Atheism

The Bible is a big book, but when you think about it there are not many things in the Bible that are said, word for word, more than once. If the words are repeated, it is for emphasis. They are very important. How much more, then, if they are repeated more than once? What if they are found three times?

But perhaps the evidence for God is not clear, one might object. Or perhaps the human being just does not have the capacity for perceiving or understanding the revelation. That will not do, says Paul, for God has made the revelation of himself so clear that it has, in fact, been clearly seen and understood by all, so that they are without excuse for failing to seek God out and then praise and thank him.

Having allowed us to listen in as the fool speaks about God, David now permits us to listen as God speaks about the fool. This true and discerning judgment is expressed in the next two verses, where David describes the Almighty as “bending over to look down from heaven upon” this folly (vv. 2, 3).

The third stanza of Psalm 14 describes the way of the fool, which we have now seen to be the way of the entire human race apart from God’s special, saving intervention. There are two things said about us. First, we never seem to learn. We are practical materialists; that is, we are relentless in our efforts to use others for our advantage, profiting from them.

Not only do we never learn, but the second thing that is said about us in this stanza is that we are occasionally “overwhelmed with dread” (v. 5). The psalmist expresses this in a strange way, saying literally, as the New International Version indicates: “There they are, overwhelmed with dread…” which has led many writers to wonder what specific “there” he is referring to.