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Psalm 14 - God sends salvation

Psalm 14

 God sends salvation

 Introduction
Psalm 14 is a testimonial Psalm by David, describing God's actions against man, who sinfully rejects God, and His salvation for them.

Summary
v1-3 Godlessness of man
v4-6 God with (righteous) man
v7 God's Salvation for man

Godlessness of man
The fool
David starts Psalm 14 by describing the fool. The fool is a person who is morally deficient (the original Hebrew word). He rejects the existence of God, he is corrupt and does vile deeds instead of good.

The Lord looks down from heaven
He looks down on us, assessing us for judgement. God's view of us shows this - there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside. We have together become corrupt, instead of God's purpose for community to build each other up in godly living.

God with man
Evildoers never learn
God accuses the evildoers of not learning. They continue to devour God's people, do not call on the Lord, and frustrate the plans of the (spiritually) poor.

God is present
David proclaims the presence of God in the company of the righteous, and His provision of refuge for the poor. He upholds the stand that God will stand for the righteous.

God's Salvation for man
David ends the Psalm proclaiming that "salvation for Israel would come out of Zion", and that the Lord will restore the fortunes of His people. Zion is a reference to God's Holy Kingdom, and the fortunes here, once again hint toward spiritual richness - I'll elaborate!

Controversies in the passage
There are 2 major things I struggled with for awhile..
1. In verses 4-7, David talks about the poor and the rich. I am led to believe that he means the spiritually poor/rich, rather than financial - as financial standing does not affect man's standing before God, and also because God's restoration of the "fortunes" of his people would make no sense in context of a passage on godlessness and godliness.
2. In the first part of this Psalm, it is written that there is no one righteous. In that case, who does God stand with in the second part of the Psalm? Who is there for God to offer refuge and salvation?
- The answer lies in verse 7, where it is written salvation for Israel. Israel is by no means righteous, but instead is God's chosen people - they were gifted salvation and company of God by God's grace alone, not by any merit.
Similarly, today, we are God's chosen people in the new covenant of Jesus Christ. Although we are guilty of being "fools", rejecting God and doing evil, we are still by God's grace "His people", and by His grace offered salvation and refuge from God. Salvation comes from Zion - it is God's act to save us, and not our own decisions (for example, to follow Jesus)

I just opened up another controversy - does deciding to believe in Jesus save us?
At face value, the answer is yes.
Think a little more, and you realise believing that Jesus is God's Son doesn't save you.
It is God's willingness to forgive our sin on account of Jesus' perfect sacrifice for those who choose to believe in Him.
Yes, we are responsible for our own salvation, because Jesus' sacrifice is only for those who choose to believe in Him.
But no, our belief doesn't save us, God's forgiveness does.

Question
Have we grown in understanding of God's authority and power, or do we still behave like the fool? Do we acknowledge God as King, bow down in submission and do good? As God's chosen people, have we made the decision to believe and trust in Jesus' perfect sacrifice, to take hold of the salvation God offers us?
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