THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT PSALM 14

THE HUMAN PREDICAMENT PSALM 14 MAIN IDEA IN OUR NATURAL STATE OF BEING; OUR SIN IS EVIDENCE THAT WE DENY THE EXISTENCE AND AUTHORITY OF GOD. I. ALL HAVE SINNED (VS 1-3) No one is exempt from the contamination of sin. A. WHAT KIND OF FOOL AM I? (1) B. CAN T HIDE FROM GOD (2) C. NO ONE IS EXEMPT (3) II. ALL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN (VS 4-6) No one is exempt from the consequences of sin. A. SEPARATED FROM LOVE (4) B. SEPARATED FROM GOD (5) C. SEPARATED FROM DECENCY (6) III. REVERSING SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES (VS 7) Jesus suffered and died to save us from sin and to reverse its consequences. A. SALVATION B. ZION C. GOD S CHILDREN

The Human Predicament Psalm 14 This Psalm is only 7 verses, yet it is the source of a great deal of theology, philosophy, and New Testament themes. I won t be able to do justice to it, but I ll try to give you a little bit of exposure to the key subjects. One of the theological issues we are forced to confront is the fact that we are all sinners. The main idea of this morning s text is this. IN OUR NATURAL STATE OF BEING; OUR SIN IS EVIDENCE THAT WE DENY THE EXISTENCE AND AUTHORITY OF GOD. We may not actually come out and say that, but if we were to examine our lives, we can see there were many times we rejected God in order to serve our own lusts and desires. We have made ourselves gods in our own worlds. Some the theology has to do with sin, its pervasiveness, and its consequences. We don t take much time to think about how our poor choices can affect other people. Let me give you an example. When it was time to create woman, the angel Gabriel sat down with Adam to discuss the process. He said, Our intent is to create for you a woman. She is going to be extremely beautiful, refined, and polished. She will be graceful, obedient, and always agree with you and enjoy serving you. Wow! said Adam, That sounds fantastic! What will something like that cost? The angel said, This creation won t come cheap. It will cost you an arm and a leg. Adam thought for a while and said, What can I get for a rib? I. ALL HAVE SINNED (VS 1-3) In verses 1-3, the psalmist seems to make it pretty clear that all have sinned. In other words, NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM THE CONTAMINATION OF SIN. When I was a kid, I loved to watch The Three Stooges. In one scene that sticks out in my mind, Moe became frustrated with Curly s inability to understand what he was saying. Moe asked Curly, What kind of fool are you anyway? Curly responded, Why is there more than one kind? Actually, in the Old Testament Wisdom literature, there are at least 6 different words for fool. Verse 1 asks us to ask ourselves, What kind of fool am I? The different words for fool in the Hebrew range from someone who is just an empty-headed simpleton to the person who willfully rejects God and has no regard for human decency. Here is where we will encounter our first point that has theological and social implications. I want to oversimplify this a bit. Even though there are 6 words for fool, I think we can break them down into three basic categories. First, a person may be considered foolish because he lacks basic knowledge. The second type of fool may be considered foolish because she lacks experience. The third type of fool is considered foolish because he rebels against God s commands. This is important because the Bible is specific in how to deal with each type of fool. The fool that lacks knowledge needs an education. It would be our duty to give them information. The fool that lacks experience needs someone like a mentor to walk them through situations in order to give them the necessary experience. The Bible is pretty clear that the rebellious fool needs a good beat down. Now watch how important this is. Let s say someone took a verse like spare the rod and spoil the child. If you took that advice and applied it to the person who lacked knowledge or Page 2

lacked experience, you would be cruel. To give a person experience when she actually needs basic information would be confusing. It is critical to understand what a person lacks before we formulate a corrective plan of action. If you want to do some further in depth study on the kinds of fools that are described in the Old Testament, Derek Kidner seems to do the best job on this. In our church library, we have his commentary on Proverbs. In the introduction, he gives a brief summary of the different kinds of fools. In this morning s text, there is no doubt what type of fool we are dealing with. The word for fool here is nabal. I think the best way to describe this guy is for me to tell you the story about a man with this name. His name is Nabal and his story is told in I Samuel 25. David and 600 of his men were on the run from King Saul. God had already rejected Saul as King and anointed David to be king. David refused to take matters into his own hands and kill Saul but because of jealousy, Saul was out to kill David. While camped out in the wilderness, David and his men took it upon themselves to protect the shepherds and flocks of a man named Nabal. The shepherds were extremely grateful to David and his men. During the time of shearing, David sent some of his men to ask Nabal if he would be willing to share some provisions with them. Here was Nabal s response: 10 Who is this fellow David? Nabal sneered to the young men. Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. 11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where? (1 Samuel 25:10-11 / NLT) Nabal is all kinds of stupid. First of all, Samuel the prophet has already anointed David as King of Israel. Secondly, David and his men were known for their skill in battle. There were 600 trained military men who could have wiped Nabal and his servants out in less than an hour. David and his men actually protected Nabal s servants and his own servants told Nabal that. When David got wind of Nabal s response, he strapped on his sword, told his men to saddle up, and promised to kill Nabal, his family, and his servants. Meanwhile, Nabal s servants went back to Nabal s wife Abigail and told her what was happening. Quickly Abigail baked some homemade bread and took it along with some wine out to meet David. She apologized to David and his men. Listen to what she said: 25 I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent (1 Samuel 25:25 / NLT). Abigail saved the day and made peace with David. She actually saved everyone s life. Nabal was home feasting and getting drunk; unaware of what danger he was in and what Abigail did for him. Listen to the fitting end to Nabal the fool: 36 When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. 37 In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the LORD struck him, and he died (1 Samuel 25:36-38 / NLT). Page 3

David ended up marrying Abigail. The reason I told that story is because it illustrates perfectly what the Hebrew word nabal means. The psalmist says that it is this type of guy who says in his heart there is no God. Since this type of guy is willfully stupid, culturally insensitive, and morally bankrupt, the way he lives his life will reflect that fundamental premise of his life; there is no God. What he wants, desires, and lusts for drives his decision making process. He is god in his own world and he determines what is important and what is not. St. Anselm, a Benedictine monk from the 11 th century, took this verse and formulated a philosophical argument for the existence of God. It is known as the Ontological Argument. His argument says that by the very definition of the word, God exists necessarily. His argument is still being debated and reformulated today. Let me just throw this out for those who want to do further study. In addition to the Ontological Argument, St. Thomas Aquinas gave us the Cosmological and Teleological Arguments for the existence of God in the 13 th century. Putting all three of the arguments for the existence of God is extremely powerful. We have books in our church library that lay out these arguments. Since people today want to make it sound as if Christianity is irrational, let me give you a quick argument for the existence of God that combines all of the above arguments. Let s drive the argument way back to the beginning. Following the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus, atheists would say that there were simply atoms randomly floating around. At this point it would be improper for us to ask them where the atoms came from. Our starting place would be God. It would be improper for the atheist to ask us where God came from. So the Christian position starts from God; the atheist position starts from atoms randomly floating around. As we look at the world we live in, the complexity, and nature of human being; with our desire to have purpose in life, and meaningful relationships, and the fact we can use reason and logical thinking, we need to pose the question, Which is more reasonable; that atoms floating around gave rise to this complex, ordered, and rational life or would it be more reasonable to believe that an intelligent, rational, and purposeful being is the source of life as we know it? The answer of course is that is more reasonable to believe that God is the source of life. In verse 2 the poet reminds us that we can t hide from God. In this verse we come upon another important theological concept that has to do with the nature of God. In this verse we learn that YAHWEH, the God we worship is both transcendent and immanent. This is a very important concept because it further distinguishes Judaism and Christianity from other religions. Let s first talk about God s transcendence. That is just a fancy word that means God is different from and above all of His creation. The psalmist says that YAHWEH looks down. Do you remember when early on in human civilization that human beings gathered together to build a tower for the purpose of reaching heaven? The account is found in Genesis 11. They were intentionally disobeying God s command to fill the earth. The text says that God came down to see what they were doing. The fool who thinks he or she is their own god is proud, arrogant, and thinks highly of themselves. The psalmist says that God looks down on the sons of men. God has no equals or competition. He is holy. Holy is the word that means He is set apart from all others. There is none like God. He is One-of-a-kind. Many Eastern religions and Native American religions are pantheistic. That is to say they believe everything in all creation is merely an Page 4

extension of God. In other words, the trees, flowers, animals, water, sun, moon, and stars are all god. God is everything and everything is god. For Jews and Christians, God is totally other than His creation. He is above all of creation. On the other hand, the God of the Jews and Christians is immanent. He not only looks down from heaven; He comes down and interacts with His creation; in particular God invites human beings into a personal and intimate relationship. Further He knows everything; He knows our thoughts, hears our words, and sees our behaviors. We may be able to fool others but we cannot fool God. The fool who denies God is like young children who cover their own eyes and say to us, You can t see me. Usually, good natured adults play along and say, Where did you go? I can t see you. In reality, we can see the child. By closing his eyes, he can t see us. The immanency of God separates our belief from the religion of many of the founders of the United States. Many of them were deists. They believed God built the universe, wound it up like a clock, and left the rest to us. He would no longer be involved. It is important that we keep both qualities of God in balance. He is different from us; yet He is intimately involved with us. The fool denies the existence and authority of God. He is unaware that God is in reality his creator and stands over him in judgment. Further, the fool may think no one sees his evil, but God sees and hears everything. Verse 3 reminds us that no one is exempt from the contamination of sin. From this verse the Apostle Paul makes the argument that we are all born sinners. Let me read to you Paul s use of this verse and his conclusion in his letter to the Romans: 10 As the Scriptures say, No one is righteous not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one. 13 Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. 14 Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. 15 They rush to commit murder. 16 Destruction and misery always follow them. 17 They don t know where to find peace. 18 They have no fear of God at all. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God s glorious standard (Romans 3:10-18, 23 / NLT). The Apostle made it clear that in our natural state, we have all alienated ourselves from God. We were born into this world with a natural bent towards evil. Further, we have all personally disobeyed God s commands. This is what is interesting to me about verse 3 here in our Psalm. If David is indeed the author, and we have seen him claim his righteousness and innocence before God in other Psalms; when he says here that All have turned away from God, that All have become corrupt, that No One does good, and emphasizes his point by ending it with Not even One; is he including himself in that assessment? Let s take a look at a couple of lines from one of David s other Psalms. He said this: 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Page 5

4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner yes, from the moment my mother conceived me (Psalms 51:3-5 / NLT). I think it s safe to say that David understands that he is no different from any other human being; we were born into sin and we continue to sin. Here is what happens when we rebel and sin against God. We become self-centered, self-absorbed, and selfish. We have no regard for others and we reject God s moral values. That amounts to self-worship. Unbelievers simply sit on the throne of their life. But even for Christians, there is a huge difference between me sitting on the throne of my life, even though I may include God in my life; as opposed to having God sit on the throne of my life. Do you get the difference? The throne belongs to God. In some sense, having God in my life and denying Him the throne is worse than unbelievers; because we ought to know better. In fact, look at the word at the end of line one in verse 3. All have become corrupt. That word for corrupt is the same word for putrid, spoiled, and ruined. When we deny God His rightful place in our lives, then our lives are as putrid as spoiled and rotten milk. We are children of Adam and Eve. Therefore, we are born into this world as sinners. Every part of our being is contaminated by sin. The point made by the poet is this. NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM THE CONTAMINATION OF SIN. II. ALL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN (VS 4-6) It doesn t stop there with the bad news. Verses 4-6 go on to remind us that all suffer the consequences of sin. NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. We are reminded of this in the Psalms time and time again. Since we are sinful human beings living with other sinful human beings in a fallen world, we are bound to suffer as a result of our own sin and others sin and we are bound to be the cause of other s suffering. At this point, I d like to quote another verse from Paul s letter to the Romans. He says: 23 For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a / NLT). Death means separation. Sin separates us from God, from one another, and even from our true selves. Verse 4 illustrates how sin separates us from love. When we deny God by what we are thinking, saying and doing, we end up harming others. We tend to worry about our own happiness and fulfilling our own needs. Think about the metaphor the poet uses. He says they are eating one another as though they are eating bread. Another way to put it is that we can easily end up cannibalizing one another. Sin can cause us to be so self-absorbed that we don t care who we hurt. To be sure, we don t take time to think about how we hurt others. The question posed is Don t they know? First of all, they don t know the God of the Bible. God never looks kindly on people exploiting other people. It is never okay for us to use other people. The word for know is the Hebrew word yadah. It is not just knowing facts. The word describes Page 6

intimate knowledge. It can also be used to describe the physical act of sex. When we act out in these ways, it s hard to believe we are intimately connected with God. And that brings us to verse 5 where we can see that sin separates us from God. The Bible is clear that God is perfect. There is no sin or stain in Him anywhere. He is pure. Since He is so pure and holy, He cannot stand or be in contact with anything that is not pure, perfect, and holy. That is the theological point. Further, the Hebrew definition of shalom has everything to do with being in a right relationship with God. Peace has nothing to do with our situation. For the Hebrew, we can be in the midst of the most horrible conflict and circumstances; and yet experience God s peace. Peace is knowing that we are right with God. That brings me to another philosophical point. The phenomenologists talk about dread. Some existential philosophers call it angst. They describe this fear that is deep inside of us that we cannot quite put our finger on. It is not fear of any particular thing. It is somehow this free floating dread that something is wrong. Christians could easily identify this dread as the anxiety that is built into human beings that lets us know we are not right with God. As we come to recognize God s laws, we can experience this as guilt and shame that hopefully lead to repentance and restoration. Sin separates us from God. The other consequence of sin is that it separates us from decency in verse 6. It seems as if the poet is addressing people who have political, social, and religious power. David would be very familiar with the workings of these systems. It seems as if they were using their positions to accumulate more power and money at the expense of the poor. Look, it s easy for us to point at religious, social, and political leaders and describe their misuse of power. However, when we act selfishly, we are sure to exploit others. When we become so self-absorbed, we have no regard for how our words and behaviors hurt others. Because we are sinful human beings living with other sinful human beings in a fallen world, NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. So far, the songwriter has painted a horribly bleak picture. Everyone has been contaminated by sin. We have all experienced the consequences of sin. As the Apostle Paul looked at his own situation he cried out: 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death (Romans 7:24 / NLT)? III. REVERSING SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES (VS 7) Left to our own devises, we could never solve this problem but there is a profound hope in verse 7 that describes the reversing of sin and its effects. JESUS SUFFERED AND DIED TO SAVE US FROM SIN AND TO REVERSE ITS CONSEQUENCES. In the last section, I quoted the first half of Romans 3:23, For the wages of sin is death. That sounds pretty final. However, listen to the whole verse; especially the second half: 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 / NLT). Page 7

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. That s Good News. Who can rescue us from this life of sin and death? Jesus can. The psalmist cries out for salvation. I am going to remind us of this all through our study through Psalms. That word for salvation is Yeshuw ah. That word comes from the same root word for the Name Jesus; in Hebrew, Yeshua. Jesus is the Messiah, the Chosen One. Jesus came to suffer and die in our place. Because of all our sin, because of all the people we have harmed, and because of our rebellion against God, we richly deserve to spend an eternity in hell; separated from God for eternity. However, Jesus came to save us. The poet says that salvation would come out of Zion. Zion usually refers to the area of the mountain on which Jerusalem is built. Jesus came from the nation of Israel. Jesus was born as a Jew. He comes as a fulfillment of all the prophesies and promises of God that He would send them a redeemer from their own people; in particular from the tribe of Judah and the family of King David. Jesus fulfilled all these Old Testament prophesies. The offer of salvation is for God s children. God offered salvation to the Jews first and then to the rest of the world. Listen to how the Apostle laid out the concept: 16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, It is through faith that a righteous person has life (Romans 1:16-17 / NLT). Christians have a great debt owed to the Jews. It was through the Jewish nation that the Savior entered this world. There is no reason for anyone to remain a slave to sin and suffer the consequences of death. The Bible is clear. If we confess we are sinners and in need of God s forgiveness, submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and believe He rose from the dead, we can be saved. If you haven t surrendered to Jesus, please don t wait any longer. JESUS SUFFERED AND DIED TO SAVE US FROM SIN AND TO REVERSE ITS CONSEQUENCES. The psalmist had some harsh words about sin and sinners. It appears that David included himself in that category as well as including you and me. However, he ended this Psalm with hope; hope that God would redeem His children. The point is this. IN OUR NATURAL STATE OF BEING; OUR SIN IS EVIDENCE THAT WE DENY THE EXISTENCE AND AUTHORITY OF GOD. Jesus came to change all of that. Listen to Jesus own words concerning the matter: 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17 / NLT). Page 8

Lectio Divina Psalm 14 (TNIV) For the director of music. Of David. 1 Fools say in their hearts, 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 the human race 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! Close in Prayer Page 9