For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 14 – The Fool says…

1 The fool says in his heart,
    ‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
    there is no one who does good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.

4 Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread;
    they never call on the Lord.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
    for God is present in the company of the righteous.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
    but the Lord is their refuge.

7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When the Lord restores his people,
    let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

A. Find Out:

1. What designates a fool? v.1
2. What does the Lord look for? v.2
3. What does He find? v.3
4. What do evil doers do? v.4,6
5. Where is God? v.5
6. What does He do? v.6,7

B. Think:

1. What is the moral state of the people?
2. How many ways are wrongdoers described in this Psalm?
3. What does this Psalm tell us about the Lord and wrongdoers?

C. Comment:

     Yet again in this Psalm, as in a number of previous ones, David is conscious of those who are not righteous. They are described as “corrupt” which means they are bent or twisted or warped from what they were originally designed to be. They do wrong, they don’t look to God, they attack those weaker than themselves.

     A major aspect of the nature of the wrongdoer is that they ignore or reject God. The fool (v.1) is one who is morally deficient (see note in Bible) but that follows from when they say, “There is no God”. It is a fool who ignores all the evidence and their own state and rejects the possibility of a God. Often it is because they want to continue in their wicked way that they say this. It is more convenient to think that there is no one to whom you are accountable!

     Yet David is aware that the Lord is still there with the righteous and the poor and his cry is that the Lord would come and restore Israel to become a glorious people who rejoice in the wonder of the relationship that they have with the God of heaven who has come to earth to dwell in the midst of His people.

D. Application?

1. Godlessness comes before wickedness (see Romans 1:18). Wickedness flows when the fool declares there is none to whom he is accountable.
2. God is a refuge to the poor but company for the righteous.