Big Idea: The world’s God-deniers will find, maybe to their surprise, that the God they deny is found “in the company of the righteous.”

Understanding the Text

The form of Psalm 14 is sometimes considered to be an individual lament, and in tone, it is, because the psalmist grieves over the vacuum of faith that he perceives in his world. But it does not follow the form of the lament. Others have suggested it is a wisdom psalm, in view of its use of wisdom language. In wisdom terms, the word “fool” stands opposite the “wise,” which is here expressed by the two clauses, “any who understand” and “any who seek God” (14:2). Yet that is as much wisdom as we see in the psalm. The truth of the matter is that this is one of those psalms that does not fall into any of the categories form criticism …