Psalm 14
14:0David met a man. His name was Nabal. Nabal was a bad man. Nabal would not give help to David. Soon, Nabal died. Nabal is the Hebrew word for ‘fool.’ There are 2 groups of fools. One does funny things and makes us laugh. The other does bad things, but he does not feel that he did wrong. We say that he feels no shame. This Psalm is about the second group of fools. The full story is in 1 Samuel 25.
The World is Full of Fools
This is a song of David for the music leader.
1 A man without shame says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’
Everybody is bad. They are all evil.
Nobody is doing anything good.
14:1Verse 1: David says that the world is full of Nabals. ‘Everyone is bad.’ We often feel like this. There are many bad people in the world. But there are some people that love God. The Bible calls them righteous.
2 The LORD is looking down from heaven on the sons of man.
He is looking to see if there is anyone that understands.
He is looking to see if anyone is looking for God.
3 But everybody has turned away from God.
They have all become evil.
Nobody does anything that is good.
4 Will they never learn? They do evil.
They eat my people as easily as they eat bread.
They never talk to the LORD.
14:4Verses 2-4: The LORD is looking on the ‘sons of man.’ In Hebrew, this means the leaders of the enemies of God. It does not include righteous people. ‘Eat my people as they eat bread’ means that bad men kill righteous people. They do it as easily as they eat a meal. They feel no shame. Note that in Matthew 18: 11 Jesus called himself ‘the Son of man’ but it does not mean the same thing!
5 There they were afraid. They were very much afraid.
This was because God was with the righteous.
6 They tried to stop the plans of the poor people.
But the poor people hid in the LORD.
14:6Verses 5-6: But God is with his people. When this happens, bad men feel afraid. They feel that God is there. They cannot explain it. They feel as the Egyptians that drowned in the Red Sea. The story is in Exodus 14. The Jews thought that ‘there’ in Psalm 14:5 meant the Red Sea. ‘Hid in the LORD’ means that they believed God. They hoped that he would give them help.
7 Oh, who will come from Zion and make Israel safe?
When the LORD makes his people rich and happy again,
then this is what will happen:
Jacob will sing and Israel will dance.
14:7Verse 7: David prays for somebody that will make Israel safe. ‘Safe’ in Hebrew is the word that we get our word Jesus from. God answered David many times. At last, God came to earth. He came as Jesus Christ. That is why Christians sing and dance! Believers are the true Israel of God, not the country of Israel.
