Where does your heart hurt for the world? Does it pain you when people are not connected to God – for their own sake, for the sake of the world and for God’s sake? This psalm is the lament of a community who are painfully aware of the disastrous outcomes when people walk away from God. The ‘fool’ (v 1) is someone who has no moral values or awareness of social obligations, and rejects wisdom. Words like ‘corrupt’ and ‘vile’ (v 1) are used to describe this destructive human experience (see also Romans 3:10–12).

So, if that is what life apart from God is like, what does this tell us about God’s character and how his presence in our lives changes things? In verse 2, we see God wanting to be in relationship with people, desiring people to seek after him. He is ‘with those who obey him’ (v 5b, NLT), and is described as a refuge (v 6), and a God who restores (v 7). Life with him gives rise to goodness, both within a person, for communities and in the world.

Lord, may the eyes of my heart be opened as I seek your truth today. 

In words reminiscent of the flood story, God looks down upon mankind in seeming despair. In this description of the depravity of mankind there seems little hope. Understandably, we may use this psalm to assess the folly of atheism, but there is also a need for introspection. In his letter to the Romans, Paul quotes from this psalm, just before declaring that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’.¹ Just as the archer’s arrow may repetitively ‘fall short’ of the target, so our efforts to achieve God’s requirements will always fail. Such an examination of our depravity led Charles Spurgeon to liken humanity to ‘a desert without an oasis, a night without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell without a bottom’.²

When God looks upon humankind, we are faced with the startling declaration that there is ‘no one who does good, not even one’ (v 3). Where is the hope? Later in his letter to the Romans, Paul, having acknowledged his own wretchedness, asks, ‘Who will rescue me …?’³ He doesn’t seek an action to bring consolation but rather a person, whom he goes on to identify as Jesus. Thankfully for each of us, Paul declares that we are justified freely by grace.⁴ Because of Christ, a jewel begins to glisten amongst the dung.

The fulfilment of David’s plea in verse 7 has been subject to much speculation. May we be able to perceive it through a lens that illuminates the salvation offered by the death and resurrection of the only one who always did good. Take a moment to pause and thank God for the rescue that has been offered to you and to all those whom God seeks, made possible by the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. 

‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me. / I once was lost, but now am found, / was blind, but now I see.’⁵

¹ Rom 3:12,23  ² CH Spurgeon, https://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps014.php, accessed 11.5.20 ³ Rom 7:24  ⁴ Rom 3:24  ⁵ John Newton, 1725–1807