Bible Commentaries

NO GOD!

‘The fool bath said in his heart, There is no God.’

Psalms 14:1

I. I am godless until Christ redeems me.—‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.’ It is not that I have the slightest sympathy with speculative and theoretical atheism. But, until all things are made new, I have no God Whom I can call my own.

II. What a rebellion mine is!—The door of my heart has to be unlocked by myself, that He may enter in and abide with me; and I will not unlock it. The government over my life has to be surrendered by me to Him; and I will not surrender it—I boast that I am my own master. The Throne of His grace should be the best-loved spot on earth to me, to which I am resorting continually; and I have no gladness in seeking it out. In simple fact I have no God Who deserves the name. I am atheistic in practice if not in creed.

III. Ah, and what a sadness mine is!—I am in the wilderness without a guide. I am on the sea without a harbour or a pilot. I am in sickness of spirit without medicine or physician. I am hungry without bread, and weary without rest. I am an orphan in an empty house, ‘cold in that atmosphere of death.’ If Jesus has given me a God Who supplies all my need, can I thank Him too passionately?

Illustrations

(1) ‘Beginning with a lamentation regarding the frightful power and extent of corruption reigning in the world (1–3), the Psalmist looks from the watch-tower of faith with triumphant faith to the overthrow of impiety and establishment of righteousness (4–6). He closes with the wish that the Lord would send salvation and deliverance to his people.’

(2) ‘But how often the men who profess themselves satisfied that there is no God are men of profligate and careless life. Their photograph is set forth in words, which are only too true and accurate in their delineation of men whom we have known, and of whom it seemed true to say that their lives were so evil that it was convenient to believe that there was no God to bring them to account. They had so blackened the window of their souls that the light of God’s glorious personality and power could not shine in unto them.’

(3) ‘That there is a thread of connection apparent between some of the psalms no one can deny. The fourteenth and fifteenth give us the contrasted characters of the wicked and the holy.’