Psalm 14.1, 53.1.
The New Living Translation renders Psalm 14.1 and 53.1 exactly the same:
Psalm 14.1, 53.1 NLT - Only fools say in their hearts,
- “There is no God.”
- They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
- not one of them does good!
It’s because Psalms 14 and 53 are actually the same psalm. David ben Jesse wrote it five centuries before Psalms got put together—and Psalms is actually made of five different psalters. The first book
Differences the
But I digress. Today I’m writing about the first part of the verse, which the
Psalm 14.1, 53.1 KJV - 1
A The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.
It’s a verse I’ve heard quoted many, many times. Usually by Christians who wanna
Frequently
And I wanna back up even further and question whether this verse is even about nontheists at all. Y’might guess I would say it’s really not.
What’s the psalm about again?
In most editions of
Not God what?
This doesn’t automatically mean God doesn’t exist. It means God is not. Not what? Not here. Not around. Not having anything to do with these circumstances. This isn’t a statement of nontheism; it’s a statement that God isn’t here, and as a result the unbelieving fool does what we see in the second part of this verse.
Psalm 53.1 KWL - Idiots tell themselves, “God isn’t around,”
- then ruin things, commit immoral deeds, and do nothing good.
It’s a cause-and-effect relationship. People imagine God’s not watching, or isn’t around to police them, or is watching us “from a distance,” as Bette Midler’s song inaccurately puts it. God’s not everywhere; he’s far. And if he’s far, or doesn’t really care, or doesn’t intervene in human behavior
That’s why God looks from heaven at humanity (which isn’t far away, despite what people imagine) and sees none of us following him. None of us calling out to him. Oppressing God’s people, fearing things that aren’t real fears, and otherwise behaving in ways God despises. Read the rest of the psalm; you’ll get the idea.
My version of Psalm 14 rhymes:
Psalm 14 KWL - 0 To the director. By David.
- 1 The stupid think God isn’t here.
- They wreck. They do no good. They sneer.
- 2 From heaven, the L
ORD looks to see - if any child of Adam be
- astute enough to seek God out.
- 3 But all of them are turned about.
- They’re twisted. They do nothing good.
- Not one of them knows what they should.
- 4 Their every act is sin; when all
- eat bread, it’s not the L
ORD they call. - 5 There’s no respect; no holy dread.
- God’s with our righteous group, instead.
- 6 Ashamed to help the poor, are you?
- Because the L
ORD ’s their refuge, true? - 7 Was rescue sent from Zion’s hill?
- Who got this aid for Israel?
- The L
ORD will set his people free. - May Jacob—Israel—have glee.
See, when Christians read of this irreligious behavior and leap to the conclusion it’s because people don‘t believe God exists whatsoever, we miss the fact humans behave this way even when we do believe in God. The problem isn’t theism or nontheism. It’s that people think God’s not relevant. They differentiate between their religious life and their secular life, and presume God doesn’t care what they do in the secular arena. Or they figure God forgives all, so it no longer matters if they sin. Or whatever excuse gives ’em full access to the cookie jar.
Claiming verse 1 is about people who don’t believe in God, doesn’t just miss the point of the psalm: It blames nontheists for something which isn’t really a nontheist problem. It’s a human problem.
In the United States, various Christians blame the nontheists for what they imagine is America’s growing sin problem. (Statistically it’s shrinking, not growing, but that’s a discussion for another time.) They claim America’s going to hell, and it’s because fewer and fewer people believe in God. And yeah, the percentage of notheists in our population is increasing. But it’s still about 8 percent. (Other countries have much higher percentages; China, which contains probably the greatest number of nontheists, currently polls at about 42 percent.) Yet David stated everyone’s gone astray. And society’s crimes and misdeeds demonstrate he’s right:
So while various Christians will claim these psalms are about the perils of nontheism, and all nontheists are fools, that’s not what they’re about. They’re statements about how people are stupid to ignore God. He’s not distant. In fact he’s quite ready to judge our sins.
Time to start repenting.
Nontheism is our fault anyway.
In my experience, people become nontheists because Christians have done a crappy job of demonstrating God.
Like I said, if you wanna convince a nontheist God is real, give ’em a God-experience. Christians who actively include God in our lives should be able to demonstrate his reality by behaving like Jesus,
But we don’t. On the contrary: There are
It’s why I’ve met so many nontheists who grew up in cessationist churches. They didn’t have to change their lifestyle and beliefs all that much. Just flip a switch from “maybe” to “maybe not.”
I’m not just blaming those who pish-posh miracles. Fruitless Christians are also lousy examples.
We’ve got to be so much better than this. We gotta stop being fools whose lives expose the fact we don‘t take God seriously. I can’t blame a nontheist for looking at how irreligious Christians behave, and doubt God as a result. I can only blame ’em if they’ve seen better. So let’s show them better, and stop settling for