The Fool Says There Is No God
Psalm 53
February 14, 2024 anno Domini
I’ve never met a Judas, and I’ve never met a Nabal. We’ll hear again this Lenten season why no one names their kid Judas – the man who betrayed God. In the Hebrew world of the Old Testament, we only run into one Nabal. Nabal means fool. It’s the first word in Psalm 53 and Nabel the man is a good illustration of the fool described in the Psalm.
Nabal was a very rich man. He had 3000 sheep and a thousand goats. He had a beautiful and wise wife named Abigail. But Nabal was a fool, just as his name said. He was a rude man, badly behaved. When Nabal was sheering his sheep, a time of great feasting as the wool is harvested, David, the Lord’s anointed, was on the run, living in the wilderness with some of his mighty men. He was fleeing from King Saul. While in the wilderness David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds, so as David was hungry and Nabal was feasting David sent his men to greet Nabal peacefully, to tell him of their protection, and to ask kindly in David’s name if Nabal would share some of his feast with them.
Nabal was a fool. He mocked David’s name, “Who is this David? Who is the son of Jesse?” Then he said, “Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” Nabal didn’t love the Lord’s anointed. Nabal thought he earned everything he had. Nabal said in his heart there is no God. There is only me. Nabal had a heart attack, inflicted by the Lord and died. David married Abigail. Nabal was a fool.
This Lenten season we’re going to mediate on the Psalms. Psalm 53 is appointed for the Introit on Ash Wednesday.
The fool (Nabal) says in his heart, “There is no god.” At first hearing the Psalm might give you reason to rejoice like a Pharisee. I thank God that I’m not like Nabal. I believe in God. I’ve come to church twice this week. Don’t get too smug, because that’s only one line of one verse.
I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I’ll remind you again since we’re going to be in the Psalms for the next 6 weeks. The Psalms often contain progressions. Psalm 1 begins with a progression of a man who walks, stands, and then sits. Psalm 53 begins with a progression of pronouns.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” That’s singular. That’s one guy. That’s a guy like Nabal.
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. They is more than one. except in the United States when the Devil has you dragged you so far from God that you can’t tell if you’re male, female, singular or plural. When David writes they are corrupt, you should realize the target is widening. God’s Law is condemning more than one. Who are they? Who are these corrupt people? I’m sure it’s the atheists. All those unbelievers. They are the ones who do abominable iniquity.
Then the Lord drops the hammer of His law on you. There is none who does good. None is singular. It is shorthand for no one. No one does good, which means everyone is bad, everyone does abominable iniquity, everyone is a fool. You are Nabal.
It serves no purpose this evening, at the beginning of Lent to talk about the fools out there, who by their willful sinning deny that there is a God. Every time you sin, every time I sin, we say in our hearts, “There is no God.” We deny that God is watching us. That no one hears our slander, sees our coveting, knows our lust. Whenever you sin you think no one is watching. When you refuse to forgive you are denying your own forgiveness. You are saying Christ didn’t die for all the sins of all the people.
In verse 2 the ESV says God is looking down. He looks down on the children of man – in the Hebrew – that’s “sons of Adam.” You and I are a chip off the old block. Adam, our father on earth sinned, and you and I are born looking, acting, sinning and dying just like he did. Not one of us escaped inheriting sin. It’s a traumatic consequence of sin when a child is stillborn, or born with a mental or physical affliction, but that’s nothing compared to God’s diagnoses of the defect in our human nature.
They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt, there is none who does good, not even one.
A little theological aside in the sermon. If you don’t get this teaching correct, the doctrine of original sin, you will not get the doctrine of salvation correct. If you don’t believe in your total depravity before God, you cannot believe in the totality of your salvation in Christ His Son. If there is still some goodness in you, then you don’t need the blood of God to be shed on the cross. If you’re only half bad you don’t need the man Jesus who fully God to accomplish your salvation. If you think there is something in you that merits or earns your salvation – you’re a fool who is saying in your heart, “I don’t need God.”
Psalm 53 has never been printed in any book intended to boost your self-esteem or give you self-confidence. It’s never been printed on an inspirational poster with a beautiful mountain pasture or a majestic waterfall. It would be more suitable for a poster of the riots or the burning of Minneapolis a few years ago. Or maybe just a picture of you committing your last sin.
Thankfully Psalm 53 isn’t only about you and your sin. Psalm 53 ends with Jesus. The ESV translates vs 6 as a petition, “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion.” Salvation in Hebrew is Yeshua, which is the name Joshua in Hebrew, the name Jesus in Greek. The only hope of the Old Testament is that Jesus would come. Their only hope was the salvation the Lord would send out of Zion. It was on Mount Zion, at the temple that Jesus of Nazareth was circumcised, was presented on the 40th day of His life, was put on trial. It was out of Jerusalem that Jesus carried His cross. It was outside Jerusalem that the sins of the whole world, even the sins of a fool like Nabal and a fool like you were taken away.
By that salvation the fortunes of God’s people will be restored. That fortune isn’t a piece of land in the middle east. Jesus came that His people might inherit the whole world. That’s what the true Israel of Old believed and looked forward to. That’s what the New Israel of the Church is already experiencing. Christ’s Church has real estate in every land. Wherever faith in Christ exists there people are receiving the fortunes of God – His forgiveness for your sins, His gift of everlasting life, His promise of the resurrection, and a share of His rule of all the earth.
There is a God, so don’t foolishly think you can get away with sin. There is a God and foolishly He loves you and gave His son for you. He sent His Yeshua, His Jesus out of Zion, to restore you to Him. Happy Lent. In the name of Jesus. Amen.