“The fool has said in
his heart: there is no God.” - Psalm 14.1
The Psalm that has been
read this morning contains a devastating account of human nature. The
Psalm relates what I would call a realistic anthropology, that is, it
gives an honest and sober evaluation of our the human condition. The
Psalm reads, “Everyone has proved faithless; all alike have turned
bad; there is none who does good; no, not one.” The traditional
translation of this Psalm reads even more strongly, “But they are
all gone out of the way, they are altogether become abominable; there
is none that doeth good, no not one.” The realistic anthropology of
this Psalm contradicts the prevailing conception in our society which
holds to an optimistic anthropology. Such a view says that everyone
is basically good. As the church has become more worldly, it has
espoused this high view of man, hence the increasing silence and
embarrassment in the churches when it comes to the language of sin
and redemption. But the Bible is unequivocal on this point: man apart
from God inevitably sins and breaks God's righteous commandments.
I know that already
there will be some, perhaps many, who will be objecting to this
point. But I ask you to consider for a moment the record of human
history. Is it a record of people being basically nice and good? Or
is human history a record of power-grabbing, oppression, and the
pursuit of solitary happiness? Solitary happiness says that my
happiness can come at the expense of others' misery; that is the
ethic of hell. Let me tell you, it never works to build your
happiness on someone else's unhappiness. If you are doing something
to make yourself happy that would hurt those closest to you, then it
is probably sinful. Like it or not we live in the same world as the
crusades, slavery and Communist Russia, and we possess the same human
nature as Nero, Napoleon, and Stalin. Think for a moment of your own
life as well. Is it free of moral complication? When was the last
time you broke one of the Ten Commandments? Have you ever known
something was wrong and yet still did it? This is one of the Bible's
definitions for sin. In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul quotes
our Psalm to make the point that both Jews and Gentiles have sinned.
Even though Jews have the Law, they are morally no superior to
Gentiles. St. Paul concludes his argument with these famous words,
“all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (3.23).
I like to think of the
Bible as one continuous narrative. The central problem in the plot of
the Bible is sin and death, and so the Bible relates how God saves
humanity from sin and death and evil. The darkness of human sin and
brokenness is contrasted in the Bible with God's patience, mercy and
love. God's existence is not hidden, but rather God reveals it in the
world itself. Psalm 24 reads “The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament his handiwork. There is neither speech nor language
where their voice is not heard.” We live in a world which shows us
that God exists. This is precisely why the Bible indicates that it is
the fool who says there is no God. Look at the world around us, the
order of this good creation. The axis of the earth is tilted just
enough to give us four seasons. Plants and animals supply one
another's needs in a delicate order and balance. Consider the
ordinary beauty of a wildflower. In it is contained a hint of the
good and kind and beautiful Creator himself. Man too has been given
an eternal soul and has been made in the image of God. Think of the
human capacity for love, joy and creativity. That such human beings
as Plato, Mozart and Shakespeare could exist by a mere accident
stretches the limit of credulity. I was told recently that even the
great advocate of atheism Richard Dawkins conceded in a debate that
his belief system could not account for beauty.
It would be easy at
this moment to give ourselves a pat on the back and say, at least I'm
not an atheist. I go to church and say the creed, I believe in one
God. I think this lets us off the hook too easily. Notice the wording
of the Psalm, “The fool has said in his heart
there is no God.” It is not simply referring to those who in the
outward profession are atheists. It also includes those who are
functionally atheist, that is, those who might say they believe in
God but do not
live as if he existed. I think most of us including myself fall all
too easily into this functional atheism. We come to church on Sunday,
say our prayers, but the rest of the week we direct the show. Or
perhaps we are given to think of God as the cosmic clockmaker who set
this world in motion, but now is basically hand-offs. He doesn't
intervene in human history and has no real interest in public or
private life. Anytime we reject God's providence in this way, we slip
into this type of atheism.
Despite
the stark realism of this Psalm, it also gives us hope for God's
redemption. Jesus Christ is at the center of the Bible's narrative.
The Old Testament looks forward to this Christ; the New Testament
proclaims him explicitly. In our Psalm today, there is a kind of
foreshadowing of that grim Friday in Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago.
On that day, people acted as if there were no God. The Jews gave
false witness against Jesus and sought the death penalty for a man
who was innocent of any crime. The Romans acquiesced to mob rule and
condemned this man to one of the most heinous methods of execution
ever devised. Neither group had the fear of God before them. The
commoners too derided our Lord Jesus not because of any wrongdoing
but because of the lofty claims he had made for himself. Careless
laughter then and now is destructive both to those to whom it is
directed and even more so to
those who laugh. Even the disciples capitulated
to fear and abandoned
the courage to stand in defense of truth and principle. On that
day—in the words of the
Psalm—the Lord looked
down from heaven to see if there was
any who sought
after God, but everyone has proved faithless. Now if this were a
comic book or a novel, such poetic injustice would have to righted:
Jesus would have to reveal his divine glory, his superhuman powers
and mete out quick
justice. But, of course, this is just the opposite of what the
Evangelists say unfolded that day. Our Lord gives himself over in
sacrifice for the sins of those who are crucifying him. “Evildoers
eat him as if he were bread,” but
he
prays, “Father, forgive them.” He dies for the broken. He dies
for the sinful. He even dies for the atheistic, the
fool who says in his heart there is no God.
My brothers and sisters, “Deliverance has come out of Zion;” “The
Lord has restored our fortunes” by drawing us to himself in our
Lord Jesus through his sacrifice. Let us rejoice, let us be glad that
we have such a Saviour and Deliverer
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