Psalm 14:4-6 "Wise Up!"

Psalm 14:4-6

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

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

Comments:

This psalm is part wisdom psalm and partly a lament. There is another psalm that is almost identical (53) that we will consider later (if I pick up the pace a little). I have always focused on the first two verses that set out the perspectives of the fool who, “says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (v.1) and that of the Lord who, “looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” (v.2)

However, ...today I am going to ponder on v.4-6. It is almost as if the psalmist is beside himself in consternation. I don’t mean the ironic “I could have had a V8!” head-slapping moment, but a deep cry of “Don’t-they-get-it” agony from the heart of his compassionate frustration. They not too metaphorically devour the psalmist’s/God’s people like bread instead of entering into a relationship with the Giver of the Bread from Heaven. They come together only in their corruption…a mocking of relational unity.

It should be noted that “the fool” is not one who is unintelligent, but one who lives as though there was no God who has entered into a covenant relationship of love with the poor. In reading the late Peter Craigie’s rather technical commentary on Psalms I was surprised by this wonderfully affective insight,

“The fool is one whose life is lived without the direction or acknowledgment of God. Thus the precise opposite of fool and folly is not wise man and wisdom; the opposite of folly in the wisdom literature is lovingkindness [hesed]…That is to say, the fool is defined by the absence of lovingkindness…”[1]

There is an extended section that is present in some Greek manuscripts between v. 2 & 3 that is actually quoted in Romans 3:13-18

“Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
   “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
    in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Such verses only serve to emphasize the lack of hesed (lovingkindness) on the part of the fool. 

So often we tend to direct our thinking about wisdom along the "judging/discerning rightly" track. However, if Craigie is right, then perhaps wisdom is neither easily isolated from the heart’s response to the love of God, nor from the hand of mercy extended to one another!

In Psalm 14:5 we see that the fools’ plans fail to satisfy them, but instead, leave them in a state of terror even as they seek to terrorize others. Why is this? Because they don’t understand that though the righteous poor may be consumed, they are not cowed for the Lord is their refuge. The powerful fool cannot steal the hope of the Lord’s people…and it threatens the fool’s own corrupted worldview. It isn't wise to shame the poor…ever. Not just because God is their defender, but because wise people are full of lovingkindness!

One other comment about unity from this psalm…it makes it clear that we all have gone astray…become corrupt…which means we all are in need of the same mercy of God.

We cannot say that such bad behavior and heart attitudes only apply to “those people” or the out-group de jour. I am reminded of that well-used parental proverb, “When you point the finger at someone else, you are pointing three back at yourself!” It is only because “salvation has come out of Zion” through the costly grace of Jesus Christ that any of us stray dogs can claim to be the people of God. Paul makes no bones about this for after quoting from this psalm he stated,

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:22-25)

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[1] Peter C. Craigie, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 1-50 (Waco, TX: Word, 1983) 147.