I was afraid so I hid myself

Psalm 53 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Folly and Wickedness of Men.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”
They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
There is no one who does good.
² God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is anyone who understands,
Who seeks after God.
³ Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.

⁴ Have the workers of wickedness no knowledge,
Who eat up My people as though they ate bread
And have not called upon God?
⁵ There they were in great fear where no fear had been;
For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you;
You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.
⁶ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores His captive people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

The psalmist says:  The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”  In truth, the one who says there is no God is not only a fool, but also a liar. There are many gods, many things that people worship. The one who says there is no God has really replaced the worship of the living God of creation with another god. If they acknowledge no god, they have made themselves out to be god. The psalmist says:  They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.  In Leviticus 11:44-45 God says:  I am Yahweh your God… be holy because I am holy…  I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.   The reason that many do not acknowledge God is not that they truly doubt that He is; it is that they will not be accountable to His holiness. The very existance of creation, from the magnitude and expanse of the universe, to the intricacies of micro biology and sub atomic physics; all that exists and the balance required to create and susstain it surely could not be simply by chance. To believe that is more than foolish. It defies all logically thinking.  1 Corinthians 1:25 says: The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  I love, and encourage you to look at the account of God confronting Job in Job 38-40. Many will say that the Bible is foolish because it speaks to the level of natural understanding of Job and the people of his day. I have no doubt though that the God of creation could debate and make foolish, the greatest scientific minds in all the earth. Science has to admit that every answer they find, every mystery they understand, asks new questions and reveals new and deeper mysteries. The God of creation is omniscient. He knows all because He created and established it all.

The psalmist says:  God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there is anyone who understands, Who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.   God did not and does not look down and see the coruption and the darkness of people and despise or condemn them. Instead:  God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) In Genesis 3:8-10, after Adam and Eve sinned, it says:  They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”    Adam and Eve became self aware, they were aware of their sinfulness in the presence of God’s holiness, and so they tried to hide from God.  In truth, that’s what those who say there is no God are doing. They are hiding from Him, trying to hide their sinfulness from His presence. God still looks down, He still seeks after His beloved, He says: “Where are you?” It is not to condemn them but rather, through Christ, to redeem and restore them. In Revelation 3:19-20, the Lord says:  As many as I love, I rebuke andchasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 

The psalmist says:  Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores His captive people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad. But Jesus did not come just for Israel. He came to restore all who are captive to sin and guilt. He came so that they would understand; that they would understand His love, demonstrated in the cross.

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit for Your never ending love and faithfulness. Thank You for the truth that You seek to redeem us from sin. I understand and I believe.  Amen.