The fool

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, no not one - Psalm 14v1-3

So often the Bible is the place we turn to find words of comfort and assurance. For those who trust God and put their faith in Christ it is indeed the place to find peace and comfort. Even those who don’t really care about Christ can find some comfort there. The Bible has become such a part of our culture that everyone can find something in it to give them peace.

Sometimes, however, we find a reality check. Psalm 14 is one of those places. Psalm 14 lets us know that those who deny God cannot hope to find any comfort in Him. The words are quite harsh. ‘The fool says there is no God. The evil are corrupt. They do abominable works. They do not good. Nobody seems to get it. They are turned aside from God. They are corrupt. There is no one who can do good. Not one.

In Romans Paul uses virtually these same words to describe the world apart from Christ. He summarise it with – ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ The tragedy of this is that ‘the wages of sin is death.’

Man is doomed. He cannot be good enough to satisfy God.

But there is good news. The wages of sin are indeed death, but ‘the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ’ because ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whoever believes will not perish, but have eternal life.’

Interesting, isn’t it, that even the harshest of Bible words is only part of a greater message of love and comfort?