THE PSALMS – A JOURNEY IN WORSHIP AND FAITH - August 7, 2014 – Day 14 - Psalm 14

God does not grade on the curve. How often we Christians look at others and compare ourselves with them. We watch the news and see daily the wickedness of the world as hear of child abuse and murder. We call the rich greedy. We look down on those who steal. Psalm 14 is a wakeup call.

 

Psalm 14:1 says that “ The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”

 

The temptation is to agree and say those atheists are fools. But do not stop at the first part of verse 1. It finishes with a shocking statement. “There is none who does good.”

 

What? No one does good? Let us continue.

Psalm 14:2-3
“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 none who does good, not even one.”

The words here are clear. There are none who do good, they have all turned aside and again He says there is none who does good, not even one. This message is repeated in Psalm 53 and again in Romans 3:10-12. It has been said if God says something once, it demands our attention. If He says it twice then we need give it extra attention. But if God says something 3 times then that means we must make it a priority to not only deem it important; but also to give it extra contemplation and be sure we understand it.

The key to the message of Psalm 14 is not found in looking at the wickedness of others but in looking at our own hearts and understanding who God is and what He requires. God’s holiness requires sinless perfection. We fall short. We have no right in God’s economy in looking down at the sins of others.

David goes on in explaining the problem.

Psalm 14:4-6
“Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon 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.”

 
Without God they are in “great terror”. But where is the only safe place from God’s wrath? In “the refuge of the Lord”.

Psalm 14:7
“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.”

David looked forward. We look backward 2000 years. Out of Zion came salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. Those who are Christ’s can be glad. The righteousness of Christ is the only hope of all of us. Without the covering of His blood we will meet the same fate as all of those horrible people we read about in our papers. That is the truth of this Psalm and the message of the Gospel. God does not grade on a curve. You will not enter heaven because you are better than someone else. As the song says nothing but the blood of Jesus.