From Corruption to Joy

What a depressing picture: corruption, vile ways, “no one who does good” (1). “God looks down” (2) and still sees what “he saw” on the earth before the flood (Gen. 6:5,11,12; 8:21). Paul quotes vs. 1-3 in demonstrating that, whether Jew or Gentile, “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:10-12,23). “There is no God” (1) is not the philosophical claim of the atheist but the practical atheism of denying any accountability to God, acting as if God does not exist or is irrelevant to how we live, whether at home or in business, in entertainment or in politics. It says, “I am independent; I can decide for myself”–a state of mind that has been with us since Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:4-6). Being “corrupt” is the outworking of the so-called wisdom by which “fools” deny that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psa. 111:10; Prov. 9:10), a foreshadowing of the Enlightenment claim of autonomous reason and the goal of self-sufficiency.

But we also read of “my people” (4) and the ending sees God restoring “his people.” There are two groups: “my people” are now suffering at the hands of “evildoers.” Other than Psalm 53’s use only of “God” (common in Psas. 42-83), the greatest difference from the almost identical Psalm 14 is v. 5, where the focus is on God’s judgment on the wicked (compare 14:5,6). Thus it reinforces the message of the preceding Psalm 52. Sin may be pervasive, but God in his mercy and grace has brought into being a people who “call on God” (50:15; Isa. 55:6; Rom. 10:12,13) and who can look forward to his saving, restoring work. Amidst human corruption, those who have become part of “Israel” have cause to “rejoice and … be glad” (6).

In your worship today, recognize again universal human sinfulness, “rejoice and be glad” because of your redemption, and pray for a world that acts as if there were no God.