Psalm 14
The psalm deals with the character and conduct of the "practical atheist" and adds to the messages of Psalms 10 and 12. The three psalms present a vivid picture of
Psalm 14—15
return, defeat His enemies, cleanse the nation of Israel, and establish His righteous kingdom on this earth (Zech. 10—14). What a time of rejoicing that will be when the prayer "thy kingdom come" is fulfilled!
that all are equally bad, or that no man or woman can ever do anything good (Luke 11:13). It simply means that all have a fallen nature they cannot change, and that apart from the grace of God, none can be saved from eternal judgment.
But what about the wicked? They have no future with the Lord because they preferred not to know the Lord or live for Him. They lived according to the desires of their own heart, not to please the Lord and glorify Him. Those who reject Jesus Christ will spend eternity apart from the Lord and will honestly be able to say in hell, "There is no God—here!"
Sudden Fear—They Meet God (vv. 4–6) Someone asked the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell what he would say if, when he died, he suddenly found himself standing before God. Russell replied, "You did not give us sufficient evidence!" If the heavens above us, the earth beneath our feet, the wonders of nature around us, and the life and conscience within us don't convince us of the existence of a wise and powerful Creator, how much more evidence must the Lord give? An atheistic Russian cosmonaut said he'd looked carefully while in space and didn't see God. Someone commented, "If he'd opened the door of the space capsule, he would have met Him!" The time comes when God and the sinner suddenly meet. (See Belshazzar in Daniel 5, the rich farmer in Luke 12:13–21, and the people in Rev. 6:12–17.) Verse 4 gives us two more indictments: these practical atheists take advantage of the weak and the poor, and they will not call upon the Lord. To "eat people like bread" is a biblical metaphor for exploiting the helpless (27:2; 35:25; 53:4; Mic. 3:1–3; Lam. 2:16; and see Isa. 3:12; Jer. 10:25; Amos 2:6–8; Mic. 2:2; 7:3). People must never be used as a means to an end or "treated as consumer goods," as Eugene H. Peterson expresses it.11 Instead of praying to God, the wicked prey on the godly. But then the Lord suddenly appears in judgment, and He identifies Himself with the remnant of faithful believers. We don't know what event David was referring to, but the parallel passage in 53:5 suggests a great military victory that left all the enemy dead, unburied, and therefore humiliated. Some interpret the scene as a metaphor of a court case and connect it with verse 6: "You evildoers frustrate the plans [counsel] of the poor" (niv). Imagine God suddenly appearing in court and ousting the crooked judge! Whatever the meaning, this much is clear: God is in the generation of the righteous, God is their refuge when the enemy attacks, and God will protect His own people.