Every April 1, a friend of mine sends out an e-mail with the header "Happy Atheist Day," since Psalm 14:1 says "The fool says in his heart, 'there is no god.'" Thus, he equates fools with atheists and... well, you get the joke. And I can always appreciate a good joke, especially a good religious joke. Yet when I read this passage, I don't think of atheists. After all, there were virtually no atheists in the Ancient Near East. I read this and it calls me to self-examination. After all, the heart is the center of the will. Do I live like there's a god, especially the God of the Bible? Do I live like Jesus is Lord? Do I trust that there God is in control?
CS Lewis (I think) described the perfect tragic villain as the one who was not a person doing evil things, but trying to do good things with villainous methods. In other words, the villain is seeking something good but is doing so in a way that does not think of others. An example of this is Ethan Hawke's character in "Brooklyn's Finest." He (a police officer) is tempted to take money from the evidence locker from a drug raid to help support his family. Stealing, wrong. Objective, good. The problem is that when we get too carried away in "ends justify the means," the world falls apart a little bit. Then it falls apart a lot. We have a Psalm 14 world.
On the other hand, we have this deep longing for God's salvation coming at the end of this psalm. In this longing, we see a desire for God to draw near and lift up the people broken by this inhuman ethic. In Jesus Christ, we see this salvation. We see God working around us and within us and even through us. I pray that you see the salvation of God today and this week.
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