Psalm 53--There Is None Who Does Good

Psalm 53
English Standard Version

There Is None Who Does Good
To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
53 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
    there is none who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven
    on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.

3 They have all fallen away;
    together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
    not even one.

4 Have those who work evil no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and do not call upon God?

5 There they are, in great terror,
    where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
    you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

​6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God restores the fortunes of his people,
    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

---

This is nearly an exact duplicate of Psalm 14 (which we studied a while back).  Let me post that one here for context--the same song by a different name.  There are some minor differences such as substituting "God" for "LORD" and "Zion" for "Israel," but overall, it's the same words to a different tune with a different name.


Psalm 14
English Standard Version

The Fool Says, There Is No God
To the choirmaster. Of David.
14 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
    there is none who does good.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
    to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.

3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
    there is none who does good,
    not even one.

4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
    who eat up my people as they eat bread
    and do not call upon the LORD?

5 There they are in great terror,
    for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
    but the LORD is his refuge.

7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

So, let's talk once again about the lyrics here.  Romans 1 tells us that the one who claims there is no God is a fool, because all of creation tells us there is a Creator God.  The book of Psalms is also full of references to how creation magnifies the Creator.  Why do wicked men try to claim there is no God?  Because they want to keep on being wicked without fear of judgment.  If there is a God, then He is not only Creator, but Ruler, Sustainer, and the Judge of all those who violate His Law.  Their objections usually are moral when you get down to it--"And this is the judgment [verdict]: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil" (John 3:19)

God searches for those who seek after Him so that He might reveal Himself to them, but no such person exists.  No one seeks after God of their own accord--the LORD must seek after them first.  All of us are fallen and corrupted by original sin and the sin that we commit.  We are all broken and not one of us does what is good (good as it is used here means "In alignment and in accordance with the character and nature of God."  God is the one who is always good all the time.  We can only be good when we let the Spirit of God live in and through us so that He is the one doing good deeds and we are simply conduits and vessels for His use.

It is not because of ignorance that the wicked do not believe in God, even though the experience His blessings every time there is food on their tables.  No, they have made up myths and fables because they have willingly chosen to reject Him.  This is again something we see in Romans 1.  You will not win a fool over by debate because the fool rejects the facts that are "self-evident" (again, see Romans 1).  They are willfully ignorant and will not listen to anyone who speaks the truth.  They will just claim something like, "You have your truth and I have my truth," but what they have is a lie, and deep down inside, they know it.

They fear God because they fear the coming judgment.  They will do anything and everything they can to fight against Him to prevent that day from coming or to imagine that somehow, they might be clever enough to escape condemnation, but there is no hope of escape.  Everyone, both living and dead, will stand before the throne of God to be judged.  The only options are to be judged by the finished work of Christ or to be judged by our own works.  Anyone judged by Christ's work will be accepted.  Anyone judged by our own works will be found guilty.  Eventually, the LORD will save His people and defeat His enemies, and there will be none that will be able to stand against Him in that day.  Then all the people of the LORD (they are called Jacob, Israel and Zion here, but it will include all the redeemed from all the many nations of the world), will rejoice and be glad when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords reigns and evil has been defeated.