2: Now, as an adult, I can do it myself.

Speaker 2: It's a heart commitment,

Speaker 2: committed to to the denial of

Speaker 2: God and justifications

Speaker 2: Afterwards.

Speaker 2: And of course, some people in life, when they're honest, they

Speaker 2: admit their commitments.

Speaker 2: Listen to this.

Speaker 2: Aldous Huxley, Aldous Huxley he

Speaker 2: was a early twentieth century

Speaker 2: author.

Speaker 2: He wrote several science fiction books.

Speaker 2: Um, but he was incredibly honest

Speaker 2: about his early university

Speaker 2: years.

Speaker 2: Listen to what he says.

Speaker 2: He did philosophy one hundred

Speaker 2: one and he says this when I went

Speaker 2: into philosophy one hundred one,

Speaker 2: I did not want there to be a

Speaker 2: god.

Speaker 2: So he's not saying that he

Speaker 2: reasoned whether there was God

Speaker 2: or not.

Speaker 2: He's saying, I just didn't want there to be God.

Speaker 2: I did not want there to be God

Speaker 2: who had spoken in the Ten

Speaker 2: Commandments.

Speaker 2: I wanted to believe that life was meaningless.

Speaker 2: I wanted to believe that life was meaningless.

Speaker 2: Why?

Speaker 2: I had a girl I wanted to sleep with.

Speaker 2: And he goes on to talk about.

Speaker 2: The reality is, when we're honest with ourselves, we say to

Speaker 2: ourselves, we don't want someone to tell us what to do.

Speaker 2: We don't want there to be God.

Speaker 2: We don't want to have to listen.

Speaker 2: We want to write God out because we want to rebel.

Speaker 2: And he goes on, he says, I had

Speaker 2: motives for not wanting the

Speaker 2: world to have meaning, and

Speaker 2: consequently I surmised it had

Speaker 2: none.

Speaker 2: And I was able to find reasons the world didn't have any.

Speaker 2: He was able to actually justify and to say, well, there's no

Speaker 2: meaning to the world, or I don't have to do anything.

Speaker 2: Because he was committed.

Speaker 2: His heart was committed.

Speaker 2: To doing what he wanted.

Speaker 2: And this is what it's talking about in Psalm fourteen.

Speaker 2: The fool says, there can't be God.

Speaker 2: There isn't God because I want to do things my own way.

Speaker 2: And look, there's even a moral dimension to this foolishness.

Speaker 2: The fool says in their heart, there is no God.

Speaker 2: Verse one they are corrupt.

Speaker 2: Look at this.

Speaker 2: This is this is not a

Speaker 2: theological thing or

Speaker 2: theoretical.

Speaker 2: It's a morality thing.

Speaker 2: They are corrupt.

Speaker 2: They do vile deeds.

Speaker 2: And this is expanded in verses four and six.

Speaker 2: They consume people like bread.

Speaker 2: They frustrate the plans of the oppressed.

Speaker 2: David is talking about people

Speaker 2: who neglect justice, who

Speaker 2: encourage injustice.

Speaker 2: And perhaps he has particular specific thing in mind, or maybe

Speaker 2: he's talking about in general.

Speaker 2: But the point is, David is saying the fool believes that

Speaker 2: there is no God and acts like this and acts that God is not

Speaker 2: there, and that God will not balance the scales, that God

Speaker 2: will not right wrongs, that there will be nothing to give

Speaker 2: account to in the end.

Speaker 2: It's living as if there is no God.

Speaker 2: At some level, the question has to be asked, are there things

Speaker 2: that God wants of us in our lives but we Refuse to listen.

Speaker 2: We kind of ignore or we kind of

Speaker 2: write God out, or we kind of say

Speaker 2: he doesn't really care about

Speaker 2: that.

Speaker 2: Maybe there are relationships or things that we're involved in,

Speaker 2: and there's a breakage and there's an injustice.

Speaker 2: And we might think, well, God, that's kind of relationships.

Speaker 2: God's not really involved in that.

Speaker 2: He's not interested in that.

Speaker 2: And we kind of think, God, we'll just forget about it.

Speaker 2: Robert Alter says about this

Speaker 2: passage or Psalm fourteen, the

Speaker 2: thrust of this is more moral

Speaker 2: than theological.

Speaker 2: The concern is not philosophical.

Speaker 2: Philosophical question of God's existence.

Speaker 2: Is God there or not?

Speaker 2: It's not about that.

Speaker 2: It's his lack of conscience.

Speaker 2: He can act with impunity.

Speaker 2: The fool, because he thinks

Speaker 2: there's no fear of divine

Speaker 2: retribution.

Speaker 2: To be a fool.

Speaker 2: Is to have our hearts committed

Speaker 2: that there is no God, and also

Speaker 2: to have a moral dimension, a

Speaker 2: lack of justice and

Speaker 2: problematically most

Speaker 2: problematically.

Speaker 2: Verse two.

Speaker 2: God looks down from heaven on

Speaker 2: the human race to see if there

Speaker 2: is one who is wise, one who

Speaker 2: seeks God.

Speaker 2: And then it says that not even one.

Speaker 2: There is not even one.

Speaker 2: And the issue is that the fool

Speaker 2: kind of thinks that God is not

Speaker 2: interested, or he's too busy off

Speaker 2: in the distance not doing

Speaker 2: things, but God's actually

Speaker 2: looking down.

Speaker 2: He's looking down in detail at everybody.

Speaker 2: He's trying to find and look and sift, and every single person

Speaker 2: doesn't say some.

Speaker 2: It says there is not one.

Speaker 2: Romans one.

Speaker 2: Romans one New Testament says this.

Speaker 2: Listen to this.

Speaker 2: For God's invisible attributes.

Speaker 2: That is his eternal power.

Speaker 2: His divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation

Speaker 2: of the world, understood through what is made.

Speaker 2: People are without excuse.

Speaker 2: God can be known from how he's made things.

Speaker 2: People excuse for all they.

Speaker 2: Although they knew God, they did

Speaker 2: not glorify Him as God or show

Speaker 2: thanks.

Speaker 2: Instead, thinking became worthless.

Speaker 2: Hearts became darkened.

Speaker 2: Claiming to be wise, they became fools.

Speaker 2: And then you'll know.

Speaker 2: Romans three ends with there is none, not one.

Speaker 2: There is none.

Speaker 2: So what are we to do?

Speaker 2: We need deliverance from ourselves.

Speaker 2: And our selfishness.

Speaker 2: And at the end of the Psalms, almost always grace shows up.

Speaker 2: Because.

Speaker 2: let's have a look.

Speaker 2: Verse seven.

Speaker 2: There's a little interjection.

Speaker 2: Interjection.

Speaker 2: But look at the first word of verse seven.

Speaker 2: Oh, oh.

Speaker 2: It's like a it's like a groan, a longing.

Speaker 2: Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come from Zion.

Speaker 2: When.

Speaker 2: Fortunes, the Lord restores the fortunes of his people.

Speaker 2: Oh, let Jacob rejoice.

Speaker 2: Let Israel be glad.

Speaker 2: It's a looking forward.

Speaker 2: Oh, that we would be delivered, that there would be salvation,

Speaker 2: that there would be goodness.

Speaker 2: And deliverance comes.

Speaker 2: Where does it come?

Speaker 2: It comes from Zion.

Speaker 2: It says there in verse seven.

Speaker 2: Now if you don't know what Zion

Speaker 2: means, you'll have trouble

Speaker 2: appreciating what's happening

Speaker 2: here.

Speaker 2: But this is the holy hill.

Speaker 2: This is where the temple is.

Speaker 2: This is the place where God is.

Speaker 2: And at the temple, of course, is the place where you.

Speaker 2: We sung at the start of the service.

Speaker 2: Holy, holy, holy is God.

Speaker 2: He is perfect and good and majestic and above us all.

Speaker 2: And yet in the temple is where the sacrifice is made.

Speaker 2: And you approach God at the temple and you meet him.

Speaker 2: And remember, we don't like being shown.

Speaker 2: We might feel threatened by a great God who is beyond us.

Speaker 2: We don't like being shown up for who we are.

Speaker 2: He's going to demand and say, I need you to do this.

Speaker 2: I need you to do that.

Speaker 2: And in the old covenant under Psalm fourteen, which is where

Speaker 2: we're at, we have to continually go to the temple.

Speaker 2: We have to make sacrifice.

Speaker 2: We have to say, yes, there is a God who is holy, who is great,

Speaker 2: who is beyond us, who is perfect, who can't stand the

Speaker 2: sight of us.

Speaker 2: And yet.

Speaker 2: He has a sacrifice.

Speaker 2: And then we can come before him.

Speaker 2: The forward looking moment of all that.

Speaker 2: The deliverance would come.

Speaker 2: Oh, that we would be saved from our selfishness.

Speaker 2: Oh, that there would be a sacrifice!

Speaker 2: That is enough.

Speaker 2: Oh, that we could stand before a God who is holy and perfect.

Speaker 2: And you know that Jesus, of course, hundreds of years later,

Speaker 2: would come before the temple.

Speaker 2: And he would say to his

Speaker 2: disciples, tear down this

Speaker 2: temple.

Speaker 2: Raise it to the ground.

Speaker 2: And three days later it will be.

Speaker 2: It will be built.

Speaker 2: And you know, he's not talking about the actual temple being

Speaker 2: built and being destroyed.

Speaker 2: He's talking about him, the king

Speaker 2: being the perfect sacrifice, the

Speaker 2: one who would be raised to the

Speaker 2: ground, the one who would die

Speaker 2: for us and then be raised up

Speaker 2: again.

Speaker 2: Zion, the holy hill, the temple.

Speaker 2: It's all pointing toward that moment.

Speaker 2: Oh, that deliverance, that desire.

Speaker 2: It's all pointing to the one who would die for us.

Speaker 2: The one who would be sacrificed and who would now sit at the

Speaker 2: right hand of God and say, I am the way through which all your

Speaker 2: foolishness can be forgiven.

Speaker 2: Now there is a perfect God,

Speaker 2: perfectly holy, and yet a God

Speaker 2: who.

Speaker 2: Oh, a God who loves us.

Speaker 2: A sacrifice that is enough.

Speaker 2: That is not again and again in the temple every day, but a way

Speaker 2: that we can be forgiven.

Speaker 2: And on the cross.

Speaker 2: It's foolishness to the world, but it's the wisdom of God.

Speaker 2: Because the fool doesn't understand grace.

Speaker 2: You know, I don't need.

Speaker 2: I don't need God.

Speaker 2: I don't need God's charity.

Speaker 2: But the Christian, the one that

Speaker 2: recognizes that they are the

Speaker 2: fool.

Speaker 2: That they need God.

Speaker 2: And coming to God and coming to Jesus, the one who has

Speaker 2: sacrificed for us.

Speaker 2: Things that seemed foolish in

Speaker 2: the eyes of the world become

Speaker 2: wise and there's a bit of a

Speaker 2: flip.

Speaker 2: We begin to use our money, our

Speaker 2: things for God, time, talent,

Speaker 2: and treasure.

Speaker 2: Look, let's read out.

Speaker 2: We didn't have this on the

Speaker 2: script, but let's read out Psalm

Speaker 2: fifteen because I think they go

Speaker 2: together.

Speaker 2: I've realized looking over this.

Speaker 2: Psalm fourteen and fifteen go together.

Speaker 2: So I read Psalm fourteen.

Speaker 2: There is no one who seeks God.

Speaker 2: There is none who know.

Speaker 2: Let's read Psalm fifteen.

Speaker 2: Look at what it says here.

Speaker 2: Lord, who can dwell?

Speaker 2: Psalm fifteen.

Speaker 2: Verse chapter.

Speaker 2: Verse one.

Speaker 2: Page four seven seven.

Speaker 2: Lord, who can dwell in your tent?

Speaker 2: Who can live on your holy mountain?

Speaker 2: Remember we're just talking about Zion.

Speaker 2: Verse two.

Speaker 2: The one who lives blamelessly

Speaker 2: practices righteousness and

Speaker 2: acknowledges the truth in his

Speaker 2: heart.

Speaker 2: Look, we have that there again in his heart.

Speaker 2: Who is it?

Speaker 2: The one who does not slander with his tongue, who does not

Speaker 2: harm his friend or discredit his neighbor, who despises the one

Speaker 2: rejected by the Lord, but honors those who fear the Lord, who

Speaker 2: keeps his word whatever the cost, who does not lend his

Speaker 2: silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent.

Speaker 2: The one who does these things will never be shaken.

Speaker 2: Look, it's what it's saying there, the Psalm fourteen.

Speaker 2: There is none who seek God.

Speaker 2: There is none who know God.

Speaker 2: Psalm fifteen.

Speaker 2: This is the one who has the truth in their heart.

Speaker 2: There is God.

Speaker 2: There is the God who loves me and who died for me.

Speaker 2: And this is how they live.

Speaker 2: They don't slander with their tongue.

Speaker 2: They don't harm their friend.

Speaker 2: They fear the Lord.

Speaker 2: It flows out of them.

Speaker 2: Their love for God flows out to

Speaker 2: their neighbor and their love of

Speaker 2: others.

Speaker 2: It might be foolish in the eyes of the world to be that kind of

Speaker 2: person, but it's wise in the eyes of God.

Speaker 2: So I think Psalm fourteen is a description of the fool In Psalm

Speaker 2: fifteen is a description of the wise, the one who listens to

Speaker 2: God, the one who leans on God, the one who recognizes God is

Speaker 2: part of my world and God.

Speaker 2: I'm going to live for him.

Speaker 2: And this is how I love others, and this is what I do with my

Speaker 2: with things of the world.

Speaker 2: All of that is pointing to the one who has died for us, the one

Speaker 2: who we live for and whom we say, I can give up all those things

Speaker 2: that I treasure, those things that I think are important.

Speaker 2: I can live for him.

Speaker 2: Let's pray.

Speaker 2: Father, we.

Speaker 2: As we read the psalmist and his.

Speaker 2: His longing, that deliverance and salvation would come.

Speaker 2: We thank you that in Jesus.

Speaker 2: You are the fullness of your grace and your mercy, and your

Speaker 2: justice has been shown.

Speaker 2: Help us to take into our hearts this week the reality and the

Speaker 2: truth of your Son Jesus.

Speaker 2: Of his life for us.

Speaker 2: That we may be people that are wise, that lean on you.

Speaker 2: They learn how to love others.

Speaker 2: And that we do that because of your great love for us.

Speaker 2: Amen.