Psalm 14

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call on the Lord? There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.” Psalm 14:1-7 (NKJV)

Several years ago, while I was living in California and teaching Bible studies in various coffee shops, a young man got quite angry at me when I put forth that certain psalms were prophetic…speaking of the Messiah (Jesus, who would come many generations later) and of other events that did not occur until after the psalmists had passed. Of course, I shared today’s Psalm, along with a few others, and posed the question: Were the people of Israel in exiled captivity during David’s lifetime? Undeniably, no, they were not.

In trying to understand today’s psalm, perhaps it helps to read it in reverse. Because if we read it from the top down, we tend to get stuck on the idea that all men have turned aside and become corrupt. It is not until later in the psalm that we recognize there is a “generation of the righteous.”  So, if all men are corrupt and do not seek God, how does a righteous generation arise? Of course, by the end of the psalm, we learn that salvation comes not from the works of unrighteous men but rather from the atoning work of the Lord Himself. Only then, when the Lord saves, will captives truly be set free, for the captivity of God’s people is not solely defined as unwilling restraint by a foreign people. Our true captivity, which ALL MANKIND holds in common, is the captivity of sin & death. Both have been defeated on the cross by the Lord Himself, Messiah Jesus! (Micah 5:2; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

Notice how the prophet Isaiah describes that “generation” for which the Messiah atones.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”  Isaiah 53:6-10 (NKJV)