Psalm 53
A Reminder of the Fool & His Hope
We often make the mistake of thinking that foolishness and being clever are opposites. We think of the fool as the class clown or dunce. That person that would never hope to make it to university. Yet someone can be both mentally sharp and also a fool. I’m not talking about distinctions between ‘book smarts’ and ‘street smarts’. In the Bible, the fool is the one who refuses to bow the knee to God as King, failing to revere him and acknowledge that he alone is God.
The ‘fool’ is the focus of this Psalm today, and his folly in the face of the Father’s faithfulness.
(This is almost the exact same as Psalm 14, from which only one half verse and a couple of words vary. Maybe you might see what differs from my devotion on that Psalm?)
For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.
1 The fool says in his heart,
‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;
there is no one who does good.2 God looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has 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 God.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
where there was nothing to dread.
God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;
you put them to shame, for God despised them.6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!
In the opening verses (1-3), we encounter and consider:
The fool’s brash claim is that there is no God.
God’s considered judgement is that there is no one good.
And these two are bound together at their core.
When David says that the fool’s assertion is that “There is no God”, we aren’t confronting the reflections of a student at the end of their first time of a philosophy class. This isn’t an idle musing about the origins and laws of the universe. Rather, what David is referring to here is the determined rejection of God in the heart of humanity.
They are described as those who have turned away from God and his truth. They are those who Paul says, “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1.25). The lie is that we are self-sufficient. The lie is that we don’t need God’s good and wise word to guide and govern our way. Therefore, the ivory towers of Cambridge and the Sorbonne, the labs of Silicon Valley and royal palaces can be cloisters for fools. For it is not about our minds but our hearts.
By turning from God and his truth, the fools have turned away from goodness.
This is Jesus’s verdict also. He told that wealthy ruler that only God is Good (Luke 18.19). Too frequently our definition is diluted by comparisons to those worse than us. But God does not waver in his judgement. “No one”, “no one” and “not one”. Three times it is repeated that there is no one who is wise. No one seeks God. No one is good.
For goodness is about how we relate to our Creator.
And God’s judgement of humanity is that we have failed in that fundamental test of the heart.
In vv4-6, we see why David has fixed his focus on the fools. In their folly, they attack and afflict God’s people. They pursue the poor, knowing they can take advantage of their weakness. They seek to hinder and frustrate God’s people living in God’s ways to God’s glory.
Yet the confidence of God’s people is twofold. First, that God would deal with the sin of the world. He will scatter the bones (v5), which means they will no longer be a threat. Second, that God is the eternal refuge of his people. As Jesus exhorted his disciples, don’t fear the fools whose only tools and threats are temporal. Rather we are to revere the everlasting God (Luke 12.4-5). The opposite of folly is true fear of the true God (Proverbs 1.7).
David calls on the God of his refuge for salvation. His call is for redemption and restoration to come from Zion. He is clinging to the promises of Psalm 2.6-12. He knows that it is from Zion that God will install the true King, who will defeat evil, purging it from the new creation, while providing refuge for those who bow the knee to him.
When we read this Psalm in the light of Christ, we are surprised by what this deliverance will look like. God will judge the fools. And the unrepentant will be cast out. But here’s the bombshell in the gospel. Part of the salvation for the righteous will be the forgiveness of those who have rejected God. The gospel is for them too. Paul quotes portions of vv1-3 in Romans 3.9-20, as he builds his case about the unrighteousness and folly of humanity. Outside of Christ, we are hopeless. But as he writes,
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3.22-24)
The King who is installed in Zion (Psalm 2.6) is the one who knew no sin but became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5.21; see also Isaiah 53). This good news was held out to those who had called for the death of Jesus (Acts 2.36). This grace thaws the hardest of hearts and cleanses the dirtiest consciences. This is you and me if we have trusted in Christ Jesus.
When we sing this song, we can then rejoice with Jacob and Israel, for we know that once we were fools but now we are friends of God, reconciled to him through the cross of Christ.
Glory be to God the Father, who judges impartially and welcomes the sinner warmly.
Glory be to God the Son, who forgives the fools who forced him on the cross.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who convicted us of our sin and poured the gospel hope in our hearts.