Rev. Alan J. Meenan
I’m glad many of you battled this Southern California storm. How many here, just as a matter of interest are not native, were not born in Southern California? I thought so. You see? The Californians aren’t here. I often think that if people stopped coming to Church because of the weather, then with a storm like they have in Ireland, no one would do anything because this is kind of a typical Irish day. We would call this a soft day.
I want to refer you to Psalm 14 this morning. It’s a difficult Psalm, but one that is nonetheless worthwhile to study. Some weeks ago, the LA Times Magazine ran an article excerpted from a book that interviewed various celebrities about their feelings about God. They interviewed such people as George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and many others. I don’t know who said what, but I remember that many of them took a position that there was no God. They didn’t believe in God. God was a figment of human imagination, so they wanted to leave well enough alone. On the other hand, you have Mel Gibson with his great Passion movie coming out on Wednesday. By the way, we want to encourage you not only to go that movie yourself, but to invite folk to go with you. On the 7th of March, we’re going to have a panel discussion after this service with people in the industry and me, not in the industry, just doing some processing of the movie. So you can invite your friends to the movie and then bring them to the panel discussion afterwards. Also I believe, we’re going to launch a weekly study group following that particular panel discussion for people who want to pursue what this might all mean. But you have this strange continuum in Hollywood right now between those in the article who were saying, We don’t believe there is a God at all, and Mel Gibson, who is prepared to put his career on the line, recognizing that he may never get an acting job again.
Psalm 14 has relevance for us today in the 21st Century. It begins with the words, The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Psalm 53 begins exactly the same way, and Psalm 53 is really a duplicate of Psalm 14. It must be pretty important to have the same Psalm in the psalter twice. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The Hebrew word for fool is an interesting word. It’s the word Nabal. Now that may immediately strike a note with some of you. Nabal was the name of a chap who back in the days of David was a farmer. He was being protected by David and his men from the Philistines. David went to Nabal and said, Nabal, I wonder if you could give us some food, some provisions. After all, we’re doing lots of good things for you. You might want to give up a little something in return. Nabal said, No, I’m not giving you anything. David was so angry that he wanted to muster all 600 of his men to march on this guy and just wipe him from the face of the earth. So David got his soldiers, and marched on Nabal.
But Nabal was married to a gorgeous woman by the name of Abigail. Abigail, seeing the danger, went out and intercepted David. Said, My Lord, as she bowed down before him. Let me give you all the provisions you need. Because you don’t want to pay any attention to this foolish man Nabal. Folly is his name and folly is his game. That’s a little bit of a paraphrase, but it’s the essence of what is there. Folly is his name and folly is his game, because Nabal meant fool or stupid one. I can’t imagine a parent naming their child that name. But Abigail then went back to Nabal and told him what she did. Nabal just about had a stroke, and then he died. Now then, we come to Psalm 14 and we read, A fool says in his heart there is no God. You understand that a fool is saying in his heart that there is no God.
Who is this fool? Who is this person who says there is no God? The Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Rome in the opening chapter (Romans 1:20–22), Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Now listen to verse 22. Though they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Who is this fool? James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his little epistle, James 2:19, Even the devils believe in God. Did you know that? Even the devil believes in God. All the demons believe in God. That knowledge, James says, causes them to shudder. It’s a Greek word that is used of the roaring of the sea, a real storm. One that evokes extreme fear. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Even the demons believe that there is a God. Someone has said that there are no atheists in hell. I thought that was interesting. There is a little poem that I came across. Something like, On earth there are atheists many. In hell there are not any. I thought, yeah, that is probably true. Just like James when he says that the demons believe. The fool has said his heart, that there is no God.
Of course the Psalmist as he pens these words, is thinking how can anyone in their right mind look at the world and imagine how that this came into being without a creator, at the order of life on the planet and say there is no governor. To say we experience time without understanding some kind of concept of eternity. Such a person is called a fool. It isn’t a person who lacks intelligence. You can have a Ph.D., and say there is no God. You can be one of America’s royalty, a celebrity in Hollywood, and say there is no God. We’re not saying, and the Psalmist is certainly not saying, that they lack intelligence. The fool refers to a person whose conduct is not focused, a creature who doesn’t recognize the creator, a person who honestly believes that he can be captain of his own destiny. A person who wants to say, I’ll have my own fling, I will do things my own way. Just as another celebrity in Hollywood once said, I’ll do it my way. I’ll live life the way I want to live it. I’ll do what I jolly well please. I will be the captain of my own destiny. It’s a false sense of autonomy. They think that somehow they’re in control of their lives.
Of course by denying the existence of God, they deny their own sense of eternal existence, so that they recognize that death is the end. There is nothing beyond the grave, no hope and nothing to look forward to. Therefore, if there is no God, and there is no life beyond, then there is no accountability. If there is no accountability, the result is permissiveness, which eventually leads to chaos. Which leads to the degradation of the moral of society, which leads to blatant hedonism and self-consumption, which leads in turn to the exploitation of other people. In particular, leads to disdain for the people who say there is a God. That is precisely where the Psalmist takes us in this Psalm. He’s basically saying, think of the logic of this. The person who says there is no God, is not accountable to anyone. Because they are not accountable and they do whatever they want to do, there is permissiveness, chaos, the loss of moral integrity within society, and exploitation of others because they are self-consumed. That’s the essence of what the Psalm is saying.
When they look at those of us who say there is a God, there is a call for obedience and order. They say they’re not the fools, you’re the fools. You’re the people who have given up on the joy of life, you’re the people who have left their mind at the door when they go into a Church. You’re not the thinkers, we’re the intelligent ones here. So many Christians acquiesce to that, and I think it’s absolute rubbish. They don’t know what they’re saying. I love the Apostle Paul when he was accused of being a fool. Christians are accused of all kinds of things aren’t we? You’ve probably been accused of leaving your mind at the door, of being foolish. The Apostle Paul embraces it. You know, my natural Irish reaction would be, No I’m not. Let’s have at it. But Paul says, You know, you can call us that if you like. Because, in fact, you are right. We are fools. We’re fools for Christ’s sake. He says that in writing to the Church at Corinth (1 Cor. 4), We’re fools for Christ’s sake. It’s interesting that believers are often accused of not having any fun. Then when the early Church did have fun, they were accused of being drunk. They just couldn’t win, because the person has his mind set in antithesis to the things of God. He lives for himself, and he is self-consumed. Anyone who is living for God makes him uncomfortable. No, the real fool is the person whose life is lived without direction who tries to live his/her life completely apart from God and who flies in the face of the evidence that we Christians hold so tightly to.
We’ve not surrendered our minds, quite the contrary. We believe that Jesus rose from the dead because when you examine the evidence as many minds have done, whether they be scholarly Jews, whether they be humanistic philosophers, whether they be secular historians, whether they be agnostic or atheistic lawyers. Many of them, in examining the evidence for the resurrection have come to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead and have become Christians.
You know the story of Frank Morrison. One of the more recent ones who decided to write a book Who Moved the Stone? He wanted to disprove for all time in a court of law that Jesus could not have possibly risen from the dead. When he had sifted through all the evidence, he wrote his book. He called it Who Moved the Stone, but he wrote it from the perspective of one who believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Don’t talk to me about surrendering your mind. It requires less faith to be a Christian than to be a non-Christian. Since faith has always been difficult for me, I take the line of least resistance. I’m a Christian because I don’t have enough faith not to be a Christian. Who is it that surrenders their mind? The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
But before we get too carried away and say, Yeah, look at these bad guys, there is a little phrase in here that disturbs me. Three little words. In his heart. You see, the Psalmist is not reeling against the people in that article a few weeks ago. The celebrities of Hollywood who said there is no God. He’s talking about those people also who in their hearts say there is no God. To all outward purposes and appearances, they may very well seem to be people of faith. They speak the language of faith. They identify with the community of faith. But somewhere deep down they really won’t let go of their lives and really trust God. Because they are, if not avowed atheists, they are practical atheists. They don’t live their lives abandoned in trust and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result, they really disregard God. Because you see, every sin, every sin in the last analysis is an attempt on our part to say, You know God, I really know better than you. Think about that. Therefore, I’m really not going to trust you on this one. I think I can do this better. Every sin really revolves down to something akin to that.
I find it fascinating that in the Old Testament literature wisdom, the opposite of folly or foolishness is not as you might imagine wisdom. But the opposite of folly is a beautiful Hebrew word that means loving kindness. So the fool is a person who does not exhibit loving kindness. Since loving kindness is an integral part of the covenant, it’s the glue that holds the covenant together. If a person doesn’t have loving kindness, then obviously he doesn’t hold to the covenant. If he doesn’t hold to the covenant, he will then say, There is no God. If there is no God, he becomes self-consumed. He becomes God. That is where the Psalmist takes us.
But we read in the 2nd verse, that God looks down from Heaven. Where is God in all this? The fool says in his heart, there is no God. So where is God in all this? Well God is looking down from Heaven, says the Psalmist. And in looking down from Heaven, he sees if there is anyone who understands, anyone who seeks God. Verse 3 tells us that while he searches for someone wise in the midst of the folly, his search is bankrupt. All have turned aside, he says. They have together become corrupt. By the way the word corrupt there comes from a word that means stinky. I would graphically say, You stink. God looks down upon us and says, You stink. There is no one who does good, no not even one.
Immediately there is conjured up in the mind the time when God looked upon the earth during the flood. Remember? He didn’t see anyone that was good apart from Noah. During the time when he destroyed the Tower of Babel, there was none as he surveyed the human race. In Sodom and Gomorrah he destroyed those cities of wickedness. He saw that no one was doing good. The problem is not lack of intelligence. The problem is lack of understanding. You see that in verse 2? To see if there are any who understand, or if there are any who seek after God. God isn’t looking down for the celebrities of Hollywood. He’s not looking down on the great names, he’s not looking down on the wealthy, he’s not looking down on the learned. He’s looking for someone who understands. That’s all. Someone who seeks after God. What does He find? He simply finds people who, in their own pathetic way, think that they are the sum total of life. That they are all there is. That they are the sum total of reality. Isn’t that pathetic? That’s what he discovers as he looks. He’s overwhelmed by evil.
He uses these three proverbial phrases that are reiterated in verse 1. All have turned aside. All have become corrupt. There is no one who does good. So the Apostle Paul now seizes hold of this when he is writing his epistle to the Romans. In the opening chapters of Romans, those great chapters where he basically says that all the Gentiles have gone the way of wickedness. The Jews have not lived up to the standards that God has called them to. Then he says, All have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Then he quotes this Psalm. There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Then goes on to talk about the anatomy of disbelief in verses 13 through 18.
So what is the answer to this? We could say, let’s pray now and leave you in a state of depression. You know, as one of my old seminary professors used to tell me years and years ago, You can never fully understand the good news unless you really understand the bad news. Then he added, Never leave your people with the bad news. I would not dare do that. The Psalmist tells us, it’s God’s world in the last. It all belongs to him. He is the one who looks down from Heaven. He’s the one who is authority. He is the one who is the creator. He is the king over all his domain. Don’t lose sight of the fact that even though the world seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket, it’s God world. Even though Psalm 14 seems to describe the 21st Century, but was written centuries before, don’t forget that it’s God’s world. Even though this human condition is as perennial as it is universal, this corruptness, this self-centeredness, this exploitation of other people, all of those things that we see around us in Hollywood and Los Angeles and the world, let us not be discouraged by that, my beloved. Because God is still King over his world. He will not forsake those who love him. Because God is on the throne, life is worth living.
We read in verse 5 that God is present in the company of the righteous. So that in a world of fools, a world that is distorted by fools, a world that seems to be in the grasp of fools who say there is no God, God declares here unequivocally in verse 6, in a non-negotiable way that he is committed to his people. What a great God this is.
This is a God who recognizes when He looks down from Heaven, that the human condition is lost in the land of Nod. Now, what do I mean by that? You remember that’s the place where Cain was banished in the early chapters of Genesis. He was banished to the land of Nod. Symbolically speaking, we’ve been living in the land of Nod ever since where life is pretty mediocre as described here in Psalm 14. We have been trying in many different ways to escape the land of Nod. Human beings have been trying to escape Nod for centuries. Every now and again we manage to somehow rise above the level of mediocrity, but we fall back, because human beings cry for something better than this.
There’s that craving in a human heart, that longing that is articulated in verse 7 of the Psalm. That longing that one day God will set everything right. There’s a longing in every human heart, whether it is in George Clooney or Mel Gibson. There is a longing in every human heart for something better, something beyond, something transcendent. That’s why people write symphonies. That’s why we listen to them. That’s why people paint beautiful art and we gaze at it. For a moment, we escape Nod. That’s why teenagers go to concerts of Brittany Spears. That’s why so many, go by way of the drug culture. It’s an attempt, simply to escape Nod. To say there is something better than this. Even if it’s just for a moment, I can get a high. All kinds of things that are used in an attempt to escape Nod. Here’s the bad news and then I will give you some good news. There is no escaping Nod. That is the bad news. There is no way out of Nod. The good news is that God, recognizing that human beings have been floundering in the land of Nod, built a bridge. He sent his son to the land of Nod so that by faith and trust in Him, we might ultimately and finally reign with him. That’s verse 7 of the Psalm. This is the reassurance that believers have. It’s echoed by the way, in Romans 8 where Paul says, we’re all longing for that day. Creation is longing for that day. God’s spirit working within us is longing for that day when we will be forever with God.
But in the meantime, all of us who have been born into foolishness, by God’s grace, have been made wise unto salvation. When that day finally and ultimately comes, multitudes will stand in the presence of Jesus Christ. Born into foolishness, made wise unto salvation. It is my prayer that each of us will stand among them, no matter how bad things may be or may become. Finally, ultimately, joyously God is still the King. It’s still His world. We should be assured that the way of the wicked ultimately will be frustrated. The person who lives for himself, who says there is no God, who exploits other people, will come to realize (verse 6) that God is with His people. Redemption is there to be found and only there.
I invite you into that redemption this morning, to embrace the Christ who came to the land of Nod who suffered and died so that you might experience the means whereby you can live above the level of mediocrity. Live in communion with the creator of the universe and his son, Jesus Christ.
I’m glad many of you battled this Southern California storm. How many here, just as a matter of interest are not native, were not born in Southern California? I thought so. You see? The Californians aren’t here. I often think that if people stopped coming to Church because of the weather, then with a storm like they have in Ireland, no one would do anything because this is kind of a typical Irish day. We would call this a soft day.
I want to refer you to Psalm 14 this morning. It’s a difficult Psalm, but one that is nonetheless worthwhile to study. Some weeks ago, the LA Times Magazine ran an article excerpted from a book that interviewed various celebrities about their feelings about God. They interviewed such people as George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and many others. I don’t know who said what, but I remember that many of them took a position that there was no God. They didn’t believe in God. God was a figment of human imagination, so they wanted to leave well enough alone. On the other hand, you have Mel Gibson with his great Passion movie coming out on Wednesday. By the way, we want to encourage you not only to go that movie yourself, but to invite folk to go with you. On the 7th of March, we’re going to have a panel discussion after this service with people in the industry and me, not in the industry, just doing some processing of the movie. So you can invite your friends to the movie and then bring them to the panel discussion afterwards. Also I believe, we’re going to launch a weekly study group following that particular panel discussion for people who want to pursue what this might all mean. But you have this strange continuum in Hollywood right now between those in the article who were saying, We don’t believe there is a God at all, and Mel Gibson, who is prepared to put his career on the line, recognizing that he may never get an acting job again.
Psalm 14 has relevance for us today in the 21st Century. It begins with the words, The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Psalm 53 begins exactly the same way, and Psalm 53 is really a duplicate of Psalm 14. It must be pretty important to have the same Psalm in the psalter twice. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The Hebrew word for fool is an interesting word. It’s the word Nabal. Now that may immediately strike a note with some of you. Nabal was the name of a chap who back in the days of David was a farmer. He was being protected by David and his men from the Philistines. David went to Nabal and said, Nabal, I wonder if you could give us some food, some provisions. After all, we’re doing lots of good things for you. You might want to give up a little something in return. Nabal said, No, I’m not giving you anything. David was so angry that he wanted to muster all 600 of his men to march on this guy and just wipe him from the face of the earth. So David got his soldiers, and marched on Nabal.
But Nabal was married to a gorgeous woman by the name of Abigail. Abigail, seeing the danger, went out and intercepted David. Said, My Lord, as she bowed down before him. Let me give you all the provisions you need. Because you don’t want to pay any attention to this foolish man Nabal. Folly is his name and folly is his game. That’s a little bit of a paraphrase, but it’s the essence of what is there. Folly is his name and folly is his game, because Nabal meant fool or stupid one. I can’t imagine a parent naming their child that name. But Abigail then went back to Nabal and told him what she did. Nabal just about had a stroke, and then he died. Now then, we come to Psalm 14 and we read, A fool says in his heart there is no God. You understand that a fool is saying in his heart that there is no God.
Who is this fool? Who is this person who says there is no God? The Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Rome in the opening chapter (Romans 1:20–22), Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Now listen to verse 22. Though they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Who is this fool? James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his little epistle, James 2:19, Even the devils believe in God. Did you know that? Even the devil believes in God. All the demons believe in God. That knowledge, James says, causes them to shudder. It’s a Greek word that is used of the roaring of the sea, a real storm. One that evokes extreme fear. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Even the demons believe that there is a God. Someone has said that there are no atheists in hell. I thought that was interesting. There is a little poem that I came across. Something like, On earth there are atheists many. In hell there are not any. I thought, yeah, that is probably true. Just like James when he says that the demons believe. The fool has said his heart, that there is no God.
Of course the Psalmist as he pens these words, is thinking how can anyone in their right mind look at the world and imagine how that this came into being without a creator, at the order of life on the planet and say there is no governor. To say we experience time without understanding some kind of concept of eternity. Such a person is called a fool. It isn’t a person who lacks intelligence. You can have a Ph.D., and say there is no God. You can be one of America’s royalty, a celebrity in Hollywood, and say there is no God. We’re not saying, and the Psalmist is certainly not saying, that they lack intelligence. The fool refers to a person whose conduct is not focused, a creature who doesn’t recognize the creator, a person who honestly believes that he can be captain of his own destiny. A person who wants to say, I’ll have my own fling, I will do things my own way. Just as another celebrity in Hollywood once said, I’ll do it my way. I’ll live life the way I want to live it. I’ll do what I jolly well please. I will be the captain of my own destiny. It’s a false sense of autonomy. They think that somehow they’re in control of their lives.
Of course by denying the existence of God, they deny their own sense of eternal existence, so that they recognize that death is the end. There is nothing beyond the grave, no hope and nothing to look forward to. Therefore, if there is no God, and there is no life beyond, then there is no accountability. If there is no accountability, the result is permissiveness, which eventually leads to chaos. Which leads to the degradation of the moral of society, which leads to blatant hedonism and self-consumption, which leads in turn to the exploitation of other people. In particular, leads to disdain for the people who say there is a God. That is precisely where the Psalmist takes us in this Psalm. He’s basically saying, think of the logic of this. The person who says there is no God, is not accountable to anyone. Because they are not accountable and they do whatever they want to do, there is permissiveness, chaos, the loss of moral integrity within society, and exploitation of others because they are self-consumed. That’s the essence of what the Psalm is saying.
When they look at those of us who say there is a God, there is a call for obedience and order. They say they’re not the fools, you’re the fools. You’re the people who have given up on the joy of life, you’re the people who have left their mind at the door when they go into a Church. You’re not the thinkers, we’re the intelligent ones here. So many Christians acquiesce to that, and I think it’s absolute rubbish. They don’t know what they’re saying. I love the Apostle Paul when he was accused of being a fool. Christians are accused of all kinds of things aren’t we? You’ve probably been accused of leaving your mind at the door, of being foolish. The Apostle Paul embraces it. You know, my natural Irish reaction would be, No I’m not. Let’s have at it. But Paul says, You know, you can call us that if you like. Because, in fact, you are right. We are fools. We’re fools for Christ’s sake. He says that in writing to the Church at Corinth (1 Cor. 4), We’re fools for Christ’s sake. It’s interesting that believers are often accused of not having any fun. Then when the early Church did have fun, they were accused of being drunk. They just couldn’t win, because the person has his mind set in antithesis to the things of God. He lives for himself, and he is self-consumed. Anyone who is living for God makes him uncomfortable. No, the real fool is the person whose life is lived without direction who tries to live his/her life completely apart from God and who flies in the face of the evidence that we Christians hold so tightly to.
We’ve not surrendered our minds, quite the contrary. We believe that Jesus rose from the dead because when you examine the evidence as many minds have done, whether they be scholarly Jews, whether they be humanistic philosophers, whether they be secular historians, whether they be agnostic or atheistic lawyers. Many of them, in examining the evidence for the resurrection have come to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead and have become Christians.
You know the story of Frank Morrison. One of the more recent ones who decided to write a book Who Moved the Stone? He wanted to disprove for all time in a court of law that Jesus could not have possibly risen from the dead. When he had sifted through all the evidence, he wrote his book. He called it Who Moved the Stone, but he wrote it from the perspective of one who believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Don’t talk to me about surrendering your mind. It requires less faith to be a Christian than to be a non-Christian. Since faith has always been difficult for me, I take the line of least resistance. I’m a Christian because I don’t have enough faith not to be a Christian. Who is it that surrenders their mind? The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
But before we get too carried away and say, Yeah, look at these bad guys, there is a little phrase in here that disturbs me. Three little words. In his heart. You see, the Psalmist is not reeling against the people in that article a few weeks ago. The celebrities of Hollywood who said there is no God. He’s talking about those people also who in their hearts say there is no God. To all outward purposes and appearances, they may very well seem to be people of faith. They speak the language of faith. They identify with the community of faith. But somewhere deep down they really won’t let go of their lives and really trust God. Because they are, if not avowed atheists, they are practical atheists. They don’t live their lives abandoned in trust and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result, they really disregard God. Because you see, every sin, every sin in the last analysis is an attempt on our part to say, You know God, I really know better than you. Think about that. Therefore, I’m really not going to trust you on this one. I think I can do this better. Every sin really revolves down to something akin to that.
I find it fascinating that in the Old Testament literature wisdom, the opposite of folly or foolishness is not as you might imagine wisdom. But the opposite of folly is a beautiful Hebrew word that means loving kindness. So the fool is a person who does not exhibit loving kindness. Since loving kindness is an integral part of the covenant, it’s the glue that holds the covenant together. If a person doesn’t have loving kindness, then obviously he doesn’t hold to the covenant. If he doesn’t hold to the covenant, he will then say, There is no God. If there is no God, he becomes self-consumed. He becomes God. That is where the Psalmist takes us.
But we read in the 2nd verse, that God looks down from Heaven. Where is God in all this? The fool says in his heart, there is no God. So where is God in all this? Well God is looking down from Heaven, says the Psalmist. And in looking down from Heaven, he sees if there is anyone who understands, anyone who seeks God. Verse 3 tells us that while he searches for someone wise in the midst of the folly, his search is bankrupt. All have turned aside, he says. They have together become corrupt. By the way the word corrupt there comes from a word that means stinky. I would graphically say, You stink. God looks down upon us and says, You stink. There is no one who does good, no not even one.
Immediately there is conjured up in the mind the time when God looked upon the earth during the flood. Remember? He didn’t see anyone that was good apart from Noah. During the time when he destroyed the Tower of Babel, there was none as he surveyed the human race. In Sodom and Gomorrah he destroyed those cities of wickedness. He saw that no one was doing good. The problem is not lack of intelligence. The problem is lack of understanding. You see that in verse 2? To see if there are any who understand, or if there are any who seek after God. God isn’t looking down for the celebrities of Hollywood. He’s not looking down on the great names, he’s not looking down on the wealthy, he’s not looking down on the learned. He’s looking for someone who understands. That’s all. Someone who seeks after God. What does He find? He simply finds people who, in their own pathetic way, think that they are the sum total of life. That they are all there is. That they are the sum total of reality. Isn’t that pathetic? That’s what he discovers as he looks. He’s overwhelmed by evil.
He uses these three proverbial phrases that are reiterated in verse 1. All have turned aside. All have become corrupt. There is no one who does good. So the Apostle Paul now seizes hold of this when he is writing his epistle to the Romans. In the opening chapters of Romans, those great chapters where he basically says that all the Gentiles have gone the way of wickedness. The Jews have not lived up to the standards that God has called them to. Then he says, All have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Then he quotes this Psalm. There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Then goes on to talk about the anatomy of disbelief in verses 13 through 18.
So what is the answer to this? We could say, let’s pray now and leave you in a state of depression. You know, as one of my old seminary professors used to tell me years and years ago, You can never fully understand the good news unless you really understand the bad news. Then he added, Never leave your people with the bad news. I would not dare do that. The Psalmist tells us, it’s God’s world in the last. It all belongs to him. He is the one who looks down from Heaven. He’s the one who is authority. He is the one who is the creator. He is the king over all his domain. Don’t lose sight of the fact that even though the world seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket, it’s God world. Even though Psalm 14 seems to describe the 21st Century, but was written centuries before, don’t forget that it’s God’s world. Even though this human condition is as perennial as it is universal, this corruptness, this self-centeredness, this exploitation of other people, all of those things that we see around us in Hollywood and Los Angeles and the world, let us not be discouraged by that, my beloved. Because God is still King over his world. He will not forsake those who love him. Because God is on the throne, life is worth living.
We read in verse 5 that God is present in the company of the righteous. So that in a world of fools, a world that is distorted by fools, a world that seems to be in the grasp of fools who say there is no God, God declares here unequivocally in verse 6, in a non-negotiable way that he is committed to his people. What a great God this is.
This is a God who recognizes when He looks down from Heaven, that the human condition is lost in the land of Nod. Now, what do I mean by that? You remember that’s the place where Cain was banished in the early chapters of Genesis. He was banished to the land of Nod. Symbolically speaking, we’ve been living in the land of Nod ever since where life is pretty mediocre as described here in Psalm 14. We have been trying in many different ways to escape the land of Nod. Human beings have been trying to escape Nod for centuries. Every now and again we manage to somehow rise above the level of mediocrity, but we fall back, because human beings cry for something better than this.
There’s that craving in a human heart, that longing that is articulated in verse 7 of the Psalm. That longing that one day God will set everything right. There’s a longing in every human heart, whether it is in George Clooney or Mel Gibson. There is a longing in every human heart for something better, something beyond, something transcendent. That’s why people write symphonies. That’s why we listen to them. That’s why people paint beautiful art and we gaze at it. For a moment, we escape Nod. That’s why teenagers go to concerts of Brittany Spears. That’s why so many, go by way of the drug culture. It’s an attempt, simply to escape Nod. To say there is something better than this. Even if it’s just for a moment, I can get a high. All kinds of things that are used in an attempt to escape Nod. Here’s the bad news and then I will give you some good news. There is no escaping Nod. That is the bad news. There is no way out of Nod. The good news is that God, recognizing that human beings have been floundering in the land of Nod, built a bridge. He sent his son to the land of Nod so that by faith and trust in Him, we might ultimately and finally reign with him. That’s verse 7 of the Psalm. This is the reassurance that believers have. It’s echoed by the way, in Romans 8 where Paul says, we’re all longing for that day. Creation is longing for that day. God’s spirit working within us is longing for that day when we will be forever with God.
But in the meantime, all of us who have been born into foolishness, by God’s grace, have been made wise unto salvation. When that day finally and ultimately comes, multitudes will stand in the presence of Jesus Christ. Born into foolishness, made wise unto salvation. It is my prayer that each of us will stand among them, no matter how bad things may be or may become. Finally, ultimately, joyously God is still the King. It’s still His world. We should be assured that the way of the wicked ultimately will be frustrated. The person who lives for himself, who says there is no God, who exploits other people, will come to realize (verse 6) that God is with His people. Redemption is there to be found and only there.
I invite you into that redemption this morning, to embrace the Christ who came to the land of Nod who suffered and died so that you might experience the means whereby you can live above the level of mediocrity. Live in communion with the creator of the universe and his son, Jesus Christ.
