The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”

Psalm 53 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Folly and Wickedness of Men. A Maskil of David.

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,”
There are many today who are foolish according to the psalmist. The real question though may be; Do they really believe there is no God or does denying God work better for their own desired choices?  The psalmist says:  They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.  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.  To deny God in order to facillitate their own desire to do evil is perhaps more foolish than to truly disbelieve in God’s existence. Although with the evidence of creation; of its magniture and intricacies; and of its perfect balance, to believe that there is no God is still foolish. Yet to deny Him in spite of the evidence is even worse. In John 3:16-21 Jesus says:  God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”   

Because God looked down and saw that every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one;  rather than judge them for their unbelief and disobedience, He sent Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish.   It is not God’s desire to judge people. His judgment is against sin and unrighteousness and that judgment has already been made. If God wanted to judge people, He would not have sent Jesus to be judged in our place and to die for our sins. By deciding or choosing not to believe because they love darkness more than light, these people bring judgment upon themselves.  So the foolishness of unbelief also brings about the consequence of judgment upon the foolish unbeliever.  In John 10:10 Jesus says:  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.   Each person individually must choose who they will believe, either the thief or Jesus. Their decision bring about the consequence; what they will reap, either death and destruction or abundant life.

Abundant life is more than having everything we desire. Abundant life is both etenal life which comes through believing in and being obedient to God and also having all that we need in this life. Money and material wealth is not abundance. It does not produce satisfaction or contentment, but only the desire and the lust for more. David, the same psalmist who wrote today’s text, also says in Psalm 37:4:  Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.   Abundant life, true satisfaction comes as we delight in God; as we more than just believing in Him, we worship Him, we praise Him, we fellowship and commune with Him. When we delight in God we become aligned with Him; our heart becomes one with Him. David knew of that contentment. God said of David: ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ (Acts 13:22)  It is in being aligned with the heart of God, in having a heart after the heart of God that we find satisfaction and abundance. In Pilippians 4:11-13 Paul says:  I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.   Believing in Christ, allowing Him to be our redeemer from sin and the Lord of our life, being of the same heart as God brings about contentment and satisfaction. The foolish desire and run after things that cannot satisfy. The psalmist says there are none who seek God, but because God both looked down and sent Jesus down, in Matthew 6:33 Jesus says:  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.   Those who do not believe in God, but choose to believe that we are here by a series of incidents and accidents; that we were created from the dust of some great cosmic explosion, would at least be in agreement with what God says in Genesis 3:19:  By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.  So for the foolish unbeliever life is sweat and toil and death is dust. For the believer it is abundance and eternal satisfaction in Christ.

Thank You heavenly Father that although none sought You, You looked down and sent Your Son. I believe in Jesus. I am thankful for His sacrifice for my sin so that I am no longer judged. I delight in You. I choose to seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness so that I may know the abundance of having a heart after Your heart.  Amen.