MONDAY, JULY 16
Psalm 14:1-7
Romans 1:21-22

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

DAVID VS ATHEISM

Though we think of the ancient world’s religion as one of polytheism versus Israel’s monotheism, Psalm 14 reveals an atheism lurking in monotheistic Israel all the same. The LORD, that is JEHOVAH, is mentioned in this Psalm in distinction from the universal GOD in the revised version of Psalm 53, which we title “David vs Atheism (Part 2).” Whatever a nation’s religion, there is a hard core of the atheistic in each.

In this Psalm we are studying the atheistic that thrived in Israel in David’s time. The ratio of the atheistic in Israel today is no less. There are the orthodox Jews, very devout, who believe the Old Testament to be God’s infallible Word, but more are the modernists, the agnostics, and last but not least, the atheists. Is that not the situation also in the Christian Church today? For example, the late David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham, 1984-1994), who denied the fundamentals of the Christian Faith such as Christ’s virgin birth and bodily resurrection, is worse than an atheist. To deny God’s being and power is plain stupidity, according to Paul too (Rom 1:21-22).

A person who recognizes no God but himself can only produce “abominable works” (Ps 14:1). Israel’s God sees this not only in Israel but in all the children of men. When the atheist is cut off vertically in his relation to God, he runs wild in his horizontal relationship with his fellowmen. “Who eat up my people as they eat bread” is a true picture of the godless strong and mighty over the weak, like big fish eating small fish. If “my people” here refers to Israel (Ps 14:4), we have the modern version of it in Hitler’s killing of six million Jews by the gas chamber. But those who perpetrated such dastardly crimes are cowards themselves. Many went into hiding when God sided with the righteous (Ps 14:5).

The last and concluding verse promises salvation to come out of the God of Israel to His own people. O that our Jewish friends who are inclined to atheism will return to their God today.

THOUGHT: Psalm 14:1.
PRAYER: Lord, may Israel accept Jesus as their Messiah.