Today’s Passage: Psalm 14
This psalm begins with a single naval, pronounced nah-VAL. Strong's H5036, fool, senseless, morally corrupt. This word does not point at a slow or simple mind, but at a corrupt life. The denial begins down in the heart, and then it gets up and walks about, leaving vile acts behind it and no good deed at all. So the LORD looks down from heaven, in that old picture Genesis first gave us of God searching the earth, and His search turns up no one who understands and no one who seeks Him. Every last person has turned away, and not even one is left standing. man who says in his heart that there is no God, and then it widens its gaze until the whole human family stands inside the picture. Every one of us has turned away, and there is not one exception to be found. We must not soften verse 3 into a mere complaint about one especially wicked generation, for Paul will not allow us that escape. When the apostle Paul reached for words to lay the foundation of the gospel, he took this very psalm up into Romans 3 and made it the floor beneath everything else. So we must not go looking here for some gentler second gospel. The diagnosis is meant for all of us, and the hope that comes at the end is not that people will manage to improve themselves. Help arrives from somewhere else entirely, for salvation comes from Zion.
David wrote it, and the old heading over it, “for the choirmaster, of David,” is not a librarian’s note added long afterward but part of the inspired text itself.
As you read, hold this: There is no one who does good, not even one. Salvation comes from Zion.
Context A companion still to come
Further on, Psalm 53 will say almost all of this again, nearly word for word, in a second musical setting of the very same claim. We do not need to settle here why the book chose to keep both versions. It is enough to notice that it did keep both, and to let the repeating of it press the point home.
Psalm 14:1-3 (BSB)
For the choirmaster. Of David.
¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good. ² The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. ³ All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Study notes Paul builds the gospel on this floor
"As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”" Romans 3:10-12 (BSB)
Paul is not reaching for a poet’s exaggeration when he quotes these lines. He is stating the plain condition of the whole human race, until every mouth is stopped and no one has a word to say in his own defense. Then, in that same chapter, he sets down the righteousness of God, given through faith in Jesus Christ to everyone who believes. This is the one gospel the whole letter proclaims. It is not faith with a little effort added on, and it is not a second and easier road for people who still manage some good of their own. There is no one who does good, not even one, and that is exactly why grace has to be grace.
Psalm 14:4-6 (BSB)
⁴ Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD. ⁵ There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is in the company of the righteous. ⁶ You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, yet the LORD is their shelter.
Here the workers of iniquity devour God’s people as easily as a man eats his bread, and they will not so much as call upon the LORD. Then, without any warning, a dread falls over them, because God is present in the company of the righteous and the oppressed have found a shelter in Him. Notice that the hard diagnosis of verses 1 through 3 has not been quietly taken back. The righteous are not some second class of people who slipped past verse 3 by their own effort. They are simply the ones God Himself shelters, the ones who, when the whole book has had its say, will be justified by faith.
Psalm 14:7 (BSB)
⁷ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!
After the bleakest line in the whole psalm, hope arrives from outside the picture. It does not come as “if only we would do a little better.” It comes as salvation out of Zion, where the LORD Himself restores His captive people until Jacob rejoices and Israel is glad. This is exactly the direction Romans will travel: first no one righteous, and then a righteousness revealed from God, carried to us in the King who comes from Zion.
There is no one who does good, not even one. Salvation comes from Zion.